The greatest need for man is to know who he is in Christ and how God looks
upon him. For far to long the church has asked, “Is God able?” And “will He?”
It is time for creation to proclaim in word and demonstration that He has! The
awareness of sin in the believer has caused an improper and erroneous
concept of God. OUR PERCEPTION OF GOD DETERMINES OUR RESPONSE TO
HIM. If we think God is sending tests and trials, sickness and disease to us in
an attempt to cause of to love Him more then we will approach Him in fear and
dread and we will never be able to approach Him in true love and worship.
Christianity is not a religion, but a demonstration of a relationship between
Father and son. It is not just having our sins forgiven nor just joining a church,
but being a son to God and a servant to man and an overseer of His creation.
True Christianity is being made a New Creation in Christ and walking and living
daily on this earth as a son of God. Man has a need to know how God feels
about him and he has an intense desire to be accepted by God. Man wants to
know:
• Is God angry with me?
• Is He ashamed of me?
• Is He willing to get involved in my life now?
As parents, we desire the best for our children and we will do everything
within our ability to make sure they get it whether it is buying a toy they have
asked for or preventing them from being harmed, or caring for them when they
are sick. Contrarily, in man’s attempt to know God, he has removed this caring
and compassionate force from God making Him to be an untouchable and
uncaring entity who just lets us struggle in this life making it the best way we
can because we know it will all be better “in the sweet by and by” or when we
get “over there”. It seems we as “Christians” have made it difficult for others
to know God because we tell them “yes, God is there but let me tell you one
thing—you must walk a fine line and you cannot mess up or you will go straight
to hell. God so hates sin and He can’t even be in the presence of sin so you
have to straighten up before He will even hear your prayer.”
Why is it acceptable to admit and believe as truth that it is God who makes us
sick to increase our faith, or that he takes our life, or that it is God who sends
us to hell simply because that is what religion has taught us in presenting the
character of God? God does not throw us away because of our sin, failures,
and fears but He has compassion on us and redeems us from them. He did not
forsake man and leave him in death but He Himself entered death and pulled
all men from its hold effectively delivering all men from the effects of sin. God is
not affected by our sin—by our missing the mark for it is His holiness that
swallows up our failures perfecting us into His full likeness. If our sins and
failures halt God’s action in our lives then we have a weak God who cannot be
the Savior of the World as Scripture declares.
We want to know without any doubt that our God cares for us and that He
actively cares for us now while our heart beats. We want to know if He is
angry with us for something we did today, yesterday, last week, or even last
year. We want to know if He has the same feelings and concerns for us that
we have for our children as an earthly father. Does Father God care about us
with the same love that we have for our children? Could we even hope, is it
possible, that He cares about us in a greater and more perfect way than we do
even for our own children?
How does God discipline us as His children? Some may believe that He sends
adversity whether it is a sickness, or a trial, or even death to teach us to love
Him more. Yet if we, as parents, utilized these methods which we ascribe to
God in teaching our children we would be guilty of child abuse. But we
attribute pain and suffering to God as a means of teaching us faith because we
have been told that it will cause us to love Him more. Some ministers proclaim
from the pulpit that God will place us on our backs in the hospital to get us to
pray more or He takes the life of a young man in a vehicle accident to spare
him a more gruesome death later in life. A God who is supposed to love me and
to have sent His Son to die for me but was the One who took my child would
not cause me to love Him but would cause me to run from a monster like that.
We wonder why people do not want this God that is presented in the church.
Why wouldn’t the mother whose child has just died want this god who “took
her son because this god needed another angel” and yet we wonder why the
churches are not full. Those who say they can love a god like this do not love
out of their heart but out of fear of retribution. They try to love him because it
is ‘the religious thing to do’ and all the time they are afraid he will strike them
down any minute in death or by disease. The reason churches are vacant is
because of the God that is presented and told they must love to escape hell.
God does not punish us with test and trials; He disciplines us with His Word. He
does not bring death and destruction to us but removes it far from us.
What will really get man’s attention about God? Hell fire preaching hasn’t
drawn men to God and saved the world. Most people read the Bible to prove
what is taught in their doctrine and tradition instead of reading and studying it
to see what it really says. The pulpit tells its hearers they are full of sin and God
cannot stand to look at them but the God of the Bible says He does not impute
sin and does not judge man. Romans 2:4 says it is the goodness of God that
leads man to repentance—a changing of the mind—seeing that He really is a
good God and He does love His creation and He has redeemed all back to
Himself.
The ways we feel about our children is a human representation of the way
God feels about us as we are modeled after His image and not He after ours.
Earthly men did not originate love and compassion for their children but love
and compassion came from God and He placed those feelings in His pinnacle of
creation, man. So, our feelings of love and protection for our children came
from God who is the Father of All (Ephesians 4:6). These truths of a perfect
love from a perfect Father are throughout scripture but religion has veiled
them and made our God a barbaric, unfeeling, and uncaring entity that must
use pain and torment to get the attention of His children. This is not the
Heavenly Father the apostle Paul was talking about when he said that the
“goodness of God leads to repentance” (Romans 2:4). This surely can’t be the
same God who freely gives us all things, and all the things He gives are good
and not evil (Romans 8:32; I Corinthians 2:9). He has given us all things that
pertain to life and godliness according to II Peter 1:3-4. How do these things
come and how are they revealed and applied to us? Truth has never originated
with man but all truth is given and revealed by God. His Word reveals truth of a
God who chooses man for fellowship.
The Two-Letter Word
In Matthew 7:7-11 there is an important two-letter word. Many have read
this passage thinking it discussed two ideas but upon noticing this two-letter
word, these passages are so connected. It does not divide the thought but
continues it with a deeper level of clearness. Read the passage below paying
special attention to the transition from verses 7 and 8 to verses 9 through 11.
Matthew 7:7-11 (NKJV)
7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and
it will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to
him who knocks it will be opened.
9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will
give him a stone?
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to
those who ask Him!
The word “or” at the beginning of verse 9 links verses 7-8 with 9-11. Then
Jesus says in verse 11, “how much more shall your Father which is in heaven
give good things to them that ask him” indicating God is going to do exceeding
abundantly above our methods, above what we can do in providing for our
children. In verses 7 and 8, Jesus says that everything we ask and seek for will
be made available to us. He then begins to discuss a man who, even though he
is evil, will not give something harmful to his son. Jesus then says “how much
more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask
him?” Jesus is telling us that it is more “natural” for God to give good things to
His children than for man to do it. The idea of a father providing for his
children began with the Creator of all things. It is God who first demonstrated
the heart of a Father and His provision for those under His care.
The little two-letter word “or” at the beginning of verse 9 makes verses 7 and
8 comparable to verse 9, 10, and 11; but verses 9-11 add something that was
not found in verses 7 and 8. Jesus added the concept of relationship increasing
the clarity and intensity of the previous verses. This portion of scripture is all in
the context of Father God giving good things to His children—to those under His
care in light of man doing it also. Verses 7 and 8 do not tell us why we get the
things but verses 9 through 11 does. The reason we get what we ask for and
seek for is because of the relationship we have with the One who supplies
them. This portion of scripture is a perfect picture of “Our Father who art in
heaven...”
Man’s consciousness (awareness) of sin has caused an improper concept of
God, shielding the heart of Father God from man. When guilt has a child in its
grasp over a wrong the child has committed, it will cause the child to avoid the
parent out of fear when the parent is the very one who can remove those
feelings of guilt, fear and shame. This is the same concept that is held about
God.
Recall the circus mirrors found on the midway, when you stood in front of
them how they changed your shape, height, or size. They did not reflect the
real you but gave a false reflection. When we look and read the Word of God,
which is a mirror of us (James 1:22-25), but because of sin consciousness, we
do not see a properly reflected image of God or who the Word of God says or
reflects us to be. We do not see our Father God properly nor do we correctly
see who we are because in many instances we have let religion define spiritual
things rather than God and His Word. Our concept of sin destroys our peace
with God causing us to approach Him with fear in our hearts. It is similar with
our children. When we correct our children they are still our children but
fellowship is disrupted because the child feels guilt, anger, and shame. But
when the child finally crawls up in our lap and says “I love you” neither the
child nor the father remembers the problem! When we lose our comfort and
security we “feel” guilty and not completely forgiven before Him. Sin
consciousness has distorted the image of how we see ourselves and how we
see God by using fear, shame, guilt, and self-condemnation. These products of
sin consciousness cause us to view ourselves as unclean and unworthy and
unable to approach Him and it makes us view Him as to holy to be bothered
with our problems.
Hebrews chapter 10 details how the repeated sacrifices under the Old
Covenant could not make the one for whom they were sacrificed perfect
(Hebrews 10:1-4). But the sacrifice of the Son of God as the Lamb of the New
Covenant did make the worshipper perfect, clearing the slate by remitting sin
not just covering it. Our sins and failures are not just hidden from God they are
removed as if they never existed. They never were committed. The Blood of
Jesus did and will make those who now worship God through the veil of His
sacrifice perfected forever according to Hebrews 10:11-14. We have adopted a
misrepresentation of God and His redemptive work because of fear, shame,
guilt, and self-condemnation, which are born out of our sin consciousness or
our own awareness of sin. Because of our focus on sin and our attempts to
cleanse ourselves to make us “feel” better we miss seeing Him and His
provision of unconditional love that has yielded forgiveness and acceptance. As
long as the body of Christ believes the distorted picture of our Heavenly Father,
making Him to be an angry untouchable entity that we can’t possibly know;
then the Church can never mature but will be forced to live a fearful,
frustrated, faithless life all the while missing out on the relationship of a
lifetime.
FEARLESS FELLOWSHIP WITH OUR FATHER