Now We Call Him, “Abba, Father

Wednesday, July 10, 2013         Now We Call Him, “Abba, Father

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”

Romans 8:15

The people of God had been stranded in Egypt as fearful slaves when God sent Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. They experienced God’s presence with them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. However, the allure of the flesh kept leading God’s people away from Him, until they no longer experienced His presence in their lives. Then God sent Jesus to lead His people to Paradise, this wonderful place where nothing can separate us from the love of God. Now we experience God’s presence through His “Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16 NRSV); Now We Call Him, “Abba, Father.

Now we are heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus. Let this incredible truth sink deep into your spirit. As born again followers of Jesus, we are heirs with Jesus of God’s glory. It is this truth that compels us to drop every cultural marker of our identity. No longer are we known by gender, ability, appearance, profession, success, or failure. We’re the children of God. We’re heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus. Believe this fact and let it empower the way you live and interact with others. If your emotions don’t join in this chorus, ignore them; they’ll catch on in due course.

Our flesh, our sinful desires, our obsession to be in control will war against this truth. Our flesh will not go down without a battle. Our flesh doesn’t want to be crucified with Christ and dead and buried. Our flesh will make itself known each and every day of our lives and thus each and every day of our lives we face choices. Will we listen as the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, or will be follow after the desires of our flesh?

The choices are not easy, which is why Paul included this caveat: “if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering” (Romans 8:17b). We share in Jesus’ sufferings when, like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, we chose God’s will over our will.  If you see yourself as the beloved child of God and authentically seek to respond to the issues of our world from the perspective of WWJD, you are inviting ridicule, rejection and will probably be dismissed by the world culture as irrelevant. Even so, keep listening each and every day for the Holy Spirit to bear witness to your spirit that you are the beloved child of God, that you are God’s heir and a joint heir with Jesus, because “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18 NRSV).

Sē’lah 

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com. The Kindle version will follow soon.

·        The second edition First Think – Then Pray has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.