Spread the Fire - November/December 2007 - (Page 16)

nesses, my failings and my sin. He knew how many times I had made promises only to break them. Yet that had not diminished even a tiny bit of His love. My worth to Him was not determined by anything I had done in the past or would do in the future. It was solely determined by what Jesus did for me on the cross two thousand years ago. He has always loved me and always will. I knew that I would never be able to add to that value by what I do. I received in that moment a gift of God’s grace, the gift of sonship. I knew now that I had the same value that Jesus has to the Father and knew the meaning of Romans 8:15, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” It was like the day that I became a Christian. I laughed and cried at the same time realizing that God, my Father loved me with an unconditional, everlasting love. For the first time, I felt true honor. I was already secure in the love of Jesus, but now I know that I am secure in the love of the Father as well. How about you? Do you really feel secure in the Father’s love? God was distant also; and just as I used to strive to please my dad, I was striving to get into God’s presence. “I realize now from this teaching that I am always face to face with my Father God, and He has placed hope in my heart. I am precious to Him, He delights in me, and I bring joy to his heart, whether I am lying down doing nothing or working hard, He loves me the same.” Another woman wrote, “Until now I always felt that I would never be good enough for God. I did not deserve His love. If I did something wrong, God could not talk to me because He is Holy and I am not. God favored other people more than me. I always feared that God would give me what I could not bear. God always moved in the opposite to what I desire. God was disciplining me all the time. I always felt guilty when I wasn’t praying or reading my Bible because I believed God would be angry. I subconsciously tried to earn his love, no free lunch. I could not feel God as He was Holy and distant. I often found myself complaining about what I did not have. I felt like a failure and a loser, purposeless, I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted. I used to see God as someone who was mad at me all the time. I was so afraid of learning submission that I would not be able to open my Bible. I would hold it but not open it; I would be in such dread. “I now know that God is not like that. He is not hard on me. He is gentle and humble of heart. He doesn’t see me as never measuring up. He sees me covered with grace, and He alone will strengthen and perfect me.” At the same meeting, another girl wrote, “Before today, I had always felt that I never quite measured up to what my earthly father expected of me. I have seen God the Father through the distorted filter of my earthly father. Today God, the Father, began to speak to me words of love, acceptance and forgiveness…I have discovered that He loves me unconditionally. I am thriving in the knowledge that He made me, loves me and finds pleasure in me. Wow, it is so great to be a daughter of the King!” When she repented of her dead works, the Father’s healing love broke through. Words have a powerful impact for good or evil. “A father’s voice can set in motion an entire trend of life,” wrote Gordon Macdonald. We live in a world that is predominantly shame based, where a person’s value is determined by what they do, more than who they are. I saw a billboard recently with big, bold print advertising a mobile phone company that read, “I Do Therefore I Am.” Doesn’t the whole world live by that motto? However, the Christian is supposed to live by another motto, “I am, therefore I do.”’ He lives life from a place of approval, not for approval. Do you know that you are already a complete success in your Abba Father’s eyes, not for what have done or will do, but by what Jesus did for you two thousand years ago on the cross? Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing, in spite of all THE #1 STUMBLING-BLOCK TO SONSHIP I have found that most of the confusion concerning the Father’s loving heart comes from how we view our parents and other authority figures. These are all people we have looked to for approval and a sense of identity and purpose. In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14, the servant who had one talent judged the master as a hard man, harsh, unfair, stoic, stingy. He had fear instead of faith and as a result was unfruitful. Our concept of God often comes from our past experiences with parents or other people who have had authority over us. At the beginning of every seminar I conduct, I ask the participants to write down on paper how they view God, the Father, and how they view themselves. At one meeting, a pastor from a large church in Asia wrote, “I see God the Father as distant, unapproachable, unreasonable, hard to please, strict, perfectionistic, demanding, silent, absent and to be feared. I see myself as unworthy, insignificant, a failure and disposable. He was projecting the rejection and judgment he had suffered from his earthly father onto God and interpreting everything that was happening in his life through his past experience. Another woman wrote, “I was one of five daughters in my family and my dad was a dominating disciplinarian and someone I really feared while growing up. I remember physically shaking in front of him as he shouted at us or hit us with the belt…I remember saying to myself how much I hated him and wished he were dead. No matter what I did, I could never please my dad, and I realize how this has led me to a life of striving, wanting to please everyone to get approval. God showed me that just as my dad was distant, I thought S TF - 1 6 Do you know that you are already a

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Spread the Fire - November/December 2007

Spread the Fire - November/December 2007 Contents In the River Finding My Place As a Son How to Experience the Father’s Love From Shame to Honor: My Journey into Sonship “YHWH” is Papa Book Review The Last Word International Itinerary Resource Center Catalogue Upcoming Events Visitor Information

Spread the Fire - November/December 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.