WHO’S YOUR DADDY?

Monday 3 February

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Ephesians 3:14 (KJV)

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Galatians 4:6 (NKJV)

There is a fascinating story in Luke 8:19-21 where Jesus is ministering to a crowd and his family shows up to see him.

‘Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”

If Jesus had’ve been in most churches today, his actions would have been frowned upon and maybe even corrected. Deeply imbedded in the psyche of most Christians is the importance of your biological family over your spiritual family. It appears that Jesus did not subscribe to that point of view.

Today we are told that ‘family is everything’ but the question is which family? When it came to matters of the Kingdom, Jesus identified those who were helping him to do the Father’s will as his true family and prioritised those people above his immediate family. Sometimes they can be both. James and Jude were Jesus’ brothers who were converted after Jesus resurrection.

When He spoke of the Father’s will he was not speaking of Joseph but the Holy Spirit because Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the same way that every believer is at the point of salvation. Jesus was preparing believers to come into a spiritual family in the gospels whereas believers have come into the family of God in the New Testament.

There is a family in heaven and earth that we have been born into through salvation. This is the only real ‘birth’ anyone will ever have because the real you is not your body or soul that came out of your biological mother’s womb but your spirit man. This is why salvation is called the new birth not the ‘second birth’.

Now we’ve established this we can understand that we were born into a spiritual family and we now have a spiritual Father. We have become part of God’s household. Look how the Apostle Paul writes to Pastor Timothy about it.

‘if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.’ (1 Timothy 3:15)

So every believer has brothers and sisters in Christ. Even Jesus is the brother of the believer!

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:11)

John 1:12-13 confirms to us what kind of family we who have received Him are now a part of.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

When you were born of the Spirit, it had nothing to do with genetics, lustful actions or human decision. You were born of God. You literally are a carrier of God’s DNA. This is why you are not ordinary like Adam 1.0. You are of the second and last Adam. Adam 2.0!

When we receive the Spirit of Adoption i.e. Sonship we cry out ‘Abba Father’ which is a term of affection equivalent to the English word Daddy.

This awakens to the Fatherhood of God and as Jesus said his priority was to ‘do the will of the Father who sent me’. Not Joseph, his siblings or even Mary could sway him from His Kingdom purpose.

If you are in this family God is your Father, Jesus is your brother and He lives in you by His Spirit. You were born supernaturally into a supernatural family. Somewhere along the line, our genetic material was from Adam and Eve. Now we are from a new genetic line. New creations in Christ. Family matters. God’s eternal family.

APPLICATION

Read and study Ephesians 3:14-15 and Galatians 4:6 to understand the family you were born into.