Courage To Kill What Your Father Tolerated!

(this blog is written to compliment and further expound on my previous blog “To be a man”)

Courage To Kill What Your Father Tolerated!

The name of this chapter says it all!  As human beings, we have all been subjected to learned habits and what some may term “generational curses”.  The traits transcend gender and can be exampled or handed down by either physical parent and even by mentors or “spiritual” fathers and mothers.

We’ve all seen the effects of what I am talking about in our lives…The thing you SWORE you would never do or say, coming out of your mouth with your own children.  The unbridled rage of a father cloned in his (now adult) son.  The controlling hostility of a mother now displayed in the character of her daughter toward her husband and children. The children whose parents didn’t know how to show love are now the parent struggling with the same issue…and the cycle of sin replicates itself and the destruction dominoes…

In 1Kings chapter 2 we see that King David is at the end of his life.  He knows he is about to die and he knows that his son Solomon is about to take over the kingdom.  On his death bed, David reflects on many of the issues that caused him his greatest problems during his reign as king.  Issues that, had he been willing to address them when they occurred, would have spared him SIGNIFICANT grief and difficulty!  BUT HE DIDN’T!  and his lack of doing so placed Solomon with an unnecessary burden of having to destroy what should have been his father’s responsibility to address… David charges his son Solomon to deal with these issues so that they did not become an equal burden for him as the NEW king.

This left Solomon in an awkward position that many of us have also had to walk in parallel.  Here is Solomon, the new “head of the house” with his own “kingdom” to rule and he is having to immediately consider if he is going to allow the same unresolved issues and problems that plagued his father and his family growing up to be an issue in his own life now.  He is left with a choice… As the authority in his own home, Kill what his father tolerated or allow the unresolved issues and curses of his father to become his and his children’s problems…

I would encourage you to read 1 Kings chapter 2, it is really an insightful glance into how a father’s unresolved sin can impede the growth of his son…It’s equally interesting to see how quickly the unaddressed “sins” of his father David attempted to covertly dethrone Solomon!  Solomon’s response accomplished two things, it secured the kingdom for the rest of his reign and also eliminated the risk of these issues becoming his own children’s/successors problems!

As men, as leaders, as pastors, as fathers (physically and spiritually) we are placed in the position to decide whether we will lead as a “David” or a “Solomon” in our homes or our churches.  Will we be content to allow our current unresolved issues to be the inherited problems of our “sons and daughters”?  Will our example and decisions leave a legacy or a burden to our successors?

If we choose today to KILL in our lives what our fathers tolerated, we secure in our children’s future the need to only deal with their OWN battles instead of the undue burden of also overcoming what was OUR responsibility to eliminate.  We can example a passive acceptance of what is unrighteous or we can teach our children how to war against and overcome adversity!

Just imagine how much further ahead you would be if you didn’t have to fight against the same enemies that your father allowed into your home…What if your father had taken dominion over that lustful spirit that dominated him and his father and his father’s father?  What if you had been spared that spiritual battle to focus on other issues?  What if that curse of infidelity that has been replicated in your family generation after generation had been destroyed by your father before it became your burden?  What if the rage and unconstrained anger of your father and your father’s father had not become your own personal “most difficult battle”?  Where would you be?  How much more could you have accomplished if not for having to deal with those enemies that your father should have destroyed?

I ask these questions because, regardless of the “what if”, you are still left with the responsibility of dealing with it NOW.  And how or if you do, will determine whether or not you leave your own children with the responsibility to battle against and overcome the demons that you were so unfairly left to confront!

Proverbs 13:22 says that a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children…

I believe this is talking more about spiritual inheritance than anything!  Leave a legacy of love and an example of what it means to be a man who stands for righteousness and justice!  Be the father, mentor and pastor whose legacy is one of “fighting the good fight”!  Leave your successors with the understanding of what “to do” instead of what “NOT to do”… Life will be FULL of it’s own battles for each generation to have to face without the added burden of the previous generations unresolved sin…

Take the reigns in your own life today!  Have the courage to KILL what your father tolerated so that the curse ends with you!  You have the power and authority to overcome!  Address it so that your children won’t have to!  Be the man, the warrior, the priest, the king that YOU have been called to be!

If you can dig it…Say WORD!!!