LoveKey Church
Your Heavenly Father
We are busy with our Impact series - looking at how our Biblical Foundations should impact certain key aspects of our lives. In order for us to properly receive the truth of God's word, I believe God wants us to be introduced to the Father heart of God in this message called "Your Heavenly Father" https://linktr.ee/lovekeymission info@lovekey.co.za
Locations & Times
John Murray Dance Studio
Urtel Crescent, Triangle House, Firgrove Rural, Cape Town, 7110, South Africa
Sunday 10:00 AM
LoveKey Church
LoveKey Church Website
https://lovekeymission.com
LoveKey Church Podcast
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Be encouraged, inspired, and challenged with our LoveKey Church Message of the Week, and our Love Unlocks Live Sessions.Please subscribe and write a review.
https://linktr.ee/lovekeypodcast
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Contact Details for Connect Group Leaders
What is LoveKey Church All About?
Our name comes from the fact that we believe that the KEY to salvation (giving your life to Jesus, becoming a reborn Christian) is the revelation of how much God LOVES you. And the KEY to living the life He has for us is to LOVE him back. That’s why LoveKey Church is a local expression of a part of the body of Christ with a focus on creating a place, opportunity and atmosphere where all people can encounter God, align with His purposes in order to reign in life, and help others to do the same.
ENCOUNTER, ALIGN REIGN, HELP OTHERS DO THE SAME - easy way to remember it.
We believe the Bible is the word of God and we commit to be obedient to it with the leading of the Holy Spirit
We believe that marriage and family is God’s idea and His way of doing it is the right way and the best way. We want to see marriages thrive and families be healthy in Jesus. Because healthy families build a healthy nation - notice I didn’t say “perfect” families, I said healthy - whole in Jesus, reconciled in Jesus, redeemed by Jesus, focused on Jesus.
We stand for unity in the body of Christ - we can be diverse but not divided, and celebrate our different gifts and roles in the greater body of Christ. We really resonate with Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where he asks that the Father will make us all one as He and the Father are one so that the world will know that He sent Him. Our biggest evangelical tool is unity!
We want to help eradicate fatherlessness and shine a light on the crisis of cultural Christianity - South Africa has a physical fatherlessness rate of 62% and other forms of fatherlessness in the remaining percentage - it truly is a huge problem.
Cultural Christianity is where people grow up in a so-called Christian home or culture and believe that that makes them a Christian, when in fact it is very possible that the culture they’re in has adopted a version of God that is convenient, made it apart of their culture and they’re actually worshipping their culture.
We want this to be a multi-generational, multi-cultural church that lives to know Jesus and to make Him known.
ENCOUNTER, ALIGN REIGN, HELP OTHERS DO THE SAME - easy way to remember it.
We believe the Bible is the word of God and we commit to be obedient to it with the leading of the Holy Spirit
We believe that marriage and family is God’s idea and His way of doing it is the right way and the best way. We want to see marriages thrive and families be healthy in Jesus. Because healthy families build a healthy nation - notice I didn’t say “perfect” families, I said healthy - whole in Jesus, reconciled in Jesus, redeemed by Jesus, focused on Jesus.
We stand for unity in the body of Christ - we can be diverse but not divided, and celebrate our different gifts and roles in the greater body of Christ. We really resonate with Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where he asks that the Father will make us all one as He and the Father are one so that the world will know that He sent Him. Our biggest evangelical tool is unity!
We want to help eradicate fatherlessness and shine a light on the crisis of cultural Christianity - South Africa has a physical fatherlessness rate of 62% and other forms of fatherlessness in the remaining percentage - it truly is a huge problem.
Cultural Christianity is where people grow up in a so-called Christian home or culture and believe that that makes them a Christian, when in fact it is very possible that the culture they’re in has adopted a version of God that is convenient, made it apart of their culture and they’re actually worshipping their culture.
We want this to be a multi-generational, multi-cultural church that lives to know Jesus and to make Him known.
Offer to Serve
Offer to Serve Link
OFFER TO SERVE INVITEIf you feel led by God to be a part of this vision and mission, please contact us at info@lovekey.co.za or fill out our Offer to Serve form on the Church Center app, or online:
https://forms.gle/ufM5cD8KYabn365s6Spotlight Social
We would like to bring our whole church community together with the Spotlight Social app. Please download and create and account and link up with LoveKey Church.
https://spolightsocial.app
Please Pray for our leaders, members, marriages, families and our nation
Partner with LoveKey Church
What You Partner With:
Thank you for partnering with our ministry so that we can: 1. reach more people with the gospel message 2. Positively impact marriages and families 3. Play a role in eradicating fatherlessness 4. Shine a light on the crisis of cultural Christianity 5. Minister Unity to the body of Christ 6. Sow into what we hope to be future social justice projects in our local community 6. Sow into trusted organizations preaching the gospel in Israel to Jews, and helping Jews relocate to Israel.- FIRM Foundation and One For Israel
https://lovekeymission.com/partnerEFT: Banking Details: LoveKey NPC, FNB, Current Account Number: 62824888525, Branch code: 250655
Card Payment link: https://pay.yoco.com/lovekey-npc
PayPal: partner@lovekey.co.za
Card Payment link: https://pay.yoco.com/lovekey-npc
PayPal: partner@lovekey.co.za
Cheerful Giver
Here is another easy way for you to partner with our ministry. Cheerful Giver enables you to easily give any amount of your choice to LoveKey Church through whatsapp. You set up your profile and link your card once, and then you're good to give!
https://www.cheerfulgiver.co.za/give/LK
Ways to Partner
Praise and Worship Scripture
SERIES: ALIGNING WITH GOD
SUBSERIES: IMPACT OF FOUNDATIONS
IDENTITY AND PURPOSE
MESSAGE TITLE: "YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER"
SUBSERIES: IMPACT OF FOUNDATIONS
IDENTITY AND PURPOSE
MESSAGE TITLE: "YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER"
IMPACT SERIES
Your Heavenly Father
IMPACT SERIES CONTEXT:
We have been busy with a series on foundations. Now we’re shifting our focus to how those foundations when we understand them AND THEN APPLY THEM, should impact certain key parts of our lives - the most important ones that actually affect everything else.
We want to see How
Repentance
Salvation
Faith
Lordship & Obedience
Water baptism
Holy spirit baptism
Spiritual family
Discipleship
Impacts
Identity
Purpose
Marriage
Parenting
Community
MAIN MESSAGE: “YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER”
One of our aims with LoveKey Church is to be part of the effort to eradicate fatherlessness. Why? Because according to secular and Christian statistics, and according to the Bible, the number one cause of the major issues in our world can all be traced back to fatherlessness. And I believe that behind fatherlessness is no Jesus. What is the solution? To KNOW Jesus.
Many of us have had good fathers or good enough fathers. But others have had different forms of no father, emotionally abusive father, physically abusive father, alcoholic or addicted father, neglectful father etc.
Whether we’ve had a good or good enough father, or a really bad one, what we all have in common is that no earthly father is like God the Father. Can we agree on that? So we all, to some extent, need a revelation of the Father nature of the God we choose to serve.
Why? Well, because one of the main roles of a father, is to confer identity. We have been speaking on how our foundations impact our identity and purpose. We have been looking at scripture to determine our identity and purpose. But it’s possible for it to only be information. Head knowledge. Or, we can hear the information but not receive it and make it our own and apply it because we simply deep down do not trust the source.
Why do I say that? Because it has been proven over and over again that we subconsciously attribute our experience of our earthly father to God when we think of Him or step into a relationship with Him. So, if our earthly dad gave us reason to be disappointed, to mistrust, or to put up walls to protect our hearts, then we will automatically do the same with God the Father. And, we will have a hard time understanding the Father heart of God.
Many people do not struggle to accept Jesus or the Holy Spirit, but they get stuck on the Father.
So, when we’re confronted with the word of God about who we are in Him, we may struggle to accept it, to adhere to it because deep down we struggle to trust Him and even to love Him.
I hope to achieve three main things today:
1. Show us from scripture that Jesus came to reveal God as Your Heavenly Father, and that God is indeed a Father
2. And that we can become His children when we repent and become saved/reborn Christians (born of God)
3. Help each of us to identify our father-wound, address it and get healed from it (or start our journey of healing) so that we can embrace our Heavenly Father without holding back anything.
Scriptures where Jesus refers to God as your Father in Heaven:
Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:48 (NKJV)
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 6:9 (NKJV)
In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Matthew 6:14 (NKJV)
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Matthew 6:26 (NKJV)
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Matthew 6:32 (NKJV)
For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
Matthew 18:14 (NKJV) (the 99)
Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Matthew 23:9 (NKJV)
Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
Mark 11:26 (NKJV)
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
Luke 11:13 (NKJV)
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Jesus came to reveal the Father:
John 14:9 NKJV
9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Jesus is the Father:
Isaiah 9:6
'For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.' (“Father of Eternity” - YLT)
Jesus and the Father are One
John 17:20-21
'“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. '
Further confirmation that God is our Father and what are the characteristics of a Good Father:
John 3:16 and Romans 8:29
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
'For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. '
God is the Father of Jesus
Jesus is the firstborn of many brothers - we as believers are his brothers and therefore sons and daughters of God - so He is our Father
1 John 3:1 – We Are Called His Children
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!..“ 1 John 3:1
We are heirs, like children are of a Father
Romans 8:17 (NKJV)
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Galatians 4:7 (NKJV)
Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Galatians 3:29 (NKJV)
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Matthew 6:8 – He Knows Before We Ask
“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:8
John 14:15-17 – He Gives Us His Spirit
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.” John 14:15-17
Romans 8:15-16 – His Spirit Testifies To Our Spirit
“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:15-16
“O Lord you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are the work of your hands.” (Isaiah 64:8)
Jesus is our connection to the Father
John 6:44
'No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. '
John 14:6
'Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'
I John 5:4-5
'For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?'
Ok, so we have now established that Jesus came to reveal God as the Father, and that becoming saved through Jesus gives us access to the Father, in other words, makes us his adopted children and we can now call him Abba, Pappa.
Now, some of us may still just hear these words because our spirit man is blocked by hurt and walls we erected to protect our own hearts. This is mainly so because of our experience of our earthly fathers or father figures (stepfather, teacher, coach).
Today we all need to realise and admit that we have some kind of Father wound. Now we are not doing this to place blame or shift blame or make parents look bad. We are doing this to identify the root cause of why we may be struggling with some specific issues in our lives.
What is a father supposed to do?
Ds Cassie Carstens, The World Needs a Father
Our Heavenly Father:
1. Confers Identity
2. Provides Emotional Security
3. Affirmation - affirms potential/contribution
4. Establishes Moral Authority
Jimmy Evans:
F-A-T-H-E-R
FAITHFUL PROVIDER
ATTENTIVE
TIME COMMITMENT
HEART OF MERCY AND GRACE (high standards)
EXPRESSIVE LOVE
RELATIONAL AUTHORITY
These points can actually be seen in the scriptures where Jesus is baptized and the Father in Heaven speaks so that all can hear - this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And at the mount of transfiguration moment, the Father added, “ Listen to Him.”
So we see how the Father gives identity, love, affirmation and moral authority.
These are basic things a father needs to do and things we all need to receive in our lives in order to be well balanced functioning members of society, but more than that, Holy Spirit filled, Jesus loving, well-discipled people who change the world for the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven.
Remember when we spoke on Spiritual family I mentioned that our earthly family should actually be the beginning of our spiritual family? The main place we receive the gospel, identity, love, affirmation and purpose?
Now, when we have not received this, or any part of it, we lack in that area and we will try and compensate in some way.
Have you ever noticed someone who is very insecure? The root cause 9 out of 10 times will usually be they have an issue with their earthly father. Insecurity can manifest as shyness and a super introverted demeanor. Or it can mask itself with arrogance and over the topness… or someone over compensates by being a workaholic, still trying to please a father who never gives attention or affirmation.
Most of the time our father wound is linked to a sense of abandonment or deep disappointment. Our earthly father wasn’t trustworthy or let me down often. Or maybe he left physically, walked away. Perhaps your parents got divorced and you saw your mom struggle to cope and your dad being distant. Maybe your dad believed that providing money was his main purpose and that love was putting a roof over your head and food on the table, but he had no relationship with you, he never said, “I love you” or hugged you, or played with you. Or maybe he hurt you emotionally or physically. Broke your identity and character down in stead of building it up and calling the gold out of you. Maybe he had a terrible nickname for you that stuck and still defines you today.
For the men - we should have a moment where our dads tell us “today you are a man, I’m proud of you and believe in you.”
Women - your father should have made you feel like the prettiest princess in the world and with him you felt secure and safe, and one day you will marry a man like your dad.
Whatever it is and whatever your specific situation looks like, we all have some kind of father wound. You are not alone. Know that.
And here is the good news, no the great news. We all can have access to the original father, the best father any of us will ever have. God our heavenly Father. The one who invented being a father. The one who fathered Jesus with His incorruptible seed and then gave us access to that seed through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
When we step into a relationship with Jesus, we step into a relationship with our heavenly Father. Not only that, our old man dies with Christ and the new creation version of ourselves comes to live in Jesus. So all the hurt, shame, guilt, sense of abandonment, fears, worries etc all dies in Christ. And now we are adopted and are called children of God, join-heirs with Jesus, the one who owns everything and has all authority and we have a covenant relationship with God the Father. Wow!! This is now who we are and what we have access to. This is the truth. It stands firm.
So, what if we don’t feel like this is true for our lives? I believe to whatever extent we feel this is not true, that is the extent to which we either haven’t given our lives to Christ, or the extent to which we haven’t journeyed in sanctification.
Remember, once we repent and get saved, we start the pilgrimage of healing from the hurts of our old self. That can happen overnight, but for most it’s a journey.
Where are you on that journey?
I have counseled men that have told me they do not trust God. Even that they do not love God. The believe in him and respect him, but they don’t trust or love Him. And then when I ask about their earthly fathers, it becomes clear why. But they feel stuck. To know the truth and to have a revelation of the truth is not the same thing.
Today, in this moment I believe the Holy Spirit wants to visit us all in a supernatural way and come and bring healing in these areas as only he can.
The other big thing that may keep many of us from embracing God as Father completely is a sense of guilt and shame becasue of past sin in our lives or continual habitual sin in our lives. I want you to know today that no sin, no darkness is too bad or dark for God’s love not to shine through and for Jesus’ blood not to bring freedom.
Like with the prodigal son, God is waiting like a loving Father for you to realize how much you need Him, and return to him. And he is ready to embrace, forgive and celebrate you.
We are going to create a moment, an opportunity for you to lay those father wounds down before God and allow Holy Spirit to come and reveal the truth to each of us. And as he reveals, please respond by forgiving, setting free and letting go.
We have been busy with a series on foundations. Now we’re shifting our focus to how those foundations when we understand them AND THEN APPLY THEM, should impact certain key parts of our lives - the most important ones that actually affect everything else.
We want to see How
Repentance
Salvation
Faith
Lordship & Obedience
Water baptism
Holy spirit baptism
Spiritual family
Discipleship
Impacts
Identity
Purpose
Marriage
Parenting
Community
MAIN MESSAGE: “YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER”
One of our aims with LoveKey Church is to be part of the effort to eradicate fatherlessness. Why? Because according to secular and Christian statistics, and according to the Bible, the number one cause of the major issues in our world can all be traced back to fatherlessness. And I believe that behind fatherlessness is no Jesus. What is the solution? To KNOW Jesus.
Many of us have had good fathers or good enough fathers. But others have had different forms of no father, emotionally abusive father, physically abusive father, alcoholic or addicted father, neglectful father etc.
Whether we’ve had a good or good enough father, or a really bad one, what we all have in common is that no earthly father is like God the Father. Can we agree on that? So we all, to some extent, need a revelation of the Father nature of the God we choose to serve.
Why? Well, because one of the main roles of a father, is to confer identity. We have been speaking on how our foundations impact our identity and purpose. We have been looking at scripture to determine our identity and purpose. But it’s possible for it to only be information. Head knowledge. Or, we can hear the information but not receive it and make it our own and apply it because we simply deep down do not trust the source.
Why do I say that? Because it has been proven over and over again that we subconsciously attribute our experience of our earthly father to God when we think of Him or step into a relationship with Him. So, if our earthly dad gave us reason to be disappointed, to mistrust, or to put up walls to protect our hearts, then we will automatically do the same with God the Father. And, we will have a hard time understanding the Father heart of God.
Many people do not struggle to accept Jesus or the Holy Spirit, but they get stuck on the Father.
So, when we’re confronted with the word of God about who we are in Him, we may struggle to accept it, to adhere to it because deep down we struggle to trust Him and even to love Him.
I hope to achieve three main things today:
1. Show us from scripture that Jesus came to reveal God as Your Heavenly Father, and that God is indeed a Father
2. And that we can become His children when we repent and become saved/reborn Christians (born of God)
3. Help each of us to identify our father-wound, address it and get healed from it (or start our journey of healing) so that we can embrace our Heavenly Father without holding back anything.
Scriptures where Jesus refers to God as your Father in Heaven:
Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:48 (NKJV)
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 6:9 (NKJV)
In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Matthew 6:14 (NKJV)
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Matthew 6:26 (NKJV)
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Matthew 6:32 (NKJV)
For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
Matthew 18:14 (NKJV) (the 99)
Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Matthew 23:9 (NKJV)
Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
Mark 11:26 (NKJV)
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
Luke 11:13 (NKJV)
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Jesus came to reveal the Father:
John 14:9 NKJV
9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Jesus is the Father:
Isaiah 9:6
'For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.' (“Father of Eternity” - YLT)
Jesus and the Father are One
John 17:20-21
'“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. '
Further confirmation that God is our Father and what are the characteristics of a Good Father:
John 3:16 and Romans 8:29
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
'For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. '
God is the Father of Jesus
Jesus is the firstborn of many brothers - we as believers are his brothers and therefore sons and daughters of God - so He is our Father
1 John 3:1 – We Are Called His Children
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!..“ 1 John 3:1
We are heirs, like children are of a Father
Romans 8:17 (NKJV)
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Galatians 4:7 (NKJV)
Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Galatians 3:29 (NKJV)
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Matthew 6:8 – He Knows Before We Ask
“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:8
John 14:15-17 – He Gives Us His Spirit
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.” John 14:15-17
Romans 8:15-16 – His Spirit Testifies To Our Spirit
“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:15-16
“O Lord you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are the work of your hands.” (Isaiah 64:8)
Jesus is our connection to the Father
John 6:44
'No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. '
John 14:6
'Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'
I John 5:4-5
'For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?'
Ok, so we have now established that Jesus came to reveal God as the Father, and that becoming saved through Jesus gives us access to the Father, in other words, makes us his adopted children and we can now call him Abba, Pappa.
Now, some of us may still just hear these words because our spirit man is blocked by hurt and walls we erected to protect our own hearts. This is mainly so because of our experience of our earthly fathers or father figures (stepfather, teacher, coach).
Today we all need to realise and admit that we have some kind of Father wound. Now we are not doing this to place blame or shift blame or make parents look bad. We are doing this to identify the root cause of why we may be struggling with some specific issues in our lives.
What is a father supposed to do?
Ds Cassie Carstens, The World Needs a Father
Our Heavenly Father:
1. Confers Identity
2. Provides Emotional Security
3. Affirmation - affirms potential/contribution
4. Establishes Moral Authority
Jimmy Evans:
F-A-T-H-E-R
FAITHFUL PROVIDER
ATTENTIVE
TIME COMMITMENT
HEART OF MERCY AND GRACE (high standards)
EXPRESSIVE LOVE
RELATIONAL AUTHORITY
These points can actually be seen in the scriptures where Jesus is baptized and the Father in Heaven speaks so that all can hear - this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And at the mount of transfiguration moment, the Father added, “ Listen to Him.”
So we see how the Father gives identity, love, affirmation and moral authority.
These are basic things a father needs to do and things we all need to receive in our lives in order to be well balanced functioning members of society, but more than that, Holy Spirit filled, Jesus loving, well-discipled people who change the world for the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven.
Remember when we spoke on Spiritual family I mentioned that our earthly family should actually be the beginning of our spiritual family? The main place we receive the gospel, identity, love, affirmation and purpose?
Now, when we have not received this, or any part of it, we lack in that area and we will try and compensate in some way.
Have you ever noticed someone who is very insecure? The root cause 9 out of 10 times will usually be they have an issue with their earthly father. Insecurity can manifest as shyness and a super introverted demeanor. Or it can mask itself with arrogance and over the topness… or someone over compensates by being a workaholic, still trying to please a father who never gives attention or affirmation.
Most of the time our father wound is linked to a sense of abandonment or deep disappointment. Our earthly father wasn’t trustworthy or let me down often. Or maybe he left physically, walked away. Perhaps your parents got divorced and you saw your mom struggle to cope and your dad being distant. Maybe your dad believed that providing money was his main purpose and that love was putting a roof over your head and food on the table, but he had no relationship with you, he never said, “I love you” or hugged you, or played with you. Or maybe he hurt you emotionally or physically. Broke your identity and character down in stead of building it up and calling the gold out of you. Maybe he had a terrible nickname for you that stuck and still defines you today.
For the men - we should have a moment where our dads tell us “today you are a man, I’m proud of you and believe in you.”
Women - your father should have made you feel like the prettiest princess in the world and with him you felt secure and safe, and one day you will marry a man like your dad.
Whatever it is and whatever your specific situation looks like, we all have some kind of father wound. You are not alone. Know that.
And here is the good news, no the great news. We all can have access to the original father, the best father any of us will ever have. God our heavenly Father. The one who invented being a father. The one who fathered Jesus with His incorruptible seed and then gave us access to that seed through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
When we step into a relationship with Jesus, we step into a relationship with our heavenly Father. Not only that, our old man dies with Christ and the new creation version of ourselves comes to live in Jesus. So all the hurt, shame, guilt, sense of abandonment, fears, worries etc all dies in Christ. And now we are adopted and are called children of God, join-heirs with Jesus, the one who owns everything and has all authority and we have a covenant relationship with God the Father. Wow!! This is now who we are and what we have access to. This is the truth. It stands firm.
So, what if we don’t feel like this is true for our lives? I believe to whatever extent we feel this is not true, that is the extent to which we either haven’t given our lives to Christ, or the extent to which we haven’t journeyed in sanctification.
Remember, once we repent and get saved, we start the pilgrimage of healing from the hurts of our old self. That can happen overnight, but for most it’s a journey.
Where are you on that journey?
I have counseled men that have told me they do not trust God. Even that they do not love God. The believe in him and respect him, but they don’t trust or love Him. And then when I ask about their earthly fathers, it becomes clear why. But they feel stuck. To know the truth and to have a revelation of the truth is not the same thing.
Today, in this moment I believe the Holy Spirit wants to visit us all in a supernatural way and come and bring healing in these areas as only he can.
The other big thing that may keep many of us from embracing God as Father completely is a sense of guilt and shame becasue of past sin in our lives or continual habitual sin in our lives. I want you to know today that no sin, no darkness is too bad or dark for God’s love not to shine through and for Jesus’ blood not to bring freedom.
Like with the prodigal son, God is waiting like a loving Father for you to realize how much you need Him, and return to him. And he is ready to embrace, forgive and celebrate you.
We are going to create a moment, an opportunity for you to lay those father wounds down before God and allow Holy Spirit to come and reveal the truth to each of us. And as he reveals, please respond by forgiving, setting free and letting go.
REFLECT AND RESPOND
Thank you so much for joining us today.