Enjoying the Father
However, while we might be God’s children, destined for eternal glory, in the mundane reality of daily life we often don’t feel like God’s children. How then do we enjoy the intimacy implied by this familial description?
(This is part of a series on Devotion)
Hearing God
For many, the answer lies in seeking some kind of “experience of the Holy Spirit.” But this isn’t how the role of the Spirit is presented in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Adoption:
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 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 8:14-16)
Instead, the Holy Spirit’s role is to direct us to Jesus, and to his words. When Jesus departed, he promised his Spirit to his disicples, from whom we have the New Testament:
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 15:26, ESV)
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. but when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears … He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” (John 16:12-16)
What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God … But we have the mind of Christ. (2 Cor 2:12-16)
So we listen to God by listening to his words, by reading Scripture. The Bible is consistently clear on how we should seek God. Throughout the Bible, God’s people are continually called back to his Word.
Abraham is commended for his faith, display when he listened to God and believed his promises:
Then the word of the Lord came to him: … “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Gen 15:5-6)
Moses told the Israelites:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. … And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness. (Deut 6:4-25)
King David said:
Blessed is the one ... whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)
And we read the Bible in order to know God:
This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, or the strong boast of their strength .. but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6, ESV)
In the New Testament, we find that the focus of the Scripture is Jesus:
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:27)
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)
My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:2-3)
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1-2)
So we read the Bible primarily to find Jesus.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. (2 Peter 3:18)
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:7-8, ESV)
And conversely, we only need the Bible:
As for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
Knowing God
When we come to the Bible in order to know and love Jesus, we will find there are “boundless riches” to explore:
This grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ. (Eph 3:8)
Thus, Charles Spurgeon could say:
There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity …
Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. (Sermon at New Park St Chapel, Southward, 7 Jan 1855)
To grow in knowledge and love of God, we clearly must read the Bible in a way that lets it change us; we need to slow down and “meditate” on the Bible. We want our study of the Bible to lead:
- To prayer, and faith. “I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. … Answer me quickly, Lord … Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.” (Psalms 143:5-8)
- To the heart. “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Romans 10:8-9)
- To obedience. “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.” (Joshua 1:8) “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)
Here we need to reclaim the Biblical sense of “meditation” from the modern sense (emptying one’s mind). Meditating on God’s word means seeking insight into God’s words, works, and glory:
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked … but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. (Psalms 1:1-2)
On the glorious splendour of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. (Psalm 145:5 ESV)
Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. (2 Timothy 2:7)
Humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. (James 1:21)