We are the children of a Living God

The Holy Spirit lives within us giving us strength and direction - Romans 8:15-16 

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, - 1 Corinthians 3:16 

Via TJC

"Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"

I did not find Jesus until I was 48 and in the death throes of two failed marriages with three children. I came out of the baptismal water Easter 2011 armed only with brute force, ignorance and a Type A personality. I had zero Bible knowledge (I actually thought Christ was the last name of Jesus, Joseph and Mary). The Holy Spirit then enrolled me in the University of Adversity to get my sanctification degree.

Son of God. I never had to think about it really. My Father was the only world view I had on being a son.

Dad was born in 1918 to Danish immigrants in Detroit, growing up in the Depression, and drafted into the Army in early 1941 before the war started. His ethic was hard work. He was 45 when I was born. He said "I love you" less than a dozen times in the 40 years I knew him. Praise was conditional and transient, as every conversation ended with the next task and the performance bar getting raised another notch. Discipline… It only took a few calibrations with a belt after Mom said "Just wait until your Father gets home!" to get the idea and stay motivated.

Honestly this lined up with what I read in scripture. Old Testament God taking out the Levite who touched the Ark and the Ananias and Sapphira in the New Testament. As a son, you comply or have the consequences.

Then during COVID, my youngest son withdrew from his senior year of college with about a semester left to finish. He was terrified to tell me.

I was stunned. I was not angry, my heart hurt for my boy, wanting to comfort and encourage him, to give him a foundation to get his footing, to just love on him. My desire and intent was to be the Father whose children thought, "I have an issue, let me call Dad, he will know what to do!" Not "Dad will kill me when he finds out".

Father God, Abba, is always with us, wise, and available through the Holy Spirit. The perfectly engineered solution to ensuring we have access.

As Kingdom men, our hearts desire is to trust God, not just obey. It is to move toward Him no matter our circumstances as the prodigal son did. Our focus is on the 9 fruits of the Spirit on what we do next, not the 15+ fruits of the flesh where we had failed in the past. Jesus specifically says you can't plow straight looking over your shoulder.

Let us lean into the plow, with confidence we are loved, we have direct access to our Creator, and as we get closer and closer to the Holy Spirit His love and light will push back the darkness of our battles.