Poorly Fathered Strike Force

Prayer Strategies

Strategy #1

Stop and watch a couple of minutes of this video.  You don’t need to go to the end.

Now, compare me to him.

I have brain damage.  I am so uncoordinated, I have not learned how to jump rope for my health.  A standard cardio exercise is beyond me.

He has worse body damage than I do, but has progressed much farther than I have in his journey to mobility.

I can walk, jog, and do a bunch of things he can’t.  But by far, he is the superior person, for having come from so far down.

That is the picture of you and your authority.

Because your original fathering was so crumpled, you have had to work hard and long to get the things that others take for granted.  And it hasn’t been elegant, but it is a source of significant spiritual authority.

I would like to start this strike force with a good dose of awe.

Would you spend the next couple of weeks just reviewing your journey from the perspective of all God did.  Make mental lists of all the different things, in different places and times that God put in motion to bring you far down the road from where you began life.

Celebrate the depth and breadth of His investment in your being reparented.

That will position you better to war for the hearts of those who are still pretty raw.

Strategy #2

I hope the weeks spent looking at your journey and savoring the work of God in growing you, was refreshing for you.  Now let’s put that awe to work.

I would like you to launch a jihad against the difference between a season and God’s design.

I have all my childhood report cards.  They are a thing of horror.  My worst topics were writing and speaking.  Horrible grades, year after year.

Hard core, undeniable facts in the eyes of my parents.  I was, genuinely, a grossly incompetent communicator.  FOR A LONG SEASON.

They projected that into the future and strongly leveraged me toward non-communicative careers.  With reason.

Now, I was, for sure, by any standard, a late bloomer.  I did not begin communicating with any level of competence until decades after I “finished” university.  My last class netted me a 60 which is a D- grade in any non-woke university.

BUT, design trumps journey, so often.

And eventually, who I was came to the front.  Today, I can, on occasion, turn a phrase, and I have hundreds of reasonably articulated teachings on the market.  In fact, I earn my living by my mouth and mind, not my hands and knees.

I am not the first, nor the last, to go through a season that looked awful, when in reality, design was different than the season.

I would like you to pour the faith and fury of your journey into three categories of people who have had a bad season and have been labeled and boxed in by that season.  Bust them out of Seasonal Jail and release them to start over again.

1)   Those who are builders by design, and who have failed in business, but are at the right place to get back in the game, somewhere.

2)   Those who failed in ministry and have rejected all facets of leadership but were made to lead, and have learned from their failure, and need to move into the place God has prepared for them.

3)   Those who failed in marriage or in parenting, who have massively failed forward learning many lessons, and just flat out need to take the labels off themselves and accept the end of a painful season as God sees it.

We need them free and AT THE EVENT to be catapulted into the next season.

Strategy #3

I was at a free-form event a number of years ago where there were four spiritual fathers.  There were also a handful of young people who desperately needed some remedial fathering.

I was on tip toe with expectation, eager to watch the fathers ply their trade.

Nothing happened.

As I deconstructed the event, it became evident that the kids were so wrapped up in their own petty pursuits of pleasure that they never even noticed the opportunity that was present.

And the fathers knew better than to try to share wisdom with kids who were absorbed with trivia.

I am still sad over that wasted opportunity, and the fact is that the same dynamic plays out endlessly day after day.

We have a minor variation of that at the Passionate Manhood event.  I am coming with tools and I will be speaking whether anyone is listening or not.

And a lot of people are coming at significant personal expense, because they DO want to receive something.

BUT, poor fathering will almost invariably cause them to set the bar low.  They have a vision that is most likely valid and viable, but not a full representation of their design and calling.

As such, even though the words will flow over them, they will not “hear” about some strategic assets I share, because their target is small.

But God is not limited to how the principles function.  He is sovereign and can get anyone’s attention.

Ask God to transcend all of the baggage that poor fathering contributes to people not being able to recognize the assets that are being offered them.  Let’s just flat out ask God to be invasive in order to move people along with HIS plan.

Saul was looking for donkeys.  There was not a scrap of monarchial focus in his head when he crossed paths with Samuel.  God invaded!

Ask the God of Samuel and Saul to invade the minds of people coming, so they will recognize the treasures they need, when they are articulated.