Spiritual Fathers and the Turning of the Heart
by Thurlow J. Switzer
Many have taken in hand to write about the relationship between parents and children. In Mal 4:5-6, Malachi the prophet, declared: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." The NASB renders it: “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children.”
Will We Embrace Blessing or Curse?
These two verses contain a promise of an awesome blessing and the possibility of an awful curse. If there is a turning of the heart of the fathers to the children, there will be blessing. If there is not a turning of the heart of the fathers to the children, there will be a curse upon the land.
This is a day when children are desperate for relationship with their father or with one who would be like a father to them. Everywhere I go, including my own four sons, there is a cry in the heart of young men and women to be mentored, loved, accepted and nurtured by older men who will care for them and help them become true persons and a real man or woman.
Will We Embrace Restoration or Alienation?
The word “turn, restore” comes from the Hebrew shuwb (shoob); a primitive root, meaning to turn back, generally to retreat. Alienation is a tragic fact in many relationships. Nothing may be more destructive than alienation between a father and a son or daughter, between the child and his father. Jesus said that divorce is often the result of the hardening of the heart. So alienated relationships are often the result of the hardening of the heart. There is coming a day when God will turn the heart of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.
Will We Embrace our Children or Reject Them?
“The heart of the fathers.” How tragic when the heart of a father refuses to be turned to his children. To reject our children is to leave them stranded as psychological orphans. Reconciliation begins first in the heart of the father. Too many fathers require the change to first come in the heart of the son or daughter. God’s way requires the father to first examine his heart and make the vital changes. This action allows the children to reciprocate. Our children are waiting for us as fathers to change. May God help us. Without change in the heart of the fathers, creation will continue to be waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19).
Will We Embrace Fear or the Spirit of Sonship?
It takes the witness, support and wooing voice of the father to raise children out of childhood into Sonship. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children” (Rom. 8:15-16).
Will We Embrace Citywide Unity or Isolate?
The strategy of “fathering” is a strategy of citywide ministry. Fathering is critical to developing the apostolic city church! Those leaders who are “Fathers” should see themselves as servants of the city vision and not merely guardians of their own gates (sheep pen) or instructors of their own people (school room). Two or three true spiritual fathers in a city can raise the full measure of spiritual fathering. Fathers in the City or Fathers in the Region become a collegiality of fathers able to bring a blessing over the city, but only when they truly knit together. Together they cause prayer based fellowship to rise to a new level of strategic unity for the unification of the city. They are no longer merely “guardians,” each one of their own ministry or church, but become “fathers” of the city, cooperating together for the healing and health of the city. They might therefore be called the “City Fathers.” Seeing the power of joined lives, people rejoice. Deep down in their hearts, people desire to recognize fathers in the region.
Will We Embrace Humility or Linger in Pride?
True leaders need to stop minimizing themselves and humbly accept what God designed and intended, that they become significant leaders, becoming all that God meant for them to be. Coming through the Timothy stage to “Fatherhood” in the Lord, such leaders begin to function as a true brotherhood in the region.
Fatherhood may be defined as having and assuming responsibility for the development of character in another, reaching across the immediate and present crisis for the benefit of the future, and able to see past the moment. Fatherhood is birthing and discipling sons into fatherhood. To become a father you must first have been a son and come into submission to the authority of a father; if not a natural father, a spiritual father.
The turning process involves a prophetic process symbolized in Malachi 4:5 as that of “Elijah the prophet” and will occur “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Elijah came the first time during the days of Ahab the wicked king, the second time in the person and prophetic person of John the Baptist, and will happen the third time, before the dreadful day of the Lord, a reference to the final coming of the Lord. The greatest characteristic of Elijah’s ministry was not his miracles, as great as they were, but the miracle of his raising Elisha, a true spiritual son. At every level, may we who are fathers focus on the turning of our heart.
Will We Embrace Blessing or Curse?
These two verses contain a promise of an awesome blessing and the possibility of an awful curse. If there is a turning of the heart of the fathers to the children, there will be blessing. If there is not a turning of the heart of the fathers to the children, there will be a curse upon the land.
This is a day when children are desperate for relationship with their father or with one who would be like a father to them. Everywhere I go, including my own four sons, there is a cry in the heart of young men and women to be mentored, loved, accepted and nurtured by older men who will care for them and help them become true persons and a real man or woman.
Will We Embrace Restoration or Alienation?
The word “turn, restore” comes from the Hebrew shuwb (shoob); a primitive root, meaning to turn back, generally to retreat. Alienation is a tragic fact in many relationships. Nothing may be more destructive than alienation between a father and a son or daughter, between the child and his father. Jesus said that divorce is often the result of the hardening of the heart. So alienated relationships are often the result of the hardening of the heart. There is coming a day when God will turn the heart of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.
Will We Embrace our Children or Reject Them?
“The heart of the fathers.” How tragic when the heart of a father refuses to be turned to his children. To reject our children is to leave them stranded as psychological orphans. Reconciliation begins first in the heart of the father. Too many fathers require the change to first come in the heart of the son or daughter. God’s way requires the father to first examine his heart and make the vital changes. This action allows the children to reciprocate. Our children are waiting for us as fathers to change. May God help us. Without change in the heart of the fathers, creation will continue to be waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19).
Will We Embrace Fear or the Spirit of Sonship?
It takes the witness, support and wooing voice of the father to raise children out of childhood into Sonship. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children” (Rom. 8:15-16).
Will We Embrace Citywide Unity or Isolate?
The strategy of “fathering” is a strategy of citywide ministry. Fathering is critical to developing the apostolic city church! Those leaders who are “Fathers” should see themselves as servants of the city vision and not merely guardians of their own gates (sheep pen) or instructors of their own people (school room). Two or three true spiritual fathers in a city can raise the full measure of spiritual fathering. Fathers in the City or Fathers in the Region become a collegiality of fathers able to bring a blessing over the city, but only when they truly knit together. Together they cause prayer based fellowship to rise to a new level of strategic unity for the unification of the city. They are no longer merely “guardians,” each one of their own ministry or church, but become “fathers” of the city, cooperating together for the healing and health of the city. They might therefore be called the “City Fathers.” Seeing the power of joined lives, people rejoice. Deep down in their hearts, people desire to recognize fathers in the region.
Will We Embrace Humility or Linger in Pride?
True leaders need to stop minimizing themselves and humbly accept what God designed and intended, that they become significant leaders, becoming all that God meant for them to be. Coming through the Timothy stage to “Fatherhood” in the Lord, such leaders begin to function as a true brotherhood in the region.
Fatherhood may be defined as having and assuming responsibility for the development of character in another, reaching across the immediate and present crisis for the benefit of the future, and able to see past the moment. Fatherhood is birthing and discipling sons into fatherhood. To become a father you must first have been a son and come into submission to the authority of a father; if not a natural father, a spiritual father.
The turning process involves a prophetic process symbolized in Malachi 4:5 as that of “Elijah the prophet” and will occur “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Elijah came the first time during the days of Ahab the wicked king, the second time in the person and prophetic person of John the Baptist, and will happen the third time, before the dreadful day of the Lord, a reference to the final coming of the Lord. The greatest characteristic of Elijah’s ministry was not his miracles, as great as they were, but the miracle of his raising Elisha, a true spiritual son. At every level, may we who are fathers focus on the turning of our heart.