1) The document discusses the biblical concept of spiritual fatherhood and sonship in ministry. It argues that God's order is one of fathers imparting to sons so sons can receive inheritance and blessing. 2) A spiritual father is someone who imparts understanding and purpose to guide a son's life and ministry, not necessarily the person who led them to Christ. Spiritual sons must realize the father's hands release blessings. 3) For a son to receive full inheritance, he must pass tests of obedience, submission and character administered by the father, as Jesus and others in the Bible demonstrate. Honoring the father is key to receiving from him.

1. AGAPE in AFRICA
MINISTRIES
SPIRITUAL SON SHIP
GOD’S ORDER IS: “FATHER AND SON RELATIONSHIP”
Gal 4:1-7; John 8:35; Heb 2:10. (NASB).
Those who use the Word of God to amputate and maim have wounded many. Now these
wounded hesitate whenever the power of true revelation comes their way.
Malachi (the last author of the Old Testament) prophesied that God “shall turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers…”(Mal 4:6). I do not
advocate the practise of Roman Catholicism and calling ordained ministers (priests) a father as a
title of office. But, the title of father for the priest (in the early church) reflects the role of the man
of God in the lives of the people whom he ministered to. The concept of fathers and sons does
not deal with gender, but with those spiritual inheritors of promise, both male and female. I truly
believe that there is no male or female in Christ (Gal 3:28). The principles of ministry are true
regardless of gender.
Horrible deformities of scriptural truth have appeared in Church history. The presence of
abusive spiritual fathers and rebellious sons does not mean that we must abandon the righteous
foundation of family and generational relationships in the Kingdom. The presence of counterfeits
and frauds must only serve to deepen our hunger for the real and genuine.
For years now, I would say from the time of my own conversion, I have struggled with this
subject. When I became a ‘born-again’ believer, I had a spiritual father, which I SINCERELY
thank the Lord for. He was not the man who led me to the Lord, but he was the man that the
Lord used to impart to me the understanding of what the Lord wanted to do in my life.
Over the years, even during my stay in the USA, I was discipled and mentored by various men of
God. These men of God were NOT my spiritual fathers, but only mentors. The apostle Paul
wrote in 1 Cor 4: 15, that the Corinthians might have many mentors (teachers), but he is their
only spiritual father. A spiritual father is somebody who has imparted and impacted your life so
that the Lord might fulfil His purpose in your life. A spiritual father IS NOT necessarily the person
who has led you to the Lord Jesus Christ, to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. Paul has not led
Timothy to the Lord and yet he calls Timothy his son. Timothy was a disciple of Jesus Christ
when Paul found him on his second mission journey.
Spiritual sons must realise that the hands of their spiritual father releases the blessings to them.
Jesus came to this earth as the Son of God. His Father and not just God released Him into
ministry. I believe that the more important issue is not just to be led to accept Jesus as Saviour,
BUT to be fathered in the Kingdom and to be fathered into ministry.

2. One of the biggest problems we currently face in the Church is that the sons we have in the
Church do not have the spirit of “son-ship”. Jesus had the Spirit of Son-ship and He understood
the key to His success. Jesus knew that without His Father He would not be able to do anything
(John 5:19).
In Math 20:28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His
life a ransom for many”. I am privileged to minister in different countries and in different places
on a regular basis. Every time I ask the audience whom they think Jesus came to serve, I am
told (even by seasoned men of God) that Jesus came to serve either ‘the church’, ‘sinners’, ‘the
body’, ‘us’. Jesus came to serve His Father and NOBODY else.
John 8: 29…”I always do the things that are pleasing to Him”. Here we find Jesus again speak
about His Father. In verse 35 “And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son
does remain forever”. A slave is like the hireling who comes and goes, because he/she is hired.
The son however stays in the house and has the privilege to enjoy whatever the father has. The
slave receives wages, BUT the son receives an INHERITANCE. If we are without a father, then
we do not have a name, no identity, no heritage no inheritance and no true brethren.
The order of God in His Kingdom is the order of ‘father and son’. Timothy was a model of what a
son was to be like in the ministry.
My own (biological) son made an accurate comment recently, while accompanying me to
Zambia. He said that the local churches that we have today are all like “business franchises”,
following the organisational structures of a business franchise but with no or very little spiritual
life and truth. We reach millions with Biblical (religious) information, but without spiritual
relationship, impacting no life and no impartation with Kingdom truths.
Read what God said about Abraham in Gen 18: 19 “For I have chosen him, in order that he may
command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing
righteousness and justice; in order that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken
about him.” Abraham imparted an inheritance onto his children.
The story of Elijah and Elisha gives us a clear understanding of spiritual inheritance of father and
son in ministry. Please read the record of this amazing story in the Bible (1 Kings 19 onwards).
What Elisha requested was the spiritual inheritance of a firstborn son. The firstborn son of a
father would always receive a double portion (Deut 21 17). This is the secret of what it means to
be a spiritual son in the Kingdom of God that the son receives DOUBLE from his father. The
problem however today is that we do not have sons with the spirit of a son. One of the reasons
is that we DO NOT HAVE FATHERS with the spirit of a spiritual father.
TEST
When we study the ministry of Elijah and Elisha, then we will discover that Elijah put Elisha
THREE times to the test. Only after he passed the THREE tests (2 Kings 2: 2, 4, 6), did Elijah
ask Elisha: “Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.” Let me say this, that I have
discovered, this past year, that God does put us to the test many times. Jesus was put to the
test in the wilderness. Immediately after His baptism, the first leading of the Spirit in the life of
Jesus was into the desert. In Luke 4:1; Jesus was full of the Spirit when he went into the
wilderness, but in Luke 4:14; He came out of the wilderness in the POWER OF THE SPIRIT,
after He passed the test. The purpose of the wilderness experience is to TEST us.
OBEDIENCE and SUBMISSION are the first steps a son will take in the maturing process.
There are many who seek the power of the anointing, but without the testing and the garment
(mantle) of a son.

3. The apostle Paul in writing to Timothy, his spiritual son, concerning the appointment of leaders
(deacons and elders), in the church, said the following in 1 Tim 3:10: “And let these also
FIRST be TESTED; then let them serve as deacons IF THEY ARE BEYOND REPROACH”
Jesus Christ is the anointed head of His Body (the Church). The anointing flows constantly from
Him to cover the entire CHURCH. Proper positioning in ministry, as fathers and sons, will
receive the flow and the anointing of the Spirit.
A father in the ministry is a man of God whose heart is towards raising sons in the Kingdom, not
obtaining servants to rule over. A father in the ministry seeks to increase the ministry of the sons
to the exceeding greatness available in God. A father is not identified by the size of his own
ministry, but whose heart is turned towards the sons. A father will do more than simply
reproduce his ministry; he has MULTIPLIED HIS MINISTRY, through the sons, whom he has
raised up in the ministry.
Basic principles that can be seen in the relationship between the Father and Jesus; Jesus and
His disciples; and Paul and Timothy;
A. Fathers send sons into ministry
B. Fathers confirm sons in their ministry
C. To those to whom he is sent, the son will manifest the father in mind, word, and deed
1. Jesus manifested the Father
2. The apostles manifested Jesus to the world.
3. Timothy manifested his father in the ministry to those whom Paul sent him.
D. Many who profess to love the father will despise the son
E. Those who receive the son who is sent, receives the father who sends him
F. To those (the sons) who are sent, they will receive the Spirit without measure.
Gideon (Judges 6 & 7), after he passed the tests, which God put him through (Judges 6:25-26),
was ‘clothed’ with the Spirit of God (verse 34).
Sometimes God uses our spiritual fathers to put us through the test of ‘commitment’,
‘obedience’, ‘submission’, ‘integrity’, ‘loyalty’, ‘character’ and more. The problem however is that
when these tests starts coming then we rebel and all of a sudden we “hear the voice of God to
move to another ministry or area.” We quickly become very “spiritual”, and then we move away
from the process that God has designed to equip us for His purpose.
Bob Mumford one time said the following: “God will fix a fix to fix you, and when you unfix
the fix then He will fix another fix to fix you.”
A spiritual son must:
 Learn the ways of the Kingdom
 Be taught the right vision of the Kingdom
 Be transformed in his heart concerning the Kingdom
 Be imparted by the Spirit of the Son and the Father

4.  Be taught the strategies of the Kingdom
 Be taught the voice of the Lord of the Church
 Be shown how to obey the voice of the Lord of the Church
 Be shown how to trust the Lord and how to live by faith.
Honouring and Receiving
There are reasons why we have often lacked double-portion anointing and miss true spiritual
inheritances. Financial blessings and adequate funding is no haphazard coincidence. The Bible
is a book of blessings and curses. In other words, if we OBEY, we are blessed; if we DISOBEY,
we are cursed.
I believe that ‘honouring and receiving’ are very closely related. A study from the Bible proves
this. In 2 Kings 4:8 – 17, we read about a woman who honoured the man of God (Elisha).
Verse 13: ””Say now to her, ‘Behold you have been careful for us with all this care; what can I do
for you?” Although she did not expressed her hearts desire for a child, the man of God was told
that she did not have a child. He prophesied to her that she would have a child within a year. I
believe that if she did not honour the man of God, she would never have had the opportunity to
receive ministry from him and consequently never receive her hearts desire.
Solomon, during the time of the dedication of the temple, brought an offering to the Lord, the size
of which was NEVER brought before (1 Kings 9 63), 22 000 oxen and 120 000 sheep. God was
so IMPRESSED with this offering that he came to Solomon and said to him; “Ask what you wish
Me to give you.”
A spiritual son needs to understand that he has a responsibility to minister to the needs of his
spiritual father (Gal 6:6).
--ooOoo--
I need to say that much more could be said on this subject of “spiritual son-ship”, than what I
have said in this teaching.
I trust that the above will be of help to you while you endeavour to raise sons into the ministry
and that the sons will discover that without a father in the ministry, they are without an
inheritance in the ministry.
Dr Thinus van Dyk
Agape in Africa Ministries
PO BOX 11843, SWARTKOP, 0051
SOUTH AFRICA
E-mail: thinus.aia@gmail.com
EQUIPPING THE SAINTS IN AFRICA FOR THE END-TIME HARVEST !
Luke 10:2 "The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore beseech thee the Lord of
the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest."
John 4:35b: "...Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for
harvest."