He is a good God. It is good to come into His presence for no other reason but to remember how good He is. His presence is so good.
Please turn to Matthew chapter 6.
We are walking along the Sea of Galilee and I hear a voice, a voice so rich and so sweet that it seems to be ringing through the hills. We turn see crowds of people and Someone teaching them that there is One who is more beautiful than anyone you have ever seen.
You walk around on this side of the mountain. You cannot take your eyes off the One speaking—He is so beautiful. There is something about Him that draws your attention. He is just a man but He speaks words like you have never heard before. Finally, you find a comfortable spot and you can see Him very clearly and you think, I do not know what it is about this voice—it is almost “other worldly” in its beauty; or maybe it is not His voice at all—maybe it is the words that He speaks.
What is it about Him? You listen to every word He speaks and then you realize something is happening inside of you that you have never experienced before. You have never heard a man speak like this before. Then He says, “Pray like this: Our Father…” and when He says it, you realize that this man knows the Father. Listen to the way he says it—this man knows God. How does a man know the Father? How does a man know God the Shekinah, the Glorious One? How does man know Hashem? How does a man know Adonai like that?
Now listen very carefully. You are sitting there and you are Jewish. It seems like for decades now that people have been waiting for the Messiah. They talk about him at mealtime. It is the buzz of the city. You go to synagogue. You hear about the Glorious One. Could this man be He? Could this man be the One that we have been waiting for?
What man has ever spoken of his father like this man? Your mind begins to search the scripture—the Son of David. Today a Son has been given and His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. Could this man be the One we have been waiting for? Who has ever known the Father like this man obviously knows the Father? And I hear him saying, “Pray therefor like this…” This is not how the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees pray. This is not how my parents taught me to pray.
“Pray like this: Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name.” Suddenly you are sitting there on the side of the mountain and your eyes are opened and you realize that you are sitting in front of the Son of God. He is not an ordinary man. He is the Messenger sent to reveal the Father of Israel. Something tells me so deep within that He is the Son of Hashem. What are you going to do with those words?
A few years ago, I was in Israel praying. I took a group of people with me. We did a prayer journey and there we stood, on the top of the Mount of Beatitudes overlooking the Galilee and the Lord said to me, “I want you to pray the Sermon on the Mount; that is how I want you to pray in this place.” As I began to pray before God, I am telling you the truth, with several people around me as I began to pray the Sermon on the Mount, I was suddenly back 2,000 years ago. I saw thousands of people on the side of the mount, sitting, listening to the Son of God speaking as He shared the words of the Sermon on the Mount. I heard His words go forth, I saw His countenance. I saw the people and I began to weep uncontrollably, because as beautiful as His words were to my people, they did not understand that He was no ordinary man. I realized had they really understood, had Israel really embraced the Messiah, at that point many sorrows would have been averted—many horrors would have been stopped, because they would have had the refuge that He was inviting them to at that very moment.
May I say to you, people want to pick up the phone and call their friend or their brother, sister, husband, wife. They just want to hear the voice of someone they love. In front of you are the words of the Son of the Living God whose voice is more precious than any voice you will ever hear on this earth. There is no voice like His. It is so sweet to the human ear. I have never heard a voice like His; it is uniquely different. And when He speaks, your whole being is awakened to the Father and that is why He came. He came to awaken you to the One that loves you. He came to help us understand that He is more than God. He is more than a Savior. He is more than a force, a power. He is more than light itself. He is more than glory. He is Father. He is your Father. He is my Father. He is Father that wants to reveal Himself to you as the Living God. When your heart really comes to grip with who He really is, you will live to hear His voice.
There was a very powerful minister of God in Canada who for many years was one of the key leaders in the early charismatic movement. A dear friend of mine used to travel with him. They would travel all over, stay in hotel rooms at night and minister during the day. My friend said that when they would go back to the room at night, he would turn the light off and within minutes he would hear the rustling of blankets, repositioning of this pastor’s body as he climbed down from the bed and knelt down beside it and began to pray. He would pray all night long until about 5 o clock in the morning and did this every night. This was the way he lived.
The pastor would pray and my friend would try to sleep. He would pray and my friend would toss and turn. He would pray until out of sheer exhaustion, my friend would fall asleep, but the pastor kept praying, and finally when it was over, the quiet would awaken my friend and he would call the pastor by name so tenderly—he really loved this old man. He would call him by name and ask, “How did it go tonight?” And the old man would say, “He spoke to me.” Then my friend would ask, “What did He say tonight?” And the old man would say, “He called me by name and He said He loved me.”
I asked my friend, “How often did you talk to the man like that?” He said, “Nita, every night. He would stay on his knees and pray until Jesus would say to him whatever He wanted to give him for that night.” So my friend said to the pastor, “That is what He said to you last night and the night before and the night before that. It seems like that is what He says to you every night!” And the old man said, “Really? It sounds so wonderful to hear those words.”
He is your Father—your FATHER. He is more than an ideal, more than a very precious experience in a service. He is more than the smell of His fragrance as He walks by; He is more than signs and wonders. He is more than miracles and healings, more than the silent Author of a Book in black and white. He is more than the touch you get when you need it so much; He is more than the peace you feel when you need it so badly. He is more than the touch of love that suddenly flows down over you. He is more than the One that died on the cross to redeem your soul! He is more than the Author that etched on papyri scripts, words that were immortal! He is more! He is your Father! He who is God is your FATHER.
As any good father would desire to come and cradle you in his arms when you are young and to wrap his arms around you when you are old; God desires to touch you in a tangible way. He wants to reveal His Fatherhood to you. Let the words go in.
There are Christians in the Christian Church who will say that it is not about feelings or about what you see, it is about faith. Yes, those words are true, but it is only part of the truth and half of the coin—there is the other side. He longs to stretch His hand forth from the realm of the Spirit and touch those who belong to Him. He is Father when you are seeking His face and hurting and you need to know what His will is. He is Father and He wants to speak to you. When you are researching because you want to know Him, understand Him and learn Him—He is Father. He wants to help you learn His ways and to feel Him, because He is Father. He is my Father and He is your Father.
He says, “I am not a God afar off” (Jeremiah 23:23). He could have said, “I am not a Father, afar off!" He is not hidden behind a veil never to be revealed. Jesus tore the veil open so that the Father could reveal Himself to those on the other side. Do not continue to limit what you expect out of Him, because you will get what you want. If you expect greatly and you will align yourself to His ways, you can have great—great understanding, wisdom, knowledge and experience of the Father. My Father, your Father. Our Father.
I love this, that when the Lord said, “Pray this way” He said, “Our Father.” He did not say, Pray like this, My Father,“ meaning His own personal Father, nor did He say, “Pray like this, Your Father,” but He came into perfect identification with His listeners, letting them know, I am Your brother, He is Our Father. I have with Him what you also can have. What I know of Him you also can know. He is our Father. Our Lord’s Father. Your Father. My Father.
If you are understanding this, please do not be stoic. I do not think you are allowed to be stoic if you are getting what I am saying.
To be continued…
In His Amazing Love,
Nita Johnson