A young man shared this with me the other day; “Someone walked into my room and heard me listening to a message and said, ‘this person sounds like Pastor ‘Demola Awoyele.’ I told him, ‘No, Pastor ‘Demola Awoyele sounds like this person.'” The person he’s talking about is my spiritual father. I have partaken of his grace. I am a product of correct fathering.

Friend, fathers are feathers given you to go further and farther in life. Instructors are many, fathers are few (1 Corinthians 4:15). Instructors are interested in information, fathers are interested in formation. Instructors teach us various subjects in life, fathers impart us with life. Instructors celebrate us, fathers also correct us. Instructors fill our heads with knowledge, fathers transform our hearts with truths.

There are three deadly spirits you have got to deal with in order to fulfil destiny; the spirit of an orphan, the prodigal spirit, and the spirit of flattery. While an orphan has no father (Lamentation 5:1-3), a prodigal son or daughter rejects fathering (Luke 15:11-19), and the spirit of flattery flatters people rather than father them (Daniel 11:32a). You are either being fathered or flattered.

When you know your father, you have an identity. When your father knows you, you have an inheritance. Inheritances are for sons, not bastards or rebels (Genesis 25:5-6). Abraham gave Isaac the intangibles that produced the tangible things in his life.

Who is that person in your life that you can call; “my father” (2 Kings 2:12)? Who is that individual that you submit to for molding and shapening? Who is that voice of accountability in your life that can call you to order where necessary? Who is that person through whom the deposits of Grace available for you in the Kingdom flow through?

Fathering is about revelation, not emotion. It is not about status or age. Elisha was older than Elijah; he was also an established business man (1 Kings 19:19, 2 Kings 2:12). Some of the disciples of Jesus were older than Him (Matthew 4:18-20). Esther had a Mordecai in her life (Esther 2:7, 4:13-14). Timothy had a Paul (1 Timothy 1:2). Moses had a Jethro (Exodus 3:1, 18:17-19). Who is your father?

‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria