The Father's Love part 2
A Father's love for His Son. That, to me, is the best picture of God. The best way to understand and experience Him. But therein is the rub. You have to believe you are His Son in order to believe that He is your Father. And that can only come by and through the Holy Spirit. Look at Galatians 4:6 (NLT), "And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, "Abba, Father."" And look at 1 John 3:1 (NLT), "See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know him." We are His children. So He gave us the Spirit of His Son... that we might KNOW and BELIEVE that we are His children. Why? Because He loves us. Because He wants us to be able to experience that Father/Son relationship. Why? Because the love and affirmation of a Father will always equip and empower His Son to be who He is. Jesus knew, right from jump street, that He had to be about His Father's business. He was in the temple "learning." And I say that with quotation marks because, in all honesty, He was teaching more than He was learning. The teachers marvelled at His wisdom and understanding. It's the truth that we have an unction from the Holy Ghost and know all things. The key is understanding what we know. Jesus understood. And yet it wasn't until He was baptized and His Father publicly declared His love for the Son that Jesus started doing miracles. I'm not saying He COULDN'T before that, but I'm saying it's important that WE understand the Divine Order of things. When we know who we are--Jesus, God in the flesh, love in a body... God in OUR flesh, love in OUR body--through the indwelling Holy Spirit... that's when we can truly BE who we are. It is the Spirit of the Son in our hearts that equips and empowers us to cry out, "Abba, Father." To know as we are known. To experience that Father/Son relationship. And that's so powerful because when you know who you are you can BE who you are instead of trying to be someone you're not in order to try to get something you think you haven't got. It's all about identity. The first "Jesus book" I ever wrote is called, "Identity Crisis." It's all about the truth that while there are only two men who have ever lived--Jesus and Adam--we are NOT Adam. Both men died on the cross. Only one rose again. We are Jesus. The Father's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. That is our true identity. That is who we are. And when we understand who we are--expecially in the context of who God is--that's when we can stop merely surviving this life and we can begin to thrive in this life! Not life as we have always known it, but the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God! His life of love! Look at John 16:27 (NLT), "For the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God." The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. God is love and He loves you. That's the ultimate truth of the universe. And it comes through Jesus. Not quite like He's a middleman between us and God (because He IS God), but more as a way for us to fully realize and understand the relationship between God and man. Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of man. Again, God in the flesh. His Spirit in us is how we participate in and experience and enjoy the love of the Father. You can't know the Father's love until and unless you know yourself as the Father's Son. But when you do... oh, man! It's everything this life was created to be!