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The chapters of the Book of Judges openly recount what happened back then: different judges, different fates. It tells how each judge of God's people left behind their specific legacy—spiritual or material. Finally, chapter 12 focuses on the judge Elon, a Zabulonite. He judged the Israelites for ten years (see Judges 12:11).
But nothing is mentioned about what he brought into her life or what he left behind. He was apparently a man who left nothing worth talking about. Men work very hard their whole lives, striving to provide for their families. And that's right. But what kind of example do they leave behind for their children to follow their whole lives?
In my church, I often preach about the "sanctification of the fathers." When we want to address issues regarding pious clothing and behavior, we immediately focus on the women. But I believe that we spiritual people have allowed a significant gap by not preaching to men what it means to be a spiritual leader.
The Word of God commands us men to be the spiritual leaders of our homes. The reason our country suffers is the lack of spiritual leadership in families.
Let me make a claim: If your wife prays more than you, it means something is wrong with your relationship with God. If your wife worships with reverence and praises God more than you do, then your conduct before God is not right.
The Word of God commands us men to be the spiritual leaders of our homes. The reason our country suffers is the lack of spiritual leadership in families. There are no fathers who get down on their knees to teach their sons that help doesn't come from Dad or anyone else, but only from God and from God's Word.
Elon, you judged Israel for ten years. But what did you leave behind? What did you do in your life so that your children could grow up and say: We follow in our father's footsteps?
In our congregation, we often explain to women how they should behave and dress piously because brothers can be tempted and fall into sin due to their desires. Yes, I believe that it is proper for us Christians to cover our bodies completely with clothing. The Bible teaches this.
But we talk too little about the brothers themselves, about why they allow temptations in their hearts and minds. We turn a blind eye to this. Worldly fashion and provocative clothing would never have entered the church if they hadn't first entered homes and families. But if the steps within the family were under the influence of the Holy Spirit and His power, they couldn't possibly march through the church building.
We are losing our children because the world's influence in our homes is stronger than the influence of the Holy Spirit. The world has great power in our homes, more than the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. Hollywood and its film production have a far greater influence on our children's lives than the living Word of God.
And that's not because the Bible lacks power and the world is stronger than the Holy Spirit—no. Rather, we have neglected fervent and living prayer, fasting, and hope in the one God. I teach and preach to the fathers and brothers in my congregation far more than to the sisters.
The Word of God says that the father is the family—the head of the whole house (cf. Eph 5:23). In the heart of every woman is a longing and a readiness to follow a man who is righteous and honest and who leads his whole household. I can understand the situation of single mothers who have no one to rely on in this matter. And thank God for the mothers who come to church services, even when the fathers have stopped doing so. Thanks be to God for faithful mothers who are determined to raise their children in the house of God, whatever the cost.
May the Lord help them. And He will help such people. Father, what did you leave your children? I left them money that I earned with great effort. I raised them, fed them, gave them an education, helped them with work, left them land and a farm.
But what spiritual legacy have you left them? Fathers, what are you leaving behind? An example of your faithfulness to Almighty God? An example of not building on oneself, but on the Lord alone? An example of domestic prayer where God's power was felt and the children trembled?
A brother recounted how his father managed the family. When they were living in poverty and had no food, he told his wife to set the table. The hungry children watched what happened. Then he asked them to kneel and pray for food. They all knelt and gave thanks for the food they didn't have. There was no food!
After a few minutes of prayer and weeping, everyone heard something fall against the wall from outside. They went out to investigate. An incredibly large bird had flown into the wall and fallen to the ground. They cleaned it, cooked it, and ate it.
I tell you, the father could have left them wealth, property, and other worldly treasures. But he left them a spiritual legacy. What will you fathers leave your children that will accompany them throughout their lives and that they can even pass on to their own children?
In our congregation, we have a boy. He has a good mother, a woman of prayer, and he is very close to her. There's a wonderful relationship between the parents and the children. After the sermon for the fathers, the boy's father went to him, took him in his arms, hugged him tightly, placed his hands on his head, and began to pray for his son. The son later told his mother:
“Mom, please understand me correctly. I love it when you pray for me. I love it when I wake up at night and hear you praying and crying for me. But when Dad laid his hands on me and started praying for me, something happened. It was different!” Do you know what it was? God’s Word began to work. Our women are forced to be on the front lines in the church, carrying the heaviest burdens. When you announce an extraordinary service, you can see who will be the first to raise their hand and promise to come. When you call for a fast for a need, you can see who will be the first to raise their hand and fast for a day. It should be different.
Do you know when the revival and the outpouring of the Spirit are tested? When the brothers and fathers reach out to the Lord, cover their faces with their hands, and cry out to the Lord, weeping, “Heavenly Father! I cannot do without your help!” My father worked as a welder. When he came home, his clothes smelled strongly of sweat and burning, and his hands were black.
Children need a father who is there for them.
and who leads them to the Heavenly Father. Image source: AdobeStock © Kostia
I was only four years old, but I remember it like it was yesterday. My father would open the door, take off his old welding cap and hang it on the hook, come over, and almost always kiss my mother first, if my brother and I hadn't already thrown ourselves on him. I knew I couldn't ask my father to play with us right then. He would go straight to his bedroom, bend his knees beside his bed, and stand there like that for about an hour. I would sneak in, sit down opposite him on the bed, and watch him talk to God.
I was always shocked to see my tall, strong father on his knees. I was only four years old, but something in my heart said, "Look, he's praying and crying!" Tears were dripping from his chin onto the floor. I wanted to see him seeking the face of God. Then the Holy Spirit fell upon him, and he began to say a prayer I didn't understand. I was filled with awe, fear, and joy. There were three of us in that room—the Lord, my father, and me.
Then he raised his voice, exclaimed thanks and glory to God, and sang. It was the voice of a victor. I have never forgotten the hours spent in that room. I remember those prayers vividly and the power that filled the entire space.
When I was 14, a major crisis hit. My life was shattered. I knew that no one in this world could help me. And the memories of my childhood led me to conversion—to my knees! I found my way back to the church through my memories, the church my parents had carried me to in their arms. I found my way back.
This is the power that spiritual leadership possesses. This is the power that my father's conduct possesses! I speak of my father filled with the power of God and with a grateful heart. We need more than pleasant feelings and pleasant people who smile in church services.
We need the awakening of our brothers, men, and fathers. Lift up clean hands and give Him your full thanks. Say, "Lord, teach and show how to be a saint in your own home!" And when our sleeping men awaken, then a revival will take place among us.
The world has a great power in homes, more than the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. And this is not because the Bible lacks power or because worldly things are stronger than the Holy Spirit.
Child, if you are without a father, it does not mean you are rejected. Ask the Lord to send you a spiritual father, as he sent Timothy to Paul. I thank God for you mothers. I thank you for every fast and every prayer! I address you fathers: You must be prayerful and fasting leaders in your families. Put everything back in its proper place. Don't tell me that your wives don't want to follow you.
Have you tried it? Have you tried being a man of prayer and fasting at home? A man who lives only by the Word of God? A man filled with the Holy Spirit? Every woman would want to follow such a man. This is the Word of God. Establish God's order. Wake up, and our worship will awaken as well.
Children cannot be led and taught with commands. "You do what I say!" - "Dad, but why?" - "Because I said so!" No, that's wrong.
The answer must be: “Because Christ is the head of our house. We follow the Word of God, and the Word of God says so. And therefore, we cannot do that, even if the whole world is doing it.” It is important that you do not be ashamed to say this to your conscience and to your children. We allow filth to enter our homes and then wonder where our children learned it from? Why do our children lack strength?
The answer is: videos, computer games, clothes… We are losing our children because we allow them so much. If you give in, you lose your place in God's order. But if you stand upright and resist the devil, you will gain a place in God's order. Joshua stood up and said, “ As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord ” (Joshua 24:15). It is an awakening that burns in a sobbing and grateful heart.
Two years ago, the Lord began to speak to me: “No one preaches to men.” Why do our children look clean and tidy, yet have never experienced the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead? The Father disciplined them well when they were disobedient. But teaching children the prayer to which heaven inclines—that is something he doesn't do. He never taught them how the Holy Spirit prays through us. I want my children to dress piously.
But I also want them to know that I am a man of powerful prayer. I want them to know that it's more than just dressing piously. It's the experience of a close connection with Christ and a close relationship with God. Some time ago, I was at a church. There were about 250 people in the hall. All the heads of families in one house of God.
When God began to work in the service, the Holy Spirit descended upon the congregation gathered at the front, and His work was very powerful. The men went forward first, followed by the women, not the other way around. I then asked the pastor, "What's the secret?" He replied, "Brother, for years I've preached only about family, about husbands treating their wives the way Christ loves His church."
Father, what have you left for your children?
He repeatedly asked the young servants of the church, “When was the last time you did something special for your wives? I don’t mean expensive gifts, but something your wife really needs. When did you say a loving word to her, or take all the children away for two hours so she could rest and get some sleep?” He continued, “This is what I preach to them. The Word of God says: Love your wife as Christ loves the church.”
In my prayers, I ask the Lord to teach me how to be a good husband and how to sacrifice myself for her. When problems in the church begin with religious clothing, I always have to deal with the husbands, not the wives.
Once, a tragedy occurred in this community: several children from one family died. The funeral was packed with press, reporters, news representatives, and so on. Everyone in the area knew this was a special church. The reporters expected tears and something heartbreaking—you know how they look for sensational stories. But nothing was shown on the news.
The pastor recounted that that morning, one of the most powerful gatherings he could remember took place. The Holy Spirit was powerfully present. In this Father, there is something not of this world—something strong, reliable, and eternal. It is indeed necessary to lean on something strong to endure such a tragedy. Three or four months later, I was there again. I felt uneasy looking at the Father who had lost his children.
But during the service, the power came upon the congregation. Do you know who was the first to lift up his hands to heaven, filled with the Holy Spirit, and glorify and praise God? Yes, that father, mother, and the three children who had survived. The whole family is one. A family built on the Word of God, on the power of God, and in the way God prescribed. A family that relies solely on the one God. Of course, it wasn't easy for them.
The same applies to education:
"What spring did not sow,
Summer cannot ripen,
The autumn harvest is not possible,
"Not to enjoy the winter."Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744 - 1803)
In America, there isn't a single child who would refuse a car, a four-wheeled motorcycle, a trampoline, a pool, or any other form of entertainment. But these children refused all of that to spend time with their father. Oh, if only the glory of God would open our heavy-hearted eyes and return to our homes! When I first began preaching, I visited a children's home for troubled and mentally ill children.
I asked if they would allow me to work with the children and if we could study God's word together. In Alabama, it's against the law, so the answer was "No." And now, ten years later, I'm four kilometers away from that place again, working as a pastor in a church. Within ten years, the authorities have realized that they can't help these children with antidepressants.
In Alabama today, each of these centers is required to employ a preacher or spiritual advisor. I went back, and this time they answered "yes." My assignment was to spend three hours each Monday and Wednesday with these children. One hour was to be dedicated to studying God's Word, and the other hour was to be spent playing ball and simply having a spiritual influence.
All any little boy there needed was for his father to hug him tightly and say, "I love you! You mean so much to me." There was a ten-year-old boy there whom all the foster homes in Alabama had turned down. And so he ended up at the place where I worked. They said this was his last chance, since it wasn't just a foster home, but also a psychiatric hospital. Nobody could handle the boy's personality.
But every Wednesday evening, as I began my little lesson, this child would come, lie down at my feet, and listen quietly. I began to teach from the Word of God. A worker from the home approached me and said, “I don’t know what’s inside you, but you’re kind of an unusual preacher.” “This isn’t about me,” I replied, “it’s about the third person of the triune God. That’s the Holy Spirit living in me.” They said, “You control these children like no one else can.”
Then I repeated, "That's not me, but the Holy Spirit." In one lesson, I spoke about how to get a ticket to heaven—through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. At the end, I asked aloud who would want such a ticket to heaven. That evening, the Holy Spirit manifested itself very strongly in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Afterward, the boys hugged me for a long time, said goodbye, and walked me to the car.
A blond boy approached me, tears streaming down his cheeks. He asked if he could also get a ticket to heaven. "Of course, my friend!" I replied, "I'll pray with you now, but when they turn off the lights in your ward tonight, kneel beside your bed and try to speak to Jesus yourself." Then a dark-skinned child came up and sobbed, asking if he could get a ticket too.
When I returned eight days later, I met the blond boy in the dining hall. He exclaimed, "Mr. Greg, it's been eight days since I last kept my ticket!" Hallelujah! And the little dark-skinned boy said, "Brother Greg, I had some trouble one day, but I prayed and kept my ticket."
One evening, after class had ended, the sergeant on the guard duty came to me and wanted to speak with me privately. The exhortations began to have an effect on him, and he said, “I heard this lesson tonight, and I would like to know more about salvation. How do I find Christ in my life?”
I had just begun to speak when the head of the guards approached and said, “I don’t know what happened in this room today, but all the guards are asking you to come back. They are all crying in there; they want to repent.” I went back, entered the room, and they cried out in tears, “We need salvation, we need repentance!” The head guard, who was a deacon in his congregation, almost jumped up for joy and said, “I have waited a very long time for this!”
All the guards began to scream and beg God for deliverance. Do you know what they needed at that moment? The Holy Spirit within them. The husband they could say to, "Take us to God!" Elon, you have died. What have you left behind? The Holy Spirit has now completed His part, and I have done everything in my human strength. Now it is in your hands. What will you do with it?
Testimony of Georg Atkens at the second congress meeting of the church "Daroga Svyatasti" on September 22, 2002