Why Know the Father's Heart - by Sylvia Gunter

This is a reprise of a devotional on the Father Heart of God. I never tire of talking about it nor receiving it.

We have a crisis of fathering in this country.

A hundred years ago Teddy Roosevelt said, “What we need in our public officials is not genius, not even brilliancy, so much as the exercise of the ordinary, rather commonplace qualities of honesty, courage, and common sense — the qualities that make a man a good husband, a good father, a good neighbor.” Our crisis in good fathering is ultimately more serious than any economic or political crisis. Very few people have been fathered in spirit and soul. We need to receive from Father God his reparenting us as true sons and daughters. The good news is that God wants to be our Father. Jesus came to show us His Father and ours.

Receiving the perfect Father nature of God is essential if we are to love Him and be assured of His love, trust Him, be secure in Him, pray to Him, yield to Him, live holy before Him, receive His guidance, serve Him, be like Him, and much more. Spend time with your Father in His Word, His love letter to you. Receive His Father love for you.

› He is our Father by right of the blood of Jesus (John 1:12).

› Our basis of eternal security is being in the Father’s hand (John 10:28-29).

› We pray to the Father in Jesus’ name (Mat. 6:9).

› God’s Father love for us is our highest motivation to holiness (1 John 3:1-3).

› His Fatherhood is the basis of understanding His guiding hand (John 5:20, 10:3-4, 27).

› Every family derives its name from the Father, so God the Father is the model for headship in our families (Eph. 3:14-15, Psa. 68:5-6).

› Our Father wants us to yield to His gentle parental authority (Hos. 11:1, 3-4, Eph. 6:4).

› The basis of trusting Him is seeing Him as our totally able and faithful Father (Mat. 18:19-20, Heb. 13:5, 2 Tim. 2:13).

› When we know Him as Father, we will trust His parental generosity (Mat. 6:32-33, Jam. 1:17, Psa. 37:3-5).

› Knowing Him as Father is the basis of receiving His parental affection (John 17:23, Hos. 11:4, Jer. 31:3, Deu. 33:12).

› His Father-heart is the basis for His parental attentiveness (Mat. 6:25-26, 31; 1 Pet. 5:7).

› When we rightly knowing Him as Father, we are secure in his acceptance and rest securely in Him (Gal. 4:5-7, Rom. 8:15-16, 32-33; Zeph. 3:17).

› His relationship to us as Father is the legal basis of receiving all our inheritance in Christ (Eph. 1:13-14, Col. 1:12, 1 Pet. 1:3-4).

› The Father is seeking worshipers. When we understand His Father heart, we will worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).

Knowing our loving Father is the foundation for intimate relationship with Him. First Corinthians 13:4-7 is a picture of the Father’s love. Personalize it, and receive it for yourself. My Father who loves me is patient with me, kind to me…. My Father’s love is not rude, nor self-seeking, not easily angered, and keeps no record of wrongs. My Father’s love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. My Father’s love always protects me, always trusts me, always hopes [believes the best about me], always perseveres and never gives up on me. My Father’s love for me never fails.

Now that’s shouting ground!

by Sylvia Gunter

Available at www.thefathersbusiness.com.