By the Spirit, says Paul in the eighth chapter of Romans, we are enabled to cry out “Abba, Father.”
Many times in the Old Testament (more than forty in the Psalms alone), believers are recorded as “crying out” to God, and it is this cry of the heart that Paul is thinking of.
The word “Abba” represents the Aramaic word for “father.” Originally used by small children as the equivalent of “daddy,” by the time of Jesus it had come into general use as a word for “father.” A grown man, for instance, might address his father as abba. So when some preachers say the phrase means “daddy,” they’re not quite accurate. Nevertheless, it’s important to note that, while Jews understood God in a more general sense to be Father (Hebrew av), this word abba was never used in Judaism as a form of address to God. No one, in fact, before Jesus had ever addressed God as “Father” in this sense.
The revolutionary significance of this fact is often overlooked. When Jesus addressed God in this way, he was drawing attention to the intimacy of relationship the word expressed. You and I have been brought into this relationship through what Jesus did for us on the cross. And so now the Holy Spirit assures our spirit that we are the children of God.
Deep in our hearts, the Holy Spirit is at work, and the fruit of this assurance is that we can cry “Father” to God, and that we can begin to walk in obedience to the Father through the Spirit’s power. For above all, what it means to live according to the Spirit is to live as God’s sons and daughters, and by the Spirit’s power, to cry out “Father” to God in all we say and do. To recognize God as our Father, and ourselves as his children, is at the very heart of Christian faith, which is about relationship, not religion.
When we cry out to God as Father, we are placing ourselves under his authority and asking for his character to be produced in us. As children, we want to be like the Father. This happens not by our own efforts, but by the power of his Spirit. To address God as Father is more than just a prayer. It expresses the desire of our hearts to be and think and say and do what is pleasing to him.
What the world really needs is a manifestation of the sons and daughters of God, men and women who in limited but real measure look and think and act like him. It starts with us finding our Abba.
It might just end in revival.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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