God, who at
various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the
prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed
heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the
brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all
things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… (Heb. 1:1-3).
I grew up without a father. My father abandoned my mother when she was
three months pregnant with me. He left
and never looked back. Any child growing
up without the blessing of a father knows the emptiness, rejection, and anger
that can accompany fatherlessness. We
are now living in a period where the majority of young people have grown up
fatherless, either by abandonment or neglect.
Since the higher courts of this nation escorted God out of public life
in the early sixties, several generations grew up without a true knowledge of
their Father in heaven. The toll has
been tragic, but hope lives, because the most unprecedented move of God the
world has ever seen is at hand.
The Lord Jesus is the exact
representation of the Father in all of His personality and attributes. Although the focus of His incarnation
manifested in redemption for man, the mission of His incarnation
revealed the express image of the Father.
He came to be the perfect Man who would undo all the first man, Adam,
did in his rebellion. God came in human
flesh, using human touch and human emotions to reveal to us exactly who the
Father is and how He really feels about us.
All that we need to know about God is revealed in the Son in His
humanity, so every dimension of our lives can experience the Creator’s wonder,
intimacy and union. All of this is
doctrinally sound, and can be readily comprehended by the mind. Yet in the lives and experience of many
Christians, this remains only a concept.
No matter how good the doctrine is, and no matter how eloquently it is
preached and taught, human beings still need examples they can see, feel and
experience before it becomes “real”.
For this reason I
bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches
of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner
man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes
knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph.
3:14-19).
I am convinced that one of the
biggest deceptions and bondages in the church is a false image of the Father’s
true identity. When some people hear the
term “father”, they respond in fear, disgust or loathing because of the
experience and example they had growing up.
Some have no frame of reference for its meaning because of being
abandoned or rejected. The only thing
they experience at the word “father” is resentment, insecurity and shame. Others had wonderful, loving fathers who
interacted with them, but were not godly examples of Christ, and therefore have
perpetuated generational sin instead of generational blessing and power. The relationship with the father is the
single most important relationship in the life of a child, and it is also the
most important perception and experience in the life of a child of God. The foundation of a healthy relationship with
God begins with understanding the jealous, burning love and desire the Father
has for weak, broken and struggling humans.
The apostle John wrote:
That which was
from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word
of life--the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness,
and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was
manifested to us… (1 John 1:1-2).
There is no substitute for
personal contact. This biblical
principle provides a foundation for our wholeness as human beings. A theology without experience is useless. Such belief and doctrine illustrate how
deeply Greek philosophy has penetrated the theological framework of the church
of Jesus Christ. The Hebrew concept of
reality, by definition, was experiential, and not just conceptual. After the time of Augustine and Aquinas,
influential parts of the church began embracing theology as theory without
experience. I do agree with the
conclusions of the early church fathers that the Greek philosophers had a
measure of light, but the “spirit of Greece” has so permeated the church, that
many feel that if we have our doctrine correct, then we are “right” with
God. There are plenty of people that I
know that have correct doctrine, but are full of hypocrisy, pride, ambition,
envy, lust, bitterness, ad infinitum.
One five-minute encounter with the risen Lord destroyed a lifetime of bad
theology and hatred in the life of the apostle Paul. Because God created us with such a capacity
for pleasure, feeling and wonderment, every facet of our lives needs to be
converted by our experience and encounter with God. Because of this, a fatherless generation is
in desperate need of an experience of Father-God that will touch mind,
emotions, will and body.
I had an incredible revelation
break into my heart while sitting in the Chicago
airport years ago, waiting for a connecting flight. The revelation: men and women are
different. Men are masculine and women
are feminine. I know the blinding light
that is emanating from this revelation has probably caused many of the readers
to be slain in the Spirit, but I must tell what has been revealed to me. Because men and women are different, by
clever, inductive reasoning, I began to understand that fathers and mothers are
different. All kidding aside, this is
something the church must accept and understand. In scripture, the Lord refers to Himself as
being exactly like the Father (John 14:9), and also as our Bridegroom (Matt.
9:15). The church is referred to as the
bride of Christ. (John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32; Rev. 21:2, 9; Rev.
22:17.) The soul of the Christian before
the Lord is feminine to His masculine.
We understand that there is neither male nor female in Christ. (Gal.
3:28.) What makes us masculine or
feminine is strictly DNA and hormonal activity causing the physical (and
possibly mental) characteristics of gender.
If, in the spiritual realm, the Lord is masculine and the church is
referred to as feminine, then we can never become Christlike by looking at and
experiencing only “church.” The
scripture says that we only become Christlike by beholding His glory. (2 Cor.
3:18.) One of the greatest problems in
western Christianity is churches modeling themselves after other churches that
have had success. We can never become
the conquering, overcoming church Jesus said we would be (Matt. 16:18), until
we see and experience Him, the overcoming, conquering Man, Christ
Jesus. We have an effeminate,
non-threatening church in most western countries that tries with all its might
to be non-confrontational and inoffensive.
I was even told the story of one pastor in our local area that was
called to open a Red Cross briefing meeting during volunteer disaster training
because of hurricane Katrina. Several
thousand people showed up to volunteer to help the many hurting and displaced
evacuees at his church, which hosted the meeting. During the opening part of the meeting, he
ended in prayer, praying “in Jesus name.”
Later at the end of the meeting, before everyone left, he returned to
the microphone and apologized to any Jewish or non-Christians who were present
for praying “in Jesus name.” This pastor
effectually denied Jesus before men for the sake of being politically correct
and inoffensive. I appreciate the desire
to be sensitive, but dying, hell-bound people need the truth. The church has been emasculated of the image
and likeness of Christ by Jezebelic forces that have rendered us spiritually
impotent. This is quite a contrast to
the One who confronted corruption, healed the sick, cast out demons, and threw
the idols and idolaters out of the Temple.
(Matt. 21:12-14.) The church has lost
its power because it has lost its intimacy, contact and experience of the
Father.
Jesus is the kind, compassionate,
forgiving Healer-Shepherd to the woman taken in adultery needing mercy in her
time of greatest need. But He also
appears as the Lion of Judah to the powers of darkness who have afflicted and
bound people, and to the hypocritical, controlling religious system of His day
that effectually kept those who desired a relationship with God from getting to
Him to find help in their time of need. (See Matt. 21:12-14.) If we do not see the composite picture of
Jesus, we will not see the Father, who tenderly cares for us in His mercy, but
who also rises as a Warrior (Isaiah 42:13, Psalm 18), on behalf of His beloved.
No matter how much we look at a
woman, we will not see a man. We need
both natural and spiritual mothers and fathers.
Both parents impart invaluable things to their children. Without mothers and fathers, naturally and
spiritually, we grow up emotionally and spiritually dysfunctional. But the greatest present need in the church
are spiritual fathers as examples of Christ.
The Father desires a family of mature sons and daughters who have
reached the full measure of the stature of Christ. (Eph. 4:13.) For centuries the church has focused on the
church, and the church, not the Father, has been the example for the
church. We cannot look to the church for
what only the Father can impart. We must
focus on and experience Jesus. It is in
and through Him that we will experience the fullness of the Father.
Questions for Reflection:
What have your spiritual mothers and fathers imparted to
you?
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