For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” - Romans 8:15
One of my transformational encounters with God happened on a business trip to Florida. I had returned to my hotel room from a long day of meetings. I decided to head out to the pool for a swim. I was about halfway to the pool when I sensed The Lord wanted my attention.
I asked what He wanted. He said He wanted me to go back to my room because He had something He wanted to tell me in private. I turned around, and went back to my room. I got down on my knees next to the bed, and asked Him what He wanted to say. He said, “You are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.”
That intimate encounter, and those Words, changed my life. It was one of the most precious times with God I have ever been blessed with. I knew it was His Fathering Presence surrounding me, taking over my understanding of Who He is, and who I am. With His intimate, precious, loving assurance toward me, He was setting me on a transformational life walk with Him.
My father was a decorated war veteran. His decorations came at a heavy price to his psyche and that of his children. His PTSD often caused him to suddenly imagine that we were enemy soldiers, and he responded as he had been trained to do. He was often violent towards us and emotionally distant. As a result, I didn't know who I was to my father. Mainly I feared him and couldn't understand what role I played in his life, except as a potential threat to his existence.
I desperately needed to know God's Father heart toward me to heal and deliver me from those father wounds. God was kind to do so in speaking His Words into my life and adopting me as His child. He became my Father, and my healing and freedom grow continually as I receive and understand my adoption by Him.
There are many ways that God relates to us, but the foundational way is as our Abba Father. That is why He tells us (Mt 18:3), “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted, and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
Our conversion AND self-identity as a small child loved by God our Father is the ONLY means to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It doesn't get any more foundational, and eternal life changing than that. To help us with this perspective, the expression "Abba, Father" appears three times in Scripture. The first is in Mark 14:36 where Jesus' is alone in the garden of Gethsemane facing His impending crucifixion.
And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” - Mark 14:36
Here, Jesus is in the crucible, climatic moments of His life on earth. In this excruciation, His first connection in prayer, is His appeal to His Abba, Father. God means it to be exactly the same for us when we face our crucible moments. He wants our first appeal to be in intimacy to our Abba Father. Just like a small child instinctively runs and clings to their daddy when they sense trouble, so our Abba Father longs for us to do likewise with Him.
Notice also that Jesus intimately appeals to His Abba Father to remove the crucible. God designed it to be the same with us. We can intimately appeal to our Abba Father to remove the excruciating situations of life from us. He may choose to do just that. He may also know that there are some crucibles that are pre-ordained for us to walk through with Him.
Ultimately, Jesus lovingly submits to His Abba Father. Again, it is the same for us. The more we know God intimately as our Abba Father, the more life situations we can trust Him with; knowing that His Father heart is for us; no matter what.
The second appearance of the expression, "Abba, Father", is in Romans 8:15 where The Scriptures tells us, "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
God has given His children the Spirit of adoption. We need to yield our understanding and self-identity more and more to the Spirit of adoption. We need to identify ourselves more and more as children adopted by God our Father; hand picked to walk in the protection, provision, and love of Almighty God. We need to ask the Spirit of adoption deposited by God in our inner man to rise up, and stir us to cry out, "Abba, Father." It is in that intimate crying out, and embracing of our precious trust in, "Abba, Father", that we find the antidote for, and deliverance from, the spirit of bondage and fear.
The connection between fear and love is also taught in 1 John 4:18. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear."
If perfect love casts out fear, what does imperfect love do? Or no love? Or abuse? Anything short of perfect love, attracts and sets in fear.
The human first obligated to love us perfectly is our father. In their flawed love toward us is the foundation of so much human trial. So many human fears, anxieties, dysfunctions, addictions, enslavements, and imprisonments can be traced to a lack of Godly fathering, abusive fathering, and/or no fathering at all.
The Lord knows this, and turns His Father heart toward the fatherless.
In Psalms 10:14 God is the, "helper of the fatherless". In Psalms 68:5, God is "a father to the fatherless." In Psalms 146:9, "The LORD sustains the fatherless."
God wants us involved in His defense of and ministry to the fatherless. In Zechariah 7:10, the Scripture admonishes us not to oppress the fatherless. Instead, according to Isaiah 1:17 and Psalms 82:3, God exhorts us to, "Defend the fatherless." In Deuteronomy 24:20 the Scripture instructs us to help provide for the fatherless by sharing small portions of our provision with them.
God even showers a special blessing on those who join Him in his care for the fatherless (Deuteronomy 14:29). When we partner with God in supporting the fatherless in our community with hospitality and food to their satisfaction, then God blesses us in all the work of our hands.
The third appearance of the expression, "Abba, Father", appears in Paul's letter to the Galatian Christians (Galatians 4:6). There Paul tells us, "And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
When we accept Christ's blood sacrifice on the cross for our sins, and commit our lives to His lordship, we become God's children. As a result, God sends the Spirit of His Son in our hearts. That is astounding. The Spirt of God's Son, Jesus, is in my heart and yours. In addition to infinite other blessings applied to us, the Spirit of God's Son in our hearts is crying, "Abba, Father". Our foundational, intimate appeal to God is, "Abba, Father" and the Spirit of Jesus is always working to help us to know God that way. As we become more and more aware of our status as children of God, the cry within us that He is our daddy grows louder and louder.
PRAYER
Abba Father. Help me to know You more and more as Abba Father. Help me to receive my adoption and identity as your child. Please grow that intimate connection between us.
Thank You for any God-like love shown to me by my earthly father. Help me to forgive him for any imperfect fathering; to forgive him for the consequences of his imperfect love. Help me Lord to overcome those same consequences and make amends in the places I have loved imperfectly. Please heal and deliver me from any fear and bondage stemming from unGodly fathering; and set me on Your course for me as your beloved child.
Let it be in The Name of Jesus!
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