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.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory...
The primary purpose of your existence is to know God as Father. He created you for relationship, intimacy and fellowship. To enjoy, rejoice and worship Him - now on earth, and forever into all Eternity. Within this relationship we discover our identity and purpose in life.
Scripture confirms this by giving us the right to relate to God with the title ‘Abba Father’, an expression of affection and tenderness under parental authority (Rom 8:15). This is an incredible privilege and invitation to all mankind. We are to relate to God not so much as our Creator, our Master or the King of Glory…. but our Abba Father.
The truth is you will treat yourself and others according to the way you think God feels about you. All of us have gone through moments in life where we have experienced rejection, shame, betrayal or disappointment, at a peer level and parental authority level. Even when we have stuffed up, God is never ashamed of you as His child.
‘In love He predestined us…’
Ephesians 1:3-6
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
We have literally been hand picked and chosen by God, before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. We are children of the King. We have been predestined to be adopted as His sons.
That means Father God treats us as His own beloved children. We no longer are alone, or outcast or abandoned. When we meet Jesus, the adoption by our Father is guaranteed!
We live in a world that is strongly performance based, where a person’s value and worth is determined by what they do, not who they are. But this is the direct opposite with our relationship with God. When we come to Christ, we have value and worth because of who we are, not because of anything we ever do.
The Father Heart desires to completely shower His unconditional love on all those He has called and chosen, simply because we are His children. Our role is to simply respond to Him and receive! It is His passion and heart for us to fully experience an incredible relationship with the Father Heart. To feel His embrace, to be secure in His acceptance, to know Him on a deeply personal level.
Spirit of Sonship = The Fathers Heart
However, many believers do not experience this incredible relationship for a variety of reasons. Life can throw us many difficult challenges and bring many hurts and pain that put up walls between us and the Father Heart. Specifically, there are two types of spirits we can possess as believers which determine our ability to receive the Father Heart…
Spirit of Bondage / Slavery
• Independent and self-reliant, insecure with no peace, works mentality of striving to please God, competitive, compares easily, can’t 100% trust God, struggles in faith
Spirit of Adoption / Sonship
• Feels free and secure in God’s Love, free from guilt, shame, condemnation, value and value in relationship with God, experiences deep intimacy, peace and joy in God
The journey from Slavery to Sonship generally does not come to us naturally at salvation. An orphan or sonship spirit can reside over an individual, a church, a city or a nation. The transition from an orphan to a son comes when we have an experiential revelation of the Father God’s love for ourselves, as well as a repositioning of our heart toward sonship.
God wants to pour out this Spirit of Sonship and adoption into our hearts, until we know just how extravagantly we are loved and delighted in. Once we know how loved we are, we will invite others to come up to the table and feast with their Father.
You are already a complete success in your Abba Father’s eyes - not for what you have done or will do, but simply because of what Jesus did for you on the cross.
John 17:22-23 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved Me.The greatest hindrance to receiving this gift of sonship is trying to earn what we have already been freely given. The harder we try to earn it, the further away we move away from Him. This is self-righteousness. What we need is the new kind of righteousness that comes only by faith.
Jesus took our place on the cross so that we could take His place with the Father, the glory of sonship! Our salvation is all-inclusive, both redemption and adoption. Have you experienced this blessing Jesus bought for you? If not, “Ask and it shall be given unto you” (Matt 7:7)
Testimony #1 - Unknown
At one meeting, a pastor from a large church in Asia wrote, "I see God the Father as distant, unapproachable, unreasonable, hard to please, strict, perfectionist, demanding, silent, absent and to be feared. I see myself as unworthy, insignificant, a failure and disposable.
He was projecting the rejection and judgment he had suffered from his earthly father onto God and interpreting everything that was happening in his life through his past experience.
"I now know that God is not like that. He is not hard on me. He is gentle and humble of heart. He doesn't see me as never measuring up. He sees me covered with grace, and He alone will strengthen and perfect me."
Childlike Faith the Key
Matthew18:2-4 The disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He called a little child … and said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
The simple truth is that we need a father., to be parented. Inside each of us is a little child that needs to be loved. That is why Jesus says we must humble ourselves and become like little children.
How can a grown man become like a little child? Men are just little boys, and women like little girls who have just gotten big! - Anonymous
Testimony #2 – Peter Jackson, Canada
Through the window of His eyes, I saw into His heart. With one look, He communicated that He loved me with his whole heart. He wasn't measuring me by my works to see if my works deserved His love, He loved me regardless of my works. He could see right through me, into my heart. He knew me completely: present, past and future and still loved me. He knew my weaknesses, my failings and my sin. He knew how many times I had made promises only to break them. Yet that had not diminished even a tiny bit of His love.
My worth to Him was not determined by anything I had done in the past or will do in the future. It was solely determined by what Jesus did for me on the cross two thousand years ago. He has always loved me and always will. I knew that I would never be able to add to that value by what I do. I received in that moment a gift of God's grace, the gift of sonship. I knew now that I had the same value that Jesus has to the Father and knew the meaning of Romans 8:15 … but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'
It was like the day that I became a Christian. I laughed and cried at the same time realizing that God, my Father loved me with an unconditional, everlasting love. For the first time, I felt true honor. I was already secure in the love of Jesus, but now I know that I am secure in the love of the Father as well.
Believe today that you are a cherished Son of the family of God first, a servant a distant second. Church and Heaven are a place of Total Acceptance. Everyday you should be getting up in the morning and your first thought is knowing you are loved and accepted by the Father God.His heart is that we would run to Him in every moment of crises, every moment of success, every moment of temptation, and every moment of suffering. God is saying to all of us ‘come home’. Where is home? Anywhere He is…
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