Jul 11, 2023

Is God Your Father Supplying All?

When Jesus was teaching on how to pray to God, He makes a special emphasis that one should first recognize that they are praying to "Your Father." Then He elaborates on the fact that "Your Father" already knows what you need BEFORE you ask Him. When we go to our "secret place" to talk with God, our Father in Heaven already knows the need and the solution. Should we tell Him the need anyway? Most of us do, even though our thoughts are supposed to NOT be about our issues, and instead about Heaven and the Kingdom of God in the earth.

Is God Your Father Supplying All Your Needs, or is it Jesus?

"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 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 6:5-8 NIV).

If we go down a few verses in this chapter, Jesus continues to say, "So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:31-34 NIV).

Have you ever considered that when you're in your secret place with God telling Him about your troubles and worries that you are praying like a pagan? That's a very strong statement for Jesus to be declaring! I believe what He's emphasizing is that when we limit our relationship with God our Father to our needs, we have a relationship with Him that is no different than the Gentiles.

If we really believe that God is our Father and the source of all we need before we ask, then the true need for us is to seek first His Kingdom. When we don't have a relationship with God as Father, then we perceive from a different realm of understanding how the Kingdom of God in the earth is operating today.

Our relationship with God must be on a higher realm than our earthly needs. We must embrace that ALL Mighty God is "Your Father!" You did not choose Him, He chose you (John 15:16). He created you, He formed you, and He breathed Life into you (Psalm 139). He placed His DNA in your heart (Eccl. 3:11).

Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does" (John 5:19). All that Jesus did – the miracles, the signs and wonders, the healings, His teachings – in the earth was the Father in Him doing them. God the Father healed, cleansed, saved, and raised the dead. Jesus was NOT the source. Everything came from the Father that was imparted into the earth through Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 6, Jesus gave us an example on how to pray which is known as the Lord's Prayer. It begins with Jesus saying, "Our Father, or MY Father who is in Heaven."

At another time when the disciples overheard Jesus praying, they hear Him begin the prayer by saying, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:1-3).

Take note that Jesus is establishing with the Father in an audible prayer for the disciples to hear that Life eternal is knowing God is our Father, and that Jesus Christ was sent as the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE of Knowing God as Father because we are in Christ (Col. 1:27).

Jesus Christ is responsible to deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father so that all things are subjected to Father God being all in all (1 Corinthians 15:25-28).

The Apostle Paul makes this powerful statement to Ephesus:

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way" (Ephesians 1:17-23).

The body of Christ Jesus is the church, His feet! When we know God as our true Father, we can do greater works than Jesus did while walking on the earth before the cross. Jesus is no longer on man but has redeemed all to the glory of God with the ministry of reconciliation, so that we too have that same ministry unveiling the Father to the world.

Paul said that every family in Heaven and earth derived their name from God their Father. We have all been rooted and established IN LOVE – GOD. He has immeasurable power and riches to strengthen us by the Holy Spirit in our inner being for us to be filled with the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-21).

There might be "other gods" in the thoughts of humanity carried down through history, but for those that declare Jesus Christ as Lord, we believe there is one God who is Father of all, and all things exist for Him. There is one Lord, Jesus Christ who is all things, and we exist through Him as His bone and flesh – cellular members of His One body and One Spirit (1 Cor. 8:6, Ephesians 4:3-5).

James tells us not to be deceived. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created."

Jesus makes some final statements before going to the cross in John 14. He isn't showing the disciples the way out of hell with a ticket to heaven, but the way to receive the revelation that you have a Heavenly Father that loves you and says that you were beautiful and wonderfully made in His image. He says that He goes to the Father for the Father is greater than He is. Our relationship to Jesus Christ is the preparation of our relationship to the Father for His work to be completed in us.

We are to worship the Father in Spirit – Holy Spirit - and Truth – Jesus (John 4:23).

While Jesus was breathing His final breaths on the cross, He asks the Father to forgive them for they didn't know what they were doing. Jesus would have been correct if He had simply said, "I forgive you", which is what He did in Mark 2:5, but to bring the fullness of handing all things to the Father, for the Father to be glorified from the cross – He spoke saying audibly for all to hear, "Father, forgive them." (Luke 23:34).

It is God the Father in Christ who reconciled the world to Himself not counting trespasses and sins against humanity (2 Corinthians 5:17-19). When we have the revelation of Christ in us, the glory of our Father, we too can minister to the world the spirit of reconciliation and to identify humanity as children of the Father of Lights.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ in John's writings is the unveiling of the oneness of the Father and Son in whom we are members of His body so that Christ BE all in ALL (John 17:20-21).