Ten Men: The Rich Connections Every Man Needs (A Study of King David)Sample

Spiritual Fathers (David & Samuel)

The issue of fatherlessness is a two-sided coin. There is both a need to be and a need to receive. Everyone knows someone over whom he has influence. No matter how messed up you think you are, you are doing better than someone. Even your areas of defeat can provide a place of authentic relatability and create a platform of meaningful mentorship. Fathers play a prophetic role that is deeper than mentoring. Fathers can awaken destinies and prophesy the future. The father’s voice is one of the most powerful things in the universe. God is calling His men to find their father voice.

Samuel, a powerful priest and prophet, was on a God-mandated mission. God had rejected Saul as king of Israel. (See 1 Samuel 15:26–28.) God told Samuel about Jesse, who lived near Bethlehem in the rugged Judean hills because He had chosen one of Jesse’s sons to be the next king of Israel. The most astounding part of this scene in 1 Samuel 16:12–13 is what is missing. David’s father thought so little of him that he did not invite him to the most significant moment in their family’s history. The clear inference is that Jesse could not or would not see David’s potential. He thought David was only good for taking care of the sheep.

Fathers are supposed to have vision. Fathers are gifted to see the hidden potential in their sons and daughters before anyone else does. I knew the calling and potential of each of my three kids well ahead of them. This advanced knowledge is the proper order between fathers and their children. When fathers are blinded, like Jesse was, a spiritual sequence is broken, creating a wandering soul. Fathers are to lift confusion and bring clarity, but absentee fathers do the opposite. Jesse broke the spiritual order, and in this providential moment, a spiritual father named Samuel stepped in. Someone needed to see what David’s father could not.

“So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David from that day on” (1 Samuel 16:13 NLT). A fatherly prophet saw what others couldn’t and was used by God in a way they never could’ve been. He called forth a future out of David that even David was unaware of. This moment would mark David for the rest of his life.

Every man longs for someone to do what Samuel did—for a father to call out the best in him and to see what only God can reveal. By his actions, Samuel whispered in the ear of an unknowing David, “You will be the next king of Israel.” He saw what no one could see, so he got to say what no one else could. Samuel spoke into David’s royal destiny, and David would never recover. Samuel did what fathers are supposed to do.