This is the last in a series we are calling “Uprising –Part II.” We discover that a rebellion is taking place against the suffering created by broken masculinity. This article — and the others that follow — takes us on a journey into the broken male culture, showing us that God is our Father and He wants us to return home to His family, and like any loving Father, He expects His sons to behave accordingly. Read Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four of the Uprising II series.
Are you born of God? Are you a son of God? Can you step into the masculinity that you were born for an endless quest for sonship, or… If you are God’s man, are you dabbling in culture, and playing with worldly versions of sonship?
Men, we need to return to God in the same way that God said to the men of Israel. Circumcise your hearts. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord. Become a passionate son.
This is what happens to the man who receives the Son of God: reception, spiritual inception, and new obligations.
We read about it in Romans 8. How does it all work? If I say yes to Jesus, how does that change me? Who do I become?
Romans 8:12-17 gives us spiritual direction. “Therefore, brothers… we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
Wow! When your quest for validation ends, that’s when your discovery of sonship begins.
You see the difference? There is a leadership change, and it’s from the inside out. You have an invitation, not by that voice that whispers to you to protect and indulge yourself, but you are led now by the Spirit of God.
I want you to describe two things.
First I want you to describe your earthly sonship in one word. I’ll describe mine: ignored. I was a Navy brat, the last of seven children. My dad was a ghost. Validation, acceptance, affirmation; these were not a part of my earthly sonship. The impact on me? Insecurity, instability and immaturity, and a quest for sonship outside of God in culture, and that hurt me and hurt other people.
Second, I want you to also describe your spiritual sonship in one word. What’s the impact there? How has that changed you? I can tell you that I went from insecure to secure, unstable to stable and way immature to getting more mature.
Let’s wrap up this five part Uprising Series II. There is a flash point in history that is happening right now; it’s an exciting time to be alive and to be a man.
It is also a challenging time because it doesn’t matter if you are a good man or not. You get lumped in with what’s going on in culture It doesn’t matter if you are Christian or non-Christian. You are just lumped into this bucket called men.
These active and passive justice movements that we have talked about in this series are reactions to an uprising among the men of God and among the men coming to know God.
We can’t do it alone. We can’t do it individually. It’s hard to make a statement just as an individual, with so much momentum against us. It’s got to be dramatic. We have to be together. We have to be unified. We have to be courageous, and we cannot run away from this fight.
Otherwise, as individuals we will have regret, either later in life, or when you stand before God. You didn’t take a risk.
We are not going to hesitate. We are going to move together, and together as free men who make free choices. We are going to experience a personal uprising of sonship. We’ve talked about that as the root of the problem: you must end the quest for validation. It’s Psalm 21:7. “You can trust in the Lord. It is through the unfailing love of the Most High, that we will not be shaken.”
That is what you were designed for, the reason you were made. All men seek sonship and validation. You may just be chasing sonship and validation in all the wrong ways, all the empty ways. What you really want is sonship at its highest levels, with the highest love, with the Most High.
Jesus wants men to experience true sonship, the kind he has with our Father.
Will you pray on this?
“Father, thank you. You know the root of the issue: looking for an identity in which we can place our masculinity. We get all loose in the corner when we choose culture over Christ.
“Thank you God that you gladly — and with a warm heart and warm embrace — treat us like sons. We want to move from a son of culture and a creation of God, to a son of God in Christ, like Christ. God, I want to accept that I am your son. I accept and receive Jesus right now so that I can be fulfilled as a son of God. I receive all that Jesus has done for me in this moment. I receive what you did for me on the cross. I receive the relationship that you want with me. I accept it.
“I ask you to grow me into a strong son of God, filled with the words of God, and filled with the Spirit right now. I accept my adoption, as your son. Where I have wandered from the identity for your masculinity and am planted more in culture rather than in Christ, I want to drive a stake into the ground of compromise and say that it ends here.”
I know this requires a strong decision from us as men. It requires a surgery of the heart. You are ready to step onto the operating table, circumcising your masculinity and going from where you are to where God is calling you.
Tell God it ends here. Be done with false versions of manhood, with false expression, with the false chase for validation before men.
Take hold of your sonship! Return to God and be welcomed by your Father. Live under His authority and accountability, but most of all, lay hold of His acceptance and affirmation of you. Let it sink deep into your spirit.
Trust in the Lord and His unfailing love, the love of the Most High which makes you unshakable and unstoppable.
Take part in the uprising that is happening in the church today andall around the world. Raise up your sons and lead your families. Wake up this Sleeping Giant called the sons of God, and may the world be different. May history be marked by this uprising of the soul!
And God’s men said: Amen!
Watch “Uprising –Part II,” where men’s expert and pastor Kenny Luck helps you to learn how God’s men are joining an uprising in the Church.
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Kenny Luckis the founder of Every Man Ministries and the men’s pastor at Saddleback Church. His 20th book – SLEEPING GIANT: No Movement of God without Men of God - is the proven blueprint for men’s ministries, and was recently released through B&H Publishing. Watch and read more of Kenny’s teaching here at EveryManMinistries.com.
Follow Every Man Ministries now on Facebook, Twitter (@everymm,) and YouTube.
*This article first published 5/27/2013