Elijah House
The Power of the Cross
Through the Spirit and the Word
Working to Heal and Restore Families
www.elijahhouse.org
Sharing the Father's Heart Part 1
Printed in Healing Hearts, Changing Lives Vol. 01 Issue 1
by John Sandford Co-founder of Elijah House
In the past decade we have been blessed by a number of powerful moves of God: enjoying rediscovery of the wonder of corporate worship, of renewal and revival, of intercession and burden bearing, spiritual warfare, evangelization, unity, and the healing of the nations, to name only a few. But perhaps the Lord's sweetest move is in calling us all back to first love, into personal intimacy with Him. Several books have blown the shofar, calling us to the tent of meeting. Among those we especially treasure and highly recommend are Tommy Tenney's The God Chasers and Jim Goll's very recently published Wasted on God.We need to experience the love of our Father God through Jesus personally. Our faith is not to be based on experience, but rather on unshakable belief in Who Jesus and our Father are. But if belief is all we have, we've missed the summum bonum (the best available to us)-and we're likely to run dry, into burnout. It's as though we've become satisfied with our human marriage ceremony but have never lived together or consummated sexually. We believe we're married but have somehow missed the whole point! The precise meaning of becoming converted and born anew is to move us from the outer court to the inner, and finally into the holy of holies of intimate relationship with the Lover of our soul.
In the past it has seemed as though only a few caught the wind of the Holy Spirit and set their sails to ride His love into the center of the Father's heart. Throughout the centuries, the mystics and saints have written, advertised, pleaded and cajoled, but only a select few ever responded. It looked as though it was up to the few of the faith to become so desperate that, like the pilgrim of The Pilgrim's Progress, they would forsake everything and run, heedless of all, into the search for intimacy with God. It seemed that intimacy with God was the province of man-his strivings would get him there. The call was to become desirous enough, foolish enough perhaps, to cast everything aside and keep on keeping on until, by the violence of one's own striving, one could break through in the search to find an ever-elusive God.
The blessed difference today is that the shoe is on the other foot. It is our Father God Himself Who is doing the striving, the seeking, the wooing and the enabling. Father God is moving upon His own, purposefully and relentlessly drawing us to His Son's bleeding side, filling us with His love. Now, though Tommy Tenney entitles his book, The God Chasers, because he wants to call us into our part of the romancing, I'm sure he would agree his book could as well have been called "The Man Chaser." Which means it is our Father God Who is the very hound of heaven; doggedly pursuing us (no pun intended) until He has us securely at home in His heart.
There is a necessary striving on our part, but after a while it's a restful being found, being loved, being held and cherished. "There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His." (Hebrews 4:9-10, NASB)
What is behind this is the Father Heart of God. He is, as it were, leaving the ninety-nine in the open fields of Heaven and earth and coming after us countless "ones." His Father heart yearns for His own.
So far, most of the wonderful "calling" books proclaim the ecstasy of being loved by Him, of being enthralled, of His wooing us to find the joys of experiencing being loved by Him. That's great! Oh how we need that! But that's not the stopping place. That's the prerequisite entrance. The best is far beyond that. It's to minister to His Father heart-to so let our Lord live His life within us that we minister to Jesus, sharing His sufferings (Philippians 3:10) and His joys (1 John 1:4). It is to feel all day long what He feels, to think what He thinks. This truly blesses and ministers to our Father's heart.
Along with, or prior to, the call to private devotions and intimacy with God the Father, there has been a revival of corporate worship. Wonderful as that is, it also is not the stopping place; it too is the prerequisite entrance. Listen to Romans 12:1, "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (NASB; emphasis mine). The call is to service, to come into both private devotions and corporate worship-not so much to get as to give, to present ourselves to Him for His sake, to be a blessing and a comfort to His Father heart, for His sake. The Scripture is most especially true here: it is better to give than to receive! (Acts 20:35). The ecstasy of being in His presence takes a quantum leap when we discover how blessed it is to minister to our Father's heart.
That, by the way, is not done merely by prayer experiences, but as well, or even better, in the simple mundane kinds of service to our Father's children throughout the day. What joy our hearts feel when we see our own children helping others. How much more His Fatherly heart is blessed when the presenting of our bodies as a living sacrifice becomes a daily life-style!
For more information about Elijah House...
Phone: (208) 773-1645; Fax: (208) 773-1647
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM pacific standard time, Mon-Fri.
General Email: ehinfo@elijahhouse.org
Elijah House
17397 W Laura Ln
Post Falls, ID, USA 83854
208-773-1645
fax 208-773-1647
http://www.elijahhouse.org
