Parents And Children (Part One)
Calvary greetings to everyone in Jesus Christ Mighty Name, Amen.
I want to deliberate on the message, “Parents and Children”. We are going to look at what we are passing through in our contemporary world today and where we are going to amend our ways, because many of us are not doing what we ought to do as a Father, where our children are, where our wives are, etc. Many of us have failed to do what we are supposed to do as Christians and as Pastors.
I want to start from the word of God, in the book of Psalms 127:3, the word of the Lord told me that “Children are an heritage of the Lord, Parents inherit children from God and the fruit of the womb is His reward”, so children are not a curse to parents.
Parents are to produce children, continuing, the Bible says that if these children are produced by parents, parents have an obligation to watch over their children right from day one of the infant, that is the Father and Mother are going to be responsible to train these children from birth. I did not read it from the Bible that Children are to train themselves, No, that is not what the Bible says, the Bible says that Children must listen to their parents. In Proverbs chapter 1, Proverbs chapter 3 and Proverbs chapter 4, you will find it there that children are to be brought up in the fear of God by their Father and Mother, emphasizing that they are an heritage. Children do not come from Satan, Children comes from parents and God gives Children to parents in order for their Father and Mother to raise them up in the ways of the Lord, but the reverse is the case this time, Why? We who are Fathers and Mothers are not performing the duties we ought to perform.
Let me explain that as a church leader, firstly, everyday a Father and a Mother need to wake up before they commence their daily work, before you go to your market you must first of all make provision for the children, what they are going to eat when they are in school and what they are going to eat when they are back from school. A good Father and a good Mother have to put this things in place before leaving home, that is the duty of a responsible Father and a responsible Mother, by the time you fail to do this and you are busy pursuing money, it means that the man do not have love for the children that God gave to them as an heritage, the Bible says that they are the fruit of the womb of the woman. If the children return from school and their father feel unconcern to check their books to know what they studied and their level of performance in order to know what they are paying for, it means you don’t love the children, you never cared to ask from the children what they learnt at school or what happened in the school, and you leave the children, problem will come.
Now, let me come to what usually happen on Sundays, You are a Father, you are a Mother, the Man returned from church and takes his vehicle or motorcycle and goes out, the woman too climbs on her motorcycle and stroll out, leaving the children alone in the house without anybody to take care of them, their children will be wayward, that is exactly what is happening in our society today. That a Father came back from the church, he will not seat down at home to teach the children their language and customs, with such situation the children also do not feel their Fathers presence, the Man leaves his house to Agbor-Obi, while the woman too rides her motorcycle and leaves the house to Owa-Alero, and before coming back home it will be night. You can’t blame such children when they are wayward, because you are the one that opened the way for them. Many of us who are Christians today, we don’t even value our children, the reason being that we don’t spend quality time with them, during weekends, these children do not have access to ask their Father questions and interact fully with their Father. Many of us do not teach their children the implications of involving in Premarital sex that is why you now see several cases of Primary Six girl that have lost their virginity by Older men and some by their teachers, secondly, you will see a child that is in Primary 6, you will see him or her with a Handset, it is a taboo, it’s a very great sin, you know the implications of what is in a Handset, though it has some benefits but the negative consequences on the child out ways the positive aspects, who do you want such boy or girl to communicate with? This is why the rate of waywardness, stealing and deviant behaviour is soaring high. You can’t blame the children for the moral decadence because you as a Parent did not inculcate knowledge in your children, this is not the work of teachers alone, No, the real teacher for a child is the Parents, child upbringing have to start from the Parents after which the teacher will cement it.
Nowadays what we see is that you as a Parent allows a child who does not know anything to start living on his own. The Bible tells us that children are born with foolishness but it’s the rod that will remove it, a child that you did not seat down with for one hour ten minutes on Sundays, you don’t eat with your children, your son and your daughter on the same table, or the man cannot tie his wife’s wrapper to relax at home, your children have never seen you sitting down in the parlour for one month, the children have never had any interaction with you. Let me take you back to Isaac, in the Bible, Isaac knew the smell of his son Esau, he said I feel that this is not the voice of Esau, this is not the smell of Esau. Isaac was able to detect it because he sat down with his children Esau and Jacob, and their mother Rebecca too was around with her children. You will see our today mothers they have nothing to teach the children, they are naked, you will see some so called Christian mothers wearing naked dresses to the Church and once they close from the church they will start roaming around from one place to the other with their motorcycle, with such actions how can you impact good knowledge to the children? So, it’s a problem, it is not the children that we will hold accountable for this, neither the teachers in the school, but the Parents.
My teaching started with my children at home, I will instruct them on what to do and what not to do, majority of today’s children especially the girls don’t know how to grind pepper because their Father never stays at home to instill discipline on his children instead he is always drinking and having concubines outside, later he will come and say that he is an Elder in the church. The qualification to become a leader in the church starts from your children and your wife. Today the man that teaches Sunday School Class in the church is a drunkard, is a liar, is a fornicator, is a wizard, how do you reconcile such matter? Who is fooling who?
Most of us who are Pastors are no longer following the word of God in the book of First Timothy 3:1-13, that before you call a person an Elder, he must be someone that rules his house effectively. If I may ask, today how many of us Pastors are controlling their children? When your child is a fornicator, when your child is a 419ner, when your child is a member of a secret cult, when your children are into yahoo yahoo? Okay who do you want to teach in the church? How will your message start from you? So this is the problem, that is why today the unbelievers have refused to repent, because what is in Christianity today is not different from what is in the unbelievers. This is problem that is bedevilling the church. Go to churches today there is no church where you can see the man of God preach against immorality, fear won’t allow him because his house is full of immoralities, because his house is not like the house of Philip, the Evangelist in the book of Acts 21:8, he had Four daughters and all of them were virgins, how many Bishops, Prophets and Pastors in Agbor who’s daughters are virgins? You can’t find it in Ika Land, if there are let the person come out and tell the world. Phillip was an Evangelist who had Four daughters that were virgins who prophesied. Which Bishop, which Prophet, which Pastor and which Teacher in Ika Land will come out and say my daughter is a virgin, my son is a virgin? Let such person come out, which of these men of God in Ika Land that can preach against immortality? That can preach against yahoo and say that indulging in it is a sin? How many of them can preach against being in occultism and say that it is a sin before God? No one, they usually say that when you preach so messages the church will be closed. Again, there is no Holy Spirit in some of the churches today because we have deviated from the Language of God.
Our children are not representing us as a church and as Ministers of the gospel. Look at the life of Philip, the Evangelist with his Four daughters, ladies for that matter, they were virgins, when Paul and his entourage came to visit him, they discovered that the house was a holy house. How many Ministers in this town, whether you are this or that, with all the names and titles which you claim to have, even as an Apostle, can tell me that he can rule and control his house effectively? Let him come out and tell the world that he can rule over his house in Ika Land.
This is the reason why there is no miracles in the churches today, what we see in churches today is that our children are wayward, our children are thieves, our children are into yahoo yahoo, our children are swallowing all sorts of charms, and that is why the church is sick, that is why some Pastors have become beggars, poverty is now so pronounced in the church because they leave the message of righteousness, message of truth, message of prosperity and they embrace message of lies, and today people are lovers of money, not lovers of God, this is my pain. Who is that Pastor in Ika Land that will come out and say that his children that are in oversea countries are living a clean life? Even if he is peddling cocaine and all the narcotic drugs that affects them negatively, so this is the problem.
Three quarter of the men of God in Ika Land cannot defend our Christianity, because when you want to address the church, people know who your children are. Your Children are not like the Four daughters of Evangelist Philip, today your daughters are marrying unbelievers, your sons are marrying unbelievers, it’s very pronounced. How do you now defend the word of God? When we fail to seat down with our children and teach them the word of God.
God told Abraham, Teach your children who I am, He told him that I know you will teach your children.
Read the Bible to see whether there is a place where Isaac, deviated from the word of God, there is nowhere he misbehaved, but for the so called Bishops, Prophets and Apostles of today your children are into drugs, they are into occultism, when they get to school the girls are prostitutes and when you look at the behaviour of your children it does not conform with the Bible that you carry, so this is the problem, where did it come from?
You the parents are the problem and not the children, you didn’t teach them and you didn’t train them on how to have the fear of the Lord.
So this is where we batter the word of God and this is where we need to go back and rearrange ourselves and amend our ways because if we don’t amend our ways it will bring shame to the body of Christ and whatever we do will not augur well.
How is your character? How many Elders are genuine? Three quarter of the Elders you see in the church are drunkards, they are fornicators, they are into worshipping of idols. So it is a very serious problem, the fault is not the teacher in the school, the fault is that of the Father and Mother. However, I want to admonish Parents to always stay with their children and build them up in the ways and fear of God, the Mothers should try as much as possible to always remain at home after returning from church on Sunday to keep their children company, prepare food for them and go through their school lesson notes to guide them in their studies, rather than going for unnecessary outings, in the same vein, Fathers should make out time to be with their children too at home after returning from Sunday service in order to interact with his children for them to enjoy his fatherly affection.
Parental neglect is the major source through which children imbibe negative characters. Teaching (School) starts from the home, that is the word of the Lord, it does not start from the teacher in the school. That is the reason why we can’t produce children that are virgins and children that knows the word of God. Today, there is no difference between the children of the Christians and the children of the Pagans.
As Parents we should all amend our ways, same goes for the Pastor who ordain someone as an Elder because the person’s son is in oversea country, such a Pastor has no wisdom because such Elder is disqualified by heaven, any promotion that does not come from heaven is null and void. Promotion comes from heaven, righteousness comes from the word of God, that is why some messages cannot be preached in the church because the Pastor, the Prophet, the Bishop, the Elder and their children are unbelievers.
I want us to change from our mistakes and serve God steadfastly and be fully committed with the upbringing of our children in the path of the Lord, for this is our duty, and when we do this the Holy Spirit will come down and we will now become a light to the world.
This is the area where I want us to have a rethink and do what is right so that the Holy Ghost, the goodness of God will now come upon us, Thank You.
For people who need counseling and those who want to be part of sponsoring this Ministration, they can contact the Prophet of God through this Phone Number 08037452147.
Prophet Joseph Igbodo, is the General Overseer of Divine Faith Evangelical Mission International, he is also the Proprietor of Job Orphanage Home and the Proprietor of St. Stephen Trust Widows Home, all in Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State.
