Called to Higher
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
~John 1:12
The gospel is meant to be simple. Pursuing a relationship with Christ is meant to be simple. Jesus Christ tells us to go before the Father and pray saying, “Our Father in heaven.” He tells us to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. He tells us to call on Him and He will answer us. He tells us to cast our anxieties on Him, because He cares. He tells us that when we feel weary and overburdened, we should go to Him and He will give us rest. He tells us to trust in Him with all our heart and to not lean on our own understanding, to acknowledge Him in all we do because He will direct our paths. These are a few instructions our Lord has given to us. While reading all of them, what is the common theme? To rely on Him, to trust in Him, to depend on Him, to go to Him. As a child depends on his mother for all things, God wants us to depend on Him because He is our Father.
The Spirit of Religion
Lately, I’ve been experiencing the beauty of the Father dimension of God. He makes me feel like a princess, like His baby girl, like His favorite girl. He makes me feel cared for, safe, secure, important, and loved. He lets me know that He is here for me, that I am special to Him, that He wants me to be happy. He wants me to depend on Him, to call on Him, to spend time with Him. For most of my Christian walk I struggled to see God as my Father. When I would fail to read my Bible for a day or days, I would feel condemned. When I did not want to pray for long, I would feel inadequate. The spirit of religion caused me to have a perception of a distant God, one who I would serve, pray to, and obey. I was bound to the belief that God was my Master, and the idea that He was a Father felt unrealistic to me. It was not as if I did not want to know God as my Father, but I just did not know how that could happen for me.
Abba
I would look at other men and women of God and see the way they loved God and I wanted that too. I would see how they had given their lives to love and serve God. I wondered, how could they pray for so long? How were they so dead to self? How could they live their lives fully surrendered to God? In particular, a woman of God named Dunsin also known as Mama D. I would watch her talking about how she relates to God. She said that she always asks God how He’s doing, if He’s eaten today, how He feels, what He’s done today. She emphasized His realness, His presence, His love, His nature as a Father. The first time I heard her speaking about God being her Father, was the first time I realized that GOD IS A FATHER. That was the first time I realized that God has called us to be sons/daughters. That was the first time my heart longed for Abba, to know Abba intimately. That was the first time I realized that I am not saved to be a servant first, but I am saved to be a daughter first. To be a child of God, that is our highest calling.
David was a man after God’s own heart, and I believe one reason he is called that is because he was a son first. Although he was a king, he knew that being a son was his highest calling. He knew how to relate with God in a way that a son relates to his father. He walked with God as a son. He knew how to worship God, how to please God. When he sinned, he knew how to move the heart of God by crying out for mercy. When he was distressed, he encouraged himself in the Lord. When he needed direction, he inquired of the Lord. David was a man that knew how much he needed God. In Psalm 51:11 he cried out and said, “Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.” I always wondered what revelation he had about the presence of God and His Holy Spirit. Although, I am still seeking for more revelation, there is one thing I know, David knew that he could not make it through life without his Abba. He knew he could not be king without his Abba, he knew he was nothing without his Abba. In the words of Apostle Joshua Selman, Abba means source, sustainer, and defender. David knew that he could not live without his Source, his Sustainer, and his Defender. He needed God too much, he was too dependent on Him. As a baby needs his mother, David needed the Father. If David, one of the greatest kings to ever live, needed God so much, how much more we? I believe we are all called to be men and women after God’s own heart. I believe God longs to be a Father to us even more than we want to be His children. I believe God knows how much we all need Him as our Father, and that is why He leaves the 99 every single time for the 1.
The Son
The best relationship we can observe in the Bible of a Father and son, is the one between God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ. In Luke 22:39-46, before the arrest of Jesus Christ, Jesus was praying on the Mount of Olives. He knew His arrest and crucifixion was near, so He went away from His disciples so that He could pray to the Father intimately. He knelt down to pray and began to cry out and said “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My Will, but Yours, be done.” (verse 42) Although God did not take the cup away from Him, He strengthened Him. An angel from heaven appeared as Jesus Christ was praying and strengthened Him. Why am I talking about this? To let you know that a relationship with the Father as a true son/daughter, is one that cannot compare to anything else. The reason Jesus Christ was able to receive strength from God is because He cried out to God in His moment of weakness. The only reason Jesus Christ cried out was because He knew who He was crying to, He knew who He was praying to, He knew that He was talking to His Father and not some distant God out there. When we have a relationship with God as sons and daughters, there are things we are not scared of telling Him. There are realms of intimacy, of vulnerability, of openness that we begin to experience. You see how close you are to your brother, sister, mother, father, best friend, or your spouse? You are called to even deeper closeness with God your Father. The things we long for people to give us, those are things we should go to the Father and ask Him to give to us. The voids in our hearts, the loneliness we feel at times, the happiness we long for, the love we want to receive, those are things only God can give to us.
Revelation 2:4 says, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Who is your first love? Jesus. Not your husband, not your wife, not your children, not your parents, not your siblings, not your friends, not even yourself, but Jesus. How can He be your first love if you don’t know Him intimately? How can you know Him intimately if you are not pursuing a relationship with Him? How can you pursue a relationship with Him if you don’t know you are to Him?
Our Highest Calling
Today, God is calling us out of religion and into a relationship with Him. God is not a Father who condemns, He is not a Father who’s love is conditional, He is not a Father who fails to show up. God is not like man, He is God. He longs to fellowship with you, to talk to you, to be there for you. He wants to comfort you when you feel down. He wants to strengthen you when you feel weak. He wants to give you rest when you feel burdened by the things of life.To love you and let you know how much He loves you. He wants to Father you. He doesn’t want you to enter into His presence out of religion, but He wants you to enjoy being in His presence. He wants you to know what it means when Jesus Christ called being children of God a privilege. He doesn’t want you to see Him as only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but as the God of [insert your name]. He wants to be real to you. That is the only way we can endure this walk as Christians, by having a relationship with the Father. Religion won’t take anyone far, it didn’t take the Pharisees far. But our relationship with Him, will cause us to stand strong until the very end. Not because of who we are or what we have, but because we know that He is our God, because we have received the revelation of what it means to be a son/daughter of the Most High. To be a child of God, that is our highest calling.
My prayer for you all is:
I pray that you are all able to experience the Father dimension of God. May the Lord draw you all closer to Him as His sons and daughters. May you experience His love, the love of the Father. I silence the voices of condemnation, guilt, and shame speaking in your life. I silence every voice that tries to tell you that God no longer loves you. I silence every voice that tries to condemn you every time you commit a sin, or forget to read your Bible, or go to sleep without praying. I declare and decree that the spirit of religion will no longer have a hold over you. I declare and decree that this day forth you will begin to walk as a daughter/son of God. May you encounter the love of God, the mercy of God, and the presence of God. May the love of God overwhelm you. May you encounter the Father dimensions of God from this day forth more than ever before. In Jesus name, Amen.
