Our security in in knowing God as our heavenly Father

Part one

As we begin, we start with the basic foundation that, God made the universe from a Fatherly Created Order. The first verse of the bible states, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” A father is the one that seeds his D.N.A. into bringing life and it is His sole purpose to nurture His children so that they can experience and mature to their fullness by the father that created them.

As I am sitting here writing, my mind is drifting back in my thinking of my upbringing by my father and me bringing up my children as a father and the relationship I am having with my children as they share with me their caring over and raising their children which are my grandchildren. Becoming a born again Christian at the age of twenty five and over the years of trying to understand God I thought when I first got married how wonderful it is going to be to start a family with my wife, raise children and give them the freedom of choices to talk with me that I never had in expressing myself with my father and now I will be able to raise my children as I wanted to and no body was going to tell me what to do any more.

Most born again pulpits of today would say that I was a man who was living in rebellion. However, this couldn’t be any further from the truth as I was a man who got married and never was ready to handle the responsibility of loving a woman as Christ loves the church and gave up His life for it. This has to be the main goal for a man to love his wife, let alone raising his children in the admonition of the Lord. I didn’t know the Lord at that time however; I had a great hunger for God since childhood. Up until then no one had ever given me the salvation message other then belonging to the Catholic Church and living by their doctrinal traditional philosophies that have no power to allow a person to live the Christian life as God intended. At the age of twenty five God sent a man into my life who told me how to accept Christ as my Savior and I was born again into the family of God in my automobile as I was taking my wife to the doctor as she was carrying our second child. Over the next five years my wife, my parents and my three brothers became born again Christians as well as many of my aunts and uncles.

We then became active with in a Pentecostal church in leadership and fellowship at our home as scripture tells us to do and for ten years we heard Jesus saves and we needed to get the sin out of our life and to do this and that and God would love us.

We were never taught that after one becomes born again and becomes a member of God’s family we must come to know God as Abba Father as it is stated in Romans 8:15 by the Apostle Paul. Abba means Papa God and we must have our roots deep into this kind of intimate relationship with Him if we intend to mature and have a living inner action relationship with Him as a personal father who cares about us. It is the ignorance of this principle and our unawareness of how to interact with our Father God which has plagued the body of Christ because this spirit of fatherhood to His children has not been preached and reinforced in the believer’s life.

What we have is a scattered bunch of God’s children living under different denominational rules and the family of God is in factions because of different doctrines and beliefs. Some born again churches don’t even believe in this fatherly principle. It’s like so many earthly families that have no unity between husband and wife relationships and children learning how to be obedient to their parents. God put parents as rulers over their lives to protect and nurture them. This father spirit of awareness has to be filtered down through mankind if this world is going to be brought under control by the God who created it. When children do not honor their parents and the relationship between the two of them is being impeded; the children will have a difficult time getting a relationship with God the Father in their own lives.

At the age of forty five after being saved some twenty years, my wife and I were going through some very difficult financial trials and problems with some of our children and I terribly needed some Godly wisdom because my whole life seemed like it was falling apart. We were looking for God’s direction and the fear and uncertainty of our future was at stake. I had been crying out to God for over a year and I felt abandon by Him. I have found when I cry out to God for anything He always hears and answers me although at times I wish He would give me different answers then He does. I hope you can relate.

My earthly father was already in heaven and I had no one to talk to about my dilemma and I was embarrassed because, I had to admit to myself and God that I wasn’t so self sufficient as I thought and I needed God to be a father to me however at that time I didn’t even know there was security in knowing Him as a father. This father image that I will be sharing in this article started as I went through this trial some twenty three years ago. In crying out to God I had a difficult time in those days even calling Him father.

The Spirit of God woke me one morning at about five a.m. and said to me “come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean thing and I will be a father to you.” It seemed like I could hear those words bouncing off the walls of my bedroom. At the time I wasn’t aware that 1Cor. 6:17-18 stated the same thing. I proceeded to check God out and see if what I heard from Him was in the bible and it was. I would advice you if you thing God has said something to you, check it out and make sure it is in the word of God because; if it isn’t it wasn’t from Him.

Now when I heard God say this, I wondered what was I participating in that was unclean. My brothers and my mother were all saved and I wasn’t aware of anything I was doing in the flesh or participating in that was contrary to God’s word which was causing me to live in disobedience. The Greek interpretation of the word separate means, when we live in this type of relationship as being separated unto the Lord, we will be able to explore a new frontier of understanding that we have never known before. This is God’s intensions for all of His children and the only way we will be able to know Him as a Father. My next thought was what is it that God considers to be unclean in a Christian’s life.

Over these last twenty three years He has defined for me the meaning of this word. I thought at the time, if there was something unclean in me I had better understand this because if I didn’t, it would stop God from being a father to me and this would be a death sentence as far as me living in His kingdom and presence with power and security. This concept of being unclean is the main battle of faith that the bible talks about that all Christians were called to fight. However, it must be rightly defined through scripture and understood by us.

The word for unclean in the Greek is akathartes: meaning that; we are not walking in the freedom of having our steps being ordered by the Lord. It also means, something is foul, not pure and being influenced by something other than God which is demonic in nature. These impulses because they are demonic in nature; act as darts of the devil that he uses to influence us in our thinking that causes us to experience some instant fleshly craving totally contrary to allowing the grace of God to work in our lives. This is a bit scary when we realize that; we can be a slave to something that is demonic in nature because; we are ignorant of the true interpretation of the scriptures.

The opposite of unclean in the Greek is the word expiated which means that Jesus atoned or paid the price for our sinful nature and He nailed it to the cross and when He died we also died to that old nature of being a slave to sinful impulses that are out to keep us from resting in God love and security. By us accepting Jesus sacrifice at the cross we became righteous in God’s eyes. Righteous in the Greek means blameless, innocent and separated unto our God as His children. Our whole focus and intent after being born again is to grow in the grace and knowledge of God by doing what Matthew 6:33 states. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the things you need, will be added to you.” It is this foundation that must be laid in our lives and us experiencing this relationship with God our Father that adds all the things that we need to mature in our Christian walk.

Now it is absolutely mind boggling to see how God’s children if they really understand this principle, could still be living in their sinful nature that was nailed to the tree that Jesus hung on and be participating with the devil’s nature unawares, which in turn is robbing them of their inheritance given to them by God the Father the day they became born again. We must go back and discover the devils plan to keep God’s children palsied in their walk with the Holy Ghost so that they will not be able to complete their appointed tasks that God the Father set down for them. Let’s see where this deception started.

In Genesis chapter 2&3, God told Adam that he could enjoy all the trees in the Garden, but of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he could not eat. If he did, he would surely die. The serpent came to Eve and tempted her to eat from this tree. She said to the serpent. “God said if we eat from the tree or even touch it we would surely die.” The serpent said, “you won’t die, but you will be (as god,) knowing good and evil.” She swallowed the bait and got her husband to eat from the tree with her. The serpent told her the truth when he told her that her eyes would be open and she would know the difference between good and evil. However, he did lie when he told her she would be like God because, she was already like God and didn’t know it. What really happened, Adam and herself became a god unto themselves.

The word serpent in the Hebrew is defined as a whisper, magical spell or being enchanted. These are all the characteristics of Satan and we need to know his way of deceiving us in our lives however, it will only happen as we become well schooled with the true interpretation of God’s word by the Holy Ghost who educates and empowers us to identify his tactics. Eve didn’t recognize who was talking to her and in reality; she was having a séance with Satan. If we are deceived as Adam and Eve were and are trying to work out our own way of reaching God or living in our own self-righteousness, we put God at a distance and He can’t be a Father to us as He desires. Since Adam decided to put fig aprons on, he departed from God’s protective hedge from allowing His Spirit to flow through his earthly body at His will. God in His love for him made him coats of animal skins to wear as he went his own way to do his own thing. We’re still acting the same way. This scripture tells us to not touch unclean things. I don’t want to touch any unclean things. Do you?

In the book of Colossians, Paul was sharing a concept that explains how susceptible we are to becoming deceived and touch unclean things. This is a deception of the enemy to distract us from God’s instructions of how to stay healthy and really know his voice when He speaks to us so He can supply all the things we need as a loving father does for his children.

In Colossians 2:18-23 Paul says. “Let no one act as an umpire and tell you that you are unfit to inherit the prize. Don’t live a life as if you still belong to the world. You are still living by rules and regulations of externalism. Such as don’t handle this, don’t taste that, and don’t touch them. There is no eternal life in these practices. These rules all lead to death as they are being acted upon. They have no eternal life connected to them. If you live by these standards, you are following human precepts and doctrines. These practices to the natural eye look like they are a wise way of living, but there is no value in changing our behavior and walking in the admonition of the Lord.”

This is a perfect example of using fig leafs to make aprons to cover our nakedness as Adam and Eve did and live in denial and not let the Holy Ghost search our heart to see if we are living in any hurtful way to our self or others. There is a day and night difference between being religious verses being a born again child of God. Religion in its true sense is a worship of self and nothing more then wearing a fig leaf apron to cover your shame, which is man’s concept of reaching up to God in his own efforts. People who live like this have no awareness of needing help from a father figure in their own eyes let alone receiving it.

You notice with in this portion of scripture that he uses terms as don’t touch, taste and handle. The disease of sinful behavior starts in our thinking processing. It is totally opposite to the true interpretation of scripture that must be revealed to us by the Holy Ghost and Him only. Adam and Eve were deceived because Satan drove them into the darkness rather them staying in the light of God’s counsel. It is like a spider web being weaved in our mind and make up. The word touch means to reason and judge ourselves as to being good or bad. The word tasted means to attach oneself to an entity in having a relationship. The word handles means to injure and manipulate.

Let’s put this all together. Eve was deceived because she flirted with the idea of disobeying God by the beauty of the tree. Therefore, the serpent got her attention and deceived her. She flirted with this judgmental principle of good and evil in her thought life. She touched. She then went into the second phase when she decided to take up a relationship with the serpent by having a conversation with him. She tasted Finally, she got manipulated and injured and this became her injury. She handled The conclusion, she put a wall between herself and God the Father and severed her passionate walk with Him because she focused on self and surrendered her freedom to live with the expectation of God showing up at any time to have fellowship with her.

This is in deed the greatest injury of life that a born again believer needs to guard against in allowing this to happen to them today because the devils tactics have not changed. When we focus on our faults and failures that we have to deal with in our lives and not allow the Holy Spirit to lavish His total favor and acceptance as a loving friend which gives us the security feelings of God our Father in our thoughts and emotions, we participate with the shame-based entity of demonic influence that can totally manipulate us and a born again believer can be deceived and not even know it and this indeed is a scary thing.

The Devil still wants us to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and it happens when we lean towards our own understanding. For non-saved people, they can only think in terms of their behavior in right and wrong concepts because they do not have the Holy Ghost alive with in them. However, for the born again Christian, this is a disgrace. Meaning we become separated from experiencing God’s grace and we can not receive His divine favor, loving forgiveness and the power to grow and maintain our relationship with Him.

I have heard hundreds of times from born again believers in all areas of leadership and that being, if we are going to go to heaven we have to confess our sins to be forgiven. What the majority of the born again church does not understand is, the Righteous Spirit of God that lives in us is the spirit of forgiveness and if we learn how to allow the Spirit of God to flow through our heart and mind his holding power as we are experiencing His grace, makes us know that we are with out spot and wrinkle and blameless in his sight already because; we are born again of His Spirit. The wrinkle in our lives is our ignorance of rightly interpreting the word of God and in turn we think we are unclean and spotted.

The reason being, we focus on our sin base nature that Jesus atoned for on the cross. God took it from us the day we were saved; however, we continually dig up that old stinking rotted corpse from the grave because we are constantly being reminded about our sins in the majority of the churches of America today. Scripture tells us that when we received Jesus into our hearts, we became a new creation; old ways of thinking should have been put away. Scripture goes on to say that, we received the mind of Christ. This should be all basic stuff to us, who have been saved many years ago. New Christians once they recognize this principle, it is a joy to have this weight lifted from their minds and heart. If we would just teach the love of God the Father and realize what it means to be justified people in His sight, there would be more of God’s kids hungering and thirsting after Him and experience His holding power in their lives. When we have preaching that denotes that we are still a sinner it burdens the body of Christ down with the old nature that Jesus died for on the cross. This concept that I have stated through scripture must be in operation with in the Christian’s life if they are going to have a passion to walk in the admonition of the Lord. It is only them finally coming to believe this as the basic principle of God’s will and have it as a firm foundation in their lives which will allow God to be a Father to them. We will now use as a foundation and explain how loving and totally capable God is to meet our needs as our Father through the Holy Ghost by using what Jesus said to the crowd when they asked Him; teach us to pray in Matthew chapter 6.

Jesus states this in Matthew 6:7-13. “Pray, therefore, 1.) Our Father 2.) Who is in heaven, 3.) Hallowed (kept holy) is your name. 4.) Your kingdom come, 5.) Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 6.) Give us this day our daily bread. 7.) And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven (left, remitted, and let go of the debts, and have given up resentment against) our debtors. 8.) And lead (bring) us not into temptation, 9.) But deliver us from the evil one. 10.) For you are the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

1.) We begin with Jesus telling us that we have to have an awareness of having a father. If we are going to pray reverently and with passion, we better have a witness from within by the Holy Ghost that we are talking to a very real person who has as His first priority a passion and the ability to hear and answer our prayers. For years I have heard from people who have told me that, their prayers never get above the ceiling. Now we first have to identify what our heavenly Father wants to be to us His children and in the book of Hebrews we have approximately twenty names or more that tell us the type of attitude and relationship He wants to have with His children. It is as we experience it that we will learn to trust and abandon ourselves to his loving protective care. Let’s talk about these many names and define them from the Hebrew text. We stated earlier that Abba means Papa God. All these Hebrew words start with abi: representing God the Father and His many characteristics.

1. Abiyel: God the Father is a person who is a possessor and mighty in strength as a pilaster or a strong oak tree. 1 Cor. 6:19-20 tells us “Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit who lives within you, whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for and made God’s very own. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.” . So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.”

God the Father sent His best love gift when He sent Christ Jesus to die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sin nature and deliver us from being a weak willed slave unable to live in obedience to God’s law in our own strength. Scripture tells us that we must know deep with in us that we need to lean our entire person on God because; His holding power and love endures forever and those who lean on Him will never be disappointed. A person will never be able to bring true glory to God if they are still doubting there relationship in God’s kingdom because, they have never learned how to recognize God’s holding and possessive power in their lives. That is way this back sliding and going to hell doctrine in the born again churches is a demonic doctrine that acts as a disease that feeds a persons shame based nature that Jesus put to death at the cross.

We must recognize that our Christian walk is something we need to take seriously. If physical leprosy can cause nerve paralysis that makes us pervious to the pain of dying flesh then, spiritual leprosy can deaden our spiritual discernment as to the leading of the Holy Ghost in our lives. We need to become totally settled with in ourselves and learn how to rest in God’s love and understand that, there are entities that come against us in our daily living experiences who want us to doubt God’s holding power in our lives.

The ones who are called by God to teach the body of Christ how to grow to maturity must be deep rooted in God’s word and speak prophetically to the exact need with the word God if Christians are going to be sound minded and resting in God’s holding power. These novices that we have in many of the pulpits of born again churches today who are actually preaching doctrines of devils is what’s keeping God’s children as sheep being led to be slaughtered. What we have are unlearned and unschooled teachers in positions being led away by their own pride.

Paul the Apostle defines what will come against us in our daily walk with the Lord when he says in Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering, affliction, tribulation or calamity and distress? Or will persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword? Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded beyond doubt and (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul tells us that as we mature in the admonition of our Father, we can become like sheep that can be led to be slaughtered because of our stand for Jesus Christ. However, Jesus also tells us from scripture that His sheep have the capacity to hear His voice and to follow and be protected by Him. Only God’s children who have spiritual leprosy disease are the ones that do not hear His voice and are going to be slaughtered and not fulfill their designated purpose in God.

David the King said in Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me; I have your rod to protect me and and your staff to guide and comfort me” All born again believers will walk in the shadow of death because the devil is the prince of power of the air in this world that we live in. The rod represents words of correction as to one being trained for kingship as a father who passionately wants to invest royal power in His children. God’s staff is like a mother nursing her children and giving them sustenance and protection so that we as born again children of God can grow and know that every step we take is ordered by the Lord. As born again believers we must become totally persuaded as Paul was that no matter what transpires in our lives God’s love for us never changes and His heart is big enough to comfort us with out judgment and He will not forsake us no matter what things we fall prey to or how many times we become deceived by the enemy in our lives.

Proverbs 22:15 “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” A child is a slave in having a lack of good judgment. He was born that way. When God drives something, He has to compel through unpleasant conditions and take on a responsibility because of what He wants to invest in us His children.”

Proverbs 19:18 “Discipline your son while there is hope, but do not (indulge your anger resentments) by undue chastisements and set yourself to his ruin.” It is indeed sad that so many people saved and unsaved see God as a tyrant who is always ready to knock the snot out of them every time they mess up. That is absolutely ridiculous at times to tears.

Proverbs 23: 13 “Withhold not discipline from the child, for if you strike and punish him with the (reed-like rod), he will not die”

Proverbs 29:15-17. “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left undisciplined brings his mother shame. When the wicked are in authority, transgression increases, but the (uncompromising righteous) shall see the fall of the wicked. Correct your son and he will give you rest; yes he will give delight to your heart.” It is as we live in this type of tenderness and God’s unending careful watch and discipline over us as His child that makes us hungry to seek after a wisdom higher then our own and this is a must if we are going to grow to maturity.

There is a place in God where He doesn’t have to use any hard discipline as spanking solutions, and as a born again believe you can learn to rest in your Father’s care which will create in you a great desire to run to Him at all times.