A generation desperately in need of kingdom men (1), By Ayo Akerele

“For I looked, and there was no man. I looked among them, but there was no counselor” (Isaiah 41:28)

Of all the factors that enabled Adolf Hitler to plunge Germany, and ultimately the entire world into a bloody World War 2, his uncanny ability to spot and appoint the right men into offices that served his evil agenda was the greatest. Hitler went for the most brilliant of the pack, former aircraft experts, propagandists, branding champions, astute administrators, and a host of others. His agenda was as clear as the noon day sky, to dominate Europe for a thousand years. After the fall of Germany into the hands of the allied forces, Russia, United States, Great Britain, and a few others, many of Hitler’s evil men were captured alive, unlike many others who had committed suicide in the wake of the fall of Berlin.

The trial of these evil men was fixed for the strategic city of Nuremberg, the city where most of the Nazi evil laws were made. Looking innocent and completely oblivious of the weight of global outrage against them, these evil men filed into the court premises in the company of military officers and legal luminaries from around the world to answer for their crimes against humanity in what remains the most vicious onslaught against the human race, the death of more than fifty million people. It would interest you to know that all of these evil men who sat at the top echelon of the evil administration of Hitler didn’t number to a hundred by head count. But their number did not in any way minimise the strategic consequences of their actions, which until today have not ceased to hunt modern civilisation.

Such is the capacity of men. You only need a single man to change the world for good, just like the Lord, Jesus. Similarly, one evil man can set the world ablaze. When evil men unite, destinies are ruined. When good men unite, destinies are transformed. God is always looking for men, not just males. Males are not scarce. Men are scarce. The greatest need of godly women are not males, but godly men. The greatest need of our nations are not males, but godly men. It will interest you to know that most of the troubles and tensions facing the world today are caused by men, and likewise, most of the ingenuity, creativity, and technological innovations on planet earth today are birthed by men. Why? Man is the foundation of God’s creation. Without equivocation, no nation can be greater than the quality of her men.

It is instructive to glean wisdom from the account of the fall of Adam, the first man in the book of Genesis. After Adam sinned against God by eating from the forbidden tree, the voice of God echoed through the garden of Eden in the following words,

Adam, where are you? (Genesis 3:9).

Please keep in mind that God was the one who planted Adam in the garden. So, Adam was essentially living in God’s territory, God’s house. By implication, God could not have been searching for Adam’s geographic location, right inside His own house. Let me make it simple for you, “Adam where are you” does not speak to “location” but to “positioning.” God was essentially asking Adam the question God has inspired me to ask men today,

“Where are you? Where do you stand? Are you a male or a man? Do you know what it takes to be a man, a kingdom man, for that matter? Where do you stand in truth? Where do you stand in raising a godly family? Where do you stand in modelling the right values for your children? Where do you stand in your faith in Christ?

Men, where are you?

True manhood speaks to purposefulness. True manhood speaks to resourcefulness. True manhood speaks to responsibility. True manhood speaks to maturity. True manhood speaks to integrity. True manhood speaks to strategic thinking, being driven by the desire to not just impact your current generation, but to also impact and preserve the next generation.

But here is the sad thing about the life of Adam, which is also reminiscent of today’s societies. At a critical time when God needed Adam to be a man over his home, he failed God, his generation, and the entire world, very woefully. Thankfully, it took the last Adam, the Lord, Jesus to fix the problems created by the first Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45).

The United States Census Bureau recently reported that the absence of the father in homes is the single most important cause of poverty and crime in the United States. In fact, Robert Rector, in one of his scholarly findings, stretched this further when he said:

“Problems with children from fatherless families can continue into adulthood with these children being three times more likely to end up in jail by the time they reach age 30 than children raised in intact families.”

Dr Tony Evans, an American Bible teacher recently visited a prison facility in a US state. He gathered some of the inmates together and asked them a fundamental question: “How many of you grew up without your father? To his amazement, ninety percent of the men raised up their hands. Sadly, culture, enabled by Satan, has taken up the task of demoting and diminishing the strategic roles and functions of men and fathers in the society. To be continued. Happy fathers’ day!

Ayo Akerele is the senior pastor of Rhema Assembly and the founder of the Voice of the Watchmen in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached through ayoakerele@gmail.com.