15 years ago my father died.
10th October 1997.
He died, and I was left fatherless …
In recent months I have been surrounded by numerous people who have had a father or mother die … mainly fathers, but some mothers too …
During recent months I have also seen many fathers and mothers come close to death, or suddenly become ill … many from heart issues … or from blood distribution issues … strokes …
There have been so many deaths and illnesses that it has made me wonder … “what is going on?”
In some instances the deaths were sudden, unexpected and tragic; others were due to suicide; while others occurred through illness, disease … regardless of how … the deaths have all been untimely … a theft of something … someone good …
Happily, I also have story after story of triumph … story after story of cancer stayed; sickness overcome; strokes and the evidence of them ever being there, gone; heart attacks stopped, mid-attack, and again, the evidence of them ever having been experienced … gone. Many mothers and fathers both in and outside the church have risen up again, victorious … prayed for and saved … including my own mother and my husband’s father, both just a few months ago …
Many of the stories of loss around me have come from the world around me … and while there are many stories of victory, providing powerful testimonies … others have not been stories of victory, yet, but they have the seed to be … but for now, in these relationships, I do my best to encourage and care, to hug and express love, in the midst of the confusion of loss and the pain of grief …
I sense that there is something in this that we need to heed … where have all the fathers gone …?
I believe it is time for the body of Christ to make a stand and declare:
“No more!”
It is time, I believe, for us to stand as a family and pray for the fathers and mothers of our country (in the natural and in the spiritual) … to pray for the mums and dads … to declare “no more” to sickness, disease, tragedy and untimely death for the people … to declare “no more” to abuse, and divorce, and betrayal in marriages … whether Christian or not …
It is time, I believe, to pray for the fathers and mothers in the spiritual, in the faith, in the body of Christ … and to say “no more” to any form of attack … to honour and care for and to love those that have stood firm in the faith before us, to say thankyou, and cover and protect them with our prayers …
It is also time, I believe, that we choose to step into the role of father … regardless of our past and our history … to father the fatherless and in doing so release identities and destinies …
Too long have people decreed …
“I have no father; I have had no father; no-one ever fathered me … so how can I, why should I, it’s not fair that I should be expected to … father someone else …”
It is time to cast aside our excuses of having received bad parenting, our excuses of broken families and lack of care from others, for our own failure to father others … we need to break the cycle of lack, and start to give away the very thing we needed to, or still need to, receive … to father people, regardless, … and as we do, we may just find ourselves receiving the very thing we so desperately needed and/or wanted too!
And so I call forth the fathers, and mothers, to step up and to step out and be to the next generation what never was given … to give to the next generation what was stolen in an untimely fashion, and father the generation to come …
I call forth the Body of Christ to thank, to honour and cover in prayer the fathers (the parents) in the natural and in the spiritual … the ones that have stood firm … regardless …
And, I believe, that as we do, the heart of The Father will shine and be released, and as the heart of the Father is released … identities will be revealed … established, moved into, and freedom to be will flow …
I believe that as the nations sense, as theyfeel and know and experience the heart of The Father, as a loving and good father, which He is … whether it be through an encounter with Him through us … or an encounter direct with Him … they will then see Him, their Father and they will know without a doubt that …
God is Good!
B may the God of all comfort take the sting of your father’s death from you, during the anniversary season. Fathers are so important and you make excellent points. We can father others and give them what we wished would have liked to receive. Daddy God loves us so much and heals our brokenness with his love. We then pass it on to others. God is so good! 😀 Hazel
Hi Hazel.
Thank you for your kind thoughts. The sting of dad’s death is gone, although I still miss him a great deal.
The thrust of this post was that so many have lost their fathers and mothers recently, that I believe it is really something that we in Australia need to take heed of … we need the Fathers of the Faith to take their place and father the the Body and the nation … father’s are so important in establishing identity … hence the attack on the family structure and the loss of fathers in the home by the enemy … from divorce, work, busyness, or death … because I believe that as we are fathered well and grasp our identity and the significance of who we are as individuals and as a Body of Christ we will step into our calling and our purpose, being fully assured of His love for us regardless, and we will start to behave as Christians … “mini Christs” and the world will see His goodness and glory … I believe it is one of the ways that Jesus will see His full reward 🙂
Bless you – you have a beautiful heart!!!
There are so many who don’t have a father in their life, but it isn’t always because of death. In any case, there is a need to come alongside others. I have one person on my mind who lost his dad years back to suicide, and now he is struggling to stay the course. — At any rate, a lot to think about here. God Bless!
Agreed – many reasons for why the Fathers are not around.
However what I have been sensing is that the attacks in the natural recently are reflective of something spiritual and here in Australia we need more Fathers in the Faith to arise … Blessings.
I’m with you on this. It is time to say “No More” and cover in prayer..yes!
And I call forth the Fathers to arise 🙂
Psalm 8
Agreed … Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies … 🙂