Part 6 Putting It All Together
Fatherhood & Sonship
Putting it all Together
Bruce Billington
Relationship before Efficiency
Key Point – God does not need us – He wants us.
So, what does God invite us into? Adventure; servanthood; suffering. But these are all secondary to the main thing He desires to have with us – fellowship – for us to relate to Him as a loving Father.
But to achieve this, we have to go beyond just knowing His word and even His ways.
Revelation plus His Word
In Psalm 119, David expresses how much he loves God’s Word. The Psalm stresses the importance of knowing His Word and walking in His ways. But God makes it clear that these things are not enough and that He has something much greater in mind, than that for us.
In Exodus chapters 33-34 – God relates to Moses as a friend. He established a relationship with him first, then, after being given the law, Moses tells God he doesn’t know who He is.
Point – we cannot get to know God through the law or trying to keep it. God never intended it to work like that. To better identify Himself, God reveals Himself in exactly the way He wants to be known.
So, God decides to give Moses a revelation of who He is.
Exodus 34:6–7 – “6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
God reveals the essence of who He is, so Moses can connect with Him via a heart-to-heart relationship. Although we have atonement for sin through Christ, God is always seeking to capture our heart.
Romans 10 says, it is with our mouth that we confess and with our heart that we believe.
It is only heart to heart that we can truly receive and give love and this, after all, is the whole essence of who the Father is. That’s why Jesus explained to us that we must now worship God in Spirit and in the truth (John 4).
Work Based Relationships
If we relate to God on the basis of what we do, then at least a part of our relationship is going to be filled with anxiety or insecurity. It means we won’t become creative because we won’t take risks, because taking a risk means we could fail, and we then worry that we will be rejected. This stops us growing. But if we know that God loves us unconditionally, this is not an issue.
Investing Time
The only way to develop a heart relationship, is to invest time. What is the best way to use that time?
- Read His Word and think about, pray about, and seek to apply it to your life.
- Be a worshipper. Take time to pause and reflect on who He is. Thank Him regularly for blessings that come to you.
- Pray regularly. Not just your list of needs – talk to God as you would talk to your friends or family. Then stop and listen.
- Develop an awareness of the Father, everywhere you go.
He Must Be Our First Love
Revelation 2:4 – “But I have this against you – you have lost your first love.”
Isaiah 55: 8-9 – “8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
God’s thoughts and ways are so much higher than ours, to the point that our relationship has to be based on a heart response, not a head response.
Isaiah 55:10-11 – “10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
God’s Word comes back to Him – just like the rain and the snow come back to the heavens from the earth – but not without first accomplishing what they were sent for. The Word is about who God is, what His Kingdom represents – but also about His plans and purposes for each one of us.
Become A Sent One
Isaiah 55: 21 – “So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
In Jewish life, a father would never send a hired servant to convey an important message – he would only send his son – normally his first born. God demonstrated this with the coming of Christ – He sent His beloved Son on this amazing mission.
Today we now hold this position in Christ, under the New Covenant. The mission we are now given, can only be done by sons in true relationship with the Father.
Sonship has work and responsibility attached to it. We have things to do, and we have to make sure all that God has brought to us is reflected in what we do – even to what we think and allow ourselves to embrace.
Isaiah 55:12-13 – “12 For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace;The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.13 Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, And it will be a memorial to the LORD, For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”
We are world changers in Christ.
As we work with the Father – we get to know Him. We see how He does things, how He responds to things and we learn things by being allowed to practice them.
We also learn of His power and how the whole of life must bow to His will. Once we embrace this in a community setting, where two or three are gathered, we are really able to make a difference and we become a light on a hill.
Hebrews 12:22-24 – “22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.”
God’s Fatherhood is hidden from earthbound eyes. It must be penetrated in an altogether different manner. In the Old Testament, we have no concept of the Trinity, no concept of Father, no knowledge of son and no awareness of the Holy Spirit.
It was under the New Covenant that we are, for the first time, allowed to look into the very depths of His being. Not just for a momentary glance – He invited us to live with Him there. It is here we discover a warm, tender, loving, forgiving, patient, generous Father who wants only the best for His children.
Jesus’s mission on earth was to take those captives of sin, back into full fellowship and life with His Father. The most important mystery of life is God our Father.
These excerpts are taken from various places in the book named “God As A Good Father” by Micheal Phillips.
God bless you.
Bruce Billington