The Role and Purpose of a Father

As I reflected on a teaching of the Father Son Wineskin from Dr. S. Y Govender, I sensed God asking us to shift the lens that we use to look at Fatherhood.

1. Previously, my focus was on the role of a father that included being a provider, a priest, a prophet a protector and so on. A lot of us identify a father by the role that they play in our lives (or not play for the fathers that are absent).

However, after listening to Dr. Govender, the below thoughts arose?

Is there a difference between the role of a father and the purpose of a father?

If a father performs his role, has he performed his purpose?

The Father Son Wineskin as defined by Dr. Govender speaks to a discipleship mechanism that God uses to turn the hearts of generations back to him as spoken in Malachi 4:5-6 and Luke 1:17.

According to Dr. Govender, the intention (purpose) of the wineskin is for the father to feed the son doctrine (through the Word) that results in the son following the father’s teachings, manner of life and doing the same thing the father does.

In John 21:15, Jesus directs Peter on the purpose of a Father when he asks Peter to “feed his lambs”. True discipleship is in the feeding of doctrine that results in the maturing of sons that have the ability to represent their father in every jurisdiction required.

I believe that God graces a father with the anointing that allows a father to create an environment that best allows the son to be fed doctrine (released by the father). That environment a father creates is what we call a Covering. The roles a father plays creates a covering (environment) that best allows the son to feed on the doctrine.

Take a father’s role of provision as an example. Children should not have to worry about paying school fees, the father pays the school fees allowing the son to focus on learning. A father provides the environment best required for the son to be able to feed on doctrine.

A father provides security that creates a safe environment that can allow the son to be able to feed on doctrine. A father creates a spiritually rich environment (through prayer and prophesy) that best enables the son to feed on doctrine.

It is clear that the attributes/roles of the father is to provide the covering that best enables the son to feed on doctrine released by the father. However, a father that provides a covering but does not feed his son doctrine is a father playing his role but not fulfilling his purpose.

The roles/attributes of a father are the tools and anointings released by God that equip the father allowing him to fulfil purpose

Yes, a father playing his role, has created an environment and provided a covering, but his error is in focussing more on his role as a father and not on his purpose. This results in spoilt children (and immature sons that have provision and protection), that are not able to represent their father in any jurisdiction and unfortunately a generation that squanders its inheritance.

Understanding the purpose of a father further speaks to why a father is called a Carrier of Grace. When a son is accurately positioned with their father, they are in an environment where they can unlock grace as that father has been anointed to play that role. A son not accurately positioned could be under an authority that is not anointed for the son which results in toil and frustration as that father is lacking the supernatural gifts/anointing needed to create the right environment. Yes they are feeding doctrine to you, but it is a very harsh, toiling environment with no favour and no overflow of fruitfulness.

When the church understands the Father Son Wineskin and correctly aligns to it, then the gifts of the covering manifest resulting in significant increase in provision, protection, stewardship, prophesy coming true, and inheritance being successfully transferred from one generation to another. The Father Son Wineskin is how the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of God and his Christ as prophesied in the Word, it is God’s chosen blueprint for the Glory of God to arise and shine in this season and seasons to come.