How Father God Feels About You

by Jack Hayford

The story of the prodigal son, recorded in Luke 15, is often called the parable of the Father's heart. Jesus tells it, along with two other stories, not only in response to the seemingly "heart-less" religionists of His day, but also for you and me to know what is the Father's heart toward us.

Jesus tells of a man with two sons, one of whom asked for his inheritance in advance. The father gave it to him, and the son went out and squandered it, ending up in a pig sty. Finally, Scripture says, the young man "came to himself." He recognized the insensibility of the pathway he'd walked and how foolish he'd been to leave home. He returned, humbled, thinking he would ask to be just a servant at his father's place.

"But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry." (Luke 15:20-24)

In this story of a father's heart toward his son, Jesus also tells us how Father God feels about you and me-notwithstanding our failures or wastefulness of what He's given to us. Ironically, the story is born from the fact that among the religious people of Jesus' day, whom you would most think would understand the love of God, there was the least evidence of that love.

Jesus is assailed by the religious leaders because coming to Him were "tax collectors" (seen as corrupt traitors in that society) and "sinners," a broad term for those who had no interest in "religion." But they liked Jesus. And that's one of the great things we discover about Jesus. He doesn't demonstrate "religion"; He shows people the heart and love of Father God, and their response to that is overwhelmingly positive: "I didn't know this is what it's about!"

Jesus came for two reasons: to die for our sins and to display the love of God. Oftentimes people think about Jesus' ministry displaying the love of God as a syrupy kind of niceness. But there's nothing syrupy about God's love; it's dynamic and powerful. It's deep and demanding. So demanding that He cannot simply let sin go by unattended. That's why He sent His Son to absorb in Himself the price of our sin.

What we see in Jesus is the love of the Father-in the lifestyle Jesus leads and in the graciousness with which He embraces people who have fallen...people who have failed. People who, like the prodigal son, have wasted something and are willing to honestly admit that.

With that wastefulness, however, there comes a sense of unworthiness that distances people from God. Many people in Jesus' day were characterized by feelings of unworthiness that kept them at a distance from the religious system. Yet when Jesus Himself speaks, they flock to Him by the masses, because He relates to them with the heart of God. And so, in this parable, Jesus reveals four things about Father God that speak to their (and our) sense of unworthiness, failure, and distance from Him.

1. The Father never loses hope.

Did you have parents who were warm, supportive, and encouraging-parents who had hope for you? Some didn't. Some even had parents who wished their children had never been born, and kids pick up that sense of rejection. Others had parents whose expectations could never be lived up to.

What's impressive about this text is that the son went against everything of the father's hopes, and yet the father still didn't lose hope for him! And there's the first message of Father God's hope for us. Notwithstanding anything you or I have not been, God doesn't give up caring about us, nor does He ever lose His vision for what our life can become.

2. The Father is always looking our way.

Many people think of God watching us as though He were looking for a chance to spear us through with a lightening bolt. If you or I feel that, it's because of our own sense of shame and guilt for what we've done. That guilt deserves to be felt, but it isn't God's attitude toward us; it's our own sense of alienation because of our sin. It doesn't represent God's heart.

God is not passive about the fact that we've sinned. That's why Jesus was sent to die. Sin has to be dealt with. We need to repent of it. But Jesus shows us Father God's heart toward us in the story of how the father saw his son "a great way off" and ran to meet him. He didn't just stand and wait for the boy to come crawling. Jesus tells us the father, who'd obviously been watching for him, saw his son at a distance and ran to him. God's heart is always looking our way and reaching out to us.

3.  The Father's heart responds to our repentance.

The son comes with repentance, and the father's heart responds. This cannot be bypassed. Not because he's demanding the son to grovel for acceptance, but because he's glad the son has come to recognize that the problems he's had aren't his father's fault.

How often have you heard people say, "If there is a God, why did this happen to me?" God gets blamed for everything for which we don't want to accept responsibility. When the prodigal son comes back, he says, "Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight."

Repentance is turning from our own way to God's. It's recognizing that the Lord's ways are good, safe, and secure for us. And as we align with the Lord, it opens the way for Him to release possibilities for our lives. He loves us with an everlasting love, unconditionally. But for there to come the release of what He wants to do in us, we have to be willing to say, "Father God, I turn from my own way to Yours."

4. The Father wants to reinstate us.

And when the son did that, look what happened. The father put a ring on his finger, a robe over his shoulders, and shoes on his feet.

The ring represents reinstatement to partnership with the father. It was his return to being "in business with Dad." And God is saying, through the lips of His own Son, "If you'll come back to Me, I will reinstate the possibilities I had in mind for you," just as the father was going to re-enfranchise his son in the family business.

The robe over his shoulders went all the way down to the son's ankles. It was a robe of dignity. It was the father covering whatever would be the shame or nakedness of the past. Father God desires to restore us to full stature, to robe us with the beauty of what we were made to be. And shoes in that ancient culture represented an end to the time of weeping and mourning the past.

A personal story

I was teaching from this passage of Scripture in Seattle some 30 years ago, and as I did, there was a sweet move of the Holy Spirit, as God was making hearts sensitive to the greatness of His love. The Lord so forcibly brought a picture to my mind, I had to share it. I described what I saw, not knowing anyone in the audience, and at the end of the meeting, a woman approached me and said, "That was me, Pastor Hayford." She began to unbutton the cuff of her blouse sleeve and pushed it up, revealing horribly ugly gashes on her wrist.

What the Lord had given me was this: "There is someone in this room who, in the past, attempted to take your own life, and the scars on your wrist have become so shameful to you, you hide them. But like the father robed the prodigal son, the Lord wants to robe you with a new sense of esteem in His presence, that you would never be ashamed again. And rather than scars of shame, those scars would become your testimony-marks of God's great triumph in your life."

"Several years ago," the woman said to me, "I nearly succeeded in taking my life. It was a time of desperation," and she explained the dilemma she had faced. "I would have died except that someone found me. Later, I came to Christ, and I knew I was forgiven not only for my past sins, but also for that attempt at suicide. But until this moment, I've always felt so ashamed of these scars that mark that episode of my life."

Now her face was aglow. "I'm the person you were speaking about, Pastor Hayford. And I know the Lord has clothed me with something today that I've never before seen so clearly. I'll never be ashamed of the past again."

Loved one, can you see what Jesus is saying to you in this parable? He's saying, "This is what God's like. He wants to reinstate you to the place of partnership with His purpose for you. He wants to clothe you from whatever has been the embarrassment or shame of your past; to restore the dignity of what you were made to be. And He wants you to see that the winter of your discontent and its tears are behind you, and the springtime of His joy has come upon you."

Indeed, dear one, today, this is how Father God feels about you.

Further your study: Order "How Father God Feels About You" on CD.

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Jack Hayford knows the awesome power of God firsthand. When he was a baby, he was gripped by a life-threatening illness. But as a result of the earnest prayers of friends and family, he was miraculously healed. The doctors had no other explanation except that the grace of God snatched him back from the brink of death. Several years later, Jack was struck down again by sickness. This time it was polio. The church elders anointed him and prayed for his recovery. God heard their petitions and granted a second miracle. These two extraordinary events ignited in Jack's heart a passion for God and convinced him that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the contemporary church. "Contrary to our preconceptions, God is not economical with healings and miracles. Such wondrous works are frequently attending the proclamation of truth in Jesus' name," asserts Pastor Jack.

Jack Hayford serves as President of The Kings University (formerly The King's College and Seminary) in Los Angeles, which he founded in 1997. From 2004 to 2009, he also served as President of The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. He is probably best known, however, as "Pastor Jack," founding pastor of The Church On The Way in Van Nuys, California, where he served as senior pastor for more than three decades. A prolific and best-selling writer, Pastor Hayford is the author (or co-author) of more than 100 books and has composed 600 hymns and choruses, including the internationally known and widely recorded "Majesty."

He is an acknowledged "bridge-builder," helping to forge healthy bonds among all segments of the Body of Christ. He is recognized for his balance in preaching the Word, and avoiding extremes while not diluting or compromising the demands of truth. Pastor Jack's heart to bring unity across all denominational and racial boundaries has given him an open door to minister in all kinds of settings.

Dr. Hayford and his wife, Anna, have four children, eleven grandchildren, and a growing number of great-grandchildren.

http://www.jackhayford.org/articles1-398/HowFatherGodFeelsAboutYou

Father's Love Letter An Intimate Message From God To You.

My Child,

You may not know me,
but I know everything about you.
Psalm 139:1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up. 
Psalm 139:2

I am familiar with all your ways. 
Psalm 139:3

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. 
Matthew 10:29-31

For you were made in my image. 
Genesis 1:27

In me you live and move and have your being.
Acts 17:28

For you are my offspring. 
Acts 17:28

I knew you even before you were conceived. 
Jeremiah 1:4-5

I chose you when I planned creation. 
Ephesians 1:11-12

You were not a mistake,
for all your days are written in my book. 
Psalm 139:15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth
and where you would live. 
Acts 17:26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. 
Psalm 139:14

I knit you together in your mother's womb. 
Psalm 139:13

And brought you forth on the day you were born. 
Psalm 71:6

I have been misrepresented
by those who don't know me.
John 8:41-44

I am not distant and angry,
but am the complete expression of love. 
1 John 4:16

And it is my desire to lavish my love on you. 
1 John 3:1

Simply because you are my child
and I am your Father. 
1 John 3:1

I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. 
Matthew 7:11

For I am the perfect father. 
Matthew 5:48

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. 
James 1:17

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs. 
Matthew 6:31-33

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. 
Jeremiah 29:11

Because I love you with an everlasting love. 
Jeremiah 31:3

My thoughts toward you are countless
as the sand on the seashore.
Psalms 139:17-18

And I rejoice over you with singing. 
Zephaniah 3:17

I will never stop doing good to you. 
Jeremiah 32:40

For you are my treasured possession. 
Exodus 19:5

I desire to establish you
with all my heart and all my soul. 
Jeremiah 32:41

And I want to show you great and marvelous things. 
Jeremiah 33:3

If you seek me with all your heart,
you will find me. 
Deuteronomy 4:29

Delight in me and I will give you
the desires of your heart. 
Psalm 37:4

For it is I who gave you those desires. 
Philippians 2:13

I am able to do more for you
than you could possibly imagine. 
Ephesians 3:20

For I am your greatest encourager. 
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

I am also the Father who comforts you
in all your troubles. 
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

When you are brokenhearted,
I am close to you. 
Psalm 34:18

As a shepherd carries a lamb,
I have carried you close to my heart. 
Isaiah 40:11

One day I will wipe away
every tear from your eyes. 
Revelation 21:3-4

And I'll take away all the pain
you have suffered on this earth.
Revelation 21:3-4

I am your Father, and I love you
even as I love my son, Jesus.
John 17:23

For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed. 
John 17:26

He is the exact representation of my being. 
Hebrews 1:3

He came to demonstrate that I am for you,
not against you. 
Romans 8:31

And to tell you that I am not counting your sins.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. 
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

His death was the ultimate expression
of my love for you. 
1 John 4:10

I gave up everything I loved
that I might gain your love. 
Romans 8:31-32

If you receive the gift of my son Jesus,
you receive me. 
1 John 2:23

And nothing will ever separate you
from my love again.
Romans 8:38-39

Come home and I'll throw the biggest party
heaven has ever seen.
Luke 15:7

I have always been Father,
and will always be Father.
Ephesians 3:14-15

My question is…
Will you be my child? 
John 1:12-13

I am waiting for you. 
Luke 15:11-32

Love, Your DadAlmighty God

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Father's Love Letter © 1999 - 2012 Father Heart Communications www.FathersLoveLetter.com Narration of Father's Love Letter Roy Lamont - voiceroy.com Musical Soundtrack Father's Love Letter Narration Instrumental backing by Robert Critchley© 2000 Wild Ox Publishing / SOCAN CCLI wildox.caFather's Love Letter Original 'Faithful Father' Video The song “Faithful Father” by Brian Doerksen Copyright 1996 Mercy/Vineyard Publishing All rights reserved Used by permission EMI Music Group and ASCAP My True Father Prayer Written & recorded by James Jordan. Music & audio engineering by Simon Lister© 2000 Fatherheart Ministries fatherheart.net Father's Love Letter Devotional Book Scriptures quoted from the NIV Bible New International Version. NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society Used by permission Zondervan Publishing House Father Loves You Song Words & music Barry Adams & Robert Critchley©2002 Father Heart Communications Father's Love Letter Childrens' Cartoon Tract Artwork by Ron Wheeler cartoonworks.com

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