{"id":7756,"date":"2017-02-09T21:37:50","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T21:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=7756"},"modified":"2017-02-09T21:50:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T21:50:12","slug":"to-turn-the-hearts-of-the-fathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=7756","title":{"rendered":"To turn the hearts of the fathers"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, <\/em>to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children<\/em>, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.<\/em> Luke 1:17<\/p>\n

One morning toward the end of\u00a02016 as I was keeping my appointment with God, I heard this snatch of a verse: \u201c\u2026to turn the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous<\/em>.\u201d I looked it up and found it in the book of Luke. It was the angel\u2019s\u00a0proclamation to Zacharias, John the Baptist\u2019s father, about this yet-to-be conceived child.<\/p>\n

I thought about my generation and the swelling tide of disobedience and chaos throughout the earth…particularly in America. I want nothing more than to see an outpouring of hunger and thirst for the things of God and a moving of His Spirit upon every<\/em> living soul in this generation\u2014including the rebellious.<\/p>\n

As I began praying\u00a0about this, however, I glanced back at the Scripture open upon my lap. In my New American Standard Bible one phrase was capitalized to show it was an Old Testament quote. It read this way:<\/p>\n

\u2026TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t tear my eyes away from it. I knew God was showing me something I\u2019d never thought about before. And then it hit me: The hearts of the fathers had drifted away from their children, and it was epidemic in our culture and world\u2014and this turning away\u2014this gross disinterest\u2014was responsible for most of the chaos and upheaval surrounding us.<\/p>\n

I thought of my dad and his difficulty with showing affection. I thought of his temper and tendency toward punitive actions and belittling words. And yet despite his massive flaws and mistakes I knew his heart was for<\/em> me…and knowing that had helped to keep me somewhat steady in life.<\/p>\n

Then I thought of my days as a camp counselor. We all knew it: you were either staff-oriented or camper-oriented\u2014you either put the kids first or you prioritized hanging\u00a0out with\u00a0or flirting with other counselors.<\/p>\n

I also thought\u00a0about my teaching career. I had observed some who consistently arrived to school as late as possible and left right after the buses. There were those who sat in the lounge \u201cchill-axin\u2019\u201dthroughout every break; others stayed glued to their computer most of the day; and toward the end of my career, as smart phones worked their way onto the scene, I knew of teachers who constantly texted back and forth to each other while supervising students.<\/p>\n

I thought of ministries and para-ministries, men and women in governmental positions (both elected and appointed), business leaders and executives, even those in volunteer roles\u2014and yes, fathers and mothers. In every one of these cases, I could instinctively recognize those who prioritized \u201cmy<\/em> ministry; my<\/em> office; my<\/em> position; my<\/em> career; my<\/em> needs;\u00a0my<\/em> desires; my<\/em> gifting; my<\/em> talent; my<\/em>\u00a0abilities; my<\/em>\u00a0expertise, my<\/em> insight\u201d above everything else. These were the ones\u2014the “fathers”\u2014of whom the angel spoke, whether they were male or female; whether\u00a0they had children of their own\u00a0or not.<\/p>\n

These were the ones whose hearts had turned away from the children. These were the ones who viewed with gross disinterest\u00a0those\u00a0entrusted to their stewardship . These were the ones whose hearts were stuck on self<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You see, my dad was extremely dysfunctional and often unkind; but he wasn\u2019t stuck on self. There\u2019s a big difference.<\/p>\n

And I then I saw it. Our nation doesn\u2019t so much need a spiritual outpouring on the disobedient<\/em>; instead, what we desperately need is a move of God on the fathers<\/em>\u2014on every last one of us called to leadership in any capacity\u2014whether to steward, shepherd, teach, nurture, guide, direct, correct, or oversee anyone<\/em> else. Without such a move, the full outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon the rebellious, the disobedient, and the unpersuadable will be stifled.<\/p>\n

The hearts of those in leadership must be broken and redirected once again to genuine care for those under their oversight.<\/p>\n

And as for the rest of us? I sense the same is true for both you and me: Consider your ways toward those entrusted to you\u2014whether they be many or few. Is your heart genuinely<\/em> toward them\u2014sincerely listening, pondering, and probing the Spirit of God on their behalf\u2014or is there some \u201cstick-age\u201d in your stewardship\u2014gross disinterest\u2014stuck on self<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t feel bad if you discover you\u2019ve been stuck on self; all<\/em> of us have been to some extent or other. But now it\u2019s time for the One who has stewardship over\u00a0each one of us\u00a0to correct, redirect, and transform our focus, unsticking our stick-age, and to bring our hearts into alignment with His heart…turning\u00a0us back in genuine\u00a0concern for\u00a0those He\u2019s entrusted to each one of us…eradicating any remnant of gross indifference from our souls.<\/p>\n

And I believe that as those of us in any leadership capacity at all will yield to Him and turn in\u00a0real\u00a0compassion toward those He\u2019s given us, then \u201cthe disobedient and incredulous and unpersuadable<\/em>\u201d will turn \u201cto the wisdom of the upright<\/em>\u201d (see Amplified Classic) and be transformed.<\/p>\n

Lord, prepare us to follow You fully\u2014even in this!<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Luke 1:17 One morning toward the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-walk","category-prayerperspective"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7756"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7777,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756\/revisions\/7777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}