06-01-08 #Disciple Bible Study titled: When God is Your Heavenly Father

[Disciple]

When God is Your Heavenly Father

Luke 11:2-4

Jesus taught His disciples to pray by giving them a model prayer. In that prayer, He reveals to us that we can come to God as our Heavenly Father. If we can have God as our Heavenly Father, who is our father when He is not our Father? Of course the only answer to that is Satan.

John 8:44

So as this verse implies, the devil can be your father. So we have either God or the devil as our spiritual father, so which one is yours?

1 John 3:1

In this passage we find four things that are revealed to us that take place when God is our Heavenly Father.

I. Relationship

Of course when God is our Heavenly Father, we have a relationship with Him. This relationship can only
begin when we are born again. To be born again means that we have believed and accepted the gift of salvation that Jesus Christ offers to us by what He did on the cross for us. If we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are then born spiritually into the family of God.

As a result, God the Father becomes our Heavenly Father. This means that we can come to Him as our Father with the needs we have, the heartaches we suffer, the pain we feel, the joy we have, the thankful
spirit we have, etc. We have a relationship with God that will go on for eternity. Unlike fathers today, our Heavenly Father will never leave us; He will never abuse us; He will always love us; He will be there for us; He will provide for our every need; He will lead us, etc.

Many fathers today need to take lessons from our Heavenly Father. God is a Father that will never break our relationship with Him. He wants that relationship with us and He desires for us to want that relationship with Him. As in any relationship, communication is important. God talks to us through His Word, the Bible, and we talk to Him through prayer. We draw closer to Him the more we are in the Word and the more we are in prayer. How close are you to your Heavenly Father?

II. Identity

1 John 3:1

We see in this passage the identity we have as a result of having God as our Heavenly Father. The verse tells us that because of our relationship, we are called “the sons of God”. Our identity turns from children of the devil to sons of God. When God is our Father, we can go through life knowing that we belong to Him. This should really humble us to realize that we have our identity in Him.

It should really wake us up to understand that because our identity is in Him, we should be like Him. Do we demonstrate to others that we are “sons of God”? Or do we still live as if we are children of the devil? If you read further in the chapter in verse ten, it shares “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”

Our identity as “sons of God” reveals to us that we are no longer our own. It does not say that we are our own, but it states that we are God’s. We can often forget that we are bought with a price and as a result, we are not our own. We serve a Master who is our Father. To illustrate this, let’s think of a child living with his father.

As a child, he is to be obedient to his father even as a servant is to his master. The father may ask the child to feed the dog and the obedient child will feed the dog. The child belongs to the father. We as God’s children, must also remember that we are to be obedient children to Him.

III. Blessing


Our passage also shares with us that we as “sons of God” have His blessings. Our verse states that He has bestowed love upon us to be called the sons of God. When God is our Father, we can count on His blessings. Blessings such as fulfilled promises, needs provided, strength given, wisdom given, etc. God cares for His children. Because God cares for His children, He will reward obedience, and chastise disobedience.

Chastisement is also a blessing because it is a teaching tool to help us stay in a right relationship with God. He desires so much to pour out His blessings upon us, but if we are disobedient, we will have to endure a time of chastisement. Learn from men and women in the Bible who lived this lesson.

We find many who were blessed by God because they did that which was right, but we also see the chastising hand of God for those who disobeyed Him.

God does want what is best for His children and He wants to mold us into the image of His Son, but in doing so, we may find ourselves in trials every so often to help us become what He intends for us. May we open our eyes to see the blessings of God that He gives us each day and may we remember to thank Him for being such a loving Father.

IV. Rejection


The last item we have as a result of having God as our Heavenly Father is rejection. Rejection scares many people because we all have a desire to be liked and accepted by people. Let’s face it, we really feel uncomfortable when someone dislikes or rejects us. Our passage reveals to us that the world will not know us because it knew Him not.
This tells us that there is a separation between the “sons of God” and the world. This separation hinders any type of friendship between the world and the believer.
James 4:4
This verse may also imply that whosoever is a friend of God is an enemy of the world. A person may ask why does this happen? Satan hates God and anyone or anything associated with Him. If we are sons of God, he hates us. As was taught earlier, those who are not of the Heavenly Father are of their father, the devil. As their father is, so are they (John 8:44).

This means if the devil hates God, so does his children. If the devil hates the things of God, so does his children. As we have already discussed, if God is our Father, we have a relationship with Him. The world does not have this relationship with Him. They can of course, but they don’t. As a result of this division, we do not relate to the world any longer in our works and it will not relate to us either. We have an identity with God as His sons.

Again, the world’s identity is children of the devil so they will not understand what it means to be “sons of God”. They can understand if they would trust in Jesus, but they haven’t. To be a child of God seems foolish to the world and is often hated by the world. We have the Father’s blessings. The world will find only God’s punishment and judgment if they die without Jesus.

They often see blessings of God, but attribute them to good karma, coincidence, or just good luck. They have no understanding what the blessings of God are nor what they could have as a child of God.

Again, they reject God and all that pertain to Him. So remember, if the world hates you or rejects you, it is because you are a child of God and are demonstrating that you have a relationship with Him; that you are identified with Him; and His blessings are upon you.

Don’t fret, rejoice! You are a child of God if you know Jesus as your personal Savior