Spiritual Fathers

Spiritual Fathers

While in Antioch recently I heard it said that a father looks for sons, but a grandfather looks for fathers. This pricked my ears. Having turned fifty this year and with our oldest daughter getting married in two months, the prospects of grandfathering are greatly increased.
Also in Antioch we saw a beautiful picture acted out. A grandfather in his seventies was invited to sit upright in a chair with his knees together. A father in his fifties was then invited to sit on his lap. After that, a man in his late twenties was invited to come and sit on his lap. Finally, Wolfgang’s son (Wolf was the facilitator) was invited to come and sit on the lap of the last man. Four people, one in front of the other. But when you looked at them directly from the front, all you could see was the teenager and twenty-something old. The father and grandfather were obscured.

What a great picture of a spiritual grandfather who looks for fathers, and a spiritual father who looks for sons. Both my grandfather and father are like that. As young children we holidayed at my grandparents place. That was back when a treat was still a rarity. My
grandfather had a fridge out back which was full of soft drinks (soda). He used to smuggle these to us when my mum wasn’t watching. Two years ago my father, well and truly a grandpa, supplied my wife and I with the deposit needed for us to purchase our first house at this late stage of life. This is the role of a grandfather. He wanted to see me, a father, look after my children and his grandchildren.

1 Chronicles 12:32 says the men of the tribe of Issachar were those who understood the times and knew what Israel should do”. In context, they knew the time of Saul’s hierarchy was over. Saul was the first king, and although he was from the smallest tribe, he personally stood a head taller than his peers. This is the hierarchical, top-down, dictatorial kingdom of Saul. It is represented today in any expression of church where one person stands
“taller” than the others, or leads solely by personal charisma. Along comes a Samuel, a real grandfather figure if you like. His sole role is to find a new type of king; one who will be given the covenantal promise that from him and his kind of rule will come a new and eternal covenant. We know the story. Samuel does not anoint the obvious or the first, nor any of
the next seven for “the Lord does not see as mortals see” (1Samuel 16.7). The grandfather figure, Samuel, is to find the Davids who will be used to raise a new type of people. David’s character when pursued by Saul, his handling of adversity, and his ‘fathering’ of the bunch of misfits who join him at Ziklag show a new way for God’s people where apparent nobodies in the wilderness get to have a key role as part of an extended Kingdom family in the new work God is doing. The amazing thing is, not even these David-types will build the temple. That
belongs to the young ones, the Solomons, the grandchildren if you like. But it is the David’s who are to spend themselves in preparing all the resources so that someone else may prosper.

So here my wife and I are at the age of fifty, having left big church to see missional Kingdom communities established, and for the first time we have a huge smacking mortgage and no guaranteed salary. What does the Lord remind me of at this time? Do I get his sympathy? Does he pat me on the back and reward me? No, he reminds me that it is grandfathers who buy soft drinks for their grandchildren and not the other way around. He blesses me to be able to gather renegades into a Kingdom family and to resource those who are
going to build his new temple.

As God was David’s resource out at Ziklag and after, so he is mine. And not only for me as a grandfather type, but also for all the fathers who will have sons who will build his new temple.

It amazes me to reflect on how many conversations I have had with people who know the heavenly Father is calling them into a new way of living and ministering and church planting, but who don’t do it because they are afraid as to how they will get by. In John 14 and 16 Jesus reminds us again and again that we are never powerless, never resourceless, and never alone. The Scripture assures us that he who has promised is faithful. Therefore, if we know we are called, we can speak out loud and exorcise the spirit of fear that is stopping us
from moving out, and that is always waiting until we get written guarantees from others before we step out. Samuel never had such a guarantee when he asked Jesse if there were any more sons. David never had such a guarantee when he was chased by a very fickle
Saul. The spirit of fear will have us waiting for someone else to do for us that which Father God alone is jealous to do. There is to be no waiting until Wolf or someone gets a financial foundation together so we are assured of some regular income. Wolf is not my spiritual father, although he has certainly to some extent fathered me. He is my (slightly) elder brother. Both of us are spiritual grandfathers who will resource others. How? With what God gives to us. Who? To the David’s he has graced us to anoint and release. I actually can’t tell you how Julie and I get along financially and pay the mortgage. Except that we know that when our Father called us he assured us he would do this. This releases me from seeking to procure financial resources from people who are of an age group where I should be buying them the soft drink.

In Antioch I met quite a number of called apostolic and prophetic people-gifts to the Kingdom-who are working very hard in employment as well as in new missional church expressions. They are tired, are not honouring their families with their time, and are wearing themselves thin (I am not talking about market place ministry here, which is the calling of all in paid work). Trust God to resource that which he calls you to. Go for it! Wait on the Lord, listen to him, trust what you hear, leave your employment, give, and receive! The test of the supernatural lies in this area first before it does in other areas.

Entrepreneurs are one answer to Kingdom economics. But spiritual grandfathers are another. Not cashed up, but bold, trusting, releasing, and resourcing. Sightless people at the end of the line who are the true givers and releasers of the blessing.

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The Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of the Church

A few weeks ago we had the privilege of spending a day with Tony and Marilyn Fitzgerald from Church of the Nations International.  Apart from being an incredibly encouraging day, it was good to be reminded of our starting point in our work as kingdom agents.

Tony shared with us that all too often we begin with a ‘gospel of the Church‘ into which we attempt to squeeze a ‘gospel of the Kingdom‘ Whereas we should begin with the ‘gospel of the Kingdom‘ out of which the ‘gospel of the Church‘ makes sense.  Jesus spoke on many occasions regarding His kingdom even going to the extent of teaching his disciples to pray ‘Your kingdom come your will be done‘.  Comparatively, he only spoke twice on the Ekklesia-church and even then he says ‘I will build it!’ As if to say ‘keep your sticky hands off it!’  So on one hand, King Jesus invites his disciples to co-labour in bringing Jesus rule and reign to earth, and on the other He let’s them know He is the chief architect of his Ekklesia (legal assembly of government officials) This is quite profound when you think of what we have attempted to do in recent times.  So often we have strategised, planned, studied and worked at building a ‘church’ that most often has a franchise denominational badge on the outside.  Then when we gather with our brothers and sisters from other church outlets to say ‘let us stand in unity with King Jesus’!  As if Jesus has a harem instead of a pure bride!  In my experience it has been nigh on impossible to gather churches as we know them together for an authentic kingdom unification.  Not to say good things haven’t happened but we are keeping ourselves from the best.

But what if we started with Jesus benevolent rule over a real kingdom?  That as we have Christ in us the hope of Glory, and respond in loving obedience to His commands, we then form his ‘legal assembly of government officials’?  A people who are the church as a result of being called into this kingdom reality through Jesus.  A way I can help digest this is by using a hypothetical example.  If I was an obedient subject in a monarchy with a benevolent King and I was placed in a foreign country to bring in the rule of my king to that new geographic area what would I do?  Would I start with a public rally which attracts the attention of the current government?  Or would I buy a media license to influence through popular channels? Or could I go ‘underground’ and influence one person at a time with the reality that my King has a concern for them which is perfect and cannot even compare to the rule they are currently under.  That one by one, and progressively in a multiplying ground swell, a new kingdom is ushered into a foreign land.

So, if that is the starting point what does it mean to operate as ‘church?’  It doesn’t matter how you currently express your life as a part of the church, ask yourself ‘is the kingdom coming through who I am and what I am doing?’  Anything that is not fruitful for this outcome and is not a command of Christ, must be scrutinized as to it’s relevance for our mission.

So in the gathering of the church in our home, we are now seeking to see things through the lens of ‘the gospel of the Kingdom’.  ie, if we are agents of a heavenly government, what will we do to infiltrate a government of conflicting values with love?

Tony’s teaching in The Glorious Church teaches some important fundamentals as we re-discover what it means to be the church.

Welcome to Starfish Oz

Over the coming months we will be adding to this site to help communicate and establish the starfish vision in Australia.  We look forward to joining with you in these days of great importance as the harvest is ripe but the workers are few.