Getting Closer To Our Father God
We need to get much closer to our Father and we can only do that by means of the Holy Spirit.
A Father can mean different things to humans in these Modern times. Many are born into a family with a Mother and a Father. Then as they grow up they realise that Mummy and Daddy are different and Mother has the role of giving birth to us and feeding us. Whereas the Father is generally there to give some kind of strength to the family and in days gone by, was the main bread winner.
Depending on the nature of the father, the family either prospered or suffered. Many men were traumatised during evil wars fought during the past Century for absolutely no benefit to humanity. In most cases these men could not even talk about it and did not know how to deal with what we now know is Post Traumatic Stress. Therefore many turned to drink, gambling and other bad habits that Satan laid as a trap to destroy these men and their families.
In a God fearing family, the Father was generally regarded as the 'head' of the family and his role was there to provide and protect the family and to lead them into worshipping and honouring their Heavenly Father in heaven.
As we know only too well, the Biblical based family system has broken down in the past 60/70 years as more and more promiscuity has given rise to millions of Single Parent families. The family institution has been attacked and infected more and more. Many 'fathers' have walked away from their families for various reasons and this has caused children to be raised with one sided view of the sexes. Millions do not even understand what a real Father is and cannot relate with such a person.
Therefore this subject could be very difficult for these dear ones. As they have no knowledge of having any kind of a relationship with any Father at all. Many have been pushed from one 'step father' to another and many have been abused by these 'fathers', therefore especially in Women, men have become the focus of hatred.
Thankfully our Heavenly Father, (Abba, Papa, Daddy) is NOT like humans. To repeat, Our Heavenly Father is NOT like Human Fathers. We see this in the words from the Prophet Isaiah who wrote down many amazing things about future events and what the Lord expects from his people and especially how he teaches his children.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts". (Isaiah 55:8-9)
As Born Again children of God we will experience Gods favour if we listen to the Holy Spirit and allow him to instruct us in understanding His ways. As Humans we usually think in straight lines and fixed points, we move in a certain way and do certain things that are usually sort of ‘robotic’ or consecutive in method. We mostly move from point to point, we look forward to something, or look back on something; we measure progress by achievements made in our lives or success in money matters.
When we go on a journey, we leave our home and look forward to arriving at our destination and so on. That is why shows such as X Factor, Britain’s/America’s Got Talent are so popular, because people want to escape the mundane for what they believe is a much better future.
However our wonderful Creator God does not think in straight lines, He thinks in circles and spirals. Galaxies move in Spiral shapes and the planets are spherical and they are all around us in creation. Our God is achieving many things simultaneously, He is at the beginning and the middle and the end of everything and all at the same time. He can be anywhere in time and space, therefore; He does not think in the context of time, because He exists outside of it. Time is irrelevant to Him as He is not affected by it. That is why we cannot try and box God as if he is some kind of ‘Jack’ in the box.
That is why timelessness is a very real problem for us as Spirit Filled Christians because the Lord may speak into our life today and we will assume that it’s going to happen now, or very shortly. We then hang on to that promise or prophetic word and place it on a time line of some sort. But, the Lord may be speaking to us about something that is still far into our future. The reason is because He is not concerned with time, because: God does not measure time; He measures maturity and spiritual growth! When God starts dealing with us, he is the Potter and we are the clay in his hands.
He wants to shape us into a vessel fit for his purpose and not ours. To a fleshly carnal person this will be painful as it always involves dying to our self! The Lord will draw us into a wilderness experience with Him in order to give us the opportunity to grow (to die to self), to learn to trust Him or to gain more insight into His ways.
And, because of the way we think, our first question is always ‘How long will this take Lord?’ We are not enjoying this at all. During the year 2008, the Lord gave Christine a Vision of many getting onto a cruise ship and the Lord was standing on a raft holding onto the mast, he then said "who will you follow"? She said "I will follow YOU and come onto the raft with you" and that is what it has been like.
Dying to self is not a nice experience; and as he is God he will not tell us how long it is going to take, because He knows that if we know how long, we will just keep our heads above water until it is all over. However the Lord does not want us to live that way. He just wants us to DIE too our self.
As long as we are certain that God has spoken the words and prophecies into our lives, we can enjoy our walk with the Lord in humility and allow Him to do the work in us.
The Apostle John wrote “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world”. (1 John 4:1-3)
Therefore be willing to submit and obey what the Holy Spirit is telling us, even though it may not seem right at the time. When we absolutely know that the dear Lord has amazing plans for us, we tend to get excited. So we just want to get going on all those great things He has spoken into us.
Many times however we experience great frustration, because the things He has revealed for us have not occurred as yet. When we are frustrated, we need to know how much the Lord loves frustrated people. He knows when and why we are frustrated and that is because we care. However He is also aware that we are not ready yet and we could easily undo all the good things He is doing in our lives. Remember He measures growth, not time.
Father God wants us to conform to the image of His Son. Therefore He is content to take as much time as necessary. We though want everything to happen now, without all the refining and pummeling. The Word of God tells us that all the worthless stuff will be burnt up and only the precious stones and metals will remain.
The Lord is our refiner and he will take as long as it takes to make a vessel fit for His purpose, so we need to adjust our thinking. We cannot do as Frank Sinatra sang “I did it MY WAY” and expect to be in God's will. We do it Gods way or we become rebels like Adam.
When God is refining us, we need to learn the importance of doing nothing. As a Christian this seems to be a contradiction; but most of the things we do with God is a contradiction to us...
We must learn the value of doing nothing for God (because all our works are vanity in Gods eyes). That is why He wants US to be intimate with Him and to have quiet times with Him. Our Lord spent quality time with his disciples and friends such as Martha, Mary & Lazarus and relaxed in their company. We really need to do that and imagine sitting on His lap as a young child.
Many Christian’s believe that we must fast for three days to get close to the Lord in order to get His attention. We do not need to shout at Him or recite long prayers to impress Him. We can just rest quietly before His presence and wait for Him. If He does not speak immediately, He will eventually. We really must learn to wait on Him and not make demands by following set formulas. Our God is a Holy God and therefore we must respect and submit to His will in our lives. We have already seen that the Lord does not act according to our time; He acts according to His will.
Anytime a believer decides to press in to God and really get to know Him, one of the first things the Lord teaches him is His total Sovereignty! We know that He moves in His own time and acts according to His ways. The Lord has a habit of showing up when we least expect it and that was shown in the parable of the 10 Virgins.
Religionists teach that their way is the only way of serving and worshiping God. Man is NOT the creator and yet he creates methods and systems for worshiping God; that he claims is the only true way. Religionists expect total obedience to their systems and yet they cannot see the deception they have created and remain bound up in.
The Holy Spirit operates on a different sound level than we do. When we cry out to the Lord, He whispers back to us. God wants us to learn to be still with him, even when everything around us is crashing down and in chaos. Psalm 46 starts out with an earthquake and a tidal wave and ends with God telling us to
Verses 10-11 "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge"
“Therefore be quiet and rest assured that HE is God and everything is under control, regardless of what we see or hear”.
When we learn how to rest on the Lord’s shoulders and tell others that it is all in His time, we will be accused of not caring about what is going on around us. Many in this world interpret showing anxiety and sighing as the universal sign that we really care about others.
As we develop a relationship with the Prince of Peace, we need to place ‘every burden of the burdens onto the cross’. Our dear Lord wants to delight in us and wants us to draw into times of intimacy with Him.
In conclusion we need to remember that he loves His children, but also that he requires our trust and obedience as our heavenly Father.
Be blessed and keep waiting on Abba Father in Heaven.
David & Christine