The Way to our Father’s Heart…
“It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
Written by: Skip Barland
November 24, 2012
God’s original design for humanity was always that we should learn the ways of the Lord first from our earthly parents, within a loving and nurturing home.
Unfortunately things being what they are today, in this fallen world, most of us have been raised in a less than perfect environment and whereas, as it was in my case, where my parents did the best they knew how to do, they were limited because of their own upbringing, and so it goes.
Regardless of what your upbringing has been, and whether or not you had a loving and nurturing home, a godly home home to grow up in; or whether you even had parents at all, maybe you are an orphan, or possibly you were abused as a child; regardless of what your past is, just know this that you have a loving and nurturing Heavenly Father who is watching over your life; and He will teach you His ways and how to please Him.
The only thing that we need to have is a teachable mind and spirit, and a willingness to humble ourselves and learn, as a child does with his earthly father.
Children typically don’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, or whether they will have a roof over their heads next month. They have faith, and they don’t even question whether their parents will take care of them or not… they know it!
Likewise we are to develop that same attitude towards our Heavenly Father, regardless of what our earthly experience has been.
The standard for Fatherhood is found in God, our Heavenly Father, and not in our earthly father; and so we each must begin our journey with that knowledge; that even though you may have been damaged, abused, or hurt in your upbringing, and even though you may be hurting even today, as an adult from that experience, and to one extent or another we all are in that condition, whatever is lacking in your past, just know this, that your Father in heaven will heal those wounds and that He will make you both whole and complete in Him.
That is always God’s goal, to make you complete in Him; and though those scars will always remain, as memory traces of your past experience, the way you will know you have been truly healed and delivered is because those scars will no longer bring pain to your life; but often your past experience will become the bases for your future ministry, so you will be able to have compassion and empathize with those who are coming down that same path and experience, that you came through. In this way God does enter into every experience of our life and works it for our good.
We need to understand that God’s ways and thoughts are much different from the ways of this world and of man; and as the Bible says, “as far as the heavens are above the earth, so are God’s ways and thoughts above ours.”
When we are born-again we are enrolled in the University of the Holy Spirit, and it is here that we learn the culture of heaven; how to put on the mind of Christ; and then to see things from God’s perspective; and how to navigate through life with His guidance and wisdom.
It’s much the same as it would be if you were to move to a new country, where you would have to learn a whole new culture and way of life.. Likewise, if we are to be citizens of Heaven, we have to learn Heaven’s ways; and in fact our mission in the earth, as God’s covenant kids, is to bring heaven to earth, by manifesting God’s will in the earth, as it is in Heaven.
So if we want to benefit from this relationship with our loving Heavenly Father, and see it grow, as we grow and mature, then we must learn to trust in Him, and by trust I mean we have faith in Him, that He will do what He promises.
“Since we have been made right with God by our faith, we have peace with God.
This happened through our Lord Jesus Christ, who through our faith has brought us into that blessing of God’s grace that we now enjoy. And we are happy because of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory.
We also have joy with our troubles (our trials and tribulations), because we know that these troubles produce patience. 4 And patience produces character, and character produces hope. And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts. He gave us his love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us.” (Rom 5:1-5)
All of this is to teach us to live by faith; because without faith we CANNOT please God; and we must understand also that this doesn’t happen as an event in our life, but rather it happens as a process; a process that continues for the rest of our life while we are on this earth.
It is through this process that we learn, from our own experiences, that we can trust God to lead us through our own trials and tribulations in life.
It is also in this process that we learn to apply those promises that we read in God’s Word; and by doing so we learn to cast our cares and our bodies, and even our lives, completely upon God, and by doing that we then develop perseverance.
God will make a way in your life even when there doesn’t appear in the natural to be any way or hope.
The Bible tells us that faith is the substance of things that we hope for, and that it is evident in things that cannot be seen or felt in the natural; and so consequently if we are to conform to God’s Kingdom and learn His ways, then we must learn to change the paradigm of the way we see things.
We must never looks to our circumstances or to our feelings in order to get hope, rather we must always look only to God’s Word!
Once you can see it and feel it, whatever it is that you are praying for, then you have it already and you no longer need hope.
Hope is what you hang on to before you see the physical manifestation!
And for all of this, we must humbles ourselves and become as children, even as our Lord instructed us to do:
Matthew 18:2-5
2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.5 Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.”
If we want to learn from God, and be pleasing to Him, then we must learn to humble ourselves before Him and be teachable, as a child. Selah.
I’ll See It When I Believe It
By Larry Ollison, Ph.D.
Hebrews 11:1-3 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
There are many people confused about the things of God. They worry and fret about creation, death, eternal life, heaven and hell. And it’s not uncommon to get letters asking this one question. “How can I understand God and the Bible? How can I know what to believe?”Well, today I have the answer.
Just believe what God says by faith. In other words, accept the Holy Bible as the Word of God, read it and believe it. Then, base all your decisions and all your trust on what God’s Word says. That’s called “walking by faith.”
Walking by faith is not always easy. Why? Well, it’s because we have become accustomed to walking by sight. Here’s what I mean.
When we pray and ask God to meet a need in our life that is clearly promised in His Word, we must believe that God has met that need. We must believe that God’s Word is true and that He has actually done what He said He would do.
Jesus said in Mark 11:24, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
Jesus did not say that we are to believe that we have received when we see results. He said that we are to believe that we have received what we have petitioned, when we pray. That’s praying in faith. We pray, then we believe God so much, we trust His promises so strongly, that we trust that He has already accomplished our request. From that point on, once we have prayed in faith, we thank Him for meeting our need.
Once a man told me He couldn’t thank God for meeting His needs, because His needs had not been met. I asked Him if he had prayed and asked God to meet his needs. He said “Yes, I know that God will meet my needs, but I won’t really believe it until I see it.”
Waiting to believe when you receive is not faith. Faith is believing God, regardless of the way things look. As Christians, we are to walk by faith and not by sight. If the circumstances say one thing and God’s Word says another, we must believe God. God does not lie. You can always depend on Him. He will never let you down. He will always do what He said He would do. And according to His own Words, we will receive from Him when we believe Him.
In James chapter 1, the Bible tells us that when we pray we must believe that God will answer our petitions. In fact, verse 5 says, “But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”
When we pray, if we don’t believe, we won’t receive.
The world says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
The Word says, “I’ll see it when I believe it.”
Remember, Jesus said in Mark 11:24, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
Larry Ollison Ministries
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