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him.”
    —Proverbs 20:7
    We are in the middle of a revolution—a revolution of fatherhood. A revolution to bring the power of godly leadership and manhood back into the hands of godly fathers.
    It’s the cry of our day—for men who will stand up and be men in their own homes. Men, whose focus is not the corporate ladder or the golf course. Men, whose hearts are turned toward their families.
    In 1989 the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, There is going to be a revival of fatherhood in the land. It will take place in natural fathers as well as spiritual fathers. They will begin to take on the role of being fathers to their children.
    Immediately, I began to seek God regarding my own role as a father. As I did, I saw that there was a real deficit in fatherhood in our land. According to one study, the average father spends less than one minute a day of meaningful, uninterrupted time with each of his children. Another study concluded that more than 26 percent of the children in America are living in single-parent homes—the majority with their mothers.
    Statistics like this make one thing obvious: The success of a man has been rated by everything except by taking on the real responsibility of fatherhood. Some of the most lauded businessmen, and even ministers, have suffered tragic failure in their families. Families everywhere are crying out for desperately needed guidance and direction from the dads. In the absence of that input, mothers have been burdened with much of the role of fatherhood. Often the mom is the only parent who gives any meaningful, spiritual input into the family.
    Obviously, real fatherhood is much more than just providing financially for the family. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary tells us fatherhood is “godhood in the paternal aspect.”
    The Bible describes the father as one who is to the family what God is to the Body of Christ. Some of the things God is to believers includes provider, teacher, guide, comforter, counselor and strengthener. A father is to represent these roles to his family as he imitates and is empowered by the fatherhood of God.
    To do this successfully, a real father should look for every opportunity to instill in his children the qualities and values that will help sustain and direct them to God. He should train them according to the Word of God, as Ephesians 6:4 instructs, “Fathers, don’t over-correct your children or make it difficult for them to obey the commandment. Bring them up with Christian teaching in Christian discipline” (J.B. Phillips Translation).
The Anointing for Fatherhood
    One of the real joys of the day we live in is that God has provided an empowering for fatherhood like the world has never seen. This anointing for fatherhood was prophesied in the very last words of the Old Testament: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6).
    That prophecy links the revival of fatherhood directly to the move of God in preparing the way for the return of the Lord. This is good news! In this last-days’ outpouring of God’s Spirit, there is an anointing for us to be the kind of fathers God has created us to be.
    To enter in to this anointing, first understand that this revolution of fatherhood does not begin in you. True fatherhood begins in the heart of God. All authority and importance associated with fatherhood on earth derives from the divine fatherhood of God in heaven. Ephesians 3:14-15 says, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” The Twentieth Century New Testament translation of verse 15 reads, “from whom all ‘fatherhood’ in Heaven and on earth derives its name.”
    Jesus showed us God as a Father of love. He showed