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Chariot February 2006 - Norm Wakefield

Friends in Southern California,

     March 3-14, I'll be speaking at various venues in Southern California. I hope to see many of you at one of these events. If you would like to attend, you may contact the event coordinator for more information.

March 3 – HOPE Christian Academy, 7:00 p.m., Westminster, CA, Deborah L. Haller, 714-373-4673

March 5 – Lighthouse Bible Church, 8:30, 11:15, 6:30, Simi Valley, CA, (805) 584-8222

March 7 – South Bay Academy, 3:30 youth, 7:00 parents, EV Free, Redondo Beach CA, Beth Lester, blester@socal.rr.com

March 8 – Men's Meeting at Jamul Community Church, 6:15 pm, Jamul, CA, Eric Andersen, (619) 460-2255

March 9 – Christian Heritage School, 7:30 pm, Raney Intermediate School, 1010 West Citron Street, Corona, CA, Arleen Morris, amorris@urs2.net

March 13 - Homes Organized for Meaningful Education (HOME), 3:00 pm youth, 7:00 pm parents, Simi Valley, CA, Bob Kern, 818-592-0860

Friends in Colorado,

     August 19-26, I'll be the guest speaker for a family camp at The Lodge at Horn Creek Conference Center in Westcliffe, CO. It's a great week of fun activities, family Bible study, and building relationships. If you are interested in joining us there, please visit their website http://www.horncreek.org.   

The Calling Out of Sons – Part 3  

Three Major Consequences of NOT Calling Out Sons

     "Being a son of my father didn't mean anything." This is a sad commentary of a son after eighteen years of relationship with his dad. The fact that this is a common testimony is more tragic. When fathers don't call out sons, not only are the four attitudes previously considered engrained in the sons, but also there are at least three major consequences I would like for you to consider.

The scriptures on sonship may lose their significance

     There are many scriptures revealing powerful truths about our relationship with God, the Father. Here are a few of my favorites.

     See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. (1 John 3:1)

     Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.

     "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE," says the Lord. "AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty.

     Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1)

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. (Gal. 4:6-7)

     These verses testify to our highest calling: we are sons of God! The most significant relationship we have as creatures is that the Creator of the universe is our Father. Having created us, adopted us, and justified us in His Son, Jesus Christ, our heavenly Father calls us out as sons and daughters. Have you noticed that the verses in 2 Corinthians 6 are the calling out of the sons of God by the heavenly Father? Like the fathers in Africa called out the sons of their people to come out of their houses with their mothers, God calls his sons and daughters to come out of the world. He offers a wonderful promise: "If you come out and separate yourself, I will be a father to you and you shall be a son to me," says the Lord.

     Many people, however, miss the significance of these scriptures because being a son or daughter of their father offered no hope to their hearts. When they read about the privilege of being a son to the heavenly Father, they breeze past it. Nothing stirs inside them. The stir was lost by a father, who was too busy to give meaning and purpose to fatherhood and sonship. Consequently, hopeful gospel words lose their meaning and power. So if fathers don't call out sons, sons may very well overlook these verses about being sons of God. But there is another major consequence of tremendous importance.

The son may miss the significance of being called out by God

     Understanding the calling out of sons by fathers, sons realize the importance and indispensable experience of being called out spiritually. However, if a son isn't called out, he may be robbed of the significance and the necessity of being called out by the Spirit of God. In 2 Timothy 1:9 we read, "[He] who has saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity." Have you ever noticed the significance of that word calling, a holy calling? Paul was referring to the calling out of the sons of God. Not everyone is a son of God. Only the sons of God receive the calling out of the heavenly Father and the work of the Holy Spirit.

     Read the 2 Corinthians 6 passage above, if you would. As I mentioned above, not having the calling out of sons, these verses perhaps would not mean anything to us, or we would miss the significance of them. He wasn't saying, "Choose to be a Christian." God wasn't inviting us to, "Ask Jesus into your heart." Without realizing it, one may miss the powerful promise because he doesn't have anything with which to relate. We see God calls his sons out to Himself. He doesn't say, "Come join our church, where we will make you happy and comfortable." Instead, the Lord says, "Come and be separate. Come out of their midst. Don't be like everybody else in the world."

     In many cases in Asian countries, the call to a relationship with the heavenly Father probably means persecution, rejection, and death! In 2 Corinthians 7:1 he goes on and says, "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Now that takes courage. Only a son of God can do that. It can't be done any other way. The only ones who will separate themselves are the sons of God, who have been called out by the Spirit of the Father and the Son. These know whose they are. Their relationship with the Father supercedes and transcends all relationships in this life.

     Without an understanding that God must call a person to Himself by the power of the Spirit of sonship, a man can only mimic. There will be no power in him. All a man can do is mimic other men – just like he did when he was growing up. Do you recall your junior high and high school years? Most young men didn't know what it was to be a man, but they wanted to be a man. So all they knew to do was look at their peers. And then what did we do? Most of us mimicked guys we thought were cool or masculine. We may have started talking, walking, playing, and dressing like the guy we thought was a real man. The result: no power, no identity, no courage inside to be what God wants us to be. Until a father calls out his son, all the son can do is mimic those around him.

     How does this impact the son when it comes to relationship with God? He may wonder, "What is it to be a Christian? He will look around and pick out a man he thinks is a good example, and then he'll mimic him. Imitation isn't completely bad. However, if the young man hasn't been born again by God's Spirit, what is missing? The power of God's message. The power in the heart. The Spirit of the Son! Power!

     You can tell a son of God because the Spirit of God has been given to him and he cries out to God as a Father. It is a holy calling. Not having an understanding of the calling out of sons by fathers, we're not only robbed of the significance of being called to be separate from the children of the world and the devil, but also we're robbed of the significance and the necessity of being born by the Spirit of God.

     In John 3:5 Jesus said, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." What is the Spirit of God like? It is the very same Spirit that is in Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? He is the Son of the living God. What is the Spirit in Jesus Christ? It is the Spirit that cries out, "Abba! Father!" So you can tell when someone is born by the Spirit of the Son because he cries out "Abba! Father!" in every situation. That's the spirit of the Son of God in a man. Without the preparatory a relationship between a father and a son, we may miss that the very essence of being a son of God. It is to be called out by the Father, through the Son who sends His Spirit so we can be born again.

     What exciting news! The Holy Spirit's presence within our hearts attests to the eternal truth that we are sons of God. Galatians 3:26 says, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." And in chapter 4:6 it says, "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!'" And Romans 8:14-16 says, "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."

     So, the second major consequence of fathers not calling out sons is that we wouldn't see the necessity of the new birth by the Holy Spirit. There is a third consequence that naturally flows from the second consequence.

The son's heart may not be prepared for the Lord

     Because the quality of the relationship of a son with his father (or a daughter also) prepares him for being a son of the heavenly Father, a son's heart may not be prepared for the Lord. When the Holy Spirit informed Zacharias about soon-to-be-born son, John-the-Baptist, He told Zacharias, that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb and that the Spirit of Elijah would be upon him. God would use him to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and then would work in the hearts of the children for this purpose: "to prepare a people for the Lord" (Luke 1:15-17).

     A son is prepared for the Lord by first learning that life comes from death to self. He has to practice applying that truth in his relationship with his father if he is to be blessed. God calls children to honor their fathers and mothers and to obey them, which usually entails self-control and repeated surrender of their own plans and agendas. We read in Luke 9:23, 24, "And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it." Do you see what God is calling his disciples to? He is calling them out to a cause outside of themselves. If a father doesn't call his son out to something outside of the son's plans and self-will, the son won't be prepared for the Lord's call.

     A son whose heart is open to his father is a heart open and prepared for the Lord. However, a hardened heart toward a father is a heart not being prepared for the Lord. The father prepares the way of the Lord in his children by keeping his heart turned to them and by calling them into meaningful relationships with him. As a middle school dean, athletic director, youth minister, counselor, and pastor, I have noticed this: When a father's heart is not turned toward his son, the son has a hard heart. If the heart is hard toward his father, the heart is hard toward God. He won't care about the Lord. But when a father's heart is turned toward his children, their hearts are softened and prepared for the Lord to come. That is the way it was in Jesus' day. It is God's plan for fathers to call out their sons; and as their hearts are turned toward their sons, God will, by the power of His Spirit, prepare their hearts for the Lord.

     Most of us know church-going teenagers who have left their homes in rebellion. They hit the teen years or the college years and they run to the world. Fathers whose hearts have been turned to their work and their stuff may expect such results. Not knowing the importance of calling out their sons, much less how to do it, the Spirit of Elijah isn't moving in their relationship. If a son is in rebellion and has been hurt by his father who has ignored him, didn't know to call him out, didn't spend time with him, or didn't show him what it is to be a man, he will not submit himself to his father. In his rebellion he will wonder why he can't love God. His heart has not been prepared for the Lord. I'm not saying God can't save a son whose heart has not been prepared by his father. Some of you are living testimonies of such grace. You are double miracles! What I am saying is this: God's primary way of preparing hearts for the calling out of His sons is a father/son relationship patterned after the gospel. Consider this: a son who has been called out God's way will have a heart to submit himself to his father. Can you see how such a relationship would be preparation for submitting to the Lord?

What do you do if you see these consequences in your sons?

     God is a redeemer! He is good. He is gracious to those who humble themselves. He has promised if He turns a father's heart to his son, He'll work in the son's heart. There is no age limitation. One father weekly wrote to his sons who had left home and were in their late twenties, asking forgiveness and explaining these things. Instead of criticizing his sons and blaming them for their rebellion and hard-heartedness, the father took the blame. He spoke first to them as a son to sons, explaining that his father hadn't called him out because his grandfather hadn't called out his father. God graciously opened the hearts of his sons. Over a six month period, both sons were born again, their marriages restored, and their family united after years of separation.

     God's Word provides tremendous hope. Since God is our heavenly Father and we are desirous of expressing His heart to our children, we may be sure of His assistance and power. We have His Spirit to guide us, His Word to instruct us, and wives and brothers in Christ to encourage us. Next month we'll look at how the heavenly Father "called out" His Son and gain more insight into "the calling out of sons".

Helpful Resources for Your Family 

    The Spirit and Presence of Christ: Wondrous Gifts for the Father's Pleasure  

    This book is an excellent resource for your family in thinking more about the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's role in your life. The author is a very close friend of mine, Jerry White, who has been a spiritual mentor to me for many years. The book is available on our website here.

Would you like to be on the Elijah Ministries Prayer Team?

    The backbone of Elijah Ministries is the prayer team who pray diligently for God to turn the hearts of men to Himself, their wives, and their children. Before I leave to speak, I send out a prayer team invitation to those who will intercede for God to work for His glory in us as a team for the Kingdom. Not only is it a blessing to those whom I speak and myself; but it is also a reminder to the team about the direction of their own hearts. If you would like to enter into the labor together with me, you may go to my website and click on "Prayer Team".

    If you haven't visited our website, www.spiritofelijah.com, please stop by sometime. You'll find:

*   Resources to equip you and your family

*   Previous Chariot articles

*   Norm's speaking schedule

*   Free MP3 downloads  

*   Various pages translated and available in Spanish  

*   An online store to purchase resources and make tax-free contributions by credit card