Abba Father!
21/06/09 09:49
I know God. I know God to be the only wise,
omnipotent, sovereign Ruler; who is King of kings and
Lord of lords and who dwells in a light
unapproachable. I know Him to be Savior and Shepherd,
the lover of my soul.
He is the sun and shield of my life and the lily of my valleys. He is the song of my heart and the praise upon my lips. I know him as Teacher and Instructor, to counsel me in the way that I should go. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His Namesake.
I know God to be the designer and Artist of this beautiful earth that I dwell on. He is the Creator of all things; things visible and invisible, whether they be things in heaven or on the earth, I know He created it all.
As St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury once said, “He is that, than-nothing-greater-can-be-conceived.” Abraham reminds me that God is my Shield, my exceedingly great Reward. God told Moses that He was an all consuming Fire. Isaiah saw Him as the High and Lofty One and David knew Him as the Ancient of Days, without beginning and without end.
But, just as Zophar questioned Job, “Canst thou by searching find out God?” I too, cannot know Him by my mind alone. In A.W. Tozer’s celebrated work, The Knowledge of the Holy, he quotes Nicholas of Cusa to show man’s insurmountable problem. “The intellect knoweth that it is ignorant of Thee, because it knoweth Thou canst not be known, unless the unknowable could be known, and the invisible beheld, and the inaccessible attained. If anyone should set forth any concept by which Thou canst be conceived, I know that that concept is not a concept of Thee, for every concept is ended at the wall of Paradise.”
This is one of the reasons why science and philosophy are so antagonistic of God; He refuses to be accountable to their inquiries. As Tozer says, “Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being that they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself.
The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting that there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering.” Jesus has told us that no one knows the Father, except the Son and to whomever the Son chooses to reveal Him to.
When I gave my life to Jesus, when I became born-again twenty-four years ago, I learned on that day that God was my Father. It was only through Jesus Christ and His Spirit in my heart that allows my mind to know God. The declaration spoken to Jesus, “You are my Son, today I have become your Father.” is the declaration that each one of us can receive for ourselves.
The day that you surrendered to God was the day that He became your Father. This was the day that God was now able to reveal to your heart, the love that He has possessed for you. And this is when your heart was able to convince your mind that all that He has revealed to you about Himself was true.
You and I know all those things that I have written above, about God, because Jesus had revealed to us that God is our Father. Yes, He has given us the Spirit of Sonship and by that Spirit we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
Listen, because of my Father, I can do all things, I am more than a conqueror, and nothing will separate me from the love that He has for me. I know that no good thing will be held from me and that He will work in all things, for my good. I know Him as the Father of heavenly lights, in whom there is no shadow of turning.
Because I have seen Jesus –I have seen the Father. Our Father who art in Heaven!
Have a great week!
Pastor Jim
He is the sun and shield of my life and the lily of my valleys. He is the song of my heart and the praise upon my lips. I know him as Teacher and Instructor, to counsel me in the way that I should go. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His Namesake.
I know God to be the designer and Artist of this beautiful earth that I dwell on. He is the Creator of all things; things visible and invisible, whether they be things in heaven or on the earth, I know He created it all.
As St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury once said, “He is that, than-nothing-greater-can-be-conceived.” Abraham reminds me that God is my Shield, my exceedingly great Reward. God told Moses that He was an all consuming Fire. Isaiah saw Him as the High and Lofty One and David knew Him as the Ancient of Days, without beginning and without end.
But, just as Zophar questioned Job, “Canst thou by searching find out God?” I too, cannot know Him by my mind alone. In A.W. Tozer’s celebrated work, The Knowledge of the Holy, he quotes Nicholas of Cusa to show man’s insurmountable problem. “The intellect knoweth that it is ignorant of Thee, because it knoweth Thou canst not be known, unless the unknowable could be known, and the invisible beheld, and the inaccessible attained. If anyone should set forth any concept by which Thou canst be conceived, I know that that concept is not a concept of Thee, for every concept is ended at the wall of Paradise.”
This is one of the reasons why science and philosophy are so antagonistic of God; He refuses to be accountable to their inquiries. As Tozer says, “Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being that they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself.
The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting that there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering.” Jesus has told us that no one knows the Father, except the Son and to whomever the Son chooses to reveal Him to.
When I gave my life to Jesus, when I became born-again twenty-four years ago, I learned on that day that God was my Father. It was only through Jesus Christ and His Spirit in my heart that allows my mind to know God. The declaration spoken to Jesus, “You are my Son, today I have become your Father.” is the declaration that each one of us can receive for ourselves.
The day that you surrendered to God was the day that He became your Father. This was the day that God was now able to reveal to your heart, the love that He has possessed for you. And this is when your heart was able to convince your mind that all that He has revealed to you about Himself was true.
You and I know all those things that I have written above, about God, because Jesus had revealed to us that God is our Father. Yes, He has given us the Spirit of Sonship and by that Spirit we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
Listen, because of my Father, I can do all things, I am more than a conqueror, and nothing will separate me from the love that He has for me. I know that no good thing will be held from me and that He will work in all things, for my good. I know Him as the Father of heavenly lights, in whom there is no shadow of turning.
Because I have seen Jesus –I have seen the Father. Our Father who art in Heaven!
Have a great week!
Pastor Jim
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