Knowing The Father

"God's ways are not a mystery."

WHO CAN GOD TRUST with His most intimate secrets? To whom can He tell His truth? Many hands go up, yet there are, actually, only a few and many reasons why or why not, as the case may be. Maturity is the biggest. Because with maturity comes humility and willingness and obedience. A mature child of God knows the Father’s character, His methods and principles, and lives by them. That man is not self-centered.

“Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man?” (1 Corinthians 3:1-3 BSB)

The devil is an egotist. He thinks only of himself, what he can get away with, who he can damage, and how he will feel when that happens. He became the first (archon) sinner by deciding to take over God’s throne (Isaiah 14:13). He has pressed this attitude into the hearts of men, speaking always from the idea of survival. Jesus came to set us free from the fear of death and the need to survive. The devil is a thief. He will steal your time, your social life, your friendships, your creativity, your marriage, by presenting ideas that make you feel like you have come up short; you are not enough. He uses either depression or ego, the sinking of emotion or the puffing up of it (1 Corinthians 13:4). Christ has made us equal. There is no male or female greater than each other, slave or free greater than each other, nor any nationalities or cultures who are better for any reason. In Him, we are all sinners saved by grace. Grace is simply God’s favor and strength to make us better, cleansed of our sins, and well-able to live long healthy lives.

That is the Father’s heart. Not just that He allows us or desires us to live well, but He provides us with His power to do it. He loves us to His greatest extent, and filled with His love, we trust Him for anything and every desire of our heart. His desires become ours. We can see His heart, what He sent Jesus to earth to do in the gospels and the book of Acts. Jesus came to heal all that were oppressed of the devil, we are told in Acts 10:38. John 3:16-17 tell us Jesus was not sent to condemn us but to give us everlasting life. In John 5, Jesus says all judgment was given to Him from the Father. This sounds threatening, and it can be read as a warning to those who choose to “act like the devil,” but instead, it is that Jesus came as the Lamb of God to fulfill the Old Covenant and begin the New Covenant.

He was the sacrifice which redeemed all mankind because God the Father willed it to be. Jesus is the Christ and has always been the Christ – before His birth in Bethlehem when He was the Word, after His birth when He walked as a man on this earth, and after His Resurrection when He returned to the Father’s right hand. He has never NOT been the Christ. From birth, He was born of the Spirit, and because He never sinned, He never belonged to darkness. Jesus stated this, “He [the devil] has nothing in me (John 14:30).” Jesus’ death only happened when the Spirit of God commanded Him to let go of His spirit man (Luke 23:46). Death had no hold on Him at all, and with His death, He removed the fear of death which had held all of mankind in bondage (Hebrews 2:15). We were slaves in our thinking to the things of darkness. The prophet Isaiah spoke of a future when the Word of God would be “inscribed on minds and hearts.” MINDS and HEARTS. It is as important to KNOW God’s Word in our thinking processes as it is to have Him in our heart.

Many are saved yet have no knowledge of God’s character. They continue to think like the world where one man vies for a place over the other. They don’t know how He works and so speak like unsaved men, being full of argument and criticism. God is love. This is the first principle of the kingdom of God. His love sent Jesus. His love now lives in us and should be the force which drives us. God’s love is far larger in scope and power than most people have an understanding. What is acknowledged with a nod is passed by in their behavior. But He didn’t save you just to have you in heaven. He saved you to make you a gift from heaven, your life an example of heaven’s grandeur here on the earth. So much so, people see the difference between you and sinful men.

“How does she handle that so calmly?”
“How is it he can do what he does, day in and day out, and not complain?”
“What keeps their marriage together, so solid and at peace?”
“Why aren’t they suing for what they ought to get after what happened to them?”

“All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” (Luke 10:22)

God’s ways are not a mystery anymore as some have said, using Old Testament Scripture. Jesus revealed the Father fully and we can see Him now in you and me. We can speak to Him, and He is delighted to hear from us and speak to us. Prophet Hank Kunneman gave a prophetic word, several months ago, in which the Spirit spoke first, then the Father. You hear the change in His voice and the pacing of His Words. I knew it instantly because the Father speaks to me, and though this came out of hardship, He isn’t waiting for someone to “go through the fire” first before they can talk with Him. But you must learn to listen and apply yourself to recognize Him.

You must dig deeper to understand what is being said. There is a reason for this. He hungers for sincerity, for integrity, and for us to walk constantly in His truth. To those who will, who give up their “bread” or their emotions, choices, and selfish thinking, as Jesus did when He walked this earth, there is an unlimited fount of wisdom and knowledge to receive. I will be one of those who choose to know, who choose to lay down my ways and pick up His. The reward is worth it and the strength of heart, knowing the Father of all, the Greater One, as Jesus stated, would open His heart and share it with me. Would share it with you.

“God always makes his grace visible in Christ, who includes us as partners of his endless triumph. Through our yielded lives he spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere we go.” (2 Corinthians 2:14 TPT)

“The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.” (Hebrews 10:16)

Image by Sabine van Erp from Pixabay


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