TODAY’S DEVOTION (THURSDAY 11TH AUGUST 2022)
“Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.
Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’
But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.
But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Matthew 23:1-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 223RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
We thank God for giving us life and peace. We praise His holy name for all He has done for us and still does.
For 223 days He has kept us alive and showered His mercies upon us. He has been our God and king. That is why we do not worry what men may do to us!
It has been great serving the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
One of the major things that happens in God’s kingdom is continues learning because God is ever revealing Himself. It is what He reveals that we learn. That is why revelation cannot be exhausted in the life of those who sit at His feet daily.
Though it takes a lot of discipline to do that, sitting at His feet leaves you with no enemy that is yours. All of our enemies are privatized by the LORD once we become His disciples.
In other words, He becomes an enemy to our enemies when we become His disciples. That was why He said to Saul, the terrorist who was going about killing and arresting those who became the disciples of Christ,
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4 NKJV).
He did not say why are you persecuting people who believe in me. He said why are you persecuting me. The LORD will always privatize your enemies once you become His disciple.
As we wake up each morning, it is important to always remember that our first calling is to be disciples of Christ; learners His ways and will. If we learn and put into practice what we learn, we will be blessed.
Today, in our 31-Day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on spiritual fathering, we will be looking at a contentious scripture on the subject. Actually, no scripture is contentious, it is when people read their ideas into it that it becomes contentious.
In the same way, nothing about God and His kingdom is controversial. It is when people depart from the ways of the LORD and the LORD sends you to preach them back into His ways that you become controversial. Truth becomes controversial where error is accepted as the norm.
IN THE LAND OF WICKEDNESS, WHERE THE MAJORITY IS WRONG, THEY DO NOT WANT THE MINORITY TO BE RIGHT.
Satan will want all souls into hell. He is not willing that anyone escape hell. Hence stirring the majority that is wrong to call the minority that is right controversial.
And since some who are right will not want to be addressed in such terms, they will either become silent about the wrongs of the majority or quit. Some will even join the majority that is wrong.
So, when we do not understand the rules that guides scriptural interpretations, we will end up reading our ideas into God’s word, mixing our greed with His creed. That is what has happened to the scripture of our devotional text. Especially the portion that says “call no one teacher, father, or master on earth.”
The classic edition of the amplified version presents it this way;
“But you are not to be called rabbi (teacher), for you have one Teacher and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone [in the church] on earth father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
And you must not be called masters (leaders), for you have one Master (Leader), the Christ.” Matthew 23:8-10 AMPC
I have found rebellious and aggrieved people cashing into this scripture to tear down the honor they were supposed to give to fathers, masters (leaders) and teachers who have labored for them or who are laboring for others.
I have found them dishonoring those who should be honored using this scripture and screaming “the Bible says, call no one father in the Church” and all that.
Yet, Paul who was chosen by the resurrected Christ to take Judaism out of Christianity and present to us what Jesus came to birth on earth, called Timothy, Titus and the rest “My Son.”
While we cannot find any place in the Bible where Timothy, Titus or anyone addressed Paul as father, it is clear that the spiritual-father, spiritual-son order is an apostolic concept that was carved out of the established order in the kingdom of God that had been from the Garden of Eden, right to the Days of the Enoch, and down through the days of Elijah, and to the days of Paul.
THERE ARE TRUTHS THAT TRANSCENDS DISPENSATIONS BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT IN TYPES AND SHADOWS BUT IN THE REALITY OF CHRIST.
The truth on spiritual fathering is one of such truths!
In my few years in ministry, I have found the call-no-one-father scripture to be one of the misunderstood scriptures when it comes to matters of fathering.
While Christ was not against calling those whose seed we are “father” He was warning us against placing spiritual leaders above the fatherhood of God, which many of us have already done due to ignorance of what spiritual fathering really is.
Let me explain more! The first commandment that came with a promise says;
“Regard (treat with honor, due obedience, and courtesy) your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God gives you.” Exodus 20:12 AMPC
I believe this scripture is applicable to all whose seed we are; biological or spiritual. Such people are called fathers.
One way you treat a father with honor, due obedience, and courtesy is by addressing him as “father” not by name. Jesus is not against that. In fact, Heaven blesses those who do so.
Sadly, many call their fathers by name. They have not been taught that you do not call your father by his name.
If you have the Spirit of God in you, and if you are well trained, you will be giving honor to whom honor is due, by treating your father with honor, due obedience and courtesy, which involves not calling him by name.
The same will be applicable to masters (leaders) and teachers.
For us today, our ultimate master and Teacher is Christ. But He does all that through people He called and placed in our lives to be teachers and masters or leaders under GOD. With the aim of connecting or keeping us connected to Himself.
Economically, our master or leaders can also be our employers, while our teachers, educationally or spiritually, can be our mentors or instructors. Both require the honor of not calling them by their names but by their investment into our lives so that they can be in position to make us what God brought them into our life to make us to be.
ELISHA NEVER CALLED ELIJAH “ELIJAH.” HE CALLED HIM “MY FATHER.”
That was not against the rule of any dispensation. The result was the mantle that dropped upon him, and he entering into Elijah’s shoes.
Do not forget, one of the primary purposes of fathering is not just seed, as we saw yesterday, it is also shoes. The seed qualifies us for the shoes. And none of them is possible if there is no respect for the law of honor in our relationship with our spiritual fathers.
I said honor not worship!
The Scripture of our devotional text can only be understood in the light of other scriptures where fathering was upheld.
You do not read scriptures carnally, you allow scriptures to help you understand scriptures. What God was actually against is the replacement of the Heavenly Father and Christ in our lives with spiritual fathers, masters or teachers; which as I stated earlier, has happened in so many local Churches and ministries.
Come to think of it, the Spirit of Christ that supervised the transition of Elijah would not have been against us treating, addressing, or calling those whose seed we are “fathers,” or those who lead us “masters,” or “Leaders” or those who carved our lives and make them beautiful through mentoring or instruction “teachers.”
The Spirit of the LORD was against us replacing Christ in our hearts and our Heavenly Father with any of them! I hope you understand me!
People have been cut off from Christ through an ungodly system presented as spiritual fathering just like the Pharisees, who presented themselves as fathers of the land, did in their days.
The ungodly system was what Christ cried against when He said;
“But you are not to be called rabbi (teacher), for you have one Teacher and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone [in the church] on earth father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.And you must not be called masters (leaders), for you have one Master (Leader), the Christ.”
THE ENTIRE DEVOTIONAL TEXT SAYS;
“Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.
They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’
But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.
But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Matthew 23:1-12 NKJV
This scripture has become true of many of us spiritual fathers. We bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of our members; but we ourselves will not move them with one of our fingers.
Most preachers do not pay tithes or raise altars of sacrifice every now and then, but ask people to do. I have been in meetings where fund raising was going on and offerings taken but the preachers were not participating. Is that the kind of spiritual leaders to call father? No!
Many of us just want to be seen by men that is why we pursue titles and put on Bishop and Archbishop attires, akin to the broad phylacteries and enlarge garments of the Pharisees.
We want to be called spiritual fathers but all we have fathered is a generation that is not circumcised at heart; a people with no intimate knowledge or relationship with the LORD!
There is nothing Jesus condemned in the scripture of our devotional text that is not in the lives of most spiritual fathers today. That is why we are not to call them fathers, else they become a replacement of the Heavenly Father in our hearts, and Christ in our lives.
IT IS VERY CLEAR IN THE DEVOTIONAL TEXT THAT IN THE DAYS OF CHRIST, THE PHARISEES SAW THEMSELVES AS THE FATHERS OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL.
But it was a fathering system that cut Israel off from the true God (their Heavenly Father), and prevented them from recognizing Christ as their messiah, Master and Teacher. It rather got them stuck to Moses. That was why Jesus warned the Disciples not to establish that kind of system in His Church.
He said to them categorically “And do not call anyone [in the church] on earth father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.” In other words, “Do not establish this fathering system of the Pharisees and scribes. Do not build the seat of Moses in my Church.”
That was why when Paul was born into the Kingdom, in due season, Christ used Him to established the approved fathering system in the Church, which has helped in moving mantles form generation to generation.
The “fathers of the land” concept pf the Pharisees and Scribes was a polluted fathering system because it was a spiritual fathering system that was not build around the tree of life. This ungodly system is in every nation where the evangelical Church and other church types with polluted fathering systems is.
Here in Kenya, the phrase “fathers of the land” or “elders of the city” is so common. They literally use it to intimidate and bully. They even tried it on me some time back.
A lot of preachers pride themselves in those phrases, and their spiritual sons and daughters helps them to amplify it. It usually reminds me of the seat of Moses that Jesus warned us not to establish in His church.
It is when preachers take over the seat of Moses in the Church that they become obsessed with the “fathers of the land” or “elders of the city” thing. You will see them using it to bully the sheep and intimidate people, beating them into submission like the Pharisees and scribes did.
Sadly, so many youths and women have been caught in it. You find them not even having respect for their earthly fathers and husbands but respecting their so-called spiritual fathers. No one with a true relationship with the Heavenly father will disrespect whose seed they are, or disrespect their earthly father or husbands.
If any youth with relationship with the Heavenly father have a father who sleeps with their daughters and handover their sons to devils, they may rebuke and stay away from them like David stayed away from Saul, but will never dishonor them even when God’s hand moves against them.
There is so much in Matthew 23:1-12 that we cannot unpack in a devotional. But we believe the core truth have been shared. It is our prayers that we use it to build our lives even as we strive for our eternal inheritance in Christ. Amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“Elijah said to him, Tarry here, I pray you, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan. But he said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And the two of them went on.
Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood [to watch] afar off; and the two of them stood by the Jordan.
And Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up and struck the waters, and they divided this way and that, so that the two of them went over on dry ground.
And when they had gone over, Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. And Elisha said, I pray you, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.
He said, You have asked a hard thing. However, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you—but if not, it shall not be so. As they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire parted the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
And Elisha saw it and he cried, My father, my father! The chariot of Israel and its horsemen! And he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.” 2 Kings 2:6-12 AMP