Jesus said in John 10:30 (Amplified) said that, "I and the Father are One."
Jesus and the Father are One and the same. When we behold Jesus, we see for the first time, the reality of our Heavenly Father. We see the tenderness and the love of a Father that we can't see in other ways.
I have a friend who was divorced from his first wife. He had two children with this woman and was now separated from the three of them. He's still providing for the two children by paying child support. He's still their father and protector, but he now has a very limited relationship with them. It's not that he doesn't love them anymore or doesn't want the closeness with them, but the circumstances made it all very limited. After several years, he remarried and they had a child together. He could express all the love and closeness with this child that he always desired to have with the other two.
For some reason, his other kids became jealous of the relationship their dad had with the new child. They still called him Father, but the closeness he had with his new family was different. He desired to have the same fellowship with his older children that he had with the youngest one. But, it became increasingly difficult because of the way they viewed him. He'd always been the provider and protector. He'd always loved them and wanted them, but couldn't be with them like he wanted to.
I think this is how our Heavenly Father must feel about us. For so long, we'd been separated from Him and we'd forgotten how to be close to Him. All the while, He had watched over us and provided for us. We still saw Him as protector and provider, but had lost the intimacy that God had always desired.
Jesus bridged the gap between the Father and man and we're in a position of intimacy with the Father now. We'd been separated from God for so very long that it's hard to really see Him in the Image of Father. We still call Him "Father" and know Who He is, but we don't know how to become intimate with Him. We don't see the Love that has always been there and God's desire to be the Father that He's always wanted to be.
Under the old covenant, God made provision and protection and had always had the Love for us that He had since before the divorce in the Garden of Eden. Because of the separation in the Garden, God couldn't be close like a Father.
We beheld God from afar and He had to remain distant from us because of the legality of His Own Word. Now, through Jesus, the legality of God's Word and the debt that separated us has been paid in full. The children of the old covenant and the children of the new covenant have become one united family.
We, as the children of the new family, have to put away the image of an absentee father and allow God to be the Father that He's always wanted to be. What our Father wants more than anything else is to be intimate with His children. He wants to lavish all the Love, the fellowship and the joy of growing up with His children on us. God wants to teach us all the things He did with Adam before the divorce in the Garden. He wants to walk with us in fellowship like He did with Jesus while He was here on earth.
God doesn't want to give us a long list of do's and don'ts. He wants to be a Father Who teaches His children all the pleasures of the life He gave them. We still hold the image of a God of laws to follow. Instead we need to see a Father with a life of sharing the greatness of the things He's prepared for His children.
Every father wants children to share their life with. He wants to teach his sons to hunt, fish and to show them how to be men. He desires to show all his love for his little girls and be their image of what a father and husband should be. He wants to provide the best for them and always be there for them no matter what comes up.
This is the Father we now have because of Jesus. He's our ever present help ion times of need and the One Whose grace is sufficient for all our needs. He's the One Who came to give us life and have it more abundantly and the One Who will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory. He's the One Who put all of our past under the Blood of Jesus so we could become One with Him. He's no longer absent as a Father, but He's the One Who will never leave us or forsake us.
Let God become Father and don't keep Him separate from your fellowship. Don't speak to Him only when you need something. Allow Him to be constant in your thoughts and hearts. Give Him the joy of Fatherhood and allow Him to be the One Who gave everything for you.
The greatest joy in the hearts of the Father is the thanks and understanding of His children along with the constant knowing we have Him as our Father. Don't rob Him of His greatest joy which is your life in Him. He waited a long, long time to bring us back to the place where He could be an intimate part of our lives not through sacrifice of bulls and goats that would at least let Him be provider, but the Blood of Jesus that would allow Him to be Father.
There's never been a father who loved his children more than our heavenly Father. This Father gave everything, including His life, to have this privilege of family. Don't ignore the privilege that He died to give us which is the privilege to come into His Presence and stand before Him as His Own children. Let Him hear you say that you love Him and let Him love you as Father.
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