Abraham, the great Patriarch, walked in the ways of the Lord and successfully directed his children to do the same. My biological father admired Abraham’s style of fatherhood and used his principles to train my siblings and I. Just like Abraham had a personal walk with God which he transferred to his family, my father trained us with the insight and revelations he got in the course of his walk with God.

My father’s leadership touched every facet of our family life. For instance, we attended the Assemblies of God church. My father always said that the reason we attended that church was because God appeared to him in a revelation and told him to do so. And he took his wife and children to that church where they learnt about God, and served God. That’s a father!

A true father will lead his children based on his walk with God. A true father is someone who has had an encounter with the Lord, and received the revelation and principles of God, and who begins to shape the mind of his children with those principles.

If you don’t have a revelation of God, you will be poisonous to the children you give birth to. I can’t reiterate this enough. If you don’t have a personal walk with God — that is, personal conviction and strong faith in God — you will be toxic to the family you raise. This is the reason why many families are in shambles; they’re headed by fathers and mothers who have no vision. Some families are headed by fathers and mothers who will rather go out to work from 6am to 9pm, rather than spend time with their children and raise them up in the ways of the Lord.

What kind of parent do you intend to be? You could choose to direct your family in the way of the Lord, or allow the negative influence of the world around them to shape them. It’s your call.