My Father
One of the greatest assurances of true salvation is an inner voice in the human spirit that cries forth, "My Father." The apostle Paul said it most beautifully, "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15). If every born again believer would nurture this cry within from the moment of redemption-never allowing it to wane, but growing in grace-we would change our world. The human spirit is a gift of God to every living soul. It is like a vacuum that cannot be satisfied with anything less than its own giver. The human spirit is shaped by the very nature of God and will be sick until it is renewed in His likeness. Sin marred it in the first Adam, but the second Adam came to repair the wound.
The Father loves the family. Every living soul has the seed of this family but it must be "born again." The very words "born again" remind us that the family was not created to be foreign with God but to be His. Something separated us from our original design, and we know it was sin. When it occurred, the great Creator immediately spoke of redemption and promised Satan that his head would be "deadly wounded" by the seed of the very woman to whom he lied. This seed was present when the Holy Ghost conceived the Son of God. Mary was never intended to be a co-redeemer but the seed of woman where the Son of God could spring forth to live and redeem the human race. This redeemer came to provide the world with a door back to the Father’s heart.
Nothing in man or in any of his goodness can renew this right relationship. We are altogether lost and unredeemable in our own rights. Because the Father wanted us back in His favor and capable of loving Him with our whole heart, He gave His own Son to descend into our world and take up our cause. To the Hebrews, this Spirit said "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me" (Hebrews 10:4-5). The sacrifices of bulls and goats had no soul to offer up to God. The final offering that would replace all types of temporary gifts had to be an offering of "will and soul." It also had to be next of kin to the original Creator to whom it all belonged. The owner’s kin was the only possible redeemer of the lost possession. He only had one Son, and He alone was next of kin. He willingly came and fulfilled the task.
We must never forget that it was the Father’s Son who purchased our freedom. We were lost, and there was no hope of salvation without the ultimate price being paid. From the moment of sin until the Cross, all creation waited in hope for the "Kinsman Redeemer"–God’s only Begotten Son. No wonder the apostate world has removed the word "begotten" because it stabbed at the very heart of who He was. John said "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3).
The Christian life is a renewed relationship with our Heavenly Father through and by His Son Jesus Christ. Any confusion of the relationship is death to the soul. To deny the distinction of the Son of God is to destroy the very door unto the Father. The Father did not give Himself; He gave His Son because His Son is the only heir to His Father. No wonder the Son said to pray "Our Father which art in heaven." He is His Father and our Father.
The person of the Holy Spirit will guard this fellowship that we have with the Father and His Son. Any spirit that infringes on the worship and relationship that we give only to the Father and His Son is a masquerade and not the real person of the Spirit. When some false prophet offers to give you an "impartation" of some spirit they have received, you can immediately know it is a demon. The emotion may be similar and the words may be titillating, but the Father will not share His attention. He and His Son alone can be worshipped and adored in this grand covenant of Holy Scripture. His Spirit will inspire and anoint you to exalt the Father and to receive His loving fellowship.
Nothing has been lost to this present generation of religious ideas as the intended relationship with our Father. The Father’s mercies are available to be renewed every morning. Job spoke of this great fellowship in the midst of his dark trial, "What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?" (Job 7:17-18). The heart of a man will never be full until the Father sits on the throne of that man’s praise.
Jesus Christ came to magnify this fellowship and bridge the gulf of sin so that a saint can "sit together in heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:3). Jesus Christ is the door and the Holy Spirit is the porter and the Father waits for you to walk right in-boldly. There is no other door and there is no other porter (John 10:1-11). The Apostle Paul was dynamic because he lived near the "Holy Place." He said "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Hebrews 10:19-20).