God is sad looking at our lives. We relax or hide when we are supposed to go to battle. When we need to hide, we go to war. We are off season and out of season with God. We preach when we have to pray. We pray when we have to preach. We don’t grasp the move of the Holy Spirit. We laugh when we should be weeping, and vice versa. We don’t understand the anguish and pain in God’s heart. We don’t weep when God weeps. We lack the understanding about God’s plans for this season.
We have become like the elder brother in the parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11). All that the Father God has belongs to us, yet we are so ignorant, timid, careless and foolish. We don’t make good use of our time by talking to Father God and learning more about him. We don’t invest time to know our father’s heart. We for namesake stay with the Father, but we really don’t know him. We really don’t grasp His cry and lament for the prodigal sons. We don’t comprehend the intensity of father’s desire to see His prodigal sons.
For the elder brother, the prodigal son took his possessions and led a sinful life. For the Father, the prodigal son is still his son, whether he is at home or in another country. Even though the son is living in sin, the father constantly recognizes him as his son. The eldest brother was uninterested in comprehending this. The elder brother remains in Father’s house but does not share the father’s burden for the return of the prodigal son.
Today Father God has billions of prodigal sons lost or stuck in sin, how many elder brothers are there to share the father’s pain and pray for these sons to return? It’s a shame that without sharing in Father’s burden and pain, we want all the father’s possessions. Father’s property is first the love for prodigal sons, then His possessions.
The prodigal son repented and came to his senses, while the elder brother remained in an unrepented state of ignorance. Elder brother also needed repentance. But the reason for his repentance is because he did not understand and know the father correctly. The eldest brother saw no need for repentance – Repentance for not sharing in Father’s burden.
With repentance, the prodigal son was drawn to Father. Elder brother lived with father but was not drawn to the father. Father might have been saddened by his elder son’s lack of concern for his younger son.
If the oldest son had shared the burden of the father, both the oldest son and the father would have run to meet the younger brother. Today we need elder brothers who can run alongside Jesus to meet and kiss the prodigal sons.
Today, let many elder brothers be raised in our land, praying with Father God for the return of many prodigal sons.
If you are working or serving in God’s ministry and are already living in the Father’s house, ask God to rekindle the burden for the return of prodigal sons and daughters.
There is a need for repentance for not only sins but also for failing to understand, grasp, and share God’s burden. We may be living with Father in Father’s house, but if we do not share the burden of the father, we are no different from the prodigal son. The prodigal son lived outside the father’s house in sin, while we live inside the father’s house in our self-world. Make Father’s joy your priority and happiness. If returning prodigals make Father happy, it should make you happy as well. Adjust and tune your life according to Father’s joy and happiness. The world desperately needs elder brothers like these.
