Give Your Heavenly Father a Chance to Be Your Father

God does not simply want us to know that He is a Father. He wants us to relate to Him as our Father and live as His sons.

When we walk in Christ, abide in Christ and seek to function in Him, we are learning to live within the relationship of Father and son. Sonship is not about gender, it speaks about identity, relationship and the unique place God has given us in Himself.

The question is not only whether we believe God is Father. The deeper question is: Have we allowed Him to father us?

The Father's Name Written on Our Minds

Revelation 14 presents a powerful picture of a people standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion, having the Father's name written on their foreheads.

This points us toward a particular way of thinking. Our minds are to become so shaped by the Father that we begin to think from the Father-son relationship.

The forehead represents the place from which our lives are directed. What governs our thinking eventually influences our behaviour, reactions, decisions and relationships.

Sometimes this requires repetition. Old ways of thinking do not disappear simply because we heard something once. Our minds must continually be renewed until the truth becomes part of how we instinctively see ourselves and respond to life.

We are learning to think from Father.

Sonship Requires Submission

Hebrews 12 speaks about being in subjection to the "Father of spirits" so that we may live. Submission can be misunderstood because many people associate it with control, oppression or someone forcing another person beneath them.

But biblical submission is something we willingly do.

It means to arrange ourselves under. Nobody can truly submit for us. We choose to bring ourselves under the Father, His wisdom, His correction and His will.

Jesus Himself demonstrated this.

At twelve years old, although He understood that He had to be about His Father's business, Scripture also tells us that He subjected Himself to His earthly parents. Following this, Jesus increased in wisdom, stature and favour with God and man.

Submission did not stop His growth. Submission became part of His growth.

Submission to the Father therefore should not be feared. It is a place where we surrender our independence and learn to trust the One who knows how to lead us.

"Not My Will, but Yours"

Submission becomes especially real when our will disagrees with the Father's will.

We see this unfold in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus faced the reality of the cross and wrestled with what was before Him. Yet He eventually surrendered Himself to the Father: Not My will, but Yours be done.

This is sonship.

There will be moments when what God desires conflicts with what we desire. We may feel afraid. We may not understand. We may wish there were another way.

But if we want to see the Father working in our lives, we must also learn to work with the Father.

The Father Produces Family

Paul writes in Ephesians 3:14–15:

"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."

Where there is a Father, there is family. The Church is not merely an institution that we attend. It is not simply a gathering, organisation or religious club.

We are family.

The New Testament repeatedly uses family language. We are children of God. We are brothers and sisters. Paul speaks about spiritual fathers and sons. John writes to little children, young men and fathers.

The language reveals God's intention: the people of God are meant to live together as a family that carries the nature and character of their Father.

Family Will Produce Friction

Calling the Church a family does not mean everyone will suddenly become perfect.

Anyone who understands natural family knows that family can come with disagreements, weaknesses and difficult moments and spiritual family is no different.

There will be people who offend us. There will be personalities we struggle with. There will be moments where another person's behaviour does not look like Christ. But family is also one of the places where Christ is formed in us.

Jesus teaches us to forgive as our Father forgives us. Therefore, forgiveness is no longer based only on how we feel about the offence. Our forgiveness must represent our Father.

This is the movement from simply working for God to living in such a way that we reveal God. Maturity is not demonstrated merely by how much Scripture we know or how gifted we appear. Maturity is revealed when others can begin to see the Father through us.

Do Not View God Through the Lens of Your Past

The story of Lot's daughters and the birth of Moab and Ben-Ammi to illustrate the consequences of broken fatherhood.

Moab carries the thought, "What father?" Ben-Ammi carries the thought of being a son of the people.

It paints a picture of what can happen when fatherhood is rejected or absent: instead of being formed through a father-son relationship, we begin allowing the crowd, culture and surrounding voices to define us.

Paul told the Corinthians that although they had many instructors, they did not have many fathers. Teachers can give information. But fathers raise sons.

The goal is therefore not simply to collect more voices, teachings and opinions. God desires to establish us in sonship so that we can mature into a representation of Him.

Allow the Father to Father You

God's care must be received. Scripture tells us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us. Notice that His care is already present, yet we must still cast our cares upon Him.

There is something we must hand over. Sometimes we have carried responsibility for ourselves for so long that surrender feels uncomfortable. We have learned to protect ourselves, provide for ourselves emotionally and remain in control because we do not want to be disappointed again. But there comes a point where we must say: God, You are my Father. I allow You to father me.

We must hand over the responsibility we were never designed to carry alone.

The Goal Is to Reveal the Father

The Father's name must become written upon our minds until His nature begins to appear through our lives. We forgive because our Father forgives. We love because our Father loves. We care because our Father cares.

This is the journey of becoming Father-focused.

Our past may explain why receiving fatherhood has been difficult, but it does not have to determine the relationship we will have with our Heavenly Father.

God is inviting us beyond merely knowing about Him.

He is inviting us into relationship.