But when [in God’s plan] the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son (Jesus), born of a woman, born under the [regulations of the] Law, so that He might redeem and liberate those who were under the Law, that we [who believe] might be adopted as sons [as God’s children with all rights as fully grown members of a family]. And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “ABBA! FATHER!” Therefore you are no longer a slave (bond-servant), but a son; and if a son, then also an heir through [the gracious act of] God [through Christ]. (Galatians 4:4-7)

I am jealous for the Father. He created us to walk together with Him in the Garden, and we’ve turned our backs on Him. He gave us the breath in our lungs and the rhythm in our heart, and we’ve used them to reject and scorn Him. He’s helped us through situation after situation yet we’ve explained it away. When things go wrong, the first chance we get we blame God. Many of us go through years of this life He’s given us ignoring Him as if He doesn’t even exist…

————————————

BUT – What if God is REAL? What if He’s NOT the angry tyrant people think He is? What if He’s actually a GOOD FATHER we can actually get close to and call “ABBA” (Daddy)? What if getting to know Him is NOT complicated? What if it’s NOT a list or set of rules? What if ABBA’s heart is for His people to be RELIEVED and AT REST, NOT restricted and anxious? What if instead of chaining us TO a process, He actually wants to CUT OFF the chains that bind us, and FREE US to succeed in the things He calls us to put our hands to? What if ABBA’s design IS STILL to walk with His people in the cool of the day? Would these things change the way you think of Him?

Imagine ABBA has an enemy. Imagine this enemy wants people to think ABBA is bad, and wants to turn people AWAY FROM Him. What would this enemy do? Might he work hard to give ABBA a BAD NAME, and make Him look UNAPPROACHABLE and CRUEL, like a MEAN, CONDEMNING father? Might this enemy put much effort into prompting people to BLAME ABBA for any bad thing that happens? This is indeed the case.

Knowing this truth should change things. It should make us determined to press in, past the enemy’s lies, to find out WHO GOD REALLY IS. The problem is, the fullness of God CAN’T be found inside organized religion, because every religion is a MAN-MADE structure where people want to CONTROL things. Religion has almost completely clouded man’s ability to see who God TRULY is, and what walking with Him TRULY means. ABBA’s LOVE and His CALL have been all but obliterated by man-made METHODS, LISTS, FORMULAS, and RULES, which seek to conform people from the outside in. This doesn’t work. It usually drives people very quickly in the other direction of wanting NOTHING to do with God, because it is very obvious to EVERYONE that religious people tend to SAY one thing but DO the complete opposite, and that does not represent ABBA, AT ALL.

Religious methods are like a horrible disease which can be found even in those truly seeking God but still maintaining ANY aspect of trying to do things their OWN way (instead of seeking Him). This makes ANY of their efforts regarding God seem HYPOCRITICAL and REPULSIVE to those who know them. This is a horrible tactic of the enemy devised to HINDER our children (and those who know us) from EVER seeing or knowing WHO GOD TRULY IS.

This was NEVER God’s way. ABBA simply wants to be KNOWN and LOVED for WHO HE IS. He is WORTHY of laying down all the distractions to give Him our full attention! Moses stopped what he was doing, TURNED ASIDE out of his own way and LOOKED at the burning bush, and GOD SPOKE TO HIM. ABBA says when we SEEK HIM WITH OUR WHOLE HEART, WE WILL FIND HIM! It is WORTH IT to lay aside all other distractions and ask Him to show Himself to us! When we seek Him WITH EVERYTHING, He responds and He gives us His Holy Spirit to LEAD US INTO ALL TRUTH.

In the beginning, GOD created MAN, and breathed HIS BREATH (HIS SPIRIT) into them. Religion is backwards. It is man’s attempt to create God. But God DOES NOT dwell there. When people want to control things, God’s Holy Spirit does not flow freely IN or THROUGH any person or situation. Faithful to His Word though, ABBA responds to ALL who seek Him wholeheartedly, even within religious systems, and pulls them OUT of all false methods, gathering them TO HIMSELF, like a mother hen gathers her chicks!

ABBA loves His people so much more than we could ever know, and He wants us to come to Him while there’s still time. He has been extremely patient and long-suffering, going after His people, wooing and warning them to return to the Garden to REST IN and WALK WITH Him. There is soon coming a day when those who are His and those who are not His will be sharply separated. The ability to still choose Him right now is strictly the mercy of God. He is calling those with eyes to see and ears to hear to respond to Him, now.