My younger daughter heard my nephew call me, ‘pastor’. She objected; “stop calling my daddy, pastor. Call him, ‘daddy'”. My in-laws call me ‘pastor’, so it was easier for my nephew to call me same. But for my daughter, it is ‘my daddy’.
My daughter cared less what other people call me. As far as she’s concerned, I am her daddy. In fact, you can literally feel the strength of intimacy with which she calls me, “my daddy”. Actually, every time she does that (countless number of times), it strikes a chord in me. It releases some juices of goodness in me as my bowel of love and mercy is turned in her favour. Really, I love when she calls me, “my daddy”.
I want to ask you today, what do you call God? My Daddy? You see, what you call God is a revelation of who you know Him to be and that revelation will greatly impact your everyday life and productivity. Did you notice that Jesus often called God, “my Father” all through his stay on the earth? He was touching some depths others may not know.
For Jesus, it was his sense of the Fatherhood of God that gave him security and confidence with which he faced life. It was this father-son posture the Pharisees never liked about Jesus (John 10:30-33). Listen, the devil does not want you to know God as your Daddy and to call Him one. But I dare you to call Him, Daddy! I dare you to make God personal to you. God wants you to do so!
If you have given your life to Christ, God is not just God to you, He has become your Father (John 1:12, Hebrews 2:10). Think about the loving relationship between a father and his child, and you would catch a glimpse of who God is to you. Our earthly fathers cannot even near God in love, care and responsibility. God is your Father! Your generous Father (Matthew 7:11). Your forgiving Father (1 John 2:12-13). Your loving and caring Father (1 John 3:1). Your all knowing, all seeing and all powerful Father.
As you go into today, I want the sense of the Fatherhood of God to overwhelm you afresh. It does not matter if your earthly father has forsaken you, God is for you (Psalms 27:10, Isaiah 49:15). With your Father God, you have got more than a winning chance in life. Run to His saving arms. Bask in His love. Let your sense of identity and worth be drawn from who He says you are, and not what people or the devil are saying (Matthew 3:17).
Be conscious of your inheritance in your Father God. You have what your Father has. He is the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalms 50:10). The whole earth and its fullness belong to Him (Psalms 24:1). You are a joint heir with Christ (Romans 8:17). You cannot be stranded. Make demands on what belongs to your Father, and life has no choice than to release it. The world is waiting earnestly for the manifestation of the sons of God but the strength of our sonship is in our revelation of the Fatherhood of God (Romans 8:14). You will succeed!
© ‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria