THE BLESSING OF SPIRIT-LED PARENTS

I did not have any fear of telling my parents that the Lord had called me into full-time ministry after years of investment in studying law. I remember my parents saying, “We thought you were coming to tell us that you had the plan to travel out of the country”. We had an evening drive where I shared about the call of God into ministry. 

The next day, my Dad came to my room, sat on my bed, and said to me, “Son, when we were praying that God should send young ones into the ministry in Eruwa, I did not know my son would be the first fruit of our prayers. The pain I feel inside is the proof that God has called you”. They laid me like Isaac on the altar. 

They did not just do it with words, they did it with great acts of support. Dad and Mum would sit in our ministry meetings and training with such grace. What a heart! 

One of the things that can become a great hurdle for the person called by the Lord to cross is “parental support and consent”. A lot of parents (just like mine) have a programme mapped out for their children. They have dreams laid out for them. Even those who are born-again children of God have been cowed by fear. 

A father in the faith shared the story of a colleague who had the call of God into ministry at the same time they also received the call. The parents convinced her to travel out for a second degree. She was very brilliant. Forty years later, she has abandoned the call. She did not respond at all. He called it the seduction of a “false breakthrough”. 

The devil will use the good to derail you from the godly. It is easier to quote scripture. It takes grace to live out scripture. 

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: And the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Psalm 127:3 KJV

Every child is a gift from the Lord. If God gave them to you, you should not then hold them so tightly that they break under your grip of fear. 

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; So are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127:4‭-‬5 KJV

You are happy seeing them in your quiver. Please, understand that they have to move from the quiver to the bow. They must be shot in the direction of divine plans and purposes. Today, we have arrows shot into drugs, instant gratification, materialism, and purposeless living. 

Mighty seeds that should be confronting the enemies at the gate have opened up the gates for the enemy. There is a generation that is now so educated that they talk down on and attack divine things. Parental fears have become generational wars. 

Some only wanted their son to be successful in his career but now he does not attend church again not to talk of loving the Lord or living in the fear of God. 

Are you a spirit-filled and spirit-led parent?

Do it in His will. Do it in His love. Aim your seed for great heights but never let your dream for them become the hindrance to God’s purpose. When God needs a Samuel, can you be His Hannah? 

temilOluwa Ola, Eruwa