Father God has been showing me personally, in a much deeper experiential way, just how much He loves me as His beloved son. How wonderful it is to realize that the One who created the universe, with its billions of gigantic galaxies, atoms, cells and DNA loves me as my Father!
This is true for every child of God.
The Father’s love is so radical that He sent His one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into a sin devastated world to rescue us and bring us into His loving embrace. Let me quote John 3:16, personalize it and bring in the Father:
For Father God so loved me that He gave His only begotten Son, that if I would believe in Him I would not perish but have everlasting life.
Wonderful, isn’t it?
Father God really wants us to experience His love in a far deeper measure. I know: some might say, “Watch out for that experience and feelings stuff!” True, we don’t want base our understanding of truth upon an experience. However, the Bible is full of references of experiential knowledge of God. Jesus Himself said:
You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. [John 5:39-40]
It is the scriptures which testify of Christ, but they do not bring us into the experience of eternal life. Coming to Christ — a person — is what gives eternal life. In other words, scripture “tells of” who Jesus is, but it’s in engaging Christ personally that we enter into all the benefits of eternal life.
The same is true about experiencing the Father’s love. Scripture abundantly testifies of the many dimensions of the Father’s love. Those same scriptures lead us toward a personal experience with the Father and His love. That’s the heartbeat behind the amazing prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21:
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Imagine that: knowing the width, length, depth and height — that’s four dimensions — of God’s love! Mere human knowledge can’t bring us into the Holy Spirit experience of the Father’s love.
I’ve devoted an episode on this subject in our latest “Daily in Christ” podcast called, “The Great Context of The Father’s Love“. I encourage you to listen to it here at our website or subscribe to our podcast via the iTunes Store.