Part One
The father ministry is very evident in the books of I and II Timothy. However, the second Epistle to Timothy is more tender and more related to the father-and-son relationship of Paul and Timothy than the first Epistle. In this generation, we see the coming forth of the prophets of God who desire a Timothy ministry. Being a Timothy ministry, merely the son of another ministry, does not take away from what a person can move into. If you will remember, Timothy rose to the heights of the early apostolic ministries; he was an apostle and a coauthor with Paul in some of his Epistles. True apostolic company unity was manifested in the way that many of the Epistles started out with Paul speaking about himself and others, such as Titus or Timothy, who were sending that word. It is evident that they actually participated in the writing of the Epistles. Once Paul said, … I am writing to you with my own hand. Galatians 6:11. However, that was an exceptional Epistle; usually others joined Paul in the writing of his Epistles.
The father ministry of Paul helps us to really understand what is happening today as we walk with God as a Body. The family relationships are much more in evidence. God is still emphasizing the holiness and the rightness of our walk before Him, but the relationships of the family of God are building up among the people. There is the relationship of father and son, and there is the relationship of the brothers and sisters.
It is a source of satisfaction to see brothers moving ahead together in the Lord aggressively in this present hour. As soon as a word of the Lord is spoken, their hearts echo it quickly. The father ministry starts speaking a word from the Lord, and the sons complete it. They are now coming forth to the high level of speaking the word of the Lord. There will be no conformity in these whom God raises up, as to their agreeing on certain ideas. Nevertheless, they will have a common dedication and spiritual level of maturity for speaking a living word from God.
The assets of God’s family are the sons who speak His word. Yet in matters such as building and finances, the people in the world are more prosperous. They have endowments which they have been working with for centuries. They are organized, and they really know what they are doing. They hire the best corporation lawyers and the best investment advisors, so they will know everything that must be done. But God is going to confound them in their own wisdom and bring them down.
The only distinctive asset that God’s people have is the dedication of the sons who are coming forth. That is the basis of what God is doing in the earth. God’s people are coming forth to speak the word of the Lord. They will drop their inhibitions, their feelings of insecurity; and they will go forth with a deep trust in the living God and a zeal that is tempered with much wisdom. Much of the wisdom to do what is right comes when God corners His people as they do wrong. But there is also a peaceable wisdom that comes down from above (James 3:17). It is not a sensual, soulish wisdom that is full of contention, but a wisdom that comes down from God which is the basis of nearly everything that God does.
In these days, God is causing His family to adhere to one another. He is working a mutual concern in them for one another’s problems, until they can almost hear one another’s heartbeat and sense one another’s need. It is one thing to have discernment for knowing a person’s need. It is another thing to have compassion with a family approach that is of a deeper concern than we have ever known. We are taught about Body ministry and being members of His Body. But when we really experience it, we find it to be the most closely knit family relationship that we could ever have. As we prophesy one another’s release, our hearts will beat as one and we will not break ranks. We will see eye to eye in the closeness that is coming forth in the Body of Christ.
Sometimes those who are on the outskirts of the Body almost shut themselves off, saying, “There is no love.” Yet there is a love that is growing out from the core of the Body. It is reaching out and embracing, actually creating a field of influence. People will be drawn into it and love will be there. God’s family will not be known for doctrines, but for the wonderful relationship that God is working in their midst.
I John 2 speaks about the different spiritual levels and relationships within the family of Christ. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. Verse 12. It is not speaking about little children of a certain age group, such as six to twelve. It is speaking about your spiritual age, and that is not always dependent upon how long you have been a Christian. A church of people who have been Christians for over forty years may still be nothing but a glorified nursery with the pastor nursing them every Sunday morning. It is not how long you have been a Christian that is important, but how much you have grown. Paul was always urging the people not to be babes any longer. In Ephesians 4:14 he wrote, … be no more children tossed to and fro…
I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. Then this Scripture repeats: I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. I John 2:13, 14. In both cases the young men had overcome the evil one.
Some Bible scholars say that this text had different readings, and finally all were included. However, I believe the repetition is there for a real purpose. Twice the fathers and the young men are identified together: I have written to you, fathers.… I have written to you, young men.… In the repetition, the same pattern exists because this is one of the basic relationships that comes forth in the family of God. This Scripture is not speaking about male and female, for the daughters become sons too. A father ministry only has sons. Male or female, all turn out to be sons in the proper relationship of Christ.
Paul had a problem with the Corinthian church, in that some said they were of Apollos, while others said they were of Cephas, or of Paul, or of Christ. I acted as Paul did if one of my children started giving the orders. I asked, “Who is the daddy? Now, who is the child?” Then I said, “Let’s keep that straight.” Every once in awhile we had to straighten out who was the daddy. Paul was trying to straighten out who was the daddy. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I Corinthians 3:1. He was very disturbed that the church at Corinth was full of babies who refused to grow up.
In I Corinthians 4, Paul began to define the relationship between the Corinthian church and all the different ministries. Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes (how they should relate to the ministries over them), that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written, in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. Verse 6. Paul was trying to get them to have the right relationship.
Whenever people are samplers of many different ministers, they are immature. The church at Corinth was immature. While one was saying, “I am of Peter, the great rock,” another was saying, “I am of Apollos, the silver-tongued preacher of the apostles”; and still another was saying, “I am of Paul, because he is the one who started this in the first place.” Then there were those who said, “We are of Christ.” They had gone beyond being followers of any apostle. They were getting all their orders “direct” and needed no teaching from anyone. Paul put them all in one category and called them babies.
In verse 14 Paul said, I do not write these things to shame you… Maybe he did not write it to shame them, but he did a good job. Would you want to be on the receiving end of all that criticism? Would you want to tell a church that they were babies? As babies we come into a walk with the Lord, but God does a good job of making us grow up.
I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors (or teachers) in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy (why?), who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church. I Corinthians 4:14–17. Paul had told Timothy, in II Timothy 2:2, “The things which you have seen and heard in me, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
The father ministry of Paul received from the Lord the revelation of how things should be done and what was to be done. As the children came forth he was saying to the little family, the church of the Corinthian babes, “I will send Timothy, my beloved, faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of my ways; the way that is supposed to be there with you. You may have many tutors or teachers who can teach you and discipline you, but you do not have many fathers. Not many spiritual fathers have come forth.”
Behind everything that comes forth in God, and every ministry of God who comes forth, there has to be a father ministry. This is the reason why Babylon will never produce prophets; they do not have fathers. The babes in Christ who do not have a spiritual father are likened to illegitimate children. These constantly come forth as a product of a Babylonian incubator, better known as a theological seminary. This results in the great religious commercialism. The Bible does not teach us to have Bible schools.
The school of prophets, since Samuel’s time, always had a family relationship. They were called the sons of the prophets because the prophets produced sons, who in turn began to walk as prophets. They were not natural, generated sons; most of the time they were spiritual sons who came forth as sons of the prophets. Amos said, “I was not a prophet, neither the son of a prophet” (Amos 7:14). Prophets were born as they found a prophet to father them, someone to cleave to in order to learn the ways of God. This is the way it was with Elisha. When Elijah was taken away, Elisha said, “My father, my father” (II Kings 2:12). Why? Elisha was not a natural son of Elijah, but a spiritual son. Men of God are produced in the way that Paul produced Timothy. Timothy was around Paul all the time. Then Paul said, “Timothy, I am going to send you to that church to remind them of my ways. The things that you have seen and heard in me, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
Very commonly now, a brother who has come forth under an apostolic ministry will begin to preach, and a living word comes out. People may recognize that he sat under that father ministry, yet the true ministry that God is bringing forth in the brothers does not imitate anyone. They have the good wisdom to say, “Lord, I want that same fountain of the living word to come forth.” They are not produced as yes-men nor stamped out from a mold like a factory run, as Babylon does in its theological seminaries and Bible schools. There were times when a few hundred people across the country could be found preaching exactly like Aimee Semple McPherson. Many evangelists still follow that same style or a Billy Sunday style, modifying it somewhat. Whenever someone new came on the scene and seemed to do well, everyone imitated him. Many times people tried to imitate Smith Wigglesworth, but they could not quite come up with the faith to do all the signs and wonders that he did. If they could have imitated his faith, they would have been fine.
Imitating is not taking place in what God is bringing forth now. It is purer than anything that has ever come. Sons and daughters are coming forth with a love of the Word and the desire to be part of the family of God, speaking the word of the Lord. Many sons are coming forth as true pastors, learning to speak the word of the Lord. They do not need to learn many other things, only some basic knowledge at times in certain areas.
Paul said, “You have many tutors and instructors, but you do not have many fathers.” The impartation of the father and the appropriation on the part of the sons give the purity and the continuity of the ministry. If that is broken, what happens? Many denominations started out with the fire of God and the leaders moving in God, but thirty-five years later they were dead because the next generation came forth as a product of Bible schools and colleges. Whenever the training of ministries is on an impersonal basis, as in some kind of ministerial incubator, then the life of Christ is lost. The only way to keep the perpetuation and the anointing from generation to generation is by having it transmitted from spiritual fathers to sons who will be able to teach others also. We should be concerned about those who can carry on the life that God has begun. The perpetuation of the purity of His word must be our greatest concern. If we believe for God to bring forth a thousand men who can speak His living word, who will minister and flow in Him, then we have assured a greater force to bring in the Kingdom than the world has ever seen in all generations.
Every spiritual father and everyone who is called by God in this hour to be an apostle or a prophet must minister to one another. It is appropriation as well as impartation that brings forth the purity of their walk with God. Purity is what God is concerned about. A thousand churches can be nothing unless there are a thousand prophets, a thousand pastors, a thousand ministries who are moving purely in those churches. To merely start churches is to create more problems. But creating ministries will create a vital, spiritual force that will be like a tidal wave against Babylon.
Babylon, which has been artificially reproduced, cannot successfully come against the ministries of the Lord who have come forth under the anointing which is passed on by a divine generation. The womb of Babylon does not see the pure birth of prophets. Revelation 18:20 says, Rejoice … apostles and prophets, because God has judged your judgment of her. The apostles do not come from the creativity of Babylon. That is why Babylon comes against the apostles and prophets. The apostles and prophets are able to bring forth many sons out of Babylon, because there are those in Babylon who have enough spiritual life and the generation of God in them to bring them out. God has a people who cry, “Come out of her. Be not a partaker of her sin and of her judgment” (Revelation 18:4).
Have you come out of Babylon and into a walk with God? You probably felt that you were nothing until then. Nevertheless, you were something; at least you had a heart which God could speak to. You were generated by God because you were an open child, and so you became thoroughly disenchanted with Babylon. You no longer wanted any part of it. There was something within you that rebelled; yet you loved God and were in a quandary, not knowing what it was. It was really the voice of the Spirit saying, “Come on out.” The Lord said that He was going to take the sheep away from the false shepherds and give them shepherds after His own heart (Jeremiah 3:15). That is what God is doing now. You must learn and become responsible and move on ahead because you are being brought under the true shepherds who will lead you.
Above everything else we must see that there are true shepherds to watch over the flock of God. Pastoral work, in its true meaning, is not a science or an art or a business; nor is it an organizing of committees. In it there must be one thing that comes forth: the Father’s heart must be reproduced; the heart of the Heavenly Father must be reproduced in every son. This is the purpose behind all of it.
Paul said, “I am sending Timothy to you because Timothy knows all my ways.” He proceeded to send Timothy, and others also. However, the apostolic ministry of Paul was not merely sending ministries around for revival meetings or trying to raise money for missionaries. Behind it was always the cry of the father over his children. He could no longer take care of all of them himself, and he was not expected to. But he was expected to reproduce those who would get the word, get that anointing, have that compassion, and send it on to where it was needed. Titus, one of those ministries, he sent to the Island of Crete, and Timothy was sent to various churches.
We want the wonderful living word to come forth in the family of God, so we will all be speaking the word of the Lord. The family that God is bringing forth today is growing rapidly spiritually, but slowly in numbers. The emphasis is not on numbers but on family depth. The key of everything that is going to come is in the family heart that we must have.
In I Timothy 1, Paul began this letter: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus … who is our hope; to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (Notice his commandment.) As I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus, in order that you may instruct certain men… Verses 1–3. Paul could always place a true son in a situation, knowing he would handle it the right way. Once a ministry is established in divine wisdom, other people can also pick it up. God seems to create a mold and a pattern, and He can reproduce that same tenacity to reach in for God’s wisdom in a situation. It is not human wisdom or human experience they are drawing on because it goes beyond that. It is an impartation.
This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you might fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Verses 18, 19. Paul often spoke of this.
Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. I Timothy 4:12–16.
In Paul’s letter we see how a father was instructing his children. It is significant that much of the basis for the restoration of the laying on of hands for the spiritual gifts, and the encouragement to move into the spiritual gifts, has come from I and II Timothy. There we also find much teaching about the laying on of hands, the elders, the prophesying over ministries, and the imparting of spiritual gifts. In other books of the Bible, which are more doctrinal, you do not find this, but you find it in the family relationship, the father-and-son relationship, that is emphasized in I and II Timothy, and again in Titus. We find the whole divine order for the Church in what we call the pastoral Epistles. Actually, they are the family Epistles. Paul wrote, But in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. I Timothy 3:15. In other words, Paul told how the family is to move in God and to relate to one another.
Paul laid hands on Timothy and imparted a gift (I Timothy 4:14). He also said, “God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of love and power and a sound mind; stand with me in the faith, and do not be ashamed of my chains” (II Timothy 1:7, 8). “Now get with it son! Endure hardship as a soldier” (II Timothy 2:3). This involved a relationship between Paul and Timothy. When he finally finished writing, he had given us the greatest books of teaching on the restoration within the church that we can have. That is because they are family books.
Paul said, in I Timothy 6:20, 21, O, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”—which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you. Paul’s good, fatherly advice was always there. “Keep your feet on the ground, son. Fight the good fight. These are the dangers you flee from, and these are the truths that you cling to. This is the way you relate.” It was a fatherly counsel that always came forth, and the son was always reaching for it.
A beautiful manifestation of the Timothy spirit is found in those whom God is bringing forth now. The sons of the family want what God has, and so they are strong to prophesy, to preach, and to minister in a greater way what the father ministry has imparted to them. When the father asks the aggressive sons what they want, they tell him that they want twice as much as he has, just as Elisha did, who received the double portion and moved in twice as much. Some might think that made Elisha greater than Elijah. But who gave Elisha the double portion in the first place? It takes much faith to give twice as much as you have. The fathers and the sons are not to be compared as to who is preeminent. You should expect sons to come forth who will walk in more than you have known. Many years have been spent in breaking through barriers slowly, so that now in six months someone can be moving in things that took others forty years to get into. It is not a matter of one person’s ministry compared to another’s.
The pioneers of our country cannot be looked down upon because we are now able to travel across the country by freeway in a few days. They had to start from the edge of the wilderness at the first spring thaw, or even before. It would take them all season long, and then they might not make it. Many a covered wagon perished because the people were frozen in the snow in the mountains. A trip that would take them a whole season, we can now fly in a few hours. Who are greater: the pioneers who took so long to do it, or the sons who can do it quickly? It is hard to say. There is a place for the pioneers, and there is a place for those who move ahead quickly.
We do not look down upon Christ in any way because He was born six miles from the place of His crucifixion. In those times, He usually walked through an area of fourteen or fifteen miles, which was a little more than a day’s journey. Are we greater than Christ because He only walked over this small patch of land? The missionary journeys of Paul expanded the journeys of Christ many times farther. Today we take the word of God to various countries around the world, which multiplies a thousand times the travels of the New Testament apostles. Yet we do not consider ourselves greater.
The ministry of the father should always open areas for the son to walk without the limitations that the father labored in most of his life. The ministry of the father to a son should be to turn him free, so the son will not find himself under the restriction or limitations that were upon his father spiritually. The son must break through, and that fighting spirit must be reproduced. The son cannot be passive nor hold back. He must have that same driving hunger. An unworthy son is one who does not have the hunger that drove the father.
Everything is better today. Athletes are constantly breaking performance records, if they have the will to do it. But behind it they must have the drive to do it. One champion fighter was asked why more champions were not coming forth, and he said, “The boys are not as hungry.” A driving hunger is important.
God is saying to you, “Hunger and thirst after righteousness. Let that same level of dedication come in you that you see in your spiritual father.” Become so infected with that hunger for God and for His word that there is no cure for you. If that can be reproduced in you, you will go on to do thousands of things greater than any of your spiritual fathers ever walked in before. Even Jesus said, “The works that I do shall you do also, and greater works than these shall you do” (John 14:12). It remains for there to be sons who will do exploits. One after another they will break through, and God will bless them.