Lately I have been pressing into a greater understanding and experience of Father God's love. Recently, I've come across a helpful quote from Henri Nouwen in his devotional book "Bread for the Journey" that is helpful in describing the meaning of the word "Abba" and how we should approach our "Abba," in Heaven. He says,
"The Spirit reveals to us not only that God is "Abba, Father" but also that we belong to God as beloved children. The Spirit thus restores in us the relationship from which all other relationships derive their meaning. Abba is a very intimate word. The best translation for it is "Daddy." The word Abba expresses trust, safety, confidence, belonging, and most of all, intimacy. It does not have the connotation of authority, power, and control that the word Father often evokes. On the contrary, Abba implies an embracing and nurturing love. This love that includes and infinitely transcends all the love that comes to us from our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, spouses, friends, and lovers. It is the gift of the Spirit." (emphasis mine)
In reading this, I hope and pray the Spirit of God would open your heart and mind to a fresh understanding of the Father's love for you as Your Heavenly Daddy and that you would encounter and experience Him in deeper and more intimate ways. I've always been drawn to and often do soaking prayer to the song "Abba" by Jonathan David Helser. Here is a version that I feel God has anointed for your enjoyment.
Jon Jorgenson nails it as he compares religion and Jesus (relationship). The sad reality is that in many churches today, a person can get so easily distracted and sidetracked from the basic truths and motivations of what it means to be a Christian. A term that has been coined recently is "churchianity" where there is a greater focus on the church, rather than on Jesus, where there is a greater focus on building the church, rather than being on mission with Jesus and making disciples, where the emphasis is on doing for God, rather than being with God. Please don't get me started on this. The sad reality is many churches are better at making religious people, than true disciples of Jesus.
There needs to be more prophetic voices that rise up, like Jon Jorgenson, who are bold enough to challenge the status quo of religion for the sake of Jesus, for the sake of the Gospel. Listen, be challenged, but enjoy these words of truth.
J.I.Packer is a modern day Reformed Evangelical theologian that I've come to appreciate. And though I lean towards a more charismatic theology, I am still committed to pursuing good solid biblical exegesis and humble Spirit led hermeneutics which I believe J.I. Packer embodies. I take to heart Jesus' words "Yet
a time is coming and has now come when true worshippers will worship
the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of
worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24 NIV).
In watching the video, there is something magnetic about his words that not only draws me in, but also deeper in greater reverence and awe of the Lord. I think it's because I see a man who has walked humbly and faithfully with Jesus for over 60 years and I can see the Lord's humble gentle heart behind his words. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:29 NIV). Without a doubt J.I. Packer has taken Jesus at His word and taken His yoke upon himself and learned from Jesus and through this he has found rest for his soul. I believe it is from this place of rest that we can all begin to truly learn to embrace our weaknesses and learn from Jesus who desires to place His humble and gentle heart within all of us.
I hope you were as blessed as I was with this short yet profound teaching on embracing and accepting our weaknesses. Sometimes less really is more...
The end of the year can be a very busy season which is why it is also a perfect time to intentionally and actively lean into and rest in God's presence. Something that I have practiced over the years has been soaking prayer. Soaking prayer falls into the category of Christian mysticism and focuses on the manifest experience of union with Christ. Soaking prayer is simply positioning oneself to behold the beauty and majesty of Christ and be loved by Him. It is not uncommon for a person to receive visions & revelations and encounters & breakthroughs while soaking in God's presence. Soaking prayer makes room for God to move and bring deeper transformation to us.
"Because God's presence is always with us, He is the answer to the spiritual warfare we face. The peace of having Him overshadow our lives gives us a powerful weapon. Many times in Israel's history, God told the people to do unconventional things: sing, march, shout, wait. "you don't need to fight," He whispered to them "because this isn't about you, it's about Me. I'm not asking you to strive and pull down things, I'm asking you to make room for Me too act." (Graham Cooke, "Beholding and Becoming" p.16).
Soaking prayer also involves actively embracing the rest Jesus offers to a person. "Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV).
Resting is the act of quietly and confidently allowing yourself to be in the presence of God. Resting is the absence of work, worry, fear, even performance. Resting empowers us to learn from Jesus in how to be with God. Rest is a gift from Jesus to us.
Soaking in God's presence is one way we can learn to entering into God's rest. When we soak in God's presence we learn to switch off our souls and allow our spirit to be attentive to God. Resting helps us become more aware of His love, care and purposes for us.
When we learn to rest in God, we learn how to receive and respond to who God is for us. Resting removes both the inward and outward pressures we feel and opens us up to the person of Jesus. In a place of rest our heart, our inner man, becomes accessible to God. It is in rest that we receive ministry from the Holy Spirit.
Rest is a form of freedom from work, from human striving and acquisitiveness and from worldly preoccupations. It is the relinquishing of human self-assertion and an embracing of greater trust in God. The willingness to rest is a sign of peace and faith in God because rest is a form of letting go of human control.
Hebrews 4:9-11 (NLT) " So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall."
This means we must make the time to actively enter into the rest God has already allocated to us. The best image I can think of in terms of soaking prayer is that of laying on the sandy shores of an ocean and letting the waves continually and consistently wash over you again and again. So when soaking, it is best to physically lay down while listening to various worship songs and allowing the love and presence of God to wash over you like ocean waves.
This can mean meditating on the Word of God and allowing the biblical truths about God Himself and His Kingdom shape and define us in deep and significant ways. This can include listening to the names of God being recited over and over again, letting them wash over you until the truths about who God is sink into and shape your heart and mind towards God.
This can mean listening to worship music that focuses on the love and peace of God over and over again, allowing the Spirit of God to manifest and release His rest upon your heart and soul until you open up wide to receive the flow of God's love and peace into the deepest parts of your being.
This can mean listening to prophetic words and songs that help to position your soul to receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit in searching out any dark and lonely places that need the light and gentle touch of God's presence.
If you have never experienced soaking prayer, give yourself time to learn to rest and receive from the Lord. Oftentimes, it takes time for us to learn to slow down from the busyness of life and allow the Spirit of God to declutter our minds and unburden our hearts. Here are a few links to some songs that I myself enjoy during my times of soaking prayer and that also help me to lean into and rest in the presence of God.
