If you look at the families and parents and children who make up today’s culture, it’s not hard to see how the enemy has attempted to destroy what God intended for good. Single parents, estranged children, rampant divorce, abandonment, and dysfunctional people filled with bitterness and resentment only begin to describe the effects of fatherlessness on our world.
God’s Design for Family
God designed the world to reflect His kingdom and nature. God’s plan for the earth is for fatherhood. Though man doesn’t always get it right, He does. God is our perfect, loving Father who created us to be His sons and daughters. By our sin, we step out of relationship with God, but it is Jesus who made the way back to our loving Father!
Through Jesus, God forgives. Through Jesus, He becomes our righteousness. Through Jesus, we receive the spirit of adoption and once again, become children of God. By His blood we become a part of God’s family!
Transformed by His Love
When we are adopted into God’s family, our Heavenly Father lovingly begins to instill our new identity as His beloved children into our hearts. If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. What does it look like to be a child of God? Jesus modeled perfect sonship for us as He only did what He saw the Father doing. Therefore, we get to experience the Father and His love through faith and growing in relationship with Jesus.
Jesus is our salvation.
Jesus is our source of life.
Jesus is our peace.
Jesus is our love.
Jesus is our joy.
As we are continually conformed into the image of Jesus, His life and light flood us. When this happens, we can’t help but be transformed. We act differently, talk differently, and love the way the Father loves. As sons of God who are fathers, it’s our job to introduce our children to their heavenly Father and to father them the way He fathers us.
Even in our brokenness, we learn to lean on Jesus as our source, progressively becoming more like Him. We get to lead by example to our families and others, and as fathers, we get to transfer the character of God and the purposes of God onto our natural and spiritual children. We have the privilege of continually reminding and declaring who they are as sons and daughters of the King.
Called to Fatherhood
Our heavenly Father is perfect and will never make a mistake. As earthly fathers, we will make many mistakes, but God can redeem and turn them around for good. In my life, everything began to change when I finally repented and yielded my life to God. At the age of 46, I made Jesus Lord of my life after a lifetime of dabbling in Christianity and living in compromise. This started a process of God’s redemptive power being released in me. He turned my heart to Him and to my children. He then began to turn my daughter’s heart toward me as I began to value and love her.
I started following Jesus not out of religious obligation but as a response to His love and friendship. As I began to experience God as Father in an entirely new way, which allowed me to father in an entirely new way. I know my mistakes and failures as a father don’t limit God. I only need to turn to God and give Him my yes, which I do daily.
Blessing the Generations
Part of my journey as a father included a divine connection with Neil Campbell from Family Foundations. The ministry offers regular “Blessing Generations” online courses or live seminars where you can learn more about the power of blessing and how to activate it in your family. In the seminar, Family Foundations founder Craig Hill regularly teaches about the seven critical times in life that God intends for us to receive blessing in order to establish identity and destiny in our lives and the lives of our children.
The seven sessions teach on the critical times of blessing and which question of identity each one answers. These blessings include:
1. Blessing at Conception
Am I welcome in the world?
2. Blessing at Pregnancy
Is there a safe place for me in the world?
3. Blessing at Birth
Will my needs be met in the world?
4. Blessing at Early Childhood
Who can I trust in the world?
5. Blessing at Puberty
Do I have what it takes?
6. Blessing at Adulthood
What am I called to do in this world?
7. Blessing in Senior years
Am I still needed in this world?
The blessing is a superpower designed by God to destroy the curse and restore the Father’s blessing in children’s lives, empowering them to prosper. These times should be special and ceremonial, looking into the eyes of your child. However, blessing isn’t designated only to these seven instances. We can regularly speak blessing over our children with words of life! The blessing of fathers and mothers over their children is key to them reaching their destinies.
While this blog is about fathers, I want to take a moment to highlight that mothers are essential in the formation, care and nurturing of children, especially in the early years. A mother’s blessings are important throughout the life of their children and paramount on the first three critical times of blessing. You could call blessings 1, 2 and 3 “the mother’s blessing.” When a child reaches the age of accountability, around the age of 12 or 13, a transition occurs and the mother releases the child to mature into adulthood. As the child steps into his new role as a man or woman, it is the time for the father (or a loving male role model) to teach, train and bless. It is a divine team, with mothers and fathers working together to set their children up for all God has for them.
You’ll notice in the seventh blessing that there comes a time when the tables turn, and children have the honor and privilege of blessing their parents (I will post an example in a future blog). When we get older, we can look forward to receiving blessings from our children, making them intergenerational.
For now, I will share a sample blessing prayer for blessing a daughter at adulthood (the sixth blessing). As we agree and speak the words of our heavenly Father over our children, we must be aware that we represent the Father here on earth. This is our privilege!
A Father’s Blessing into Adulthood: For a Daughter
My daughter, I see you as a grown woman. I bless you as a beloved daughter and mighty woman of God. I believe in you! I declare my love and acceptance over you.
You are valuable and made with great purpose for such a time as this. You are one of a kind, unique and special. I bless you as a woman of integrity, a woman of profound character.
I bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim the gospel. I declare that you are connected to the covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ and the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and that you will prosper in all your ways.
God will give you an incredible husband and many children. Your marriage will be blessed, your children will be blessed, and your children’s children to a thousand generations.
Your health is blessed. Your soul and body are blessed. Your relationships are blessed. Your finances are blessed. Your destiny is blessed. I bless you to be a blessing to others. You are above and not beneath. You are the head and not the tail.
You are a blessed woman of God! You are the Lord’s beloved with whom He is well pleased. From this day forward, may God’s hand of goodness rest on your life. May your heart surrender fully to the Lord as He leads you in all your ways. May you experience His love, forgiveness, power, and provision in every area of your life. May you walk in the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the fire of God burn in your heart all the days of your life.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord shine His face upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.
A Father’s Blessing into Adulthood: For a Son
My son, I see you as a grown man. I bless you as a beloved son and mighty man of God. I believe in you! I declare my love and acceptance over you.
You are valuable and made with great purpose for such a time as this. You are one of a kind, unique and special. I bless you as a man of integrity, a man of profound character.
I bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim the gospel. I declare that you are connected to the covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ and the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and that you will prosper in all your ways.
God will give you an incredible wife and many children. Your marriage will be blessed, your children will be blessed, and your children’s children to a thousand generations.
Your health is blessed. Your soul and body are blessed. Your relationships are blessed. Your finances are blessed. Your destiny is blessed. I bless you to be a blessing to others. You are above and not beneath. You are the head and not the tail.
You are a blessed man of God! You are the Lord’s beloved and with whom He is well pleased. From this day forward, may God’s hand of goodness rest on your life. May you experience His love, forgiveness, power, and provision in every area of your life. May you walk in the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord shine His face upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.
I recorded blessings for a son of God and daughter of God for you to receive and/or use. Many of you, as adults, may not have had blessings prayed over you as children, so just close your eyes and receive it, and also play it or pray it for the son(s) and daughter(s) in your life.
For a daughter:
For a son: