Today, in the next few minutes, I’m going to be speaking about the manifestation of the sons of God.
But I want you to pay close attention to what I’m going to say. In these next few minutes, I’m not just going to be speaking generally; I want to deliver a direct message to someone here.
When we talk about sons, the word “sons” is very powerful. You cannot be a son without having a father.
I want you to listen carefully: Fatherhood helps you understand who you are as a son. If you don’t know your father, it can be difficult to understand your sonship.
Many people today are confused about their identity because they did not experience proper fatherhood.
Some studies have reported a strong connection between father absence and incarceration. This shows us how important the presence and influence of fathers can be in the development of children.
I want you to pay attention to me. Whatever I’m about to say may be different from your theology, but I want to speak plainly about the importance of fatherhood.
Our world is increasingly normalizing situations where children grow up without an actively present father. Unfortunately, the absence of responsible fatherhood can create problems that affect individuals, families, and society.
One of the ways to better understand your identity is to understand the importance of fatherhood.
Fatherhood is so important that, as a believer, it is difficult to fully understand your identity, your rights, your capacity, your strength, your potential, and who you are in God without understanding the concept of fatherhood.
It is extremely important.
I’m going to speak very clearly and plainly because I’m at home. I have no reason not to be clear in my delivery to this house.
Matthew 6:6
When Jesus Christ came and was teaching us how to pray, He said:
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”
Notice that Jesus makes reference to the Father.
Why?
It is very important for you to understand fatherhood. If you don’t understand fatherhood, you may struggle to understand and identify who you are.
We also see in another Scripture that when we pray, we are instructed to say, “Our Father.”
Jesus was deliberately bringing the consciousness of fatherhood to our minds.
He wants you to understand that you belong to a family. You have a Father in heaven.
One of the major issues affecting many people is identity.
When you don’t have a strong sense of identity, it can affect everything around you. It can affect your self-esteem, your confidence, your authority, and many other areas of your life. It can bring confusion into a person’s life.
A person who grows up without proper guidance and fatherhood may lack structure and direction. Without proper guidance, people can easily be influenced by whatever they hear from others.
This is why understanding your identity is so important.
The Bible says that when you pray, you say, “Our Father who art in heaven.”
Again, it is talking about fatherhood because fatherhood gives identity.
Fatherhood gives you security.
Fatherhood gives you validation.
When you know who your father is and you have experienced healthy fatherhood, you can have a stronger sense of who you are.
I am not confused about my identity because I know who my Father is.
I am secure.
And that means a lot to me. It means that regardless of what anybody says about me, I have assurance about who I am.
People can say all kinds of things to try to affect you, but ultimately, you must know who you are.
It is not the responsibility of the world to define your identity. A father has an important role in helping a child understand who they are and where they belong.
When that identity is missing, a person can become confused.
A person can lack structure.
Anybody can say anything to you, and it may shake you because you lack the foundation that should help you know who you are.
There was no father to stand with you when there was confusion in your mind.
There was nobody you could run to when you didn’t know what to do or which direction to take.
And so, everything about your life can become shapeless.
That is why God says, when you pray, pray to your Father in heaven.
Fatherhood is important for structure, identity, security, and covering.
A child cannot protect themselves completely. A father has a responsibility to protect and care for his child.
If a child is on the road and there is a confrontation or danger, a responsible father will step in and say, “Come. Nothing must happen to this child.”
Unfortunately, many people have not experienced the presence of a father or the love of a good father in their lives.
As a result, they may begin to compare their experience with their earthly fathers to their relationship with God.
If your earthly father was absent from your life, there may be a tendency to assume that God will also abandon you when you are going through a crisis.
But God is not limited by the failures of earthly fathers.
God is a Father who does not abandon His children.
Understanding the Fatherhood of God is therefore essential to understanding your identity, your security, your sonship, and your place in Him
If you have not had a good father in your life here on earth, there is a tendency for you to replicate that experience and assume that this is how God is.
Many people transfer their experiences with their earthly fathers into their relationship with God.
For example, someone may say, “My father never provided for me, so I’m not really sure if God will provide for me.”
Another person may say, “My father never looked after me or protected me, so maybe God is like that too. Maybe He will not care for me or look out for me.”
But when you meet people who grew up in homes where they experienced good fatherhood, you may notice that their faith and relationship with God can be different.
Why?
Because they have had some experience of fatherhood here on earth.
That is why I am praying for you today. It does not matter what negative experiences you have had in the past; God can begin to correct those experiences today.
One of the best things you can do for yourself is to begin to understand that you truly have a Father.
Even if you did not have a good father in your life, there is a good Father whom you have in God.
My prayer is that, from today, you will begin to see the hand of God in your life.
A father gives identity.
A father gives validation.
A father gives structure.
This reminds me of something that happened to me when I was in school.
I was doing my IT, which was my industrial training, at a government parastatal. Somehow, I found favor with the organization, and they gave me my own office.
While all the other IT students were sharing offices, I had a separate office of my own.
I was feeling very good and happy about myself.
But you know what sometimes happens in government offices in Nigeria—there may not be much work to do.
You come in the morning, clock in, and sometimes there is hardly anything to do until 4 p.m., when you close for the day.
You can ask yourself, “What did I actually do today?” Nothing!
So, I went to my office one morning and sat down.
It was a cold morning, and there was no work to do. I thought to myself, “What am I going to do?”
Eventually, I put my head down on the desk and fell asleep because I knew I could not leave until 4pm.
While I was sleeping, the Director-General of the organization happened to be going around the offices.
He came to my office and opened the door.
He saw me sleeping.
He looked at me and said, “Look at you, sleeping in the office!”
I woke up and greeted him, “Good morning, sir.”
He responded with one word that I did not expect.
He called me “bastard.”
I was shocked.
I thought, “Bastard?”
Nobody had ever greeted me or spoken to me that way before.
I didn’t know how to respond, so I just left it.
Later that day, I went home.
At that time, I was living with my parents. My siblings had their own homes, but I was still living with my parents.
That evening, we were having dinner together. My father was there, my mother was there, and we were all eating together.
Normally, I was very lively at home. I would talk, gist, joke, and chat with my parents.
But that day, I was unusually quiet.
I didn’t even realize how much what had happened at work had affected me.
I didn’t know that those words had affected me so deeply.
Suddenly, someone noticed and asked me, “What’s wrong?”
I was surprised because I didn’t even realize that something was wrong with me.
He said,“You’re not yourself today.”
I paused and thought about it.
I said, “I’m not myself?”
Another person also said, “Yes, you’re not yourself.”
At that point, I quickly came back to myself and realized,“Ah, something is actually wrong.”
That experience taught me something: words can affect you deeply, especially when they touch something connected to your identity.
This is why fatherhood and identity are so important.
When you understand who you are, where you belong, and who your Father is, the words of people will not easily define you.
Your identity must ultimately be rooted in God and in what He says about you.
He said, “What is wrong?”
At that point, I realized that what that man had said had affected me more than I knew. It had affected my psychology, my mentality, my emotions—everything.
I then told them what had happened.
I said, “I was in the office when my DG came in. I greeted him, and he responded by calling me ‘bastard.’”
He said, “He called you what?”
I said, “Bastard.”
He asked again, “He called you what?”
I said, “Bastard.”
He said, “Okay, no problem. Eat your food. Finish this food. Your mother made this food, so eat.”
So, I ate the food.
Are you listening to me?
After I finished eating, he said, “Now that you have eaten, don’t worry. Go to bed.”
The next morning, he woke up very early and said to me, “You are not going to the office today.”
Are you listening to me?
He said, “You are not going where?”
I said, “The office.”
He said, “No, you are not going to the office today.”
Then he called my mother and said, “I want you to take my son to the best boutique in Kaduna. Take him there and buy him three pairs of suits.”
Are you following me?
He said, “Buy him three pairs of suits.”
My mother said, “Whatever it costs, just let me know.”
So, my mother went on the assignment.
I didn’t understand what was going on.
She took me to the best shop she could find and told them, “Give him suits that will fit him. I have to go back and report to his father that we got the best we could find.”
They got me fantastic suits.
As a young IT student, I was used to wearing jeans, sneakers, and casual clothes. So, I didn’t understand why I suddenly needed three suits.
But my father bought three pairs of suits, shirts, belts, shoes—everything I needed.
Then, in the evening, he said to me, “Tomorrow, you are going to the office with my driver.”
He said, “You will go to the office and park where the MD parks.”
Are you following me?
He then told the driver, “When you get there, you will come down, open the door for him, and let him come out.”
I didn’t understand what was happening.
But something was happening behind the scenes.
He told the driver, “Take him in my car. When you park, open the door for him. Let him come out, and wait for him. Then bring him back home.”
The next day, we went to the office.
When we arrived, the driver parked the car and opened the door for me.
Then, to my surprise, he even went further and prostrated for me.
I said, “That one was not part of the instructions!”
It was as if he had decided to take the assignment to another level.
But by divine providence, we arrived at the office at the same time the DG was arriving.
Naturally, the DG probably thought I was nobody. He had seen me as just an IT student—someone he could speak to anyhow.
But that day, he saw a Land Cruiser SUV pull up.
He naturally assumed that a senior government official was arriving.
So, he came out of his car and stood there, waiting to see who would come out.
Then the driver came to the car, opened the door, and I stepped out.
To make matters even more dramatic, the driver prostrated before me.
I was looking at him, thinking, “What kind of drama is this?”
The DG was also looking at me.
At that moment, he realized that I was not who he thought I was.
Are you getting what I’m saying?
From that day, he never spoke to me anyhow again.
He began to greet me with respect.
Do you understand what I’m saying?
And what am I trying to say?
When you know who your father is and when your father shows up for you, he gives you validation. He gives you covering. He gives you honor.t
Are you getting what I’m saying?
They could not honor me before because, in their eyes, I had no reputation.
But did my father have a reputation?
Yes.
And because of who my father was, the way they treated me changed.
So I want to say to somebody today:
Your Father will begin to show up for you.
God will give you validation.
God will give you covering.
God will cause you to receive honor where you were previously disregarded.
When you understand that you have a Father who stands with you, you will no longer allow the opinions of people to define your identity.
They couldn’t honor me because, in their eyes, I didn’t have any reputation. But did my father have a reputation?
I want to say to you today: your Father will begin to show up for you.
Are you getting what I’m saying?
Forget about what anybody says. From today, you will know, and the world will know, that you have a Father.
From that day in the office, I became honored and respected. Before the DG would say anything to me, he would greet me properly.
Before I knew it, they even started planning to give me a permanent position in the organization.
Why?
Because they realized that I was not a nobody. I had a father who could stand for me.
This is one of the things a father does: a father gives you validation.
And when you don’t have validation, it can affect your self-esteem.
You saw how the words of that man affected my mind. It affected my emotions, my disposition, and the way I was thinking.
If I had continued in that state of mind, it could have affected my reactions, my daily activities, and even the way I related with people.
Something could have continued ringing in my mind:
“Are you sure you’re not a bastard?”
All because somebody spoke a negative word to me.
In the name of Jesus, every negative word that has been spoken against you and has affected your mind, from today, it is cancelled!
A father validates you.
A father gives you covering.
A father protects you.
Fatherhood and Your Source
The word “source” is important when we talk about fatherhood.
Your father represents your source. He represents where you came from.
If God is saying that He is your Father, what is He saying?
He is saying that He is your Source.
That is where you come from.
And your source also speaks about what you carry.
You carry the DNA of your source.
The Bible tells us that our Father is the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
So, you cannot have a Father who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and live as though you have no strength, identity, or confidence.
The more you know your Father, the more you understand who you are.
I don’t know if you understand what I’m saying.
There are some of you here whose potential will begin to speak from today because the reality, understanding, and revelation of who your Father is will begin to dawn on you.
I’m not talking about tomorrow. I’m talking about today.
Say after me:
“God is my Father, and I will show up with the grace of my Father.”
I’m not worried about anything.
Why?
Because I have a Father.
Because I have a Father.
A father protects his child because he does not want anything to happen to his child.
He knows that no matter what happens, this is his own child. This child came from him.
And because the child came from him, he has a responsibility to protect that child.
That is why I know that you will be protected.
But do you know that it is possible for you to have protection and still not have the consciousness of that protection?
You may be protected, but if you don’t know that you are protected, you may still live in fear.
You may begin to doubt your Father.
You may begin to wonder whether He will show up for you.
So, when you are praying and you are filled with doubt, what happens?
You are praying, but you don’t believe.
And the Bible says that without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Faith is essential in our relationship with God.
So, when your understanding of fatherhood is affected, it can also affect your faith.
It affects your confidence in God.
It affects the way you pray.
It affects your expectation.
But when you understand that God is truly your Father, you can approach Him
with confidence, knowing that He cares about you, He sees you, He protects you, and He will never abandon you.
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