A son is a builder of the family name; a descendant anointed and appointed to represent his father. Although son is used for male offspring, it is not gender-biased in scriptures rather it represents a state of maturity. With God, there is neither male nor female but children and sons. A son is someone who has matured enough to be the object of parental love and cares, one who yields with love and reverence to a parent.
If someone is called a Son of God, he or she is, therefore, one who derives his or her nature from God, who seeks to build God’s kingdom, who is loved and cherished by God as a son. It is someone with access to the Father. Sons have an inheritance and a home, sons can always return home. Read Luke 15:11-32 – the story of the Prodigal Son.
Are you living at home? Romans 8:14-18
Many people go home before they enjoy rest [RIP], they experience no rest on earth, they are never at home. We are supposed to live at home before going home. Every human instinctively looks for a place of safety and security; many people spend a lifetime moving from one job to another, from one relationship to another, looking for rest. People live a life filled with constant anxiety. Even believers in Christ who have tasted of Christ’s forgiveness and salvation, who have experienced love and peace can become lost in the precarious jungle of life like the prodigal son. There are precious people who have lost their identity and are seeking to return to that place of refuge and strength they once found in Christ. I believe there is a home reserved for sons and daughters where there is peace, rest, fruitfulness, access to a full inheritance and the Father’s embrace
Why are there orphans in church? Orphans are people whose understanding of fatherhood has been distorted. Often, this distortion is usually from parental figures or authority figures who have destroyed our basic trust in parental authority and we carry the same understanding in our relationship with God the Father.
There are people who have had encounters that hurt, wounds deep down in the heart from those closest to them. This creates personal disappointment, grief, discouragement and rejection. This develops into an instinctive fear of receiving love, a hardness that rejects comfort and admonition from others. The orphan is someone with a closed spirit. Orphans, because of this closed attitude want to control things from an independent, self-reliant attitude. Their lives are ruled by fear of loss and punishment, not love. They find it difficult to surrender or submit to God’s love.
But sons never lose basic trust in God. Sons believe in the implicit goodness of God. They believe that every good gift is from God and that God causes sons to approach unto Him so He can satisfy them with His goodness – James 1:17; Psalm 65:4. In Psalms 145:8-9 “Jehovah is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great loving-kindness. Jehovah is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works”. – (Darby) God is full of tender mercies, disposed to forgiveness, willing to receive back the sinner and those who have wandered away from Him.
Exodus 33:19; 34:6-7 When Moses prayed to see God’s glory, God revealed His goodness. God’s goodness is His glory, it is what God glories in. His goodness is great and inexhaustible, His treasures are without measure. God is kind and compassionate, willing to bless, it is in our joy and happiness that God takes pleasure – Psalm 35:27
Sons also know that God’s goodness is inseparable from His righteousness. God’s righteousness is an impartial love that rewards those that serve Him faithfully but righteously punishes those that rebel against Him – Romans 11:22. In Psalm 36:6 God’s righteousness is described as a great mountain, stable, fixed, abiding, steadfast, eminent, conspicuous and His judgment has often been confused with afflictive response to sin, but it is more than that, it is a divine decision in favour of what is right and against what is wrong. Hebrews 12:7-9 explains this.
God chastises and corrects us so we can partake of His nature. 1 John 1:5 says God is light, God is never in darkness, light connotes purity and holiness, it is also a separation from the darkness. Light also implies truth, it exposes what exists in darkness. Sons recognise that each one determines the level of God’s goodness in their lives and that we are to grow towards the light of God. The path of the righteous only shines brighter and brighter because the righteous is moving forward into greater light and intimacy with God.
Apostle John tells us in 1 John 1:1 that there are degrees of intimacy with Jesus, the word of life, some see God’s goodness but there are others who see, look upon and handle it. What you cannot see, you cannot handle. You must believe in the absolute integrity of God to handle and retain His goodness. How you handle the word determines what is handed to you.
Sons trust in God’s provision. In John 10:10 – Abundant life means a fulfilled, satisfying life here on earth, a life characterized by perfect love, an absence of fear, security in the Father’s love and embrace. A home is a place of no fear, no anxiety, no anger, bitterness, hurt feelings or resentment. Sons believe that their inheritance is secured by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God’s provision is what leads us to prosper. (Prosperity in many Hebrew context simply means receiving help on the way -Genesis 24:48; Deuteronomy 8:2,15; Isaiah 63:12; Isaiah 48:17; Deuteronomy 32:12; Psalm 61:2; Isaiah 49:10; Psalm 32:8)
Sons believe in one source – the Father. When we feed on a rich worldly diet full of information packaged to instil fear and anxiety in us, the result is that we begin to depend on human resources for our provision. Some people may even compromise their faith to insure personal or financial security. Whenever our attention is no more on God as our source and we put our trust in men or a system, we actually open the door to our failure. Christ wants us to depend on Him and on Him alone for our sufficiency.
Read 1 Kings 17:1-7, Elijah’s provision is a parable that says to us, there is no place too lonely or too difficult for God’s grace and provision to reach. There is no means too unlikely for God to use when dealing with a son because sons seek the agenda of the Father, they promote the family name – Matthew 6:25-33 – Whose son are you?
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