THE SECRET PLACE
Abiding under the shadow of the Almighty
PART 50
WHEN FATHERS FAIL – NATIONS FALL

“And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them; every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” (Mathew 12:25)
“O holy God and Father of all things. We fall on our faces at the thought of the beautiful creation of family being left in the desert to die. We can see the vultures’ circling as the family unit is being ravaged by the wolves of selfishness. We who are followers of your Word are agonizing and aching in our heart for the young ones that are growing up without knowing your truth. Dear God our spirit is broken as we weep for all the children. Our nation is crumbling, love is dissolving, your Word is being laughed at and you are being mocked in the streets. Reveal to us what we can do to reach out and help those who are lost. Teach us to pray – inspire us to pray – give us a burden to pray – give us determination, a vision of your will, empower us, provoke us, awaken us, chastise us, purge us, refine us, and forgive us that we may have YOUR anointing that shakes the gates of hell. May our highest priority become a burning desire to PRAY and OBEY. Help us to be more disciplined to Your Spirit and to let go of all the other things that are tempting and distracting our flesh. We need you desperately! In the holy and perfect Name of Jesus Christ we pray and may all that we do be done for your glory, amen.”
The Lord is always trying to get our attention to inspire us and teach us His truth and occasionally we are in the Spirit long enough to sense when He reveals to us issues that are important to Him – and I believe this is one of those times when I heard His voice. In my search for truth over the years, I have seen in my studies where to lay the blame for much of the problems of our world. It is not rocket science to know that children’s behavior is greatly influenced by their upbringing. It seems the more diligent the parents are to injecting their structural views into the child, the more the child tends to absorb them. The question is always presented as to just exactly what is being taught but nevertheless in most cases the young conscience is usually impacted – with only a small percentage of exceptions. In this observation of our culture and society I am not trying to be cruel, but I believe that fathers in particular have the most significant spiritual impact within the traditional family unit. As marriage is holy and ordained from The Lord, the family is also one of His most precious jewels. When God created man He had every intention for him to be a leader in His world and follow His voice. When God joined the woman to the man as an institution, the wonder of pro-creation established the human family in the midst of His beautiful earth as His magnificent masterpiece. Many would immediately disagree and proclaim that mothers have a greater impact with their children and are more closely bonded with the family as a whole and I would definitely concur that virtuous wives and mothers work around the clock to make sure everything is taken care of, however in God’s perfect plan for the family, they were never intended to be the leader of the home. Women have been given the gift of “nesting” and are designed with vital maternal instincts, but it is the Godly man that is called to lead the woman and uphold God’s divine standard and direction of the family. There are many devoted, hard-working single mothers that labor endlessly to maintain their home and there are millions of single divorced parents that share custody of children and my heart goes out to them and their children because in their attempt to make life work, their struggles are proof that in trying to have divine order, it is like swimming upstream. Broken families are a result of the wife or the husband choosing carnality instead of God! Selah. It is not being critical to say these families are more complex and certainly they all need prayer because these environments deserve their own understanding. But this is my point – when husbands and fathers lose interest in being a man of God, the family will definitely experience a spiritual deterioration! Since man has been called by God to be the spiritual head of the house, the family will suffer in every way even when the woman tries to juggle these divine standards on her own. Yes, give Godly women credit for trying because their love for the family is a driving force within her heart. Praise God for the many women of faith that are doing everything they can to make up for the lack of their husbands interest to lead the family, but it is not a dwelling with God’s original plan of completion until the Christian father takes his place under the holy reverence of God’s perfect will.
I realize the traditional family is becoming more rare and our society now spends more attention and energy trying to relate to the dysfunctional family than they are with what was once considered normal. It does not take a genius to see that in the last 60 years something terrible has happened and with all of our reasons and excuses it is obvious that when we were not looking – deceiving demons slipped poison into the punch bowl. Jesus said, “Or else how can someone enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil (steal) his goods, except he first BIND the strong man? Then he can spoil (rob) his house”. (Mathew 12:29)
It is interesting to listen to Christians when they talk about the moral decline of our nation. The first person the religious crowd wants to point their finger at is the government or the devil. Satan has always been a very popular person within the religious world because he is the villainous liar that tries to do everything he can to ruin what God is trying to do. He has enjoyed all the attention with the popular artwork, and books written about him and all that associates him with death, fear, tragedy, violence, horror, destruction, war, darkness and everything that goes with it. While much of his duties do include disruption and continuous negative influence, he is actually being given more “credit” than he deserves. When we take a closer look at why things happen, many times we can see that something more simple and practical is working behind the scenes. God’s authority is actually controlling events as consequences for the actions of disobedient people that we may never realize. Selah. The great flood, Sodom and Gomorrah and the plagues of Egypt are all examples of GOD’S hand executing His will upon the human race as a consequence of their actions – not the devil! The Almighty God is the great judge that does not compromise but fulfills His promises which includes delivering holy justice for the penalty of SIN. Yes, there is a dark side, a definite dangerous enemy that is trying very hard to lure us into error so that we can make a mess out of our lives but in the case of Americas moral decline, I am convinced that fathers have dropped their guard and did NOT take seriously their spiritual responsibility.
To most fathers trying to do “their part”, it seems more than enough to go to work every day and maintain the yard, the automobiles and pay the household bills. Most people would agree this would be the definition of a good husband and a good father. However, if we can look past the natural realm for just a moment, we can see that unsaved husbands and fathers provide exactly the same. It is the Christian husband and father that has lowered his standards! Instead of being the outspoken disciple of Christ that is NOT ashamed of what he represents, many have cowered down and compromised their faith because the stress and pressure to live their faith is too embarrassing. In some exceptions we can use the word ignorance because maybe they did not have the strong spiritual foundation or knowledge to lead their families, but in most cases I believe it has been a matter of allowing the weakness of their flesh to make all the decisions. You see, husbands and fathers are men and even Christian family men are “vulnerable” to certain things. Satan has targeted Christian men since the beginning of time because as we are saying, they are the “leaders” and teachers of new generations. The devil has figured out that if he can “bind” the Christian fathers with sin, he can scatter the rest of the family and they will become unprotected prey to the hungry lions of darkness. Instead of Christian fathers studying God’s Word and teaching their family about integrity and ethics with regular Bible studies, they made the decision to purchase the biggest television money can buy and to watch it instead. They invited Satan to entertain them every night with images of nakedness, sex, violence and cursing. Television advertises enhancements for greater sexual performance and pours whiskey and beer and living life at its highest all the while the Christian fathers remain mesmerized. Is it little wonder that children begin to believe that sin and hypocrisy is wonderful and even accepted by their parents? These mixed messages of proclaiming to be against sin during the day and embracing it through the television at night has damaged the faith of the last five generations! Amen!
How can we expect the new generation to stand strong in their experience and relationship with Jesus Christ when they have never seen an example of it? Selah. Christian fathers have been so occupied with lusting after young beautiful girls that walk around in sensual revealing clothes that they have put their spiritual calling on the shelf! Movies, magazines and the internet have been designed to erotically “CAPTURE” the hearts of Godly men, and to tempt Godly wives and mothers to fantasize about forbidden pleasures and for children to become indoctrinated as disciples for a humanistic world that declares that truth is relevant to how and what we choose. The devil has never made anyone sin but only proclaims how good it would be if you would just try it – remember the garden? Television allows Satan to promote his goods for the purpose of “replacing” our pure thoughts of God with dirty “visions” of sin. A wife and children respect strength and despise weakness! A lukewarm attitude of a Christian husband and father receives NO respect. In fact, the reason for much of the rebellion from family members is a resentment toward the lack of leadership and discipline within the home! Christian fathers have been called to discipline “themselves” in order to EARN respect from their families.