Question: Do You Know God as Father? Answer: Only if you are God’s child. The reason for that is because the thing that qualifies you as a child is that you have a father. If you are a child, then you have a father. If you are a child of God, then God is your heavenly Father.
Is God your heavenly Father today or is He just God to you?
Galatians 3:26 (NLT)
So you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Notice it doesn’t say that you are a child of God because you are a human being born in a physical body living on planet earth. In other words, being a child of God is not a universal status into which everyone enters by natural (physical) birth. Becoming a child of God is a supernatural gift one receives through faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to introduce us to God as Father. Jesus called God “Father” over 200 times in the Gospels alone. “Father” is the Christian name for God. True believers are children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and not because they are a part of some religious organization or a member of a particular church or denomination.
You may be asking yourself, “Pastor Jim, how do I actually become a child of God?” We find the answer in John Chapter 1 and Romans Chapter 10:
John 1:12-13 (NLT)
12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
13 They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan – this rebirth comes from God.
The phrase “believe Him” refers to believing in what Jesus did for you when He died on the cross. The phrase “accept Him” refers to receiving Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Believe in what Jesus did for you and become a child of God. Receive Jesus and become a child of God. Romans chapter 10 tells us how to do it:
Romans 10:9-10 (NLT)
9 For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.
Before we talk about the benefits of being a child of God, say this: “I confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I believe God raised Him from the dead so I could be right with God. I’ve placed my faith in Christ and now I’m saved. God is my Father and I am His child. Amen.”
When you place your faith in Christ and confess Jesus as your Lord, you gain all the benefits of a child in God’s family. Two of those benefits include God’s protection and provision. God the Father now has the responsibility to protect you and provide for you because you are His very own child.
If you have received Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, the work of the Holy Spirit will confirm that God is your Father and you are His child, and when the love of the Father begins to manifest in your life, God’s protection and provision will become a reality in your life.
When you are born physically, you take on the life and nature of your earthly father. When you are reborn spiritually, you take on the life and nature of your heavenly Father.
When you became a child of God, you become a partaker of the divine nature, which is called eternal life. Eternal life is the life and nature of God imparted to you at the new birth making you a new creation. A child of God is one who has received eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Jesus was talking to His Father (and our Father) in John 17:3 when He said:
John 17:3 (NLT)
“And this is the way to have eternal life-to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.”
Jesus came to earth to introduce us to God as our Father, and the hallmark characteristic of God’s nature is love. Jesus came to earth so that we could both receive and enjoy the Father’s love. When you receive the Father’s love for you personally, His protection and provision become a reality in your life.
The love of God becomes real to you when you understand that God loves you as much as He loves Jesus. As Jesus was praying to His (and our) heavenly Father in John 17:23, He said:
John 17:23 (NLT)
“I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.”
Jesus is saying that the world will know God as Father when they understand that God loves them as much as He loves Jesus.
Say this: “God loves me as much as He loves Jesus.” Now say this: “God’s protection and provision belong to me.”
See yourself as God’s child! See yourself as a child in God’s royal family! See yourself receiving good things from your heavenly Father!