56_Success In Our Homes.pdf

Volume XV, Issue 1

L EGACY

T HE T EACHING

OF D EREK P RINCE

Success in Our Homes

Success is a byword of Western civilization. By environment and upbringing we are

continually challenged to seek success in all that we do—in our professions, in sports, in

politics, in our personal lives. It is an overriding motivation. Success in God’s eyes, however,

is often measured by a standard quite different from our own. God brought this home to

me in a very personal way. I once heard a fellow minister define an expert as “a man away

from home with a briefcase.” Since I traveled a great deal, and always had my briefcase with

me, I was, by that standard, an expert.

owever, while I was meditating on this

one day, the Lord spoke to my spirit,

saying, “You may travel all over the world

with your briefcase and preach to

thousands of people and have them flock to the

altars when you finish, but if your home is not in

order—in My eyes, you are a failure .”

Having a great desire to be a success in God’s

eyes, I took this to heart. As a result, there opened

up to me a new understanding of home life and

parental responsibility.

directly to each one of you who is a father: You may

succeed in every other area of life, but if you fail as

a father, then in God’s eyes you are a failure at life .

In Ephesians 6:4 Paul sums up in one verse the

primary responsibilities of fathers: “And you,

fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but

bring them up in the training and admonition

[education] of the Lord.” In Colossians 3:21 Paul

repeats the initial warning, “Fathers, do not provoke

your children,” adding, “lest they become dis-

couraged.” Mothers, of course, are intimately

involved in the care and upbringing of children.

Nevertheless, the primary responsibility rests on the

fathers.

A father has two obligations toward his children:

first, communication ; second, education . The order is

“I Write to You, Fathers”

In 1 John 2:13 the apostle says, “I write to you,

fathers. . . .” Let me do the same. Let me speak very

Volume XV, Issue 1

important. If the channels of

communication between father

and children are not kept open,

then the father will be frustrated

in his task of education. It is not

enough for the father to give

instruction. The child must be

willing also to receive it.

In order to maintain com-

munication, a father must guard

against two opposite attitudes in

his children: rebellion on the one

hand, and discouragement on the

other. Therefore he must give

time and attention to each child.

He must cultivate each child as

an individual personality. No two

children in a family are the same.

Discipline that will benefit one

child will crush another. One

child will receive correction in a

form that will merely provoke

rebellion from another.

In frequent counseling ses-

sions with adults, I have dis-

covered that many of their

problems can be traced back to a

situation in which a father—by

anger, unfairness or indifference

—provoked his child.

centered in their home. Deuter-

onomy 11:18–21 speaks very

directly about this to us as

parents:

effective, spiritual instruction

and discipline must be

continuous. God says, “When

you lie down and when you rise

up.” This covers all our waking

hours. It is our business to

interweave the teaching of God’s

Word with all the daily activities

of our home life.

The late Dr. V. Raymond

Edman, one-time president of

Wheaton College, once wrote:

“Looking back on the way I

brought up my children, if I had

to do it over, I’d spend more time

with them in simple, non-

religious activities.” He had

found that the things the grown

children remembered most were

the informal times of just being

together. Real communication

with a child is not achieved in

five minutes. Often the most

important things are said with a

child at the time you would least

expect it—in a casual or offhand

way. If the casual contact is not

there, these things will never be

said.

Therefore you shall lay up

these words of mine in your

heart and in your soul. . . .

You shall teach them to your

children, speaking of them

when you sit in your house,

when you walk by the way,

when you lie down, and when

you rise up. And you shall

write them on the doorposts of

your house and on your gates,

that your days and the days of

your children may be

multiplied in the land of which

the L ORD swore to your

fathers to give them, like the

days of the heavens above the

earth.

God places upon us, as

parents, the responsibility to

teach His words and His ways to

our children at home. This

responsibility cannot be relegated

to some special religious institu-

tion—temple, church or Sunday

school. Nor can it be delegated to

some special professional class—

priests, preachers or Sunday

school teachers. As parents, we

must instruct our children at

home in the words and the ways

of God.

This is not a question merely

of setting up a “family altar” or

holding “family devotions.” To be

Heaven on Earth

The Home

Is the Center

Meditating upon the passage

in Deuteronomy 11:18–21 in the

King James Version, I was

gripped by the concluding

phrase: “as the days of heaven

upon the earth.” We often hear

people talking in an extravagant

way about “heaven on earth,” but

I confess I had not realized that

It is not merely the New

Testament that lays these

responsibilities upon fathers. The

same principle runs through the

whole Bible. In every dispensa-

tion alike, God has ordained that

the spiritual life of His people be

the teaching legacy of derek prince | dpm archive

Volume XV, Issue 1

the phrase is taken from the

Bible. I was even more surprised

to discover that it is there applied

to the home life of God’s people.

How many Christian homes

today could accurately be

described as heaven on earth?

Yet this is truly God’s purpose.

He desires that each home be a

living representation of the

nature of heaven here on earth,

reproducing in time the eternal

love relationship that exists

between the Persons of the

Godhead—Father, Son and Holy

Spirit.

We often assume that home

life began with the human race,

but this is not so. In John 14:2

Jesus says, “In My Father’s house

are many mansions.” House in

Scripture has a deeper meaning

than a material, physical

building; it is used to portray an

entire family under the headship

of a father. It is not just a few

people living together under one

roof. God has always had a much

richer meaning than that, one

that is bound up in the very

nature of the Godhead.

earth.

The first is fatherhood . God the

Father, has ever been the Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ, and

Christ has ever been His Son. In

Ephesians 3:14–15 Paul says:

“For this reason I bow my knees

to the Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ, from whom the whole

family in heaven and earth is

named.”

The Greek word here

translated “family” is patria ,

formed directly from pater ,

meaning “father.” The New King

James Version says “family,” but

the J. B. Phillips Translation

renders this “fatherhood,” which

is a more faithful translation of

the Greek. This passage shows us

not only that God is the Father of

Christ, but also that the office of

fatherhood in all the earth is

derived from and established on

the pattern of the office that God

the Father holds within the

Godhead. All fatherhood is a

projection of the nature of God

the Father.

The second eternal aspect of

relationship within the Godhead

is headship . In 1 Corinthians 11:3

Paul says, “I want you to know

that the head of every man

[meaning the male] is Christ, the

head of the woman [wife] is man,

and the head of Christ is God .” In

the order of the universe, we find

that the headship of the Father

over Christ is eternal—it has

always been so.

The third eternal aspect of

relationship within the Godhead

is fellowship . In John 1:1 we find

that Christ (the Word) is

described as being from eternity

“with [Greek pros ] God [the

Father].” The Greek word means

“toward” or “face to face with.”

John 1:18 tells us that Christ was

“in the bosom of the Father.” This

beautifully pictures the love and

mutual delight that exists

between the Father and the Son,

being continually maintained by

the Holy Spirit. Indeed, someone

has described the Holy Spirit as

being “the love relationship

between the Father and the Son.”

Through the gospel, and by

the Holy Spirit, God desires to

project this divine fellowship into

our lives on earth—and, in

particular, into our homes. In

1 John 1:3 the apostle presents to

us God’s invitation to share the

eternal fellowship of heaven:

That which we have seen and

heard [the record contained in

the gospels] we declare to you,

that you also may have

fellowship with us: and truly

our fellowship is with the

Father and with His Son Jesus

Christ.

Fatherhood,

Headship, Fellowship

The relationship between the

Persons of the Godhead in

heaven is intimate, containing

three eternal aspects. These are

the three aspects God desires to

be projected into our homes on

We see, then, that heaven

provides the eternal pattern of a

home, and that in this pattern

there are three main aspects of

relationship: fatherhood, head-

the teaching legacy of derek prince | dpm archive

Volume XV, Issue 1

ship and fellowship. If our homes

on earth are to fulfill God’s

purpose and be successful, they

must reproduce these three

relationships.

In our society the wife is often

referred to as the “homemaker.”

However, this is true only in a

secondary sense. In the economy

of God, the man is primarily the

homemaker—because he will

make it whatever it is to become.

The father is the key to the

establishment of the home. It is

upon his shoulders that God has

placed both the responsibility

and the authority to establish a

home that will fulfill the design

of a loving heavenly Father.

When the man takes his rightful

position, then the woman takes

hers beside him as “helper”

(Genesis 2:20).

All authority is derived ultimately

from the Father and depends

upon a right place in the chain

that goes back to Him. Christ has

authority because He submits to

the Father; the husband has

authority because he submits to

Christ; the wife has authority

because she submits to the

husband.

A very wise Roman centurion

with a sick servant once came to

Jesus to ask for his servant’s

healing. Since he had observed

the life and miracles of Jesus, he

introduced himself by saying, “I

also am a man placed under

authority , having soldiers under

me” (Luke 7:8). He did not say, as

some of us would have done, “I

have the authority!” No, he

recognized that the authority he

had over the soldiers under him

depended on the fact that he

himself was under authority. As a

Roman officer, he was a link in a

chain of command that went

right back to the emperor

himself. Thus, anyone who

refused to obey the commands of

the centurion was, in effect,

rejecting the authority of the

emperor.

In introducing himself to

Jesus, the centurion said, “I also

am a man placed under

authority.” Why did he use the

word also ? Because he was

comparing himself with Jesus. He

recognized the same principle

that applied in his own military

command also applied in the

spiritual ministry of Jesus. Jesus,

too, was “a man placed under

authority.” Just as the authority of

the centurion depended on his

relationship to the emperor, so

the authority of Jesus depended

on His perfect submission to the

Father. In every realm the

principle is the same: to have

authority, we must be under

authority .

Adapted from a New Wine article entitled

“Fatherhood, Part 1.”

For further study, we recom-

mend Derek Prince’s message

on cd:

God’s Challenge to

a New Generation

We are making this material available to

you at no charge. Just use the enclosed

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Reproduction of articles from

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subscribe at derekprince.org.

The Chain of

Authority

We can begin to see that the

husband/wife relationship has an

importance that transcends time,

in that it is a picture of the eternal

relationship between the Father

and Christ. Referring back to

1 Corinthians 11:3, we find that

there is a very definite chain of

authority which originates in the

Godhead and is extended into

the home. God is the head of

Christ, Christ is the head of the

man or husband, the husband is

the head of the woman or wife.

Derek Prince Ministries

P.O. Box 19501

Charlotte, NC 28219

704.357.3556

www.derekprince.org

TL071

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