The Sunday News
LAST week we spoke about the father being a life-giver to his family. I am sure if as fathers we understood some of these simple basics, we will be able to allow God to help us build families that would withstand the onslaught of the anti-Christ on the family and our children. It does not matter what you have been taught or told, poor or restrained family relationships, family conflicts, divorce and many other ills are a set up by the enemy to destabilise an institution that should reflect the kingdom of God in nations.
The kingdom of God is restored in a nation through families that have been healed, blessed and reconciled to each other. Everywhere in the world, the antics of the anti-Christ are so obvious and everyone can see how he divides and rubbishes the family. It will take strong and sound united families to produce children, men and women who can stand in the world and win cleanly without corruption. In order to have such a family, you will let God be the builder and Jesus the cornerstone.
How do we build such families in these last days? I am going to suggest to you three things.
Blessings come through our relationships with our parents
Maybe this is new to many but in Exodus 20:12 the Bible encourages us to honour our fathers and mothers so that our days may be long on earth. To honour here means to prize highly, show respect and to glorify or exalt your parents.
These days you see and hear very little of this kind of honour in our societies. We hear people highly prize others, things or their prophets more than their parents or even God. There is a huge blessing upon our lives based on our relationships with our parents.
The blessing for a long life that we desire comes to us through our parents. It comes to us through our family setups.
When we give honour to our parents, God blesses us with long life. This blessing is there for everyone to grab and enjoy.
What you need is an attitude that will help you receive this blessing from God through your parents. Nowadays many people rush to receive, ‘‘blessings’’ from their men of God while they despise the source and connectors of the blessing of long life. Our family relationships are key in the manifestations of God’s blessings. As parents we need to help by creating family atmospheres that would promote relationships that would allow our children to receive such a blessing through us.
Fathers pronounce blessings to children
It is the duty of every father to pronounce a blessing to their children. We see this in the Bible when Isaac blesses his son Jacob. We see it also when Jacob himself blesses his children and the sons of Joseph. Every father must be in a position to pronounce a blessing. As a father, lay hands on your child and pray a prayer of blessing over them. I think this is very serious and we must take it as it is, serious. The challenge we are facing is that most of us do not know how to bless our children but we are so good at blaming and cursing them. We need maybe to be teaching fathers, particularly Christian fathers to be able to bless their children.
Many fathers have relegated this duty to their pastors or men of God. I thought that the father’s blessing is more important to any child than a pastor’s blessing. We do not have to hide behind these men of God, we need just to take up our place as fathers and bless our children. Speak their future in line with the word of God. What you pronounce God will honour and manifest. The principle is simple, the older generation blessing the younger and not cursing.
Leading Family prayer time.
It is my hope and desire that in these last days every family is able to have time to pray together. We just have to create family prayer time. A family that prays together stays together even in times of trouble. It does not mean that when you pray, trouble will not come. That is a wrong gospel. Trouble will come but you are well able to handle it and God fights on your behalf.
No weapon fashioned against you shall prosper when you stay in prayer as a family. As you pray as a family your hearts get locked to each other. It is this unity that you desire in the family in the end times. Where there is this unity God commands a blessing, even life forever more. As fathers we must take the lead to encourage family prayer time.
Where the family is not in prayer, their hearts are actually locked against each other. They are not in one love and one accord. The enemy is easy to break apart such a family.
Dearly beloved out there, family is important in what God wants to do in the nations. He wants to restore nations and He will do it through restored families. What are the relationships like in our families? The lord is effectively served through families and nations are built through families.
My prayer today is that you can see the need for these in your family and bring order now. May your family be what you desire. Speak it out. Pronounce it to your children. They might be lost now doing what you do not like, but if you spoke the blessing and continue declaring it in your prayers; you will see a turn around.
Do not give up on your family. Fathers let us bless our families. These three things; honour, father’s blessing and family prayer time are foundational in building overcoming families.
For this and more, you are free to contact us on our lines shown or on our email address also shown below. You can also follow us on our blog @fruitfulmarriages.wordpress.com, or on our Facebook page or on twitter @fmarriages.
You can invite us for seminars or attend our own seminars in your locality. Otherwise, let us make our family rich towards God in these last days.
Kilton Moyo is creator of Fruitful Marriages, a renewal and enrichment program and is pastor, counsellor and author of The Sex Trap. Call or WhatsApp on +263775337207, +263772610103 or [email protected]
