Most people sometimes get their first impression of God through their relationship with their earthly father and quite often than not they tend to relate to God in the same manner as they do with their father.
A person that had a poor relationship with his/her earthly father often finds it difficult to understand or appreciate the Fatherhood of God or the outpouring of love by God. Love expressed by us are emotional and sometimes egocentric but the love of God is self-sacrificing and agape in nature. It is a love that is not stem from a need to promote one self.
Note: At the Baptism of Jesus, God expressed His love to His son and called Him my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. This was an introduction to the Fatherhood of God and of His love.
The Jews had always known God by the various revelations of His character and as such accorded names to Him such as Yahweh, Adonai, El Shaddai, Elohim, Jehovah, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Tsidkenu, Jehovah Shalom, and many others, but they were unable to fathom God as a Father .
This can explain why throughout their Journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, they never felt the urge to know or see Him personally and were contended to have Moses, Joshua acting as their intermediaries. And their lack of being able to perceive the fatherhood of God made them to commit one of the most enormous crime against Christ.
John 19: 7 The Jews answered him, “we have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God”
Important: But the advent of Christ was to introduce God as a Father, a loving Father and a relational Father. And all through His ministry, He pointed direction to God as the Father and the fact that the only way to the Father was through Him. God is the beginning of all Fatherhood and this revelation of God the creator of the universe as a Father is hard for some people to fathom and so they either discard this or believe that it is an illusion of Christianity.
John 5: 17-18 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God
We must have an understanding of the fact that the make-up of our human entity is the Spirit, body and soul and our Spirit man has God’s DNA.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created He them.
Ephesians 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all
The Fatherhood of God is an important and integral part of His person and His relationship with us and this is an important key to Jesus’s ministry as seen in John 17, he made mention of the name Father six times and the teaching of the disciples on prayer was to the Father.
James 1: 18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
John 17: 25-26 O’ Righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known you; and these have known You sent me. And I have declared to them your name, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them.
Many can be men, husbands or dads but not all can be classified as fathers. Although a father is known to bring about life but not all that fathered a child can really be called a Father as fatherhood has its own responsibilities.
In looking at the Fatherhood of God, we can attribute the under listed characteristics to a Father.
A father gives life, he is kind, gentle, compassionate and long-suffering, slow to anger, reprove in love, personifies love, and demonstrates his goodness and love first. He is gracious and merciful, he is just and feels the pain of his children, considerate and carries his family along with his plans. He shoulders responsibility and protects his family and looks out for the prosperity of His family.
John 5: 19-20. Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
A father has authority but he is not authoritative, this is why we as humans has freewill, God has not impose his being on us and this freewill led to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. A father is an encourager. A father usually anticipate the needs of his family and makes provision abound. A father is our confidant and gives assurances to him family. A Father embraces family-hood. A father covers his children nakedness and makes no recollection to their sins once forgiven.
The father gives all good things and his plan for his family are always of good and not of evil
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
***A father shows love above all things***
Love is a doing verb, it shows in action and deeds. God demonstrated his love in a very benevolent way and has such gave up a priceless possession that we may be redeemed back to him and He also gave us a precious gift in the form of the Holy Spirit that can guide us into the manner of all truth. The sacrifices a father makes might be painful and costly to him but he makes them for the larger good of the whole family. The Lord did not exercise fear in the death of Christ but exercised the power of resurrection over death. Perfect love cast out fear as 1 John 4: 18
1 John 4: 8-10 …For God is love. In this the love of God was manifested towards us, that he sent His only begotten son… not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son for the propitiation for our sins.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Apostle Paul expresses Love to be above all things in 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 and in verses 4-7 says love suffers long and is kind, love does not envy; love does not parade itself; is not puffed up; does behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquities but rejoice in the truth; bears all things believes all things, hopes all things endures all things.
The fatherhood of God gives us the capacity to love
1 John 4: 13-16 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
When we begin to relate to God as the Father and appreciate His love, we can then live out the greatest commandment of Christ which is to love God with all your heart, our being and soul and also love our neighbour as ourself and the more we relate to God in this manner there will be a stability both In our spiritual and natural life, we are able to relate to others through the love of God.
Jesus said in John 15:11-12 These things I have spoken to you, that my Joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Love is the totality of God’s nature. This is beyond someone having love in his heart or ability; it means that He is love personified. God is love.
Ephesians 2: 4-6 But God who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up together, and made us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Important: Your fellowship and your conduct is key and the Christ in you through the Holy Spirit will help you walk in the Father’s Love, do not be like the Jews who rejected him and refuse the love of the father.
John 5: 43-44 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me….
Jesus wants us to be where he is, For He also confirmed that in the Father’s house there are many mansions. See John 14:2
He ascended to the heaven to the Father so that we can get the benefit of eternal life and the keys are in our obedience and love.
John 20: 17 Jesus said to her “ Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, I am ascending to My father and your Father, and to My God and your God,”
Jesus demonstrated his obedience on the cross and as a follower, we must demonstrate our obedience through the love we show to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and also to the world that they may truly say you are a reflection of Your Father.
***Love is the heart of the Father***
We pray that as you come to know and walk in the love of the Father that grace may abound towards you in all areas of your life in Jesus name. Amen
Yomi and Bola Olowo
Serving under the grace, guidance, love and peace of God
New Victorious Living Ministry
Prayer and counselling Line: +44 (0) 7421748315
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