I am who you say I am
Written by Emma Slater | 14th October 2023
One of the most remarkable realities that I’m still learning to experience and live out, is that God is a good Father who loves us! Although this is completely theological it is also what has been completely transformative for me. I can actually experience Fathers love not just be informed that it’s true.
In the last 24-plus years I have seen the revelation of God’s fatherly love deeply impact my own, my family’s, and many other people’s lives as they encounter his love in a real and experiential way.
By knowing God, who he is, growing to trust in Him, discovering His love for us in scripture has also massively shaped how I see myself, my past, present and future and how I see value in others made in his image.
Right at the beginning, the very beginning, we read in Genesis 1 that God made things after their kind
He made trees after their kind - what kind? tree kind
He made insects after their kind - what kind?
He made birds after their kind - what kind?
He made sheep after their kind - what kind?
And then he says let us make mankind in our image - in the God kind image
And in that moment mankind is like him.
By knowing Father and knowing who he is, what He says, How he loves us, the motivations of His heart, His truthfulness, His faithfulness, His purposefulness, His promises, having revelation of His Kind - is the beginning of all things for us. It’s in this place of revelation that we are set free from pain, hurt, rejection and fear. It’s where the earthly experiences that have shaped us are confronted by a higher perspective and truth and it’s where our understanding of who we are, who He says we are is renewed, restored and transformed.
So why is knowing God as Father important for believers?
In the New Testament, as Jesus reveals Himself, He is consistently pointing to the Father. Jesus’ aim is that we get to know His Father as our Father. Jesus did nothing except what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). He was constantly in communion with His father. Jesus' goal is for us to experience communion with His Daddy; that our spirits, like it says in Romans 8:15 would cry out, “Abba, Father!” That we know Him as Abba and are able through Jesus to enter into that deep revelation of love and identity that our heavenly Daddy brings us.
What can stop us from understanding our Father’s love?
I think a lot of us can base our perception of who God the Father is on our earthly experiences. Even if we have had the best possible and most loving relationship with our earthly fathers it is lacking compared to the love our Heavenly Father has for us. Some of us have had difficult parenting experiences. The ways that we can receive love are through words, through eye contact, through physical touch, through affectionate communication. When we have lacked in any of those areas, and our hearts are in pain, we develop walls to protect ourselves. Over time these walls that were put in place to protect from pain also become barriers that keep love out too.
So for some of us, we are more comfortable to have knowledge of God, but our hearts have not yet experienced or encountered Him. We read the scriptures and we're like, “Yes, God loves me. That's great.” But our hearts haven't experienced it, and are perhaps suspicious or fearful. We feel unworthy and like we don't measure up. We may remember painful words spoken from our childhoods that we weren't good enough, or we were failures, and those words stick in our hearts with a wall around them.
Dr. Caroline Leaf says it really well in her book, Who Switched Off My Brain?, that in a conflict between your mind and your heart, your heart wins. If your mind says, “Of course God loves me,” and your heart says, “I feel so afraid of experiencing God as Father”, your heart will win. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as [a person] thinks in his heart, so is he.” (NKJV).
Our hearts have this dominant override effect. Even if we know the truth in our minds our heart is left untouched by the revelation, and so the guards we have placed around our hearts remain. We stop short of encountering His love that touches our hearts and that brings healing and transformation.
How Can We Overcome Our Blocks and Receive God’s Love at a Heart Level?
It's time to pray, to say, “Holy Spirit, would you come and reveal the Father's love to me?” In Augustine’s writings on the trinity, he said the Holy Spirit was the bond of love between the Father and Son (De Trinitate book 15). For so many people it begins with this childlike prayer:
“Father, I want to know and experience your love in my heart. Father, would you come and take down the walls I've used to protect myself and show me your love. Would you show me what holds me back from being loved by you. Holy Spirit, would you come and reveal the Father’s love to me?”
I believe when the desire of our heart is to experience God’s love, it can be a simple prayer that starts the journey into experiential encounter with the love of God.
A life changed by Love…
When I think about how the Father’s love changed my life, there's so many things that I could describe! I had quite deep seated insecurities and fears that I spent a lot of energy trying to hide from people around me. I was a broken person who had experienced abandonment and rejection in my childhood and young adult life. I had trust issues, love issues and a crippling devalued sense of my worth. Experiencing the Father's love was to me a Psalm 18 experience (v16) He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. (v19) He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
He brought safety and a deep settling of who I am in Him. He has set me free from bondages, He has renewed my thoughts, He has restored love and reset my value and worth based on what He says of me - that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Experiencing Father’s love isn’t a one-time event, it’s being invited into a relational journey for the rest of our lives. I continue to experience a settledness in Him. “This is who I am, I'm loved by you.”
Knowing Father daily is part of my life. On the days when I am feeling my weaknesses and my inadequacies, I’m able to ask, “Father, how do you see me? What are you saying to me today?” I experience Him putting His arm around me and have this deep inner sense of reassurance and love. Knowing who He is enables me to know who I am.
Loved people change the world
one heart at a time…
One of the most powerful transformations in my own life and that I’ve seen in the life of others, is when we begin to experience His love at a heart level, it becomes an overflow to others from us.
At our Supernatural School (AST) we often go out on outreach to love people, businesses and our town. Over the years we have done so many things; filled rucksacks for the homeless, praying for healing, random acts of kindness, prophesying, supporting businesses, and much more. However the most impacting thing we do is also the most simple and anyone can do it! We do a FREE HUGS line. Every time we do this, we see people’s hearts touched by the love of God in a way that words could never get to. We see the hardest looking people, melt in our arms as we hug them and say truths from scripture to them - they are loved, they are enough, they are wonderful… it is the most moving and precious thing I’ve ever experienced. We have had people come back for multiple hugs, we’ve had some say it’s the first time they’ve been hugged for years. We have people weeping, laughing and just feeling warm and encouraged. Experiencing love is so powerful! And it all starts by being filled with His love for you.
Here’s one more story; last week I heard a testimony - satan defeated with a hug!
Durban Co-founder of the South African Satanic Church, Riaan Swiegelaar, has resigned from the church after he was shown unconditional love and had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
Swiegelaar said in May, he was interviewed on a Cape Town radio station, where he proclaimed that he did not believe in the existence of Jesus Christ. Swiegelaar said after the interview, a staffer from the radio station walked up to him and hugged him in a way that he had never been hugged before."She held me in a way that I have never been loved. That's all she did. She just said it was nice to meet me in person. A week later, I saw on WhatsApp that she is a Christian. I've never had a Christian showing me so much love and acceptance unconditionally. That stayed with me,"
He said a week later, he had to perform a ritual to see "how to get more power and influence", and that’s when Jesus appeared to him. "I said, if you are Jesus, you need to prove it. And he flooded me with the most beautiful love and energy, and I recognised that immediately because the woman who hugged me at the radio station showed that to me. That's how I recognised the love of Christ.” Swiegelaar said.
The love of Christ is unconditional when you experience it, it is something different. I have for a long time believed that I am not worthy of God's grace. It’s my prayer that you will you will feel the love of God and I pray that the peace of Christ will be with you.
Wow! What a testimony of experiencing Fathers love.
Are You Hungry To Experience the Love of the Father?
Here are some recommended resources:
• The Father's Love Letter by Barry Adams
• Abba's Child by Brennan Manning
• Encountering the Father’s Love led by David and Faith Dalley in the UK and internationally.
• Academy for Supernatural Transformation GodFirst Christchurch; Led by Emma Slater
A book is a great place to start, but to be part of a course, and to be in an immersive environment where your heart can be transformed by love, where you can receive in a ministry environment, and where you can sit in the presence of God and be loved to life by Him is a real key. Why not take a look at supernatural course AST website and join us this November!
LET’S DO THIS
I am blown away by the fact that even though we do not deserve the love and mercy of God, we are invited into relationship with the maker of heaven and earth who loves us, who loves you, unconditionally.
Ephesians 3:18 NLT
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.
Take a listen to this song and ask Father God ‘how do you see me, what are you saying to me today?’ Get ready though…. You’ll be blown away with truth and love as you hear his voice speaking to you.