I was in my intercessory prayer group on Wednesday morning. There were just three of us and I admit I was tired after a lovely week spent on vacation with family. We spent a little time catching up and sharing personally with one another then went to prayer.
I was surprised by this prayer I prayed, and in the end, I saw a picture and heard a statement and it has not left me. Today I saw a few others posting around this same topic, so I realized God is asking me to also share what He gave me to pray Wednesday morning. I cannot remember my exact words, but I do remember the intent and the feelings the Lord allowed me to experience. These feelings come with a depth of compassion and zero judgment.
I heard the Lord say it is time for His sons to rise up. No longer will they give in to the American ideal of manhood. No longer will they serve the “American dream” and no longer will they seek to be the “kings of their castles”. These ideals are antiquated and God has said it is enough. It is time for the sons of God to stand up and be men of God in the way they live their lives in their homes, their jobs, and their churches.
I remembered something our pastor said a few years ago when we were still new to the church. It was somewhat like this, “There are too many men still acting like boys.” He said it with grief and compassion and a longing for them to know the more that is available to them if they would just set aside an earthly ideal for a heavenly one. As I thought and repeated this in prayer, I continued, it is time for men to put their toys away and stand in the calling God has placed on their lives. God has not called you to own a home, two cars, a boat, a cabin in the woods, or a camper. He has not called you to amass treasures on this earth to either impress the neighbors or to keep up with the Joneses. He has called you to be like Him. Disclaimer: He may want to bless you with one or all of those things, but you understand the difference between blessing and grasping.
I pondered this thing of men when they marry, whether young or old. There is a transition period while they figure out what it means to be the head as Christ is head of the Church. There can be a season of confusing king-and-castle with “as Christ.” I see men bossing, if you will, their wives around, making demands here, and forbidding there. I see men striving to provide financially while they do nothing to lead spiritually. Somewhere along the line the American male Christ-follower became king and his wife became the spiritual leader in the home, but this is not right. This is a confused and conflicted ideal of a man of God.
I was led to pray that men would not have to go through the maturing process of learning to be the head as Christ is Head, that they would automatically find their footing in their beautiful calling in Christ. No judgment, just a longing shared by many wives to see their husbands up early and eager to get to church when the doors are open, a man who puts Christ first in all he says and does. A man who knows complete satisfaction in Christ regardless of financial standing. A man who knows he is complete when he is in Christ, lacking nothing.
There is a tide turning in the body of Christ and He is inviting you to catch this wave with Him. He wants to lift you higher as you go lower. Surrender your ideal of manhood to God and ask Him to make every crooked path in your thinking straight according to His will and His Word.
When I was finished praying, I saw a picture in my mind over and over in rapid succession. A man was standing with no expression, he shattered like pottery, and I heard “Shatter the ideal of man and restore the call.” According to dictionary.com, ideal means “existing only in the imagination; not real or actual.”
It is time to shatter earthly expectations off of yourself and others and find the call of God on your life. It is time to shatter the ideal of manhood the world has put on you and embrace the light burden of Christ (Matthew 11:30).
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:14).
“He made [you] accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6).