“"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."” (John 14:7)

In honor of Father’s Day, I thought this would be a great opportunity to heal wounds with natural fathers and authority figures in our lives. Yeshua said that if we know Him, we know the Father. This statement gives us access into the exact expressed image of the Father.

This is so important, as we are to embody His image and live our lives as image bearers: Turn with me to Colossians Chapter 1 beginning at verse 9:

“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it (their faith), we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,” (Col 1:9-19)

I know this is a lot of words, but it is essential, as we reflect on the Father, that we embody not only the reality that Yeshua, Jesus, is the Father manifested for our benefit but also that by opening the eyes of our heart to that reality that we can enter into His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Paul tells us: you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God

This is a powerful intentional prayer. How do we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord? A better question is, what could keep us from this? Clearly, He has already provided the power that strengthens us to accomplish this. So, what could hinder us?

I believe what hinders us is how we see ourselves in the light of His glory. What do I mean by that? I think we could fail to appropriate our destiny in Him if we refuse to truly trust in Him. The Bible tells us that He is perfecting us: Jesus said in John 17:22-23:

"The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (Jhn 17:22-23)

He calls this the glory that He has given to us. Glory is a bible word meaning that which we are known by expressing our nature. A simple analogy is the glory of a baseball pitcher is his arm and ability to throw the ball. A batter has a different glory.

Each of us has a glory, an anointing from Him that embodies our destiny. How we discover this and truly enter in is the question.

What keeps us mired in our selves are the lies of Satan, particularly with respect to who we know the Father to be and in that who we know ourselves to be.

I remember as a child my mother despising my father. She would say things like you’re just half a man. As a child, this brought shame to me. I thought to myself that if my dad was only half a man, what was I?

You see, it matters a lot who you think the Father is because it reflects on who we think we are.

Jesus came to show us the love of the Father, who would give the life of His Son for us. This is a value statement. This is how I got saved, a Jewish new ager who would have accepted any truth except Him who is the truth, the way, and the life.

I’ll never forget that lesson by Pastor Paul Zink, who taught us the difference between being a man of success and a man of worth. His ultimate point is that we will never know our worth without discovering the price that would be paid for us. We are each worth the price of the life of the Son of God.

Wow, what a concept. That was how I came to receive my salvation. Yet as it is with things of God, the beginning of something is not the same as the completion of it. God has continually been healing me of feelings and behaviors that stem from the shame of unworthiness feelings.

When we look at Jesus, who was perfection incarnate, we see the goodness of God. God is love, and He demonstrates that love with human skin and bones through Jesus.

This is why we need to absorb the gospel accounts over and over. Not for the story value, which is pretty cool, but for the image value, which is transformational.

Paul describes this process in Romans 12:1-2

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12:1-2)

Put this verse together with Col 1:9-10

we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Being the living sacrifice is a conscious laying down of the images we have of ourselves from our earlier life, which is our acceptable act of worship. This, in turn, transforms our mind so that we can bring forth His will.

You see, we will never accomplish what God has in store for us if we continue to see ourselves through the eyes of shame. God heal how we see ourselves!

One more insight on this comes from Ephesians the first chapter. Verses 16-20

“do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what the hope of His calling is, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,” (Eph 1:16-20)

Again, Paul is fervently praying for a perspective breakthrough that we might give back to the Father, His inheritance in the saints.

You see when we speak of the Father’s heart, he speaks to us the inheritance He desires in the children. Like any father, fathers are defined by the life of their children. Like being a husband. You can’t be a good husband or a good wife in isolation. You can only be a good anything through the relationship it defines.

So, in honor of Father’s Day, we should press in to be the best sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. That is truly His reward!

Jesus came to show us the Father. Yes, through the cross, no doubt. But if that was all there was, He could have incarnated as an adult and died. No! he came to show much more. He showed us a Father who is healing. He showed us a Father who is provision. He showed us a Father who doesn’t judge and is quick to forgive. He showed us a Father who desires to forgive and forget our sins. He shows us a Father who throws His arms wide open and receives all of us prodigals. Why does He do all of this? Because He is love!

Activation: Ask the Father who you are to Him! Embrace that and live in it surrendered to Him who is love!