Spiritual Father

According to The Free Dictionary,  a Spiritual Father is a religious teacher or guide, esp. one instrumental in leading a soul to God.

He is anointed to teach and remind you of who you are in Christ, even when you start to forget!. He is a counselor and teacher of the gospel. Paul was a Spiritual Father to the Corinthians, he referred to himself as a farmer, builder, galley slave, and steward.

Anyone who holds the mircophone is a teacher but how can you teach if you have not been taught yourself. Therefore,some have gone through Theology Schools, Bible Schools and Seminary Schools but above all they are trained daily by the Holy Spirit.

How do you know you are a Spiritual Father? They protect their flocks and are accountable. Just as an earthly father’s heart goes out to his children with human love, so Paul’s heart naturally went out to these Corinthians with God’s love.

Another example of a Spiritual Father is Samuel, when Samuel anointed David he became his Spiritual Father. In 1 Samuel 19:20 -21, Saul sent messengers to kill David but when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing and presiding over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul; and they also prophesied. So Paul sent messengers again but instead of killing David they also began to prophesy.

We can see that God's coverage on Samuel protected David.

Furthermore, the story goes deeper in 1 Samuel 19: 22, when Saul decided to go himself and the level of Samuel's anointing increased for the level of demonic warfare that was coming because the Bible states that from afar before Saul approached Naioth, the Spirit of God came even on him, and he
walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel's presence. He lay naked day and night and could not kill David.

Though Spiritual Fathers intercede for their spiritual children, but the Lord ordered that those who proclaim the gospel should receive their livelihood from those who accept the gospel(1 Cor. 9:7-11).

However no amount of money is worth jeopardizing the anointing and calling if God in your life. I mean people should not be obligated to pay Spiritual leaders a specific amount for teaching or for prayers. The Bible states clearly;"Freely you have received; freely give".-Matthew 10:8.

More so, in Matthew 26:17-30, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you". But the disciples could not understand how a man who was alive will give his body to be eaten. There are times the Lord may communicate to our Spiritual Fathers and they may not be able to give a rational explanation of a revelation but we need to trust the leading of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Therefore, its very important you have a Spiritual Father who is led by the Holy Spirit and is a person of integrity and honesty.

Jesus went about doing good, he healed the sick, raised the dead, casted out demons etc. But he could be in Jerusalem and someone in Damascus will fall ill, he could not be every where at the same time so he laid down his body to lift up other bodies who could be every where at the same time. We are all members of that Body of Christ. At the Eucharist celebration and at his death, we came into unity with Christ.

Though in the Body of Christ we have apostles, pastors, teachers, evangelist, they should be honoured with respect but should not take the place of God in our lives.

To strike a balance, we should be very sensitive not to elevate certain ministers to higher- than -human - status. Our focus should be on God rather than man.

For instance, in Acts 14:8-11;the power of the Lord came upon Paul and Barnabas to heal the man born lame at Lystra. The crowd were amazed and they shouted in the Lycaonian language,"the gods have come down to us in human form!" But in verse 14 the Bible states that when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting:“Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them".

It can be observed there is something about human nature that wants to elevate certain people to god-like status.You are not the healer, the Spirit of Christ in you is the healer.

Shalom!