Our Perfect Father
How are we to share the wonderful truths of God with those who do not know Him or His ways? Many need the assurance of knowing they are loved before their spiritual ears are open to the truth. So the good news of the Kingdom is first shared in love, about Him Who is Love. It is about having an intimate relationship with God.
We are created to be in relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord and, through Him, with Father God. We are meant to be restored to the wonderful and natural deep intimacy that Adam and Eve had with the Father in the Garden of Eden. It surely is a long trip back to the Father! Coming to realize that God is our Father and is the perfect Parent for bringing us to maturity has great power to create within us the character of Christ.
None of us had perfect parents nor are we perfect in parenting our children. Thankfully, God created us so that He would be in a relationship with us for eternity. We heal in connection, in relationship, which is where, of course, we also get wounded. In many ways, our walk with Him is a process of reparenting by Father God, with Jesus the Pattern Son. Jesus emphasized that the most important commandment is:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22: 37-39 NIV
These two commandments are about relationships of full and complete love, flowing from heart to heart! Why is it challenging to believe that God delights in us, that He’s happy to hear from and talk with us, that communion with us is a joy to Him? Such it was in the beginning, before the fall, when Adam walked with God in the cool of the evening. Have we heard ministry that caused fear of the wrath of God and His swift punishment for wrongdoing more than of His great love, endless compassion and mercy?
Is this struggle also in part because those who were supposed to love us failed in it? All of us fail in perfect love for others, falling short in even our own standards, including in the raising of our children. Nevertheless, we have a Lord Who is a faithful pattern of how it can be done. It is very hard to absorb that the God of the entire universe likes and enjoys us, but He most certainly does! We need to trust this, to rest in the truth of it!
We may read and read the many scriptures that declare God’s love for all of us, but it needs to become a reality to us, written in our hearts. We need assurance, faith in our hearts, that God loves us–even us! And to go further by accepting whom He loves, He disciplines:
“Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:19-20 NASB
This word from the Lord is given to the Laodicean church who thinks they are rich and need no more from God. God reminds the self-satisfied that discipline is a sign that He is very fond of us! It is an example to any of us who are satisfied, resting in what we have. There are many Christians who seem to believe that what they have is all there is to have in God. All that God is teaching and doing is found in them, in their church, their fellowship, their ministries, and their present path. They will tell you what they have is it!
He admonishes us to hear His voice and open the door to Him. We are to open the door of our heart and all the rooms, the cubicles and hidey-holes, found there. Adversity is not a sign of God’s displeasure or wrath but part of His plan as the most excellent Parent to His spiritual offspring. Love includes discipline as a vital part. God is clearly stating that those He is fond of need to change, to repent as He is exposing what is in our hearts.
God desires intimate fellowship with us but some of our fleshly conditions are in the way. He is inviting us to share meals of His word, dining with Him as He promises when we repent of complacency and self-satisfaction. Remember we are talking about God’s “Zoe” love, not human love. It is complete and ever-present, even when we don’t think it is or cannot feel it. God sees all and understands every heart. He is measuring us with His holy, righteous character, bringing the tests and trials needed for us, His children.
“I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place. Your covenant with death will be dissolved, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be trampled by it.
As often as it passes through, it will carry you away; it will sweep through morning after morning, by day and by night. The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror. Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket too small to wrap around you.” Isaiah 28:17-20 Berean
This passage of scripture, like so many others from Old and New Testament prophets, sounds very frightening. There is no place to hide from God, but it need not be frightening for those of us who know His love. It is only frightening for anyone who is doing evil while thinking they are hiding out from God. The bed is too short and the blanket of lies no longer wraps around sin to cover it up.
Hail is just hardened water, and water represents the word and spirit of God. Some will need a hardened word to get through their shells of unrighteousness and unbelief. Things we all thought hidden, even from ourselves, are swept away by the water of the world. We made a covenant, an agreement with death in the Garden. God promises to dissolve, annul, make of no effect the agreement we made with death. In fact, Jesus Christ did exactly this for us on the cross.
The Hebrew word “kaphar,” here translated as “dissolved,” means to “cancel, appease, make atonement for, cleanse, disannul, forgive, pardon, purge away, make reconciliation.” Do we understand now what He is saying? He will tear down and destroy any lies that we hide in our hearts or ways we externally hide ourselves from Him. He is bringing an end to our covenant with death. The purpose and plan of God is to reconcile all unto Himself.
“And He is the Head of the body, the ecclesia, Who is Sovereign, Firstborn from among the dead, that in all He may be becoming first, for in Him the entire complement delights to dwell,
and through Him to reconcile all to Him (making peace through the blood of His cross), through Him, whether those on the earth or those in the heavens.” Colossians 1:18-20 Concordant Literal
Jesus Christ already destroyed death and hell. Now He is bringing His victory to us through continual waters of change. There’s no place to hide from Him but we who seek Him and His life are glad of it! It is good news! We learn to run to our Father, not hide from Him as a disobedient child fearful of a parent’s wrath! As we see the chains of death continually fall off His own, we say with Paul:
“‘Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 Berean
We know that death is still “stinging” us. We see it in the illness and aging of our physical bodies as we grow older, as well as all the death and tragedy around us, but our Lord Jesus Christ is giving us the victory that He has won. We humans are unable to keep the law in our flesh, with our strength, but Jesus Christ has done it for us. We are now learning to walk in His victory, step by step, defeating death within. He is replacing this death with His life, in the spirit, where we live forever and ever with Him.
Father God is a Perfect Parent Who is wise, loving, and firm with us. A wise parent loves and disciplines, setting limits so the child learns how to live a balanced life. We parents surely have huge challenges in being like Father God when we are raising our children. Discipline is an essential part of the process. How crippling it is for a child to “do no wrong” in a parent’s eyes! That is very different from unconditional love for a child while raising them in the way they need to go.
“Train up a child in the way he should go [teaching him to seek God's wisdom and will for his abilities and talents]. Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:5 NIV
We require godly wisdom to raise a child in the way he or she should go. Any parent with more than one child soon learns that children are different from each other. All children need God’s wisdom, to be nurtured in the path God has for each according to their abilities. God knows this completely since He created each of us. He knows that some need stronger discipline while others will turn, be obedient, with just a word. He does not parent in fear, though the word has often been taught that way. Everything Father God does is good and how we need Him to nurture and guide our own children!
God knows how to deal with His spoiled children too. Any one of us can find ourselves behaving poorly with Him, particularly if our parents did not raise us well in all areas. (Who did?!) Watch what happens when we don’t get our way with God, when He takes a different direction in our lives than what we had planned for, or when He has us in His waiting room. When children are not properly equipped to live a good and productive life, God will dealswith it later if they come to Him and allow it. But such parents cause later grief for their children, whether they realize it at the time or not.
When we surrender our child and our parenting to God, He rules in bringing the necessary corrective experiences, always with redemptive justice. We see how Father God is doing it and He enables us to do as He does. His love truly heals us. God excels at healing our children from wounds and errors that made in raising them. Thank God that we learn God has healing for any wounds, intentional or not, that parents cause in their children!
In this Day of the Lord, with the Feast of Tabernacles coming into reality, we are being drawn to be Fathered by our most perfect heavenly Father. Having a relationship with God the Father, made possible by Jesus Christ, is easier for those of us who have had godly fathers who did their best to raise us in the love of the Lord. For others whose earthly fathers caused harm, this may be a barrier to trusting our heavenly father. James said:
“Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and lives?
Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.” Hebrews 12:9-10 Berean
The purpose of submission to the Father of all spirits is to live, truly live by sharing in His holiness. How amazing is that?! He disciplines us for our good, always. His justice is always redemptive, sent to change us, redeeming us from the sin and death working within. We are to share in His holiness. It is our destiny. Our parents did what they did, but nothing is beyond what God provides us as the complete Parent. We are not to fear His discipline, but welcome it as it proves we belong to Him!
“Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.” Hebrews 12:7-8 Berean
God’s discipline comes from the trails and suffering in this life. How often we long to have this not be true, particularly for our children, but it is nonetheless so. We learn to trust that, through experiences He allows, He is building His character within. He clears out all of our “refuge of lies” that we accumulate in this life. Some of these lies are things we’ve come to believe about ourselves, the world and God that are just not true.
One of the most common lies is that we are not lovable or good enough and that we have to earn God’s love like we may have experienced with humans. God’s love, however, is freely given, unearned, while we were yet in sin. How humans need to truly know this! He has a myriad of ways and people to reveal this and other lies we have accumulated walking in this earthly existence. He utilizes chosen vessels, vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, to help us along the way. He even uses those who do not know Him for the benefit of those of us who do.
These lies may be what we grew up believing about ourselves, the world, and God, but they are not truth. It is how we explain to ourselves what happened to us, but it does not match what God says about us, the world, and Himself. God carefully exposes all the falsehood we have absorbed along the way, burning it up by the truth of the spirit. The holy spirit is sent for just this purpose:
“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” John 16:13 NASB
All truth comes by the guidance of the Holy spirit! Jesus told this to the disciples, saying He had much to teach them but they could not yet understand until the holy spirit came. The holy spirit is sent to dwell within us to guide us into all of His truth, tearing down lies and falsehoods, most particularly about God, that we have gathered along the way. Some children, sadly, learn that they will never be good enough to earn their parent’s love. Some have unrelenting standards that no human can meet.
These and other falsehoods can hinder the growing relationship with Father God. Some get love and attention when they perform well, only to have it withdrawn when they don’t. Many of these are among God’s hardest workers in the kingdom, still needing to learn from God how to rest in His unfailing love without continually performing for Him. It is a good thing we have a lifetime to walk with Him and will be with Him forever in our spiritual homeland. These things take time!
If we are going to be with God forever, His very presence continues the work He has begun. His purpose is certain:
“You, therefore, will be perfect [growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily life], as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48 Amplified
Perfect. Complete. Whatever God decrees, He will accomplish. This is a commandment that we are to seek after, to allow to work in us. Whatever degree of perfection reachable in this life is up to God’s plan. It will be completed, on this side or the other. As we grow up into the Lord Jesus Christ, our model of perfection, we are changed, written upon, growing toward having the fullness of Christ dwell within us. This is our Father’s business, to develop many others as sons and daughters of the Lord Most High to rule and reign in the Kingdom of Life.
A father’s highest purpose is to be able to bring up his children to be good citizens of life. That is just what our heavenly Father’s business is also, to complete His promise to us to become joint heirs, to rule and reign with Him in His eternal kingdom:
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Romans 8:14-17 Berean
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Beloved, now we are children of God; it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:1-2 Berean
Suffering brings glory with Christ, Who suffered unjustly and unfairly. When we suffer though innocent of wrong, we are sharing in Christ’s suffering. Fear of God brings torment and bondage, but the holy spirit connects us to the Father by the spirit of adoption as His children. Ah, but some of you may be thinking, “Don’t we have to wait until heaven to be perfected?” Good question!
Do you see any qualifiers for this to be postponed, any scripture that says we must wait? Seeing God as He is begins as soon as we get acquainted with Him. God continues to unfold more and more as we mature. If we do not attain this prize while on the earth, that is God’s timing and God’s business, but we surely miss out if we postpone the path to maturity until then. We must keep on, come up higher in the spirit, pursuing the prize of the high callling to be where He is, for this process of perfection to work.
On the way, we join Paul in confessing:
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal of winning the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.
All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view. And if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal this to you as well.…” Philippians 3:13-15 Berean
Paul urges the mature to embrace this point of view, pressing on toward our heavenly calling of perfection in Him. In God the Father, we have the perfect Parent, a balanced combination of love and justice. Our Creator knows each of us to our very core. He knows that some are tenderhearted and only need a word or a small prompt from the spirit to obey. Others are made of sterner stuff, the strong-willed among us, requiring stronger discipline, perhaps even some “hail” to work the changes to righteous character He has planned for His people to show forth.
Who but our Creator understands us inside and out? We need a perfect Father Who will nurture and guide us into all truth. I pray every Christian goes as far as God will take them, never limiting God because we have not yet seen Him do it. I celebrate and humbly bow before the truth that is worked in love beyond what I know or have experienced to date. How foolish I would be if I thought no one walking with God has gone further than I have or what I have seen in those believers around me!
We have faith in what He promises, like Abraham who looked for a city not made with hands. He saw things that were not as though they were. His faith was counted as righteousness and he was called a Friend of God. Think of it!
“As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’ He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist…
being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised.” Romans 4:17;21 Berean
Isn’t believing what we cannot yet see but is promised by God, what faith is all about? When there was no earthly way that Abraham and Sarah would physically be able to produce a child, with Sarah’s womb closed and barren with age, Abraham was fully persuaded that God was able to do what He promised. Abraham’s faith remained strong through the test of obedience when God directed him to sacrifice his only, precious child, Isaac, the seed of promise. That is quite the faith test!
When we know that God is our Father, learning to relate to Him like His beloved child, life opens up in many ways. Wise earthly fathers prepare their sons and daughters to take their place in the world. So, too, our heavenly, perfect Father prepares us to take our place in His kingdom. He prepares each of us for the calling, the place in His body of believers that is our destiny.
While earthly fathers hope for that day of independence when their children are established on their own, we will always need our heavenly Father. He is our life and lives in our hearts, in the center of our being. We will always have Jesus Christ our Lord, within and beside us, leading us on to victory! He promised to be with us always, just as He promised His disciples when He commissioned them for the work they were called to do:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 Berean
The disciples could not imagine going on without Jesus. Later, they understood how He would be with them always in the spirit, after the Day of Pentecost. After that day, there is no record of Him appearing in His spiritual body to His faithful believers. Now He is coming within them. They had already endured the death by crucifixion of their beloved Master. They had gone through a difficult period of transition from the old covenant into the new. Everyone has access to our heavenly Father rather than just those who followed Him during His days on this earth.
As a perfect Father, God does hold unyielding standards for His people, empowering us to meet them as His workmanship, not in our own strength. If we think God’s love does not include limits, all we have to do is push against one of His limits set to protect us. We then feel the loving limit He sets. His deep love for the world will never change His requirements for holiness and righteousness. That’s why He makes a way for us all, through Jesus Christ, to be holy and righteous, just as He is. He is unmovable and unchanging in His nature of love and mercy.
God is more compassionate than the “my way or the highway” some authoritative parents have said. Nonetheless, we still may find ourselves on the back side of the desert, as Moses did, or in God’s woodshed when He deals with our disobedience. It is security to have a Father who is unyielding to our foolish, often childish, wants and ways. God is not like us human parents, whose parental ways may occasionally depend on our personality, our mood, or the day’s experiences.
God is faithful and true, delighting in giving His children good things:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17 KJV
Our perfect Father is always the same, yesterday, today and forever. He is always true to His name His nature. We can rely on both love and correction from Him. We do not have to worry that we can do something to cause Him to suddenly turn away from us. Inconsistency from an earthly father is harder for a child than consistent abuse and criticism. It is confusing for a child to wonder if she or he will get a hug or a hit, a kind word or a severe rebuke for the slightest infraction. We do not have to fear this from God. We learn to know Him and to trust His dealings with us.
Can you see that we all need a perfect Parent to correct what we humans, even with the best of intentions, do when we are raising children? God has it all covered, including His maternal side, El Shaddai, covering us up with His wings, just like Momma birds do with their chicks:
“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings, you will find refuge;
His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” Psalms 91:4 NIV
For those who have or had an earthly father who provided safety and protection when we were weak or vulnerable, you have been most blessed! You can connect more easily with Father God’s safe and loving spiritual embrace. Those who did not have this childhood provision can seek the corrective experience now of being Fathered by our God. We are all growing up in Him as He heals the inevitable wounds in our earthly existance.
It is the purpose of Jesus Christ to reconcile all of us to Father God, to the intimate fellowship that was lost long ago. Jesus said we’d have trouble as long as we were in the world, but He overcame the world! How thankful we are to have Father God take charge of our innermost being, writing truth on our hearts, and guiding us in every step we take. He is absolutely the Perfect Father! Let us run to Him in complete trust and faith in His goodness and love for each one of us!