Daddy Issues

Matthew chapter 23. There are times that we can look at and point back and say, that, that was a moment of destiny in my life. How many of you have spiritual moments that you can point back to: where you were when you received the Holy Ghost, that certain message that was preached, when you gave yourself to the calling of God? Places in our life that are life-changing. And for me, this revelation that I'm sharing with you today has been one of these situations, one of these times, one of these places. And since I have received this, my life has never been the same again. Maybe one of the greatest revelations that I've ever received. And I want you to open your heart and spirit, with a chance that maybe it'll be the same for you, that you'll never leave this place the same that you came. And when you look back at this service, you'll say, "From that moment on, my life was completely changed." Can you go with me in faith to believe that? Why don't you lift your hands and say, "So be it," in Jesus' name?

Reading from Matthew chapter 23 — I hope that you'll visit the Welcome Center in the foyer. My wife's ministry is just blossoming more and more, and she has rented, written new books and devotions and bible studies, some for our children, Prayer Keepers for our children, and books and devotions for women, as well as men. You'll want to visit that. Some of her artwork through Prince is on display, so please let that be a blessing to you before you leave today.

In verse 5 of Matthew 23, Jesus has been telling us in preceding verses that we should not be like the scribes and Pharisees, that they deal with pride and they're hypocrites. So in verse 5 he continues by saying: "All of their works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments." That speaks about the way that they ministered. They made it a big show. Verse six: "And they loved the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, and all your brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth" — that's right, call no man your father upon the earth — "for one is your father, which is in heaven."

I'm preaching today about Daddy Issues. And I want to affirm again today that all of us have daddy issues, and that this is a life-changing opportunity for you in this place today. God bless you. You may be seated. I love you B, love you Brandon, good to see you Baylor, love you guys so much.

The phrase daddy issues is an informal phrase for the psychological challenge resulting from an absent or an abnormal relationship with one's father. I put together a list of what a father should provide. Number one on this list: fathers should love unconditionally. That means you can't do anything to win the Father's love, and you can't do anything to lose the Father's love. Without condition, children need to know that their father loves them. Children should also receive this from a father: proper teaching, proper discipline. There should be provision that happens for food and housing of some sort. Father should teach good work ethics — that's been missing; that's why you can't get any business, even in a fast food restaurant. Fathers should protect the well-being — that's physically, emotionally, spiritually — of their children. Should spend quality time. A father should give wise counsel. On and on and on the list will go. And when fathers fail to do these things in relationship with their children, it becomes landmark battles that children deal with, often for the entirety of their life.

We need this so bad in our life, that if we miss it, or do not have the privilege to have this, we are spending our entire life looking for a father figure. And we try to find it in a spiritual father, perhaps a pastor or a bishop in our life, or some uncle, or perhaps a kindly neighbor. We're looking for this all of our lives. Sometimes young ladies even begin to date gentlemen that are more a father figure than they are a lover or a husband to be. Please don't do that: let your husband be your husband. Doom for failure, if that's what you're seeking, is a husband that's a father figure to you. In fact, psychologist, psychiatrists link back so many issues of life to father, or daddy, issues. Emotional battles such as depression, they link back to daddy issues. Anger that we continually cannot get over, back to daddy issues. Fear can be linked back to daddy issues. Suicidal thoughts and actions link back to daddy issues. Moral perversions link back to daddy issues. And on and on and on the list goes. When you don't receive what you need from your father, then issues crop up that you deal with for the entirety, for the entirety of your life.

It's become a catch-all. I, if you're one of those that like to kind of watch and see documentaries about the dregs of our society, without fail, when you begin to look at the life of a serial killer, or a rapist, then you will find, almost without fail, daddy issues got him on the start, or her on the start, of what she began

to pursue. Many characters in the word of God emphasize and allow us to see that they had also did daddy issues. I think it's obvious that Cain, who is the first child born to mankind, had data issues. Now if anybody has an excuse, maybe we give Adam a little bit of excuse, because he was created a full-grown man; also, he never had a physical example of what a father should be, so maybe, maybe. But Cain deals with rebellion, and he deals with anger, to such a degree that he rises up and becomes the first murderer, as he kills his brother. Probably daddy issues.

Jezebel: easy to see that she is an individual that is trying her best to earn the respect and the value of a dad that did not give that to her, as she takes authority that is not hers, and uses womanly wiles to try to secure her in that position. Daddy issues. Lot's two daughters — you might think that might be daddy issues, that actually have children by their father, thinking somehow that this is going to give them the respect that they need from their death. Throughout the Old Testament, the New Testament alike, perhaps Mary Magdalene could be seen as one, she who Jesus healed of seven infirmities and delivered of seven demons. What got her into that place? Probably, probably data issues.

But Jacob exemplifies this so much of the Old Testament. Jacob is born a twin, and his brother Esau gets all the love and adoration and respect of his father. In fact, the only time that Jacob gets what he needs from his father is when he dresses up like his brother, and his aged, blinded father thinks it's Esau, and that's when his father loves on him, and blesses him, and respects him. What a horror story. And he lives out daddy issues, as he begins to pursue life, that he would somehow feel like he's loved and respected. And he marries not just one girl, but two girls, and worst of all, their sisters. I don't know anybody that crazy. Sisters. But he has children not by the two wives, but by those that are out of covenant, the handmaidens of the sisters. He's messed up morally. It's why Jacob has to have a time in his life when he crosses that brook, and there he has one night, that a moment with God, or an angelic being, changed him forever. And no longer would he be Jacob the supplanter, but he would be Israel, with Prince, that has power with God.

Every one of us, no matter what our upbringing, dysfunctionality of our past, we need to have a night of wrestling with God, where we demand that we cannot be the way we have been. We all need help. We all have to deal with our stuff. This is why the scripture's so clear: you must be born again. Because all the dysfunctionality, and the hurt, and the brokenness of whatever generational curse that you were born with, and whatever issues you dealt with, and dysfunctionality of your life, there has to be a place in a time where you are born again to a heavenly father, and receive the generational anointing, if you will, of the family of God.

I can recognize characters in the word of God that deal with data issue, because absolutely, I have dealt with data issues most of my life. And I want to make this testimony short, for the sake of time, but my mom and my dad were new converts when they got married. They both had been in the church just a few short months and got married. The night of their wedding day, they conceived what would be my older sister. And then, before I was born, slightly over two years later, my mom lost her dad. And she lost him in a terribly traumatic way, as he took drugs and alcohol after a fight with my grandma, and he was found, apparently of a suicide, in a ditch some three days later. Mom never got over that, because she was a daddy's girl, and she couldn't understand why her dad would get so mad that he would actually end his life and leave her. She never learned to grieve this loss. And then I was born, during the time of this struggle in her life. And a few short months after my birth, 15 to 18 months, my dad was killed in a car accident on a rainy night in Southern California. His foot never leaving the accelerator, as in the middle of the night he ran into a tree. Seat belts burst his chest against the steering wheel. He was gone on to his reward instantly. Mom hadn't dealt with the grieving of her dad, and now she's got her husband, that she's only been married to a few short years, that she's grieving, trying to raise two kids. What they did not know at the time of his death is that she was pregnant with what would be my younger sister. And so she's dealing with pregnancies and hormonal situations, and grieving that she's not grieving well in Grandma told me that often during that time, I would slip out of her, a sight, and walk down the city bus aisle — which we rode for transportation at that time — looking for any tall dark-haired man, and lifting my chubby hands, call out, "Daddy." It wanted to be picked up, even as a toddler, not even knowing how much I was missing, but needing a father figure. Meanwhile, all the

way across America, there was a man, married, had two children. His wife died of cancer. Someone thought it a great idea to get these two broken families together. And while they had an absolute lot in common, neither husband or wife had grieved well. Man that would be my stepdad that I'm speaking about now, was raised an abusive situation, him and his sister, and they never learned to deal with things. They just coded themselves with just ignoring, and walls of protection around their life. So Mom and the man that would be my stepdad began to date. It was just mostly writing letters, as long distance calls from Georgia to California was extremely expensive in the late 60s. And so Dad flew out — man that would be my, I'm gonna call him dad the rest of my testimony, so you know I'm talking about my stepdad — but my stepdad flew out to meet my mom for the first time. And then he flew out one other time; that was a day before their marriage. So they saw each other twice before their marriage day. Both of them days, Grandma told me again, he was not allowed to meet you, Tim, after he said, "I do." Then they said, "By the way, here's your new stepson." I, I don't know if that spoke something about my, uh, activities as a young toddler, hoping I was just all boy — you know what that means, right?

And so we began this blended family, with his two children and Mom's two children. And they thought the best thing they could do is bring two more children into this non-greaving dysfunctionality. And so the two youngest were born. Now these were the apple of their eye, because it's the union of their togetherness and their love. Everybody else in the family reminded them of hurt and grief. And so it was obvious there was no height, and it was obvious that these two young ones were the loved one. And if we wanted to be part of the family, we had to love them, as they were the special ones. Growing up, we were never allowed to speak of our father, or my stepsisters not allowed to speak of their mother. You do not mention the name. We never got to ask anything. In fact, years later, when we began as adults to try to find out who we were — "What was my dead like? Tell me about your first date" — Mom had gotten, ever forgotten everything, and could tell us nothing.

I began to think throughout my teenage years that it just wasn't fair, that God had cheated me. Because if my dad was still alive, I would be loved. He would think I was special, that I was just cool, I was the neatest thing, and he'd take me fishing, and we'd throw the ball together, and we'd do this, all the things that my stepdad didn't have the interest or didn't have the time to do. And I grew up feeling not loved, not respected. Mom often told me that I reminded her of my dad. And I could see looks in her eyes throughout the years, that she didn't want to look at me and think about her dad. And I felt that, her husband, and I felt that in my spirit often. And to my eyes, the girls were very important and valuable to her, and I was a symbol of the past, and the hurt, and the brokenness. There was often fights in our family, and when it was, it was, it was absolutely, "Your boy did this, and your mom, your sister did that." It was division and disunity. God helped us as a family and did so much healing through our lives. But I was absolutely raised dealing with daddy issues.

I remember the first time that a man told me he loved me. He, it was after a prayer meeting, and Brother Feederman came over to me — big broad Todd shoulder man, broad shoulder tall man — and he looked at me, and he said, "Tim, I love you." Wrapped his arms around me, tears falling down his face. And I'm thinking, "Who is this pervert?" I couldn't get out of his arms fast enough. But something began to beat in my heart, and I'm thinking, "Why do I even care?" Getting out of his arms, went over to the corner and began to talk to God: "Why do I care? What's going on in me?" And it messed me up, to think that a man could honestly have a Godlike love for me.

When I began to date, it was absolutely a date of someone dealing with daddy issues. What I used to admit is that I wanted to meet a million girls, and get close to a million girls, and love a million girls. I've said that a lot when I was dating. And I left a lot of broken relationships behind me, and became what a lot of those in the youth group would say, "Well, he's a player." Because of the way I was searching for something that I couldn't get. My pastor at the time made it very clear to me, when he said, "Your problem, Tim, is that you don't love anybody." And I got upset: "How dare you say that? Of course I do." He says, "Well, what is love?" And I said, "Well, you, I don't know." He said, "Well, tell me who you do love." And I had a difficult time actually trying to tell him who I did love. And I think my statement

was, "I, I love Mom and my real sisters." And that, that was all that I could say to him.

This is the scripture that has given me hope all my life, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15. For it tells us that "we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." I've known this all my life, what Hebrews 4 declares: that no matter what I have gone through, what dysfunctionality of my life, what I dealt with emotionally, what I dealt with mentally, that there was one that went before me. And not only does he love me, but he was tempted with the same thoughts, with the same emotions, with the same things that I went through. But it wasn't until I began to deal with my stuff, that I began to pursue this and see: is this true? Show me where Jesus grew up in dysfunctionality, and felt the things, and thought the things, and dealt with what I felt. So I began to study, and I'm going to tell you, this is a very non-traditional look, but I promise you I'll be very biblical.

The first thing that you find about the life of Jesus Christ growing up is, first of all, he was conceived out of marriage. Oh no, I know, we all know that it was the Holy Ghost that overshadowed Mary, and it was God's son, we know that. But they didn't believe it at the time. And he's grown up with this stigma, that he is born to the woman that cheated on her fiancee. In fact, her fiance, Joseph, decided when he found out she is pregnant, he didn't want her. He didn't want her, and he didn't want the baby. That's what the word of God says. And it's not until God came to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, this is of god. You need to take Mary to be your wife, and raise this Jesus." Then he married her. And somehow, traditionally, we just assumed that Joseph is all excited about it now. Woohoo, maybe not. Maybe he was upset that he had to muddy his reputation with the girl that cheated on him, and their engagement. Now I know he has a dream, but how many times does God give us a dream, and God give us a prophetic word, and we steal doubt, before the promise happens, and before the prophecy comes? Because we had a dream, but was it still from God? Is God really speaking? And we doubt even what God speaks to us.

I think that I can show you other clues in the scripture, that Joseph struggled with Jesus being the Christ and the Messiah, and the dream that he had from God. Later, we'll find that Jesus is half brothers and sisters, and understand, Jesus really is the redheaded stepchild in this situation. He's raised in a home that everybody there is the union of Mary and Joseph, except him. He's the oddball. He's the black sheep. He's dealing with this. Joseph struggles to love him. After his half-brothers and sisters were grown up, and Jesus started ministry, the Bible actually tells us that them, they came to see Jesus, but, but scripture is clear that they did not believe in his ministry. Get the picture: his half brothers and sisters that lived with him, raised in the same house, as like, "Well, I don't think he's the Messiah, do you?" No, they don't believe who he is. My question is, where they get that from? It's not Mary, because she knows. But it probably come from Joseph, and the way he reacted, and paid attention, or lacked thereof, to Joe, to Jesus, and the upbringing of their life, and so we see this dysfunctionality.

It's amazing to look — and I, it's amazing to me that Luke even includes this about the life of Christ — but you see him at 12 years old. Get the picture here: Joseph, his stepfather, probably is not only a carpenter, but probably a businessman, and he's got a calendar to keep. He's got the things that have to be done at certain times. They have scheduled a vacation to go down to Jerusalem, and the whole family goes. But when time comes for them to come back, they are a day's journey toward their home, and they realize their 12 year old son Jesus is not with them. Now, you know how mamas and daddies feel when, for 15 minutes, you lose your child in Walmart. Panic. Much less six hours at Six Flags. And immediately, what your mind is going to, is what Mary must have been dealing with: "How terrible a mother I am, that heaven would impart to me the bringing of a child, and I've lost him." And she must be thinking, "He's been kidnapped and sold into sex trafficking." This is, this is what we think, the worst. "Maybe he's been mugged, and he's lying bleeding and dying in some ditch somewhere, because somebody one of the 50 cents of allowance that was in his pocket." And all the horrible things that you're thinking of. And so, when they began to try to find Jesus, it takes them two days. They're one journey away: it takes them two days to get back to where they were, because they don't want to leave any stone unturned. "Did we stop for the restroom at this rest stop? Let's go look in there." Ask everybody we know. And they retraced their steps

It's been three days, and when they find their 12 year old boy that's been missing for three days — where's he been sleeping? What's he been — he's 12 — what's he been eating? How's he been taking care of himself? It's amazing when we find him in the church, and he is teaching the leaders of the church, and amazing them with his knowledge and his authority. But I'll tell you who's not amazed: Mama. And if you read the words, this is exactly what she's saying. She came up to him and she said, "Jesus, you have been so immature and so selfish." This is what she says: "You've not been thinking about us at all. What do you think your mother has been going through, and your father has been going through?" And when Jesus — he's a 12 year old boy — and when he responds to her, he rebuked his mama on two levels. The first thing that he says is, "You don't even know who I am. I've struggled with my dad perhaps not knowing. I struggle with my sisters and brothers not knowing. But even you are doubting who I am." When he says, "Don't you know I must be about my father's business?" And the second rebuke is, "By the way, that man is not my father." Daddy issues, big time, yet without sin. It's why the scripture tells us immediately after that, that Jesus went back home, and he grew in respect and favor with both God and man. He was dealing with things that I have dealt with, emotions that I have dealt with, thoughts that I have dealt with. I see it so plainly. And he overcome in that area, so he can be the goal between, that knows where I was at, know what I thought, know what I dealt with.

It doesn't end in his growing up times, but it becomes very clear in his ministry as well. You'll find that Jesus says this in Luke 14 and 26: "If any man come to me and hate not his father and family, he cannot be my disciple." Hate not his father? Well, this is like what we used to do when we were kids, and we built tree houses, right? And after we built the tree house, we put that sign on the side: "No girls allowed. Cootie givers." What were we thinking, right? It's like Jesus is trying to start a club: "Who wants to be my disciples? Who wants to follow me?" First question: "Are you a daddy hater?" "Well, no." "Well, you can't come." It looks so harsh. Why didn't he say it in a nicer way? "If you're going to follow me, there might be some decisions you have to make, that your family's not going to be real thrilled with." But instead he says, "If you're going to be my disciple, you got to hate your daddy." It's not just once, it's twice, it's three times, it's everywhere.

In Luke 9 and 59, there's a disciple that wants to follow Jesus to the ends of the world, should the Lord lead. But he said, "My dad is very sick. He's not going to last long. Would you just let me go home and take care of him and the family, and bury him? Then I will go wherever you want me to go, whatever you want me to do." And Jesus said, "Just let the dead bury the dead." Well, how does that happen, dead rising up to bury the dead? He's speaking about things that are eternal versus things that are temporary. He's talking about things that are spiritual versus things that are natural. And he said, when you make a decision to follow me, it's got to be an eternal decision, not a temporary, carnal mindset that you're in. It's everywhere in the scripture.

Now, we know this is not what we see throughout the rest of the scripture, because the Ten Commandments itself declares that you are to honor your father and your mother. That's truth of the word of God. In fact, it's the first law with promise: if you honor your mother and your father, then you shall, you live long upon the earth. We hear Jesus even arguing with the leaders of the day, that individuals that want to take what should be given to their aged parents, and declare, "Oh, I'm going to be so holy, I'm going to give it to this project. That's a godly project." And that project that Jesus said, that is not taking away your responsibility of honoring your mother and your father. We see Jesus fighting for it. So what is this discrepancy between what we know — we should honor our Father — and Jesus being so strong about what he's saying here? In fact, in our text: "Call no man your father upon the earth, for you have one father."

When you begin to understand that Jesus is versed in Hebrew, the disciples no doubt knew Hebrew, the religious leaders, all of the people of that generation spoke not only the Arabic or the Greek, they spoke Hebrew, and understood it. Then you see what's happening when he makes this statement. For the Hebrew language, which is incredibly perfect — I believe given by God, as many theologians believe, the language was given by God to his people — every letter, every word is combined letters, that each letter has a meaning. When you combine them together, each word has a greater meaning. Each number has a numerical value. Combine the numerical value together, of the words together, to make a word. It's incredible picture

of the language. So when God is speaking this through Christ, and saying, "Call no man your father," we need to look at what father is in the Hebrew. It's the first word in the Hebrew dictionary, because it literally means primary source, principle source. And because it's the first, everything descends from that. Whatever the primary source is, everything descends from it. And everything that descends from it has the ability to be everything the primary source is. Now, the Jews believe this, and this is why they're so huge on lineage, because they believed, if they can trace their lineage back to a primary figure, then everything he was, they are. This is more than just a Jewish mindset; this is a heaven mindset, this is a kingdom mindset. This is why they're always saying to Jesus, "We have Abraham as our father," because in their mind they could trace their lineage back to Abraham, and Abraham was blessed of God, so therefore they're blessed of God. Everything their primary source is, they can be. "Abraham's a friend of God, therefore I'm a friend of God. Abraham's blessed, therefore I —" all the things. Jesus blows them away when he says, "I could raise up of these rocks to be children unto Abraham." He's beginning to give them clue that physical lineage isn't so important.

In fact, throughout the Old Testament, you will only find a handful of places where God is called father. Only a handful of places, and most of them point prophetically to when Christ would be born. This is what Isaiah 9 and 6 declares: "Unto us a child is born, unto us the son is given, government should be upon his shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God." The prophecy of Christ is that he's going to be the Everlasting Father. That's one of the best Oneness messages that I know of. And so, when Jesus shows up on the scene, and he begins to talk about God as his father, they were blown away, because nobody called him father. In fact, they were so respectful of who he was, they wouldn't even write his understood name, they wouldn't speak it. And Jesus shows up quite flippantly, and he's talking about God as, "My father, my, my father God," and they are mad.

Let me show you that this is what's happening here, as we look at this scripture, John 5 and 18. John 5 and 18. The Bible says that the Jews sought the more to kill Jesus, because he had not only broken the Sabbath, right, but also because he said that God was his father, making himself equal to God. That's why they're mad when he's calling God father, because the Hebrew mindset is, everything that God is, if he's your father, you can be. That's why the scripture tells us that in Christ, Jesus was the headquarters of the invisible God. He was everything that God was, because he's the first begotten son. It's why Romans tells us that we are joint heirs with Christ — joint heirs with Christ — because when we're born into the family, God becomes our father, and everything that Jesus inherits, we have the opportunity to inherit. All the power that he has, we have the opportunity. This is what Jesus was saying in the Gospel of John, when he said, "Greater things than these shall you do. I'm doing great things, but greater things shall you do." There's a little uncomfortableness, but that's all right. This is what it takes for revelation.

And so we began to see that Jesus is hated, because he's calling God his father. Philippians 2 and 6 gives us this same concept. Paul says that Christ, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. It's the same concept that we have to get. We have to understand.

Now, I was raised in a Oneness Apostolic Church most of my life. Three years that I backslid, God was so good to bring me back in grace and mercy. Raised in Apostolic Oneness services. When I was a few days old was my first church service. At five years of age, I stayed awake long enough to hear the evangelist preach, went down the altar, and Mama prayed me through the gift of the Holy Ghost, evidence of speaking in tongues. Mom and Dad thought it a good idea to teach me, and it was a couple years later before I understood more what baptism was, and I got baptized in Jesus' name. But I want you to know, I've heard the stories of the Bible all of my life. In fact, when first generation Sunday school teachers would teach stories, I would correct them: "No, actually, this is what the Bible says." "Are you sure?" "Oh, sorry, it is." Because I heard the stories more than them.

I've heard Deuteronomy 6 and 4 — anybody know what this says? "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is" — what? I've heard this all my life, and I believe it, because I've heard it, and I see it in the word of God. But let me tell you, the Oneness of God is one of the mysteries of the New Testament. You don't get a revelation because of just teaching. In fact, when Simon Peter receives it — Simon Peter is a one God Jew, raised by rabbis that tell him there's one God — and when he got the revelation that Christ was the God, the Son of God, which means he's equal to God, Jesus said, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed this to"

you, but my Father in heaven." Revelations are not something you study enough to get. Revelation only happens when you position yourself in a place where you're so hungry to know who God is, and it doesn't matter what your parents thought, and what your former preacher thought — you want to know personally who he is — then a revelation will come, in a relationship, of a father-son relationship. This is why we have people, second and third generation, raised in Oneness Apostolic church services, that go and begin to serve gods that are multiple. How can that happen? It's because they had understanding, but never got the personal revelation. Every individual has to have the personal revelation for themself, or they'll be temptations, and there'll be trials that make you want to pursue something else.

So why is this important? I want to qualify — and I'll probably have to do it again, as I feel your fear in the place — there is one God, his name is Jesus. There is no doubt in my mind. I have this revelation, that the scripture, that the spirit, that my father has given to me — I'm never going to turn away from that. I know it to be true. However, I've been raised in an environment where we were so protective of our revelation, that we ignored that God wanted to be a father figure in our lives. That's right.

When's the last time you heard a Oneness Apostolic preacher preach about the baptism of Christ? That's a powerful place in the scripture, and we don't preach it as Oneness apostolics, because you've got Jesus in the water, you've got the Holy Ghost like a dove, you got a voice from heaven. Now we understand, God is everywhere present. But the reason we don't preach it is, we don't want people around us, who are confused and struggling, to hear this and think somehow that we're multi-god people. In fact, when we preach — and I found myself doing this for years — when we preach about somewhere where the scripture talks about God as our father, we'll read the text properly, and we'll never call him Father the entire message. We'll call him God, or some other title that he is. This is not just important in schematics, but it deals with the paradigm. It's a paradigm of your faith level. It's a paradigm of your relationship level.

Let me show it to you. My younger sister, who I told you was the pet of the family, I watched her one day as she came up to my stepdad and said, "Dad, I need fifty dollars." And my jaw dropped, because I'd have been afraid to ask him for one dollar. And I expected my stern stepfather, right, to get out his hand — "How dare you ask for 50 bucks? What you're going to use it for? Are you worthy, that —" because that's how my relationship was with him. But my stepdad didn't do anything. He laughed with her, hugged on her, reached in his wallet, went to that secret compartment where he had the big bills, took out a 50, and Powell — he didn't ask her what she gonna do with it, "Have you done your chore?" He just gave it to her. And I'm sitting there, my mouth open, because there's no way I would even have faith to ask him for something that big. The difference between me and her is, she knows that she has a father relationship. I'm not sure he loves me. I don't think he trusts me. I don't think that there's that relationship, that I can ask him for big things. But she is confident that she's love, respected, and she just boldly asking.

We don't have things that we should have, because we've excluded father, in relationship, that we have with God. In fact, I will show you that this is the number one relationship that it is. When you have God is your father, is that he's a giver. James 1 and 17 examples this beautifully, when it says, "Every good gift and every perfect —" there's no way around that, that's every good gift — "every perfect gift cometh from above, and coming down from the —" you want to know who gives every good gift and every perfect gift? It's not Jesus. It's not the Holy Ghost. It's your father. Now, not confused — we know there's one God — but I'm talking about a paradigm. Because when we begin to talk to him, we think we're talking to God, we don't understand we're talking to our father. And before you think people that are worshiping multi-gods have this revelation, they don't, because they have not been born into the family, and have the spirit of Truth living in them, and there's no revelation for them to receive this.

Okay, let's hit it a few times. Matthew 7:11 says this: "If you be an evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give —" your father relationship is one that gives. And we as fathers would bend over backwards, and do anything we could for our children. And why don't we think God would do that for us? Because we don't know him as father. Luke 12 and 32: "It is your father's — it's your father's — good pleasure to give you the kingdom." John 14:6: "I pray to the father, he shall give you the comforter." Matthew 6 and 4: "If you're given secret, it's your father that'll reward you. Pray in secret." Six and six: "Your father will reward you openly." 6:15 of Mark

and Mark 11:25 and 26 both say, it's your father that forgives you. That, that makes so much difference. Because when I made mistakes and failures, and haven't lived up to what I need to live up to, and I've got to make my way back to a solemn, holy, righteous, powerful God, I don't have faith to do that. But if I know that this solemn, righteous, powerful God is my daddy, my faith level is so high. We have capped our faith by not having a relationship as God is our father.

In fact, this is what the scripture says about worship, John 4 and 23: "The hour cometh, and now is, when true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth, for the father seeketh such to worship him." The scripture makes it very clear that when we worship, it's to be worshiping our Father. How many songs do we sing that do more than just mention him as father, but actually worship and adore him as our father? I can think of two. We've got a zillion billion songs. I think of two: "He's a good good father," and there's that old song, "Heavenly father, I appreciate you." But we sing to the Holy Ghost, we sing to you, we worship Jesus, we worship the Holy Ghost, worship the atmosphere, we worship everything. And the scripture tells us, the father seeketh such to worship him, and we don't worship. In fact, when the disciples are asking Jesus, "Teach us to pray," because they saw the relationship he had in prayer, Jesus said, "When you pray, say this." He didn't say, "Well, let this be a pattern of how you pray." He said, "When you pray, say this: Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." We don't pray that way. If I step to this pulpit today and say, "Everybody pray with me: Father God," you looked at me like I lost my mind — he's in the wrong church — because we don't speak like that. But it's biblical.

Here's the heartbreak, is that we have spiritual daddy issues, and things that we don't even know how we're going to overcome, because of the spiritual data issues. Without this relationship of father, we have leaders among us, in our fellowship, in just the past couple years, that have committed suicide. How do, how does a pastor do that? How does a pastor's wife do that? They're praying in tongues every week with us. They're studying the world. How do they do that? They don't have a daddy relationship with God, that they are worshiping and singing. Condemnation is strong upon us. We deal with suicide. We got fears that we can't cast out, and people can't pray enough in tongues to get rid of the anger issues that they deal in the church. There's moral perversions. Why? It's because we don't have God as our father. Because when he's our father, so much changes. Because your father loves you unconditionally. It's your father that provides for you work ethics and strength, and provisions for, for food and clothes. And it's your father that gives wise counsel. My goodness, we are killing our pastors and our ministerial staff, by trying to get them to give us the answer, when it's our father that's the wonderful counselor. You know why we don't take what we'd take to somebody that we can sit on a couch and tell — why we don't take it to God? It's because we think he's a holy, righteous God, and there's no way that we're going to open up and let him know how we really feel, and how we really think, because we've got to be holy to be loved by you. But if we know him as a father, you can't do anything for him to fall out of love with you. You can't say anything. And the truth of the matter is, he who loves you, knows you most. He who knows you more than anybody else in the world, loves you the most. We deal with condemnation that is driving people crazy, because we don't have God as our father. And there's things we can't overcome, and things we can't get past because of this.

Here's the key — and I'm, I'm quickly closing. Jesus, in our text, said this: "Call no man on the earth father, for you have one father that's in heaven." This understanding in the Hebrew is this: call no man fatherhood — for your principal source of fatherhood — but only your heavenly father can be that. No man on earth can be the primary source of your fatherhood. Only your heavenly father can do that. Because the truth of the matter is, God did not create mankind with the ability to give you everything you need as a child. So even if your father was the best father in the entire world, you've got daddy issues. He didn't have the ability to fulfill what you need. And things that drive you, and issues that you have, and confusions of your mind, and emotional battles, only your heavenly father can fulfill what you need. Old-timers used to preach that the goddess has a god-shaped hole in every one of us; only God will fulfill that hole. By the same token, there's a father-shaped hole in every one of us, and no earthly man can fulfill that, no matter how good he is, no matter if he's the preacher, or the pastor, or the superintendent of the greatest. No man can feel that, only your heavenly father. So call no man your primary source for

fatherhood. We've got one, and that's our heavenly father.

So the first thing that we must do here — in fact, I'm going to ask everybody in the building to stand. There has to be a healing and a paradigm shift that happens to us, or the moment of destiny that I was prophetically speaking to you won't happen in your life. There's got to be a healing. So the first thing that we have to do is, no matter how good or how bad your father was, or absent, or whatever abuse, if it doesn't matter, we've got to release our earthly fathers from the expectation of them making it right. Chances are, he'll never apologize. Chances are, even if he apologized, it wouldn't heal it. Do you hear me? It would not, even if you come and tried to make everything right, it wouldn't heal it, because you've got years of this stigma living in your life.

My wife was the youngest of four children, and from the moment she was born, she never doubted. This girl hung the moon, because her daddy told herself she had him wrapped around his little fat finger. I mean, it was sickening, the love relationship that they had. He would have given her clothes off his back. She could do no wrong. He loved her. Great relationship. But I watched my wife go through a season, when, before he passed away and after he passed away, that she'd get up from an altar where a deep move of God, and she'll say, "Tim, I don't even understand this, but I'm missing my daddy." How many times did that happen, baby? Dozens. And we didn't realize what was going on even then. But God was saying to her, "You're my girl, and even your great father could not fulfill for you what I, as a father, can fulfill for you." And when she began to grasp that revelation, it's changed her.

The first time that I lifted my voice and said — not "I love you, Jesus," "I love you, Lord," I've said that a million times — but I said from the depths of my heart, "I love you, father," it changed me. Because I realized I'm living under constant condemnation, trying to measure up to a holy and righteous God. And why, he's a holy and righteous God, he's my daddy. We say the Lord's Prayer, and we immediately go from "Our Father, which in heaven — Our Father, which I've been — Hallowed be thy name," to talking about a savior, and talking about a Shepherd that won't lead us to temptation, all the things that the prayer said. But in reality, everything in that prayer is a prayer to our father. "Father, don't lead me into temptations." Oh my goodness. "Father, forgive me as I forgive those." Oh my goodness.

If I was to take a survey today here, 70% of the people in this place, if I said, "How many of you doubt a lot of times that you're even going to heaven?" 70% of the Holy Ghost feel good faithful people would be like, "Well, that's me." Why? Because we don't know it's our Daddy's heaven, that he has went and prepared for us. If I prepared a place for my children, I would bend over backwards to make sure they got there. Well, our intercessory prayers are feeble, because we don't know how much our father loves our loved ones.

Giving two altar calls here today. The first one is simply this: if you feel the need today to release your earthly father, no matter how good or how bad it, don't matter if he's the pastor of the church, it don't matter — but if you feel the need to release your earthly father, so your primary source of fatherhood can be God, I want you to come, with those that are already begin to come. And if you would just stand across this front. Foreign. It's okay. The way. Thank you for allowing me to pray. That's powerful, young man, to hold that. Hold that. Hold that. Hold it. Hold that. I want you to hold it. Don't talk right now. Listen to me. This is a young man that is new, and some of his commitments of relationship, but most of us would be afraid to pray something like that. And it's true. It's true for all of us. Is this, this your wife? This your wife? He's talking. Is this your wife? Tell me your name again. Tabitha. I saw you yesterday and today. I'll tell you what I know. Let me say it this way: there's something so beautiful about you, Tabitha. But I'll tell you what I see in you that's so beautiful: I see my daddy in you. And the sensitivity you have, the great compassion you have, that's, that's what I see when I see you, and it reminds me of my dad. It wouldn't be a difficult thing for us, if we had a relationship with God as our father, that then, when we see people that sometimes irritate us in our church and our family, we realize, "Man, that's just like Daddy." And all these problems, these friction, these things — you've been driven, young lady, because you haven't received the love and respect that you need. It's driven you to do some things that you have ashamed to talk about, some, some areas, you've opened yourself up in morality, and some addictions that attacks himself to your life. You're still going to be driven, but not because of trying to seek and find some approval

. You're going to be driven because you are a child of your heavenly father, and this is the way you act, the way your daddy. If we get this paradigm — let me ask the second invitation to all in this place that believe, "I need a paradigm shift." I pray we start writing songs about the father, so we can sin. What's going to change our mindset is what we're seeing and what we say. I think we should start greeting each other. We're talking about how good our father. We should exhort from the pulpit about how great his presence are. We need to understand. I hope it changes the way we talk and think. If you want to have a paradigm shift, where you're going to do what the scripture says, and actually pray to your father, that you're going to worship your father —

Let me read this one more to you. I feel like I need to. In the Gospel of John, chapter 16, verse 23, Jesus said, "In that day —" talking to the disciples — "you'll not ask me anything, but I'll say, whatsoever you shall ask — you shall ask the father." In fact, when it comes to the gift of the Holy Ghost, Jesus himself said it's the promise of the — and we pray to Jesus for the Holy Ghost, but Jesus didn't give us the promise. Please don't get me wrong: there's one God, his name is Jesus. It's a paradigm shift. We've got to realize who God is and what our relationship is with him. There are times that, yes, Jesus will be our friend, and it's Jesus in the darkness, and it's Jesus in the hall, and it's Jesus. But we need to understand, in our worship and our prayer, we have a heavenly father. He's our primary source. You want a paradigm shift? Come on down the front and join those that are here, real quickly. These are those that are determined. You're going to have a life-changing opportunity. These are those that believe destiny can happen, and you'll point back to this service and say, "From that moment on —"

Crowding close. If you're in the altar, would you come a little closer? Gifts of the Spirit of flowing in this place. And I need to get out of the microphone and in the altar. But before I do, let me give you some instruction. This is what you need to do, is to have faith in the word of God that you have just heard, and believe that not only are you his child, but you're his special child. That's what we hear over and over: you're the elect, you're the Beloved, you're the special one, you're the chosen one. So you're the pet of your heavenly father. You've got to believe that. And then you've got to talk to him from that understanding. So I want you to pray just a few sentences. But I don't want you to pray what you prayed a hundred times, and for some of you, this is going to be one of the most difficult things you've ever done. Don't call him God. Don't call him Lord. But pray to him like you're the special one, and call him father. No, call him daddy. Right now, know that you're the special one, all across the place, and pray that to him: "You are my primary source for fatherhood. You're my dad. I'm so thankful that you love me, and I'm your special one." You feel that? Some of you are having the hardest — some of you Apostolic Oneness have never prayed this way, and your condemnation is killing you. I see revelation happening. Foreign. Understand that your great physician is your daddy. If you need the Holy Ghost, your dad has already promised it to you. If you need a miracle, all you've got to do is approach with that kind of faith, and ask your dad for it. So in this place, lift your hand up in this altar, and begin to call on your dad again. Call on your earthly Father. Tell him what you want, and let miracles happen. Ministry, would you help us in the place?