Seven Signs of a True Son or Daughter

There are five types of church members: very nice people (VNPs), very encouraging people (VEPs), very important people (VIPs), very significant people (VSPs) and very dangerous people (VDPs).

I went on to explain:
I asked her, “When you see my children running around in the church, how do you know that they are my children?”
She didn’t answer so I answered myself, “They look like me. Can’t you see that my children look like me?”
She nodded.
Then I asked her, “What similarity is there between you and I? You are not involved in the work of ministry. You are not a shepherd, you do nothing to help, and you do nothing in the church. You are a very nice person but not a daughter!”

She finally understood the point I was making. Just being around and being nice does not make you a son or a daughter. On that day, there were many children playing around after church, but only two of them were my sons. Being around doesn’t make you a son. So what are the things that make you a son?

There are certain things that make you a son or a daughter, and that is what I want to share with you in this chapter.

Seven Signs of Sons and Daughters

1. A SON/DAUGHTER RESEMBLES HIS FATHER.

Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? HE THAT HATH SEEN ME HATH SEEN THE FATHER…
John 14:9

When you see my sons and daughters in the ministry, you will find that they have some resemblance to me. The similarities between sons and fathers are the telltale signs of the link between the fathers and the sons.

In the natural, my children look like me and even have my colour. Spiritually and in the ministry, there are many similarities between my sons in the Lord and myself. Jesus said, “He that has seen me has seen the Father.”
The reason why I don’t have to run around all the different churches preaching is because my sons and daughters are ministering powerfully. If you have seen the son, then you have seen the father.

A son is not a clone or a photocopy of the father. But he has very important and essential traits that he received from his father. Every son has his father’s genes, blood type and DNA. There are some sons who take after their fathers so closely that they look very much like their fathers. On the other hand, there are sons who have very few similarities to their fathers even though they are real sons.

2. A SON/DAUGHTER IS FOREVER.

And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
John 8:35

Real sons and daughters will always belong to the house. No matter what your natural child does, he always belongs to the house. He may have different beliefs but he belongs to the house.
In his heart he knows where he belongs, he knows who brought him up and how he came to be what he is.
A true son will scarcely rise up against his own father.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
1 John 2:19

3. SONS AND DAUGHTERS BELIEVE IN THEIR FATHERS AND TRUST THEM FOR EVERYTHING.

…Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven, Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…
Matthew 6:9-13

Real sons are filled with lots of trust. Most work places are filled with untrusting people. The junior staff do not trust their manager. The managers do not trust their subordinates either. But in a family, the children usually trust their father absolutely. I have never heard of children going on strikes or demonstrations against their parents.

The more we trust God, the more of His blessings we experience. Differences between children of the same family usually stem from different levels of trust they have for their father.

In the ministry, I notice the same thing. More of God’s blessings and anointing flow through me to sons and daughters who are more trusting. Some sons and daughters are wary and suspicious. Others are more trusting and filled with faith. The trusting children always get more of their father’s blessings. These differences come from the different extents to which they trust their fathers and what their fathers say.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children…
Luke 11:13

Jesus believed in His Father’s ability. Jesus believed that His Father was powerful. Jesus understood the power of His Father. His very last words on the cross were to entrust Himself into His Father’s care. “Father, into thine hands I commend my spirit.”
With those words He plucked His soul out of the jaws of death and placed it into the hands of His Father.

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Luke 23:46

He believed in His Father and even when the terrors of death were closing in on Him, He knew who had the power to rescue Him. That is the power of a father, which Jesus respected. Is it not amazing that His very last words on earth shed such light on the son’s belief in His Father? Stupendous!

4. A SON HONOURS HIS FATHER.

A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour…?
Malachi 1:6

Don’t expect honour from servants or employees. You can only expect lip service and fake smiles from employees. You can expect honour from a real son. In the Old Testament, priests were essentially a group of children who ministered alongside their father.

One megachurch pastor said to me, “I have had many bad experiences by appointing pastors from other churches and Bible schools. Now I only have my own spiritual sons and daughters working with me in the ministry.”
That is the way it should be! Your true sons and daughters will only bring you honour. Apart from a few prodigal sons, most sons and daughters bring honour and joy to their father.

God has often led me to honour people who have been fathers to me. I have tried to honour them in private and in public. I have honoured them with my words and with my substance.

True sons and daughters honour their father with their substance. It is a shame for your father or mother to struggle financially when you could help them. Do you want your parents to beg you for money? That is not honouring your father! That is humiliating him.

Even when your father and mother do not need anything, you must honour them with your substance because that is what the Bible teaches.

A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: IF THEN I BE A FATHER, WHERE IS MINE HONOUR? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 1:6-8

5. SONS OBEY THEIR FATHERS.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise 😉 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
Ephesians 6:1-3

Lots of rebellious people love to call themselves sons and daughters. They are no more sons and daughters than I am an astronaut. True sons obey their fathers! Do not try to exert authority over people who are not your true sons or daughters in the ministry. They will only disobey you because they are not your true sons and daughters. Your real sons and daughters will obey you.

When I sense that someone is not a son or daughter, I am very limited in what I tell the person to do. It is only true sons and daughters who obey.

6. SONS AND DAUGHTERS DO WHAT THEY SEE THEIR FATHERS DO.

…The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
John 5:19b

A true son is looking out for what his father does. He is interested in what his father is doing
and thinks that his father knows the right way. This is what Jesus did. He healed only those He saw His father healing and He preached only when He saw His father preaching.

Sons are rarely wiser than their fathers. Why didn’t Jesus heal the whole multitude by the pool of Bethesda? He healed one man and left the rest untouched. It is like going into a hospital and healing only one person. It may not make sense to you but that is what the Father did. Jesus was content to do what He saw His Father doing.

I have sons and daughters in the ministry who flourish when they do what they see me doing. They preach what I preach and they teach what I teach. They see me healing the sick and they start to heal the sick. They do not do this because they are mindless clones; they are simply good sons and good daughters! Good sons are fast followers.

Of course, any human father (like me) is imperfect and his life will never be the perfect example of things to follow. Our ultimate example is Christ! But God gives fathers on this earth so that we have practical examples to follow.

7. SONS CARRY THE WORDS OF THEIR FATHERS

A sign of a true son is that he carries the words of his father. He hears the words of his father often and he repeats them whenever he can. Sometimes you hear him repeating the words of his father in conversation and sometimes he preaches what his father has preached.
As Jesus said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
People ask the sons, “How do you know all these things? Where did you get this wisdom from?”
But they are simply repeating the words of their fathers.

When I was a son to my father, Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, then he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; Keep my commandments and live;”