A lot of us are thankful for the father figures in our lives.

Some of us don’t have an earthly father, but we may have someone who is like a father to us. Even still, I don’t care how great your earthly father figure is, you need this Heavenly Father that I’m going to be talking about today. We can’t make it without Him.

1 John 3:1. The Bible has over 150 references to God being our Spiritual Father. Here we are going to talk about some ways we can allow God to be a father to us and enrich our lives and bring us to the fullness of his glory.

Stay in God’s presence.

I was with my 3-year-old daughter one day. We were in a wide, open field and she was running around playing. She got a little too far, but I didn’t get worried until a bunch of dogs came after her. She started running back to me and I was running to her and yelling because of the danger of the dogs. When I got to her I told her, “You are only in danger when you are out of my reach.”

Kara said, “If they come over here, you are going to fight those dogs like a rascal.”

I told her they would have to end me to get to her. It’s like that with God as our father. If some enemy has to end our God to get to us, it’s going to lose. But we have to accept and acknowledge that we have to stay in His presence and walk in His ways.

God’s Mercy. Luke 6:36.

I like to go back to the Prodigal Son. He came to his father and told him he wanted his inheritance as if his father was already dead. He wanted a life without his father. How much would that have crushed his father! The son gets his brief moment of pleasure in the world and squanders his money. Later he gets up, after living some time in a pig pen, he’s rehearsing what he’s going to say to his father when he returns home. “I’m not fit to be your son, just let me be a servant.”

His father was sitting there watching the road, and when the son came in sight, he ran to him. He didn’t send a servant to run after him, he ran himself. Luke 15:21-24. We are humans and we have messed up, and sometimes you think that because of that you have to live as a servant. But God is calling us to be His children. We don’t have to live a servant life. God has a purpose, a plan for our lives and we can step into that.

We can resort to God for wisdom in making decisions.

My dad and I talk a lot and I’ll ask him all sorts of questions. Sometimes I take for granted that God can literally give me wisdom. We are facing so many different things, things that can completely change our lives. Papaw and Dad have taught me to have a daily prayer asking God for wisdom because if I lean on my own understanding, it will fail. Proverbs 3:13.

If God is going to be our Father, we have to learn to submit to His will.

That sounds fun when we talk about the blessings, the benefits, and the protection He provides. But it’s not so fun when God’s will goes against our flesh. Submission is hard, but if we can learn to live in God’s perfect will then we will be safe, our lives will be loaded with blessings, and our lives will be in God’s perfect plan. Romans 8:7.

God corrects us.

One of the things I really don’t like is having to discipline my daughter. My wife, Jessie, once told me, “If you love her, you would correct her.”

The best mercy God can give us is correction. Again we are human and mess up. God loves us so much that He, in His mercy, chooses to correct us and develop us instead of throwing us away. He will prune the things out of our lives that hinder our fruitfulness for His kingdom. Hebrews 12:6.

God can provide for every one of my needs.

Philippians 4:19. Being 29, I don’t need the same help that I did when I was four, such as tying my shoes. So, as we develop spiritually, our needs change. God will give you the anointing to cast out depression and sickness coming against you. God will provide for you in any way you need Him to.

All the authority my Father has is also given to me.

John 1:12-13. If we can give enough of ourselves to God, if we can let go of some of these servanthood mindsets we have, we can have the ability to heal the sick. We can have the ability to cast out demons and destroy spiritual bondage in people’s lives. We could perform spiritual miracles just like our Father before us as He walked the streets of Jerusalem.

It’s all well and good to want to change the world. But there has to be a change in us first. First, we have to submit to God and give ourselves up. Lay down your past, lay down your pain.

Give yourself to God and tell Him, “God, I want to be your child. What can I give up today to accept you more as a father in my life?”

— Micah Wynn