The Revelation of the Father’s Heart – Part Two

In the Old Testament, in answer to the heart hungry request of Moses to see God’s glory, God revealed what He was really like. The greater revelation was not in what He showed Moses, but in what He said to Moses: Exodus 34:6, “And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, (34:7) “keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin

Centuries after this revelation to Moses, Jesus came and spoke forth and fleshed out the heart of the Father to us. In what He said and what He showed, He revealed the true nature of the Father. What Jesus revealed was the same traits that Moses received in Exodus 34.

In a previous study we saw how Jesus Revealed that Our Heavenly Father Cares Tenderly and Compassionately and Loves Graciously and Passionately
In this study we will focus on two more great revelations that Jesus gave us the nature of our Father in Heaven:

3. Jesus Revealed that Our Heavenly Father Deals Patiently and Understandingly – Chuck Swindoll calls the story Jesus gave in Luke 15 that of The Parable of the Wayward Lad and the Waiting Dad. In the story, Jesus demonstrated that The Father was patient with the rebellious son and the religious son. His love for you and me is a patient and persistent love. He has stood in the doorway of His own home patiently agonizing over us as we proudly and indifferently wandered farther from Him in the far country. And He loved us through all our wanderings.  He said, in Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved you with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness have I drawn you unto myself.” 

4. Jesus Revealed that Our Heavenly Father Provides Mercifully and Generously – Matthew 5:45, “… in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Father has arranged this world to accommodate us and our needs. He has supplied our wants, and surrounded us with pleasures and gratifications. He has hand-led us and spoon-fed us. He has protected us from dangers, and endured all of our waywardness and sins.  And above all, He has given His Son to bring eternal life within our reach, and to raise us to the full position of Divine sonship.  His care for you has been like the daily care of a father for His children.

a. Our Heavenly Father Provides Identity — You will Never Know Your Identity and Destiny until You Know Yourself as a Son of God! A Son can never know He is a Son by Focusing upon being a Son. Our identification does not come from an Investigation of Ourselves but from the Recognition of a Relationship with Father God who Affirms and Confirms Us!

b. Our Heavenly Father Provides Security — John 10:29, “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” Because our Father is as certain about the future as we are about the past, He wants to impart that certainty and security to us in the present. Our Father is the Planner, Provider, and Perfecter of man’s salvation, and the Protector of the saved!  Truly Father intends for all His children to live safe and secure from all alarms!

c. Our Heavenly Father Provides Intimacy — John 14:23 — Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. Father God is the Ageless Romancer, the Tremendous Lover, who passionately seeks, and persistently pursues and saves sinners in order that they may know Him personally and intimately.

Spirit-realized sonship will embrace the Father’s heart and enjoy Father’s love; it will enable and ensure that Father’s will is done, and that Father’s kingdom is enlarged! Spirit-realized sonship will result in a fullness that embraces the cross in order to defeat death and bring forth life. Spirit-realized sonship brings breakthrough as it declares the word of the Cross and the glory of Christ; it confronts demonic powers in the power of the Blood of the Lamb and in the spirit of prayer; it is attended by signs and wonders as the Lord confirms His Word with signs following!

Herb Hodges uses an illustration by E. Stanley Jones that tells the story of a young girl who left home, became lost in the life of a large city, and finally ended up in a house of shame. The news of her circumstances finally reached her mother back home. With a heavy heart, she set out to find her daughter. She took with her a number of her own photographs, and left one in each of the houses she visited. The girl came in one evening, glanced carelessly at the front table, and saw her mother’s picture. On the front of the picture were written three words, “Come home,” and it was signed, “Mother.” Under the emotional impact of this loving appeal, the young woman fled the place, and there was a happy homecoming in her parent’s home that same week. It was the same way in the story of the prodigal son. The image of his father was always with the son, pleading for him to come home.

Many of You Need to Receive the Father’s Embrace and Restoration to the House of Grace! (Luke 15:20-24)  Remember when you first came from the far country of sin, how a father’s embrace awaited you. You need a fresh homecoming. Remember when you first came from the far country, how at the Father’s house you received life for your deadness, direction for your lostness, strength for your weakness, healing for your sickness, clothing for your nakedness, love for your happiness, and sonship authority for your usefulness in the family firm of almighty and Sons!

Receive afresh the Spirit of Sonship of adoption and believe that you’re a son in Father’s House and that He alone is the source of your True Identity, Eternal Security, Real Intimacy, Divine Destiny and Spirit-filled Joy — Zephaniah 3:17  The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”