When Rome burned, Nero blamed the Christians; however, historians say that evidence proves that Nero was absolutely guilty. In that ignoble hour of persecution, he killed apostles and prophets and Christians. That was the climate in which Paul wrote the Epistle of II Timothy.
Notice especially three verses in 2 Timothy 4 –Make every effort to come to me soon. Verse 9. (Those are not cold words on a page, are they?) When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments. Verse 13. We can read more into this verse than appears on the surface: “This prison is cold; I need an overcoat.” Make every effort to come before winter.… Verse 21. “It will not be possible for the ships to sail when winter comes. Try to come to me, Timothy.”
There is a time when a son needs his father to protect and shelter him. Then when their relationship changes, the father lifts his hand, exposing his son more and more to responsibilities so that he will have to mature and become a man.
There is something progressive in the father’s ministry. He finds himself needing sons more than he needed them in the days of his youth. He finds himself yearning over those whom God has brought forth. He thinks about them, is concerned about them; and he prays for them in much the same way that Paul felt toward Timothy. As time passes, a father’s need of spiritual sons grows; and the sons have a growing awareness of their need of a spiritual father.
Maturity brings an appreciation for the father. This is true in the natural realm too. Most teenagers think that the father knows nothing; and they do not want much to do with him. They can be disrespectful. Often they sass the mother and do everything to insult her. Yet when they grow a little older, they are surprised to see how much their parents have learned in only a few years. Attitudes seem to change as time goes on. There comes a deep respect for each other, with an awareness of one another’s limitations.
The longer a man of God lives, the more he is aware of what his spiritual sons really need; and they become aware of what he needs too. It cannot become a relationship based upon idolatry (anyone who even has a false picture of his own father or mother is open for disillusionment and maladjustment in life). There should be a growing tenderness, an awareness of one another’s need. In the family of God, we should supplement and build up one another in the faith.
Paul wrote, in II Timothy 2:1 and 3, You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. (He always talked to Timothy like a son, saying things that he knew Timothy really needed to hear.). Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. This picture was behind everything Paul said to Timothy.
Paul’s last solemn charge to Timothy, in II Timothy 4, was spoken like a true conqueror. It contains some of the grandest words in all the Bible. It describes a witness that a man could give concerning his own life. This must have been similar to what Jacob said while leaning on his staff and prophesying over his sons; or perhaps it was the way that Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. It is the way that fathers have blessed their sons from the dawn of time, wanting to impart something more to them, wanting to have faith to believe to give more than they themselves really had. It is like Elijah when he told Elisha, “I know it is a hard thing, but if you can just stay with me, you will have a double portion.”
In the father ministry there comes a desire to believe that those he has begotten in the earth (whether in the natural, which is the lesser, or in the spirit) will be greater than himself. He hopes that he can lead them in a short time through certain spiritual barriers, and into that which took him a lifetime to find.
Let there be faith in your heart, but behind it there must be a hunger. Children have that hunger in the natural, but as sons of God it is more important to have good spiritual appetites. There must be a hunger for the word of the Lord so great that there is not enough room to contain all the word that they want to hear and receive. Some of the finest meetings come forth when believers ask their pastor, “Just let us gather around. Just talk to us about the Lord.” The word of the Lord comes forth, not because their pastor wants an audience, but because the people are hungry for a living word. They yearn for it; and they want it above everything else.
You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them (Paul was saying, “Don’t forget that your daddy taught you all of this”); and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.
But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering (Paul was using a Jewish illustration, but he was making reference to the beheading of Christians), and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. II Timothy 3:14–4:8. This is a tender passage, and it will help you to open your heart to the way that we ought to care for one another.
The Body of Christ is the Father’s family. Those ministries who are to father and shepherd the flock should receive special teaching. According to the size of the church at Ephesus, we assume that close to a thousand elders from Ephesus gathered to meet with Paul. They were the pastors, but not of large churches, because they were restricted to churches in the homes. When one group became too large, some had to break off and meet in another home because the persecutions were severe. Out of that particular church in Ephesus it is estimated that there may have been a thousand churches meeting in homes over which there were pastors.
Today, as in Bible days, pastors are actually ordained elders; and the Church will be deficient in what is set before it if they are not trained until they are complete pastors in all of their ministerial capacity. A time should be set aside for teaching and training on what it is to be a shepherding elder of the flock of God. This should also include deacons who could move into this ministry. The churches will multiply as we have a family awareness and begin to pray for the fathering ministry to come forth in every elder to minister in that deep compassion and love.
A father ministry feels a deep love for God’s people. He knows that some need to be prodded, and others need hands laid on them to receive a revelation of what God has for them.
In the Father’s family, you must love one another and flow together. When you prophesy, do not prophesy as though you are prophesying to uninterested, unconcerned, unrelated people. Prophesy with such faith, that the amens and the faith of your brothers and sisters will help you to be an oracle of God in the earth to speak the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord today is opening the door of the Kingdom. Let that word open the door to your mind and heart by revelation, so that you can know what God has chosen you to be, how He really loves you, and what He wants to be to you. Let the word live in you.
If you are bitter, or disillusioned, or critical in any way, repent of it! The family of God in this hour is coming forth in the purest way of ministry that God ever brought. You may always have reason to grumble, but do not be on the outside with the grumblers. Come in close-close to the Father’s heart. Everything there is good. It is real. It is genuine. It is the only reality in the world.