This document discusses the importance of father-son relationships in ministry according to biblical examples. It argues that moving away from this order is a departure from God. Key points: - God's order is based on father-son relationships, as seen from Abraham to Moses. Breaking this order leads to disorder. - Many modern churches lack true spiritual fathers, so they associate with larger ministries instead of having their own identity. - Spiritual inheritance and blessings are only received through connection with the spiritual father, as the son of God. - Examples like Elijah and Elisha demonstrate how the anointing flows from father to son. A father imparts value and desires the son to exceed

1. AGAPE IN AFRICA
MINISTRIES
WE HAVE NO SPIRITUAL FATHERS
God’s Order is: “Father and Son Relationship”
CASTRATED NATIONS AND SPIRITUAL FAMILIES:
The Corinthians sought their identity through whatever gift of the Spirit that was operating in their lives.
The Corinthian Church was not receiving Paul’s fatherhood and therefore had no true father to follow. As
long as a congregation or church stays out of God’s order, the people will have disorder and lack of
IDENTITY. If we are without a father, then we have no name, no identity, no heritage, no inheritance and
no true brethren.
Because of this condition, local churches seek to associate with larger ministries or denominational
headquarters and serve as a franchise representative of that well-known product line. Because the Church
has not followed the ways of her Redeemer, non-Biblical relationships have produced a non-Biblical
generation.
Because of the sin in Israel, God removed excellence from the supply of leadership, as a judgement, to
turn the remnant from going into further transgression and deeper judgement (2 Kings 24: 13-16; Isaiah 3:
1-3).
Paul is writing to the Corinthians (1 Cor 4: 15), that they do not have fathers; A lack of mature father
leadership. The Greek word for “instructors” (paidagogos), means “boy-leaders”. “Hired” servants to teach
them, who were unrelated to impart spiritual inheritance, substituted fathers,
The modern NT Church has become more like a franchise structure. We reach millions with
INFORMATION, but without the impartation of spiritual life and truth.
THE FATHER’S ORDER:
In the beginning, the order of the universe was perfection, everything was in harmony-including
relationships. But when sin entered the world, this natural order of perfection became CHAOS.
It was through the relationship of father and son that God intervened and promised a Saviour. God
blessed Abram, the son of Terah, the son of Shem, the son of Noah. God raised this man to be a father of
a nation. “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall
keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice…(Gen 18:19a).
From Abraham would come Isaac, Jacob and 12 sons: 12 tribes, one nation. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
were all fathers in the ministry and fathers to a nation. Each of Jacob’s sons was a father to a tribe. The
blessing of God passed from father to son. Seventy-five people went to Egypt and millions came out. God
looked upon the entire nation as His son (Exodus 4:22-23).
Moses established Aaron as the father to the priesthood. The priesthood also was in the order of father
and son. Aaron together with his four sons serves as a shadow of the fivefold ministry gifts to the church
(Eph 4:11). Even the sons of Levi served unto the sons of Aaron (Num 18:2).
All mankind has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God because of their father: Adam. The salvation of
the human race at the flood was by one father: Noah. God chose all the people of Israel from one father:

2. Abraham. All the priests were from one father: Aaron. All the Levites were from one father: Levi.
Everything in God is from father to son. Moving away from God’s order is a departure from God.
The Son of God walked in the order of father and son while on earth. Jesus did not perform any ministry
act until the pattern of father to son was fulfilled at the River Jordan. Jesus was baptised by John, who
came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17), who was a spiritual father.
The Lord Jesus did not initiate His own ministry until He was declared, “The Son of The Father”. “And no
one takes the honour to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. So also
Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “Thou art My Son,
Today I have begotten Thee” (Hebrews 5:4-5).
The flow of the anointing always proceeds from father to son. Elijah passed the anointing onto Elisha. The
order of father and son is the basis of all ministries in both the OT and NT:
Moses to Joshua (Num 27:15-20; Deut 34:9)
Samuel to Saul (1 Sam 10: 12)
Samuel to David (1 Sam 16: 13)
Elijah to Elisha (2 Kings 2:12)
Paul to Titus (Tit 1:4)
Paul to Timothy (2 Tim 1:16)
Everything we have in God comes from a father-to-son relationship! !
THE FATHER’S INHERITANCE:
The first generation of the Church was very powerful in the Spirit. Wherever they went or where ever they
ministered, lame walked, the dead were raised, the sick were healed, unclean spirits were cast out, the
unchurched Gentiles spoke in tongues before a sermon was finished, sorcerers fumbled in blindness, the
Apostles preached and thousands repented and were baptised in a single day. The world was turned
upside-down in a single generation.
The present loss of power and the current dilution of apostolic anointing are due to the destruction and
negligence of Spiritual generational impartation.
The only way through which we will ever receive an inheritance in God is through the connection of the
father and son. By our spiritual connection with the Son of God, we become “children, then heirs, heirs of
God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17a). Everything that comes from God The Father to a believer
comes in the form of an inheritance.
Our inheritance, in The Father, is to be treated with honour and respect. We are never to sell it at a price,
as Esau did, who “despised his birthright” (Gen 25: 29-34)
Naboth and Ahab (1 Kings 21: 2-3). Elijah told Ahab: “In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of
Naboth the dogs shall lick up your blood” (1 Kings 21: 19). The judgement for destroying an inheritance is
that your inheritance will be destroyed. Spiritual judgement is always against those who violate spiritual
inheritance (Deut 19: 14; 27: 17; Hos 5: 10).
The story of Elijah and Elisha is a very clear example of spiritual inheritance of father and son in the
ministry. What Elisha requested was the spiritual inheritance of a firstborn son. The firstborn would
receive a double portion (Deut 21: 17). The firstborn would also become the leader of the family (2 Chron
21: 3). There were others who were also called “sons of the prophets”. Elisha knew that the only way to
become a father in the house was to be the firstborn. The mark of the firstborn is to “see the father when
he goes”. 2 Kings 2:10, literally means, “If you see me eye to eye”.
THE FATHER’S HEART:
Malachi’s prophecy closes the OT with a promise of blessing and the threat of a curse at the same time.
The promise is that Elijah will come before the day of the Lord and the relationship between “fathers and
sons” will be restored. The curse is that if there is no “turning of the hearts”, and then the earth will be
smitten with a curse. For 400 years there is silence from God.

3. When Zacharias did not receive the word of the Lord, he was struck silent. The church will also be without
“voice” until they will speak “full of the Holy Spirit”. (Luke 1:67).
The reason why God send the “spirit and power of Elijah” is that Elijah was the only person in the Bible who
passed a double portion of his spirit to a son in the ministry. The Lord wants His Church to minister in
the power of double portions.
Elijah experienced 14 miraculous acts in his ministry!
Elisha experienced 28 miraculous acts in his ministry!
Ministry must develop the heart of a father. The heart of a father is formed by the wilderness experience of
life and ministry.
The time when John the Baptist, came in the spirit and power of Elijah, there were two high priests, when
there should only be ONE! Neither of these two men knew God. Although they were serving in the Temple
everyday, the word of the Lord did not come to them, but to the one who was in the wilderness. John was
in the desert and the word of the Lord came to him, but NOT to them. Moses was in the desert when the
word of the Lord came to him. Often the wilderness is a time of transition (preparation). Do not curse your
wilderness experience and do not expect the Christian community to fully understand your spiritual
transition. It is during the times in the desert that fathers find themselves.
Sometimes God prepares a father’s heart by sending him to receive from a family who has no father.
Elijah was sent to the widow of Zarephath, which belonged to Sidon, and God said: “I have commanded a
woman there to provide for you.” (1 Kings 17: 9). After the woman first served this spiritual father in the
Lord, then his ministry (anointing) served her, by raising her son from the dead.
No ministry can rest until it has blessed the next generation. Fathers can no longer serve only their
own ministry; they must desire their sons in the ministry to exceed all limits and “do greater
things”.
The greatest ministry of Elijah was not his miracles, but his son Elisha, who experienced TWICE more than
Elijah. Elisha would have died an UNKNOWN farm boy, if Elijah did not imparted the double anointing onto
him. The father ADS VALUE TO THE MINISTRY AND LIFE OF THE SON.
The apostle John describes the heart of a father; “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children
walking in the truth” (3 John: 4). The heart of a father desires his son to not only match the blessings in his
own life, but also to exceed them.
THE FATHER’S COVENANT
Although God has given us all things in Christ, the Church has not received the fullness of that inheritance
because her ministry is not manifested in father-and-son relationships. The relationship between a father
and a son is more than boss/employee relationship. Ministry is ALL about RELATIONSHIPS. God reveals
Himself to us in terms of relationship: Father, Son and Spirit. God requires that the covenant He made
with us through His Son also be the model for ALL relationships in the Kingdom. The words “cut covenant”
(Hebr= “karath berith”), means “to cut (for blood to flow and mix), to join together”.
Timothy was already a believer when he met Paul. Paul did not circumcise Timothy for salvation or to
make him acceptable to God, but it was an act of a father to a son in preparation for ministry. Even if he
was a believer, Timothy had not been fathered by anyone for ministry. When Paul circumcised Timothy it
was more than a physical outward sign. Circumcision has always made a spiritual scar. It was a spiritual
operation to cut away the flesh from the heart, of a son in the ministry, so that he may proceed with hearing
ears and an open heart. A son in the ministry must place his life in the hands of a spiritual father.
The son, in seeking to escape pain, escapes from the purpose and identity in God. In refusing to have his
flesh cut off, he is “cut off” from his potential in the Kingdom of God.
A father does more than just having children. He raises them to become mature adults. It is not always
joyful for the father or the son. The cost is everything a father has within him. The benefit is that the son

4. will honour (giving and sowing) his father. Hebr 2:10b…”in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the
author of their salvation through sufferings.”(NASB)
A man who is insecure in his ability in fatherhood becomes a destroyer of all who might be able to become
a father. He makes all who labour with him be servants, not sons. These sons become eunuchs, not
potential fathers. This is not covenant relationship, but the management of hirelings. It is not the heart of a
father.
Each local church is the house of a father. The father of the ministry in the church is the one who is
ultimately responsible for the congregation’s proper training and worship of the Lord.
God is calling a new generation of leaders to stop following old patterns of ministry that we have known in
the past. God is calling fathers to turn their hearts to the sons, and sons to fathers.
THE FATHER’S VOICE
A spiritual father is someone whose life and ministry raised you up from the mire of immaturity into proper
growth and order. A spiritual father’s words cuts through the veneer into your heart, causing massive
realignment to your spirit. He is not necessarily the one who brought you into the Kingdom, but he is the
one who rescues you from failure/mediocrity and receives you into his house, making you a son.
The same Spirit that unites us to our heavenly Father will bring us in relationship with our father in the
ministry. The Holy Spirit “who proceeds from the Father” bears witness to sons the identity of their father in
the ministry (John 15: 26; Rom 8:16). We must hear the voice of the Spirit if we desire to connect with our
father in the ministry.
In the earth Samuel could not recognise the heavenly voice, because his father in the Lord could not hear
the voice of the Lord. Therefore he went back to the “old system”.
The foundation of authority for Jesus’ ministry was the voice of His Father. Therefore 15 times in the
Gospels and Revelation: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”.
Elijah’s calling for Elisha to follow him was not of his own doing, but God. The spiritual relationship
between father and son in ministry is the work and choice of God.
I may have many instructors (mentors), but there must be a voice, an impartation, that plunges me into
purpose. That is how I know who my father really is. It will be like the “deep calling unto deep” in our
lives.
Through the voice of my father in ministry, the voice of God speaks to me that this is who I am. This
impartation gives me a picture of who my father is and what I can become in God. Elisha would’ve never
been more that a farm boy, if Elijah did not put his mantle on him.
From the heavenly Father to earthly fathers to sons, the voice of God will be heard.
The cry within the hearts of sons is for a connection with their fathers. The Father’s voice is the proceeding
word that connects power to purpose and anointing to ability in the life of a son in ministry. In receiving the
voice of the father, spiritual sons become the divine connection for succeeding generations in God.
Moments before the baptism of Jesus, he was still the son of Joseph and Mary, of Nazareth. In His
appearance he even looks like Mary. Then,... the voice from His Father, in heaven, changes everything
and confirms that Jesus is undeniably God’s Son.
THE FATHER’S MATURATION
God, having introduced the greatest ministry that would ever be, now sends His Son into the desert where
the only thing as intense as the heat is temptation. It is the process of wilderness that heightens our desire
for growth and intensifies our desire to be filled.

5. The first leading of the Spirit in the ministry of Jesus was into the desert. The Father sends His children
into testing to prove their excellence. The enemy sees that testing as an opportunity to cause the failure of
the sons.
The essence of the wilderness experience is the testing of our relationship with God. It is here that we
learn that we will never be powerful enough to fulfil Kingdom purposes or resist satanic attack without total
submission to God. That submission is the first step a son will take in the maturing process of developing a
father’s heart.
If Satan can stop the process of maturation within a son in the ministry, then he does not have to deal with
a father in ministry later. The tactic of the enemy is to abort the child before he can reach maturity.
Pharaoh killed all male babies so he would not deal with a Moses. Herod killed all male babies in
Bethlehem so he would not deal with another King. The enemy still seeks the death of sons in the process
of their development, before they can ever reach their full potential.
Jesus, now that His Son ship was established and His anointing received, would never use His position for
anything else outside the will of the Father. Jesus never had to prove His Son ship. Satan came to Him,
while in the wilderness and said: “If You are the Son of God…?” (Math 4: 3, 6,). Jesus was tempted to use
His power for “selfish fleshly” gain, without a word from His Father.
You may have formal education, attend all the schools or stand in every prayer line, but you will never learn
or receive from them what the wilderness experience will give you. Your spirit receives an impartation
when you are in a position of obedience for the power of God to be funnelled into Kingdom purpose. Jesus
was put into proper position by the wilderness experience.
This process is not simply a passage of time, but a period of growth in every area of a son. Joseph’s
wilderness in Egypt prepared him to rule in wisdom (Ps 105: 17-19).
“Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner (lord) of
everything, but he is under guardians and managers (stewards) until the date set by the father.” (Gal 4:1,2).
The order of father and son includes a period where the son ministers as a servant. That is the only way a
son develops a servant heart of a father.
Ministry relationships will be tested. Elisha is tried with the temptation to stop following his father in the
ministry THREE times (2 Kings 2: 2,4,6). The memory of Elisha is always acquainted not only with great
miracles, but also most prominently with the loyal service of a son to a father (2 Kings 3: 11, 12a).
Moses lived for 40 years in the backside of a desert before he became the deliverer of his people. Egypt
can teach you to be a leader (Acts 7: 22), but only the wilderness can train you to be a man of God.
The wilderness was a place of divine supply and powerful visitation. It was also the place where a
complete new generation was raised, obeying God’s voice.
The NT Church also had to contend with the wrong spirits that targeted the maturity process of sons in the
ministry. “Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong (Lit;
“they have poured themselves out”) into the terror of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.” (Jude
11). The spirits of Cain, Balaam, and Korah target sons in ministry to destroy their potential in the
Kingdom. Every true son in the ministry must pass through all three of these attacks on their way to
becoming fathers in the ministry.
Cain will murder his brother;
Balaam gave some of the most powerful prophecies in the Bible, but he sold his gift to increase his
fortunes and to turn the hearts of Israel to sin.
Korah will perish because of “gainsaying”. This word in the Greek is “antilogia”, the combination of “anti”
as in antichrist, and “logos”, which is the Greek word used to refer to Jesus as the “Word [logos] made
flesh”. To “gainsay” is to speak “words against the word” that was given. Those who perish in the way of
Korah speak evil words against the word, which was given by the leaders.

6. These people saw Moses as a brother and not as a father. They confused a gift of power with the mantle
of authority. The heart for the Father is the qualification for headship, regardless of whether or not they
have powerful gifting. The ability of gifting to teach, prophecy, or manifest power does not make someone
the leader of God’s people. A pastor with the heart of a father will be willing to decrease in his own
operation of gifts, and will refuse to completely overshadow his sons.
This however can be risky for a father, because his love for his spiritual sons can become the fuel of their
rebellion. The situation that a father too often finds himself is that out of his heart for the Kingdom develops
the very monster that steals half his congregation and uses them to start another church, just down the
road.
In Deut 8: 2,3 we read of how God led Israel into the wilderness. This was not to let them suffer hunger,
BUT to TEST them and to PROVIDE for them bread from Heaven. Some ministries sometimes suffer a
season of wilderness and barrenness, and it is not because God wants them to suffer hunger, but to TEST
them and to see what is in their hearts, while He wants them to experience His provision as The Father.
DO NOT CURSE YOUR WILDERNESS; IT IS THE PLACE WHERE SONS BECOME FATHERS.
THE FATHER’S ANOINTING
The power of the anointing is based upon the direction of its flow, always down. In Ps 133 we read of the
anointing upon the head of Aaron that ran “down upon the beard”, and still “down to the skirts of his
garments” to the hem of the garments of the priest. The anointing could only come upon the sons in their
relationship with the head of the ministry, Aaron. Aaron did not receive oil anywhere else but on his head.
Jesus promised His disciples the power of the Holy Spirit, which was to come from His Father (Luke 24:
49). From the Head of the Church, who is Christ, comes the anointing upon the Church, through the
garment of the Spirit provided by The Father. The Church receives power by being clothed with the Spirit
of the Father. What the Church calls “seeking the anointing” is really nothing more than stirring up a gift
God has placed within the believer by the Spirit’s residence in his life. In 2 Tim 1:6-7; Paul encourages
Timothy to stir up the gift of God in him.
The expression “stir up” refers to stirring up a fire that is in need of attention before it goes out. The
anointing is NOT something “SOUGHT”. It is the stirring up of what we have already received (Judg 16:20;
1 John 2:20).
We read in Ps 133 of the anointing that comes down like the dew of Hermon. The anointing is always
flowing down, so the most powerful flow of the anointing will not be on the head of Aaron, but at the hem of
his garment. The most powerful flow of water will not be the dew at the top of Mount Hermon, but the
gushing River Jordan that flows down at the foot of the Mountain. Mount Hermon rises about 2801m
above sea level, making it the tallest mountain in Palestine. You can see Mount Hermon from the Dead
Sea, which is 192 km away. The Jordan River flows for 203km, is the longest and most important river of
Palestine. It starts at the foot of Mount Hermon and flows to the Dead Sea. The start is more than 303m
above sea level, and its mouth (where it runs into the Dead Sea, is nearly 427m below sea level. Moisture
collects and flows southward into the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is about 13km wide and 24km
long. At its deepest point the lake is 427m deep. At the southern end, the Jordan exits flows 104km on
down to the Dead Sea. The Jordan River empties an average of SIX MILLION TONS of water every 24hrs
into the Dead Sea.
The Church has for too long tried to seek the anointing out of proper order. Because God is always
pouring out His Spirit, POSITION is the key to receiving the anointing. Proper positioning of ministry
sons and fathers is essential for recovering the flow of the Spirit.
Today there are many people who exercise ministry gifts and have an anointing from God. This anointing
is not necessarily an endorsement of their character or their life. Gideon (Judg 8:27); It is from the Lord,
and can be in someone’s life outside proper order and relationship (Math 7:21-23; 24:11,12).
THE FATHER’S RELATIONSHIP

7. Whenever a major truth is restored within the Body of Christ, counterfeits will always develop. With the
resurgence of the order of father and son in the ministry, many will herald themselves as fathers. They will
seek honour that is not their due, and submission that is not their right.
Judges 17:7-11. A Levite is not a father, and this one was a hired hand, fed and clothed by in the house of
Micah. He was only seeking a place to operate in the gifting for the sole purpose of monetary gain.
Judges 18:17,19-21; This Levite was not a father or a priest. He was simply a figurehead of religion for
hire. He was hired and paid by the people because he was dressed in the proper way. Today there will
also be men who will, have the right appearance, but they use the garments of priesthood for their personal
gain. Before there is ever an exchanging of money from a son to father, there must be a prior relationship
in the Spirit.
The father in ministry is not a hired hand who performs a certain task for a certain payment. A true father
does not accept money without a relationship. A father in the ministry is a man of God whose heart is
toward raising sons in the ministry, not obtaining servants to rule over. A father in the ministry seeks to
increase the ministry of sons to the exceeding greatness available in God. A father is identified not
by his appearance, but by his father’s heart, which is turned toward a son.
The relationship of father and son leads the son to grow in the ministry. Paul sometimes places, his sons
in the ministry, on equal level. 1 Thess 1:1; 3:2; Rom 16:21; 2 Thess 1:1; 2 Cor 1:1; Phil 1:1; Col 1:1;
Philemon 1. Paul also calls Timothy a workfellow and brother. A father establishes a relationship to a son
in the ministry that, for that person, will be the beginning in a new path of revelation and maturity. The son
matures into more than he ever dreamed possible. The father has done more than simply reproduce his
ministry; he has multiplied it.
Paul in Phil 2:19-22; Paul was affirming, confirming and recommending Timothy’s ministry. The
confirmation of a father is important for two very simple reasons: The flow of the anointing and of authority
in ministry is from father to son.
Jesus Himself did not enter into ministry until the voice of His Father spoke from Heaven.
If you want to know more about “father and son” relationships, then you are welcome to contact us.
Dr Thinus van Dyk
Agape in Africa Ministries
P O 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."
Acknowledgment: “Ye do not have many fathers” by Dr Mark Hanby.