Recently I attended part of a 2 day seminar about the Father Heart of God. It is a topic that I had learnt about many years ago when I was involved with the missionary organisation “Youth With A Mission”. At that time it did not impact me so much in a heartfelt way and was more the attainment of head knowledge.
However this time around the message really spoke to me in a much deeper way and was just what I needed at this time in my life. It is a wonderful thing to receive the revelation that our God, (we often call out of habit “Our Father”), does truly have the nature of a perfect Father figure to all Christian believers who are His children. God the Father is one of the important beings of our triune God – “The Trinity”. The seminar was especially interesting since the speaker James Jordon from “Father Heart Ministries” talked about how he believes that the revelation of God as “Our Father” will be revealed in an even greater way in our future church history. For instance, firstly, Martin Luther was able to illuminate the importance of the free grace of God through the monumental act of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our salvation. In effect we focus with eternal gratitude on the cross as the centre of our faith. Next came the revelation of the important place of the Holy Spirit who lives in all believers but also helps us appropriate the sheer power of God in order to help us fight sin and temptation and carry out His will for our lives. James Jordan went on to say that now we are entering an era where the revelation of God the Father and His important role for our lives and well being will be revealed in an even greater way.
Naturally this statement remains to be seen. However while listening to this teaching I did see some sense in what he was saying. Over the years churches have mainly focused on the work of Jesus and the cross (and rightly so!) because without the work of Jesus there is no foundation for the Christian faith. However even in many of the gospel tracts we read today , it is clear that Jesus was a “bridge” to God the Father. We naturally celebrate this “bridge” with overwhelming thankfulness and awe. However the Good News does not just stop there. When we finally cross that bridge it is then able to open up the huge realm and character of the Father God.
At this point many believers may say, well Jesus and the Father are one anyway (John 10:30), and also Jesus says that “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”. John (14:9). This is still true. It can be said that all the attributes of God can be seen in Jesus – the Son of God. At the same time there is also something different and powerful when a person has a revelation in his heart of seeing God as a “Father” and not only through Jesus.
From my experience, when I think of Jesus, I often think of the human being who died on the cross to save us from our sins. I picture Him as an adult man probably about 33 years of age. He is like a faithful friend or brother who is always by my side serving as the bridge along with the Holy Spirit to God. Some women may even see him as a husband type figure who is always faithful and kind. For instance nuns wear a wedding ring to symbolise their type of “marriage” or life of devotion to God.
On the other hand, when I think of the aspect of God as a Father, I see an even greater being ie an all seeing all knowing omnipotent presence. I see a huge enormous infinite presence, so vast that he is even bigger than the whole universe since he was the one who created it. When I see God as a Father I see a greater even more wondrous supernatural miraculous and infinite figure who sees me as a little child who needs to be taken care of. In this way, I can feel and receive even more of God’s overflowing love, concern, protective nature over me – that of a responsible Father not just a “friend or brother”. In receiving a revelation of the sheer enormity of God as a loving and protective “parent like” figure who is always looking after our welfare, it enables us to rest in his presence and power. It can help us to more so waylay our own fears anxieties and worries about our everyday lives.
When many people hear the words “Father” even when referring to God, it is often difficult not to be reminded of their earthly fathers. Most fathers do the best they can to raise their children and many do a good job to nurture their young toddlers to become responsible young adults. However there are also some fathers who are not able to give their children the proper love affection nurturing and male strength their children need in order to become a well adjusted and contributing members of society. Most of the time this occurs because they in turn, were not given love and nurturing by their own parents for one reason or another. Even if a child does not come from a dysfunctional family, more and more children still tend to be missing out on the nurturing of their earthly fathers. This can be due to the greater occurence of divorce and single parent families or the increasing demands of working life where Father’s need to work longer hours and hence be away from the home. The need for soldiers to go and fight in wars in different parts of the world can lead to men returning in a traumatised state. As a result they are often needing great care and counselling and hence not able to show a healthy fatherly love to their children. It could also be said that with the increase in opportunities and equal rights for women which has been a good thing in many ways, men have felt more threatened and less powerful. This may have helped to increase the occurence of child sexual abuse, since some men may feel then the need to exert power over other weaker members of the family namely the children. As a result these victims of survivors will have been deprived of the proper love of a father to help them develop into well balanced individuals.
As a consequence, our society is becoming one in which many individuals may have not received a father’s love in the proper way or if at all. How can this be rectified? It is not possible for a fully grown adult to relive his growing years with a father who was unable to provide him with proper nuture. It is also not always possible for an adult to find another pseudo “father figure” to receive patenal love again.
However all is not lost! The Good News is that we can learn about God “The Heavenly Father” who is the most perfect Father we can ever have. For instance he is perfectly pure and holy, righteous in all his ways, totally understands us and what we are going through, is merciful and gracious, forever faithful, is just and helps those in need…. we discover there is no end to his love, wonder and unmerited favour. But we cannot only acquire “head” knowledge about God the Father. Through prayer, ministry, and our own seeking, we can then ask for a deep and heartfelt revelation of the “Father Heart of God” to help us actually experience this aspect of God’s love in a personal way. In turn this can help to free us from a lot of fear worry and anxiety in our own lives.
Why not investigate the Father Heart of God for yourself? You have nothing to lose and everthing to gain.
If you would like to attend further seminars, conferences or courses which teach and minister “The Father Heart of God” see:-
1. Father Heart Ministries – www.fatherheart.net or
2. Ellel Ministries – www.ellelministries.com. Try typing into it’s search engine “Healing through the Father Heart of God” for a seminar in Australia on 1-3 August 2008.
A good book to read on the subject is “The Father Heart of God” by Floyd McClung.
Bev's New World 