Chariot May 2006 - Norm Wakefield

Three new individual messages by Norm now available on CD and MP3, Anchored in Christ, Forerunners, and Resurrection of Life
http://www.spiritofelijah.com

The Calling Out of Sons – Part 6    

(A word of caution to those with younger children: this chariot deals with moral issues facing young adults and adults and so please use wisdom in how you teach these important principles to your younger ones.)    

    Thus far in the series on calling out sons, we have considered four insights from Luke 3-4. We noticed that:

·         By the age of twelve a son needs to be involved with his dad.

·         A father needs to establish his son's identity with himself in his father's house.

·         A father needs to be the son's source to prepare the way for God being the source of his life.

·         A father needs to lead his son to be attentive to, to depend upon, and to obey his word.

    More insights for fathers in preparing their sons for manhood may be gleaned from Luke 4:1-14. Let's continue to analyze the relationship between the Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus. Here's a fifth insight.

Insight Number Five: A father must lead his son to confront the lust of his body and learn to wait on God's words and timing.

    Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE'" (Luke 4:1-4).

    "Don't wait! Indulge yourself! Be comfortable, and don't go without!" These are the themes of the daily barrage of advertisements. But notice what God, the Father, asked Jesus to do. He led His son to fast from eating for 40 days. Your body has many appetites: eating, drinking, and sexual needs. Our bodies demand service–usually immediate service!

    Before a young man can become a godly leader, he must learn to control his lusts. He must confront and conquer them. Courage is required to face those lusts and to deal with them. Jesus was tempted in a way each man is tempted: Shall he serve his body or his heavenly Father? Shall he serve God or himself? Purity, holiness, and upright moral character require the ability to control the cravings of the body. These are foundational to effective leadership.

    Some of the calling-out rituals practiced in African tribes included fasting. Even unbelievers knew that young men should learn to control their bodily lusts and appetites. The reasoning is: if a man is ruled by his body, he can be ruled by anything because unbridled lust will control his life. If the natural man understands this principle, how much more should fathers whose lives are based on God's Word?  

    Not only do we have this powerful testimony in the life of Jesus, but also the Apostle Paul clearly taught this principle. He buffeted his body and made it his slave. Why? So he wouldn't be disqualified as a preacher and from future reward (1 Cor. 9:27). If we don't control our lusts, we forfeit our leadership potential. If we don't lead our sons to face and control their lusts, they will never be qualified as leaders. Consider the men who have been disqualified as leaders of their families because of their lusts. Most of us know someone who has lost respect and authority due to pornographic consumption or adultery. Think how rampant this is in our culture. How many families have been destroyed? How many wives will not submit and look to their husbands because they know their husbands have no self-control? If we are to be qualified leaders and want to prepare our sons to be godly leaders, practicing controlling lustful appetites is essential. If the heavenly Father led His own son to practice controlling legitimate bodily appetites, so should we.

Fathers must lead

    Who can lead a son to deal with his lust? Can his mother? Can a youth director or Sunday school teacher? I believe God has ordained that fathers have the responsibility to lead their sons to confront and conquer their lusts. First, sons will react to mothers because they know their moms can't identify with the power and nature of a man's lusts. No offense, ladies, but you'll never fully understand this aspect of manhood. Second, this "calling out" process requires daily observation and leadership that youth directors and Sunday school teachers don't have. Third, fathers can relate sympathetically and personally because they are still dealing with the same issues as sons of God. They should be examples to their sons in this battle to conquer the appetites of the body.

    I'm not suggesting at all that we need to lead our sons into sexually tempting situations, but instead teach them how to handle Satan's and the world's appeals to satisfy the flesh through food, drink, drugs, and sex. Most of us know what adult life will be like if a young man practices indulging himself physically until he gets married. His marriage relationship will be challenging from the beginning as his wife attempts to teach him to control his physical appetites. He'll probably react and indulge himself more in order to cope with the guilt and the pain of her reproof. Many marriages have been destroyed due to these dynamics.

What is more important than being physically happy and comfortable?

    If I just described your marriage relationship with your wife, then let that motivate you to get with the program–the program of being called out by the Father. He's calling you to Himself. If you are a child of God, He will ask you to face your demand for comfort and happiness. You will be tempted as Jesus was: use your power to make yourself comfortable. If you have a son, God is providing you a basis to call your son out to manhood according to His Word.

    Before a son can really be a man, he must reject the prevailing worldly attitudes that life is to be happy and comfortable. He must learn to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Jesus' response to the devil's temptation indicated where life was for Him–in His Father! He recognized that the need for food was part of life, but it wasn't everything. The physical needs of a man's body for food, drink, and sex may be legitimately fulfilled. However, there's much more to life than hedonistic indulgence and instant gratification for those who are God's sons. We find life in our relationship with our Father in heaven, who supplies our needs according to His riches in glory as well as in His time.

The issue is: waiting on the Lord

    Sons must learn to WAIT. Just as Jesus had to wait on His Father's timing, so men must learn to wait for God's timing to supply their physical needs. Consider how important this is for a husband. If a young man doesn't learn how to wait on God's timing of supply for his sexual needs, when he becomes a husband and his wife doesn't do what he wants when he wants, he will take matters into his own hands through pornography, masturbation, and prostitution which amounts to adultery and idolatry. These sins put Jesus on the cross! The wrath of God comes on those who practice these sins (Col. 3:5). This is serious business.

    As a husband, your Father in heaven knows it is best for you to wait at times so you can learn that man doesn't live by sex alone, but fullness of life is in looking to and depending on Him. This is necessary for your wife to know she is loved rather than used by you. The husband that demands physical satisfaction from his wife according to his time and his way reveals a man who has not been called out by his earthly father or the heavenly Father. He's a user, not a lover. He's a lustful boy, not a powerful man.

    A young man must be taught that God has the perfect time to supply his sexual needs, and he must wait for Him to provide a wife. Until then the son learns to look to God for satisfaction and fulfillment when he feels his need. If you didn't learn this as a young man, then you know the destruction that awaits your son if you don't teach him to wait for God's timing.

    A young man must also learn to wait for God's means of supply. Because of the rampant sexual promiscuity of our times, let's be clear: The righteous means God has supplied for a man to have his sexual needs met is through his wife alone. A man must learn to look to His heavenly Father, not his wife to supply what he needs. She is merely the agent or means of God's supply, not the source. The lies and propaganda of the world certainly must be exposed. Masturbating, pornography, premarital sex, and homosexual relations are not righteous means from God. They are short-cuts from the devil! Sons must learn to wait on God's means of supply: a believing wife.

    In Matthew's account of Jesus' temptations, more of Jesus' response was recorded. "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). Surely what Jesus meant was that He was to wait on His Father's word before changing the stone into bread or satisfying His appetite. The writer of Hebrews revealed that Jesus upholds all things by the word of His power (1:3) and that word which brings all things to pass is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the hearts of men (4:12). Therefore we are armed with the same knowledge as sons of God: God supplies everything we need through His living and active word which controls the affairs of men in this world. God's sons live by that word. They must learn to wait on God's word, which moves His creatures to supply their needs in His time.

Let's get practical

    How well does your son wait? How well do you wait? Learning to wait for God's provision for food and other needs should be an important part of child training. First, use your own example. Don't waste a bad mistake. If you have suffered the destruction and consequences of not waiting on God to supply your physical needs, then use your testimony to affirm God's Word. Share openly that waiting on the Lord is something you are learning as God's son. When you have to wait, teach your children how to wait patiently by praying and trusting in God to supply their need in His time and His way. Second, use food and drink to teach them to wait patiently. Children typically are demanding when they want a snack, meal, or drink. Don't allow them to pout when they don't get it immediately. Teach them the importance of learning to wait and how to wait. Perhaps periodic fasts may be helpful to teach this lesson.

    Are you waiting for anything? Thank God for His love and training. You are being called out! Teach your son from this experience.

Join us at a Summer Family Camp!

    Some of the best family memories may be built at a summer family camp. Spiritual encouragement, family activities, and wonderful fellowship with families with similar values and vision make family camp a highlight of the year. This summer I'll be speaking at two family camps and invite you to join us.

June 23-30 – Camp Spofford in Spofford, NH

August 19-26 – Horn Creek Conference Center in Westcliffe, CO             (www.horncreek.org)

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