we belong to a Father

The Father’s own possession

I don’t know how familiar you are with team sports, but from both experience and plenty of sideline spectating, in order to play, you have to belong to a team. From baseball to basketball, in order to get on the field or the court, one has to suit up, show up, and get in the game. I believe the same is with the kingdom. I appreciate the language Peter uses in his first letter, especially how is written in the Amplified:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a [special] people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies [the wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections] of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9 AMP).

This refining truth resounds in the hearts and minds of those who walk with Him. Each one of these pronouncements from centuries past still to this day rings true and I believe is beaconing a generation to once again take the Father at His word and walk in the fullness of this. One aspect of this verse that has to this day shook me to my core is the 3rd description listed above; a [special] people for God’s own possession.

The King James Version translates it by saying “a peculiar people” which I have heard charismatics and pentecostals alike use as permission to get silly. As much as I am not afraid of becoming all the more undignified for the Lord, I believe the meaning of the word is lost in translation when we look at it like that. The modern vernacular does better justice to the true meaning by translating the Greek word peripoiasis by specifying to Whom we belong to. One of the better translations I’ve heard from a pastor many years ago is “belonging exclusively to the Lord.” Read that definition again. Let is sink deep into your being. The reality that the God of all, the maker of the heavens and the earth, the one who was and is and is to come — THAT God says of His people that we belong to Him and Him alone. The sobering question for the Bride of Christ in this hour is are we walking in this reality? Do we live as though our allegiance is to Jesus? In our decision making, in our investments and stock portfolios, in our family planning, even in our decision of what to eat for dinner — are we aware that we are His? His special possession…His treasure and delight… I have to admit; many of the “christian cultures” I have been part of and many of the contemporary messages swirling around the Church are void of this ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL truth. And I believe this isn't just a message to hear and cross off but rather one that we must continually let sit in the foundation of our being and produce the fruit of sonship: we belong exclusively to the Father.

the son makes known the father

Jesus came to reveal much about where He came from. Many of His parables begin with language that says “the kingdom of heaven is like…” and both the listeners of that day and every generation to follow is gloriously invited to see the kingdom of God from the perspective of the Son. Needless to say, the religious spirit of that day as seen through the Pharisees were not too well pleased with what they interpreted as heretical. There’s more to say about that later, but what I do want to point out is that one of Jesus’ profound revelations that He shares with His listeners (and us if we’re listening) is the revelation of His Father. John the Beloved writes in the first chapter of his gospel that “no one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known (John 1:18 ESV). Almost audaciously, John writes that every moment up to Jesus’ incarnation has fallen short in revealing God. This is not to say that these theophanies were not real nor that they were not good, they simply fell short. Jesus is the expressed image of God and I am convinced that what He came to reveal was so foreign that it was offensive to the religious spirit of that hour, as it is offensive to the religious spirit of today.

To unpack the depths of all the Jesus came to reveal of God would take a lifetime, and I can say I intend on spending the rest of my days attempting to know the Father more and more through the revelation of Jesus. One astounding reality I will mention today is Jesus’ revelation of God as a Father. More times that is written before in scriptures, Yahweh is addresses as Father by Jesus. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus begins by addressing Yahweh as “our Father.” What an astounding paradigm. The One in whom we belong to isn’t just an eternal being or all powerful entity; He is revealed by Jesus as a Father. Romans says that for those who are led by the Spirit, that same Spirit within us causes a cry within us that literally calls out to our Father (Romans 8). The seal of sonship we carry by way of His Spirit, which is no longer within the walls of a temple but housed in His people, beacons the guttural cry that longs for the one we belong to. After all, we are exclusively His, therefore it makes sense that our secondary response as outlined in Romans 8 would be one that calls not just to a God but to a Father.

I believe that the revelation of our beloved belonging to the Father is a revelation that, again, one cannot simply cross off the list and simply say “ok, got it. Now on to the next” but rather I believe it is an invitation to a oneness with Him that we will eternally enjoy. Sort of like the gunshot at the beginning of a marathon, the revelation of belonging exclusively to the Father embarks us on a journey full of faith, wonder, joy unspeakable, and an assurance that is unshakable. This is one of those things that is even hard to articulate with words. One of the closest things I can relate it to is my own paternal relationship to my children. It doesn’t matter what they could do, nothing would ever change their relationship to me as their father. Take Luke 15 for example (often called the Prodigal Son parable). Nowhere in all the “prodigal living” does the Father address the son or identify him with his actions (that all came from the older brother… another post for another day perhaps). The Father is seen as patiently awaiting and even in expectation of the return of His heir. The son even attempts to declassify himself, identifying himself with what he can do for his father (slave), but is divinely interrupted by the beloved embrace of a Father. After all — Jesus says that we are loved with the same love the Father has for the Son (John 17:23).

What does belonging look like?

What does that love look like? What is it like to live our lives aware of this radical love? Jesus’ high priestly prayer provides what I can deduct as the ramifications of this love: that the world would know the Father sent the Son and that they would know they are loved the same way the Father loves the Son. I don’t believe Jesus prayed a prayer that would be unanswered, therefore I believe with everything in me that as the Church walks deeper and deeper into the revelation of our exclusive sonship, we will see an explosion of the love of the Father convince the world of His love. My prayer for the Church in this hour is that we would know beyond all knowing that we belong to a really good Father and that the revelation that we belong to Him would begin to radically cause our eyes to see Him anew.