30/07/2022
Never Compete With Your Father
Genesis 13:8-9 KJV
And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. [9] Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
The first time I read this scripture my heart broke for lot. Abraham literally adopted lot, his brother's son. He raised lot and made him a successful business man. Then there was contention between the men of Abraham and the men of lot. Abraham called lot and said we're brothers let there be no strife between us. Choose the land that best suit you and I'll take whatever is left. And lot accepted and chose the green lands.
Maybe it's my cultural inclination but if I were in Lot's shoes I will not accept my father to call me his brother. Secondly I won't chose before him, a father should point out where a son goes and not the other way round. Lot chose his own inheritance he wasn't 'given' his inheritance. Only a bustard behaves that way.
Our Church-dom today is filled with so much comparisons and competitions between colleagues and now it has also permeated the Father-son relationship also.
Fear for yourselves O child of God when your heart is lifted up to compete with spiritual fathers. The burnt and callous hands you despise today once nursed you, protected you and provided for you when you were young and vulnerable. Your father may not be as eloquent as you are but he paid your school fees so you can be more learned than him.
My father the archbishop Nicholas Duncan once said, "I may not know Hebrew and Shebrew but when you knew nothing and was hooked on drugs and lost, I used the little I know to help you. Now in your eyes am not good enough".
Bishop Dag Howard Mills has over 2000 branches of his church and has written countless books, he is still submitted to his father who has about 150 branches.
T.L. Osborne used to send money to a young struggling preacher and teach him the ways of God and ministry. That young preacher was pastor Benson Idahosa. One time he said to archbishop Benson Idahosa, you've grown and have become a global figure why do you still reach out to me? And archbishop Idahosa replied him, "you're still my father".
True fathers put their children on their shoulders so the children can be taller, see further and be more. Don't make your father regret putting you on his shoulders lest he throws you to the ground. The joy and genuine mission of a true father is that his son becomes better than him and achieve more than he ever did.
'Lebans' Stand on the Shoulders of sons, BUT TRUE FATHERS PUT SONS ON THEIR SHOULDERS.
