I was receiving prayer ministry one day when Jesus draped me across his arms and, like a baby, walked me up the steep steps leading to the throne of the Father. Ever so gently he placed me in the Father's lap and walked away, leaving me in the cushy comfort and warmth of the magnificent Presence of God.
I looked into his face of Wisdom, awed by his loving gaze back towards me. In that gaze I was fully known, fully appreciated, and fully loved. My heart wast racing with joy, my skin tingling with excitement, my spirit blossoming like a flower.
This wasn't the first time I had realized how wonderful it was to be smack-dab in the Father's presence. It use to happen all the time. But through the years things got busy - kids came, ministry happened, we moved across the states - and things just sort of wained.
So it goes.
So here I am in the Father's lap looking up and wondering, "You are so awesome. How did I ever forget how awesome you are?"
"When you went to seminary," came the reply.
He was right. Seminary is where it went from heart to head. And now he was reinvading my heart with a second conversion to the Father's love.
The Father. All creating, all encouraging, reaching out to you with no selfish motive or scheme. Completely existing for you that you might be completely made for him, whole, fulfilled, fully alive, with no shadow of turning.
Conversion to the ongoing presence of the Father heart of God was something that got major airplay about 20 years ago. It was everywhere - in songs, teaching, and studies across the globe. (Apparently he thought that his Bride had, in a sense, gone to seminary.) It was very well received. To be converted to the love of the Father is an essential piece of what it means to be a child of the King. But it goes much deeper than that. It is in that linkage - that living relationship between Father and child - wherein we become rooted in our identity, the very essence of you we are as a "Bill," a "Cinnamon," a "Bobby," or a "Leah."
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. Matthew 7:25
When I am centered and have entered into the fulness of his love for me, I am made whole. I become empowered, not easily up-setted or un-settled by spears of self-doubt, criticism (from myself or others), trials, timidness, or (for lack of a better description) waves of the world that crash up against my identity and purpose as a human being. "
I know who I am and I know who I must be, don't care how long it take because there's lot's of things to see." (Larry Norman)
And nothing can shake that covenental relationship.
Nothing.
The Father was a solid fixture in the life of Jesus. He was with him every step of the way (except for when he turned his face away from him at his crucifixion). The Holy Spirit himself is described in Romans 5:5 as pouring out the Father's love on us. This is something essential to our life as sons and daughters of God, just as it was essential to Jesus' ministry and mission.
As we step into the Father's love we will step into increased anointing, God-reliance, self-confidence, and overall peace. We will find our life in his Fatherly goodness and be satisfied in places where others are not. The ability to embrace the race, shine for heaven's sake, and reflect the goodness of a heavenly Father is a witness to those around us, those who like us, desperately need to know they are loved by a loving Person who will never ever do them no harm.
And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17