The Father's Heart

I wish you could hear the Father’s heartbeat. I wish you would listen, really listen. Because half or more than half of the church has no clue who God is.

I watched two people on social media proclaim how many years they’d attended church then proceed to tear each other apart over incorrect doctrine. They were so far off-base they weren’t even in the ballgame.

I read another thread where an individual “body slammed” a rabbinic Jew. Not embraced as God’s people, not supported and prayed for Jerusalem as we are told to do, but He railed that a “Christian’s” only motive is to convert him, and there’s actually no God in the Hebrew Bible. (Ps 122:6)

Jesus’ words come to me so strong right now. “You will stand at the door and knock and demand to be let in, but I will say, ‘I never knew you.’ You will hold out all the work you say you’ve done in my name, yet I will see iniquity.” (Mt 7:21-23)

A man or woman who chooses strife and division and hate is not a “Christian,” a “Christ-follower” at all. They have no clue who He is and have never truly seen the Father’s heart. Because He will not show Himself to those who mock and slander His name. Just as standing in a theater does not make you an opera singer, sitting in church does not make you saved. (Jud 1:18; 2Pe 3:3)

I wish you could see the Father’s heart. How tender it is. How loving and kind. How good. I wish you would take off the glasses of your deception and let in the light of His truth. Stop crowing about who you are, sinful man, sinful Christian, and focus, instead, on who He is. Because without Him, we are nothing. Nothing at all.

We have ruined His reputation with our bitterness. We have lied about Him and cheated and thieved and stolen. We have celebrated heroes of an ungodly culture and given our time to entertainment He has not blessed. We turn our gaze to man instead of the God of heaven. If you knew Him, if you really knew Him, you’d crave Him and no one else. One taste, one moment in His presence, and you’d never be satisfied. Everything else, as the songwriter so aptly sang, “grows strangely dim.” (“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” by Helen H. Lemmel, 1922)

READ HIS WORD for yourself. READ IT. There, in many places, He has given a full description of Himself. See His heart, today, in the words of His prophet Isaiah.

“Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” (Isaiah 58:5-7)

We get stuck on the fasting, on the giving things up, and not on what they will produce. The Father asks, “Is this the fast I’ve asked you to do? Do you fast to put on a show for others so they will see you as holy?” (Mt 6:5) That is not a fast at all. Nor it is about the rules of fasting, what we will or will not give up.

Hear the Father’s heart. Fasting is so that the bands of wickedness will loosen and fall away, so that the heavy burdens will lift, so that the oppressed in mind and body will go free. It is so that we will see His heart for the poor, for the naked, for the hungry.

Lest you doubt me. Read now the words of Acts.

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38)

Jesus came to DO GOOD and to HEAL THOSE WHO WERE OPPRESSED OF THE DEVIL. God was WITH HIM to do these things. Not oppressed of God then set free of God. Jesus spoke about that kind of divided ignorance. (Lk 11:18)

NO OPPRESSION COMES FROM GOD. God isn’t up there randomly placing burdens on people to see how they will manage it. That is NOT His heart, and if you think it is, you are wrong. He is sovereign, yes, but don’t blame sovereignty. He is sovereign to His Word, to His promises, to His goodness, to His great love, to His everlasting mercy. That is what He is sovereign to.

I cannot help but defend Him with these words.

I cannot help but urge you to set down what you thought you knew and to look at Him again, look hard, look closely. Seek Him intently and He will be found of you. You will know it when you do, and all that you were, all that you are, all those things you think you like and care about, will take on a new view. His perspective, His way of planning and organizing, His reason for His timing, His amazing, incredible will for you will become EVERYTHING.

If He doesn’t blow your mind, then you don’t know Him at all. If you find Him boring and out of date, then you haven’t seen Him. If you are angry at Him and pointing fingers of hate, He loves you. So incredibly much. So much, in fact, that He came to earth and suffered a horrible death, so you didn’t have to be that way. And you don’t even have to earn it. It’s free!

“I’m good like I am,” you say.

But, no, you are not, and I pray right now He proves it to you.

Holy Spirit, come and whisper in the ears of these people, tell them … show them what you can do. And raise from the ashes of their lives a new generation, a generation of believers such as the earth has never seen before, who “go forth” in your name, Father, and lay hands on the sick and see them recover. (Mt 28:18-20) Who aren’t satisfied with half-baked Christianity and a warm seat on a padded pew but would rather put their feet and hands to the gospel and become the church as you want it to be. An extension of your heart. Make that of us. Make us your instrument, and we will rise and display your glory.

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark 16:17-18)

Image by James Chan from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.feelgoodromance.com
www.suzannedwilliams.com