There are many things we know and understand intellectually and by hearing them over and over are absorbed as truth, yet without a personal emotional experience that connects us to the heart of our Father. It is this defining moment with the heart of God that has the potential to change us forever, and with it, the unraveling of every lie that has affected our belief system. I cannot fully explain my own recent experience with God - except to say that nothing I have experienced impacted my perception of God’s Fatherhood as powerfully as it did when He suddenly showed up and birthed a cry of “Abba, Father in to my heart, and the wonderful realization that I have a DAD who loves me and will do anything for me!”The truth is, I always had a Father who loved me, I just couldn't see it because the enemy was messing with my thoughts and emotions. I always had a Dad who wanted a relationship with me, but different aspects of my brokenness from my childhood prevented me from being able to relate to Him in a more meaningful way. I knew God was my heavenly father, but intimacy was lacking. The enemy still had seeds of mistrust that were buried so deep I didn't know how to get them out, and he used those seeds of lies to bring me back under condemnation, guilt and legalism whenever it seemed convenient to him. Those lies also told me I was alone, orphaned, and uncared for.
Then, in one moment, my heart has been changed forever. But the most powerful thing about this defining moment in my relationship with "Dad" is that this revelation suddenly shattered lies that had been intricately woven by the enemy since very young childhood. The enemy lost his grip that day. All the seeds of lies that were continuing to operate in my belief system, trying to convince me that I had to work to please God, self effort that tried to pull me back under the law, seeds of mistrust, frustration, and so many other things that warped my understanding of Father God and His Word - began to unravel. Because every lie was an accusation against His character. Every lie was tied to feelings of rejection in one way or another. My own father was mentally ill as long as I can remember. He fathered me, but he was never a dad. He was absent mentally, emotionally and physically most of my life because of his condition. One simply cannot have a healthy, emotionally fulfilling relationship with someone that is not mentally healthy and stable. When it came to being saved and trying to relate to a heavenly Father, it was completely foreign to me. Sure, I can understand the many other aspects of the Lord such as Healer, Deliverer, Savior, King, Provider, and many other dimensions of His nature and character - the I was still missing a very vital component to the heart of God.
There are many other people in the same boat. Many people that for one reason or another, need this powerful revelation in order to feel truly whole. God wants to radically change our perception of Him so that we receive the deep healing that will transform our belief system and change who we are. I continue to pray that those that have felt abandoned, misunderstood, rejected, unwanted and orphaned would have the same experience I have. That the Spirit of Sonship would be poured out into your hearts, thereby settling, establishing and reaffirming the faith and confidence you have towards your Heavenly Father. This is the perfect love that casts out all fear and makes us bold in our prayers!
It truly is the Spirit of Elijah that carries with it the ability to turn the hearts of the children to the Father, and the fathers to their children. God gave me a personal point of reference to be able to connect with His heart. It all started with a word study related to a portion of scripture in Micah chapter 7. In verse 19, the word compassion is used. It is the Hebrew word 'racham' which means to love from the womb. It depicts the tender love of a mother for her own helpless child and it speaks of the depth of compassion associated with this expression of love. Now, this is where the revelation flooded my heart. I could not relate so much to the whole father relationship because mine was lacking, but I could related to how a mother deeply loves a baby in her womb because I'm a mother. Over and over, waves of God's love poured out as He healed the deep issues of my past. Broken areas of my emotions, my heart and understanding were restored and made whole. I was filled with joy, relief, gratitude and I cried rivers of tears. Holy Spirit poured in the revelation of sonship and so much more that day and the moment He did, the struggles from my past, the lies, the religious misconceptions and even the understanding of how prosperity and formula preaching had defiled my heart. All those things had only added to the misunderstanding I had of God in my belief system yet never knew was there.
Some people have absent parents for what ever reason, or those relationships have been broken or estranged. Those things affect us deeply and can produce feelings of abandonment. But the other reality is that religion also produces a sense of being orphans and being fatherless because it substitutes rules, traditions of men and legalism for genuine relationship. It keeps people's hearts from truly connecting with their Father. This may be a blind spot in people, but again, I encourage you to search your own heart and ask Yourself if your relationship with God is one of intimacy, trust, faith, and confidence towards Him as your Father. Do you feel secure in His love, or do you fight feelings of inferiority, fear, insecurity and condemnation? Are you working for your salvation, or are you resting in His complete grace and what the blood of Jesus has made available to you? It is He that justifies. It is He that sanctifies. Jesus did it all. We can add nothing to the gospel or take nothing away; otherwise it becomes perverted with a mixture of man's beliefs and traditions, diluted of power and impure.
My friends, many people have ambition. Many people desire to do good things for God. Many seek the praise of men or have a need to be recognized because inwardly they seek the fulfillment of something that gives them LIFE. But "things" cannot give us life. Only Jesus can give us life. It must come directly from the life-giver. He must have our hearts before we can do the greater things of the kingdom. We can try to do a lot of "things" but if we fail at loving God and loving others we have ultimately failed the greatest commandment Jesus ever gave us: to love God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. That is the gospel in a nutshell. We are judged by how well we love. None of us will never be able to love others unconditionally and purely without this revelation of the Fatherhood of God. We will never be able to free ourselves from fear or insecurity in our relationship with God and experience the passion of the Lord without a deep understanding that releases the love of God from our heart to His. 1 John 4: 18 tells us that he who fears has not been made perfect in love. It's not God's love that needs to be perfected, it's ours. When you receive the revelation of His deep, unconditional love towards you, it really will cast out all fear. Would you like to become fearless before the enemy? Set free in your mindset? Bold in faith? Absolutely convinced that God is on your side and will do anything to insure your victory? Then ask for a deeper revelation of Him, because you will never move from where you are now to where you need to go without the faith to get you there. Ask for the Spirit of His dear Son to be poured out in your heart by the Holy Spirit and fill every part of you to make you whole. We love Him because He first loved us, and it's the personal revelation of this deep, sacrificial love that gives understanding to every other scripture. He who did not spare His Son for us, but delivered Him up as a living sacrifice for us all (Rom. 8:32) is YOUR DAD and He will do anything for you. How could He not? This is the love that is spoken of in Romans 8:38 which tells us that nothing - absolutely nothing - can ever separate us from this love of our Father who is found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I believe that it is paramount to people being awakened in their heart to know God, and when that occurs, it will have such a deep impact that it transforms their heart, their belief system and their faith. It will impact them to such a degree that their lives will suddenly take a new direction and follow after the Lord. This is a key to winning the lost and partnering with God in the harvest. How shall they know unless someone is sent to them? How shall they hear the gospel unless someone speaks? Yet let us deliver a pure gospel that comes not by the teaching of man, but by revelation from the Lord Himself. When purity returns to the gospel, it really will be seen as the good news. Not just as a "get out of jail free card," but the answer to the needs of our heart and soul. The response on each of our lips should be a grateful, "Here I am Lord, send me. "
Note: If you are curious about the trademarks of a fatherless generation and statistically how impacting and devastating they are, you should do a little research, but recognize that statistics are only an outward indicator of an inward reality. People that feel orphaned or fatherless struggle with deep feelings of rejection, resentment, fear, anger, shame, insecurity, inferiority and much more. We will never resolve the problems of society without first addressing the issues of the heart and soul. Healing is the first answer, not the last. We will never produce change in society, reduce the crime rate, see the reduction of runaways, people delivered from drugs and prostitution, break people free from generational poverty and other important aspects of transformation if we do not first focus on the healing and restoration of people's hearts. Change is produced when the belief system is transformed and restored. Transformation occurs one life at a time and it comes by the love and power of God to heal broken lives.
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