I am His favorite!
(You may be wondering how everyone can be his favorite, but it's similar to a father who loves all his children equally).
If we don't know who He is as a Father, we really don't know who we are. If you know who He is as a perfect Father you will know who you are as a son/daughter.
Our greatest challenge is to try to picture God. In any ways that we see Him wrong it affects our relationship with Him.
God's plan was to put a father in our lives to provide some of the aspects of who He is. But of course, no father is perfect, except Him. God wants us to look through the revelation of who He is as a Father, not who our earthly father is.
How does God see you when you sin?
The answer we come up with is directly related to how your own father made you feel.
That is not, however the way God really sees you.
Types of fathers (typically your earthly father will fall under one or more of these categories):
1. The good father: always there for you, encouraging and supportive
-(God wants us to fully rely on Him, not our earthly father.)
2. The performance oriented father: the only way you belong is if you do everything well
-(You become more and more religious and less relationship oriented.)
3. A passive father: caught up in his own things, in the room but not emotionally engaged, related to his own needs, not there for you.
-(Your heart says you have a difficult time believing that God has time for you, He may seem far away.)
4. The absent father: not there for you, he's absent.
-(May have difficult time drawing close to God because you have a fear He will leave you.)
5. The authoritarian father: rule abider, at any costs he majors on the truth.
-(You may think God is harsh, overbearing, and unforgiving.)
6. The abusive father: abuses his kids emotionally, physically, sexually, etc.
-(You may struggle a lot with shame, you may have identity problems, you believe you are the problem, you were created wrong from the beginning.)
Truths about God found in scripture:
- Mark 1:40-42
Everything Jesus did was done our of compassion
He is approachable.
He is not detached emotionally.
He was moved be the leper.
He will restore you back from everything the enemy took from you.
- John 8:7-11
He is non-condemning.
He asks us questions when He already knows the answer so that we can get the revelation in our heart for a lifetime.
He doesn't focus on our sin, He gives a solution instead.
He is a defender.
- Matthew 14:13-21
He is a releaser, not a control freak.
He wanted them to believe themselves.
Everyone followed Him because He was exciting.
He is an equipter.
Out of His compassion He fed them.
- John 13:3-11
Jesus humbled Himself and washed their feet (only servants and children did this back then).
A servant Father, He stoops down to make us great.
- Philippians 2
Becoming humble like Him.
Jeremiah 1:5 "uprooting, tearing down, so there can be a building up and planting."
Hebrews 1:3 "Jesus is an exact representation of the Father."
The Father is not distant and far away or unapproachable, He is closer than a brother!
Hebrews 1:3 "Jesus is an exact representation of the Father."
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| October 2012 |
The Father is not distant and far away or unapproachable, He is closer than a brother!
Seeking Him:
Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart"
You will find God to the degree that you seek Him with a pure heart and reckless abandon.
Why do we need to seek God to find Him? For relationship.
God is a gift giving father He wants to give. Keep pursuing boldly and you'll get what you are asking for.
The reason we don't always find God is because we give up, and we aren't bold enough.
How often does God think of us?
Psalm 139:17-18 "God's thoughts toward you outnumber the grains of sand...they are precious thoughts."
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| Isle of Palms |
Isaiah 49:15 -How can your God forget you?
Let's ask God: "In the areas that I missed out you would parent me and fill in those holes?"
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This was a very challenging week for us! Most of us grew up with "daddy issues" so there were a lot of tears as we processed and wrote letters of forgiveness to our dads. Even though we are not actually showing these to our dads it was a very powerful time of letting go. It was a hard week, but also a promising time as we looked at how our Perfect our Heavenly Father is and no matter how our upbringing was, God is always there for us and He will never leave us, and He cares so much about us, infinitely more than any earthly father ever could. Also, it was very sobering to realize how much we really do relate to God in the exact way that we do with our earthly fathers. We have to train our minds not to think that way anymore. It will be a process, but I am so thankful God allowed me to hear this and begin to take it to heart. My prayer throughout this lecture phase is for God to revel His character to me so that I can become closer and closer to Him, so this teaching was very helpful in realizing who He really is. It was a little glimpse, and I can't wait for Him to continue to give me little pieces of who He is as I continue in this DTS.
My hope is that I can also bring these subjects to you and hopefully teach you something as well. Please comment if you have any questions about this subject or any others.
*Teaching by Ted Gerry and Paul Allen
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