Friday

Related Verses
1 Thes. 1:1
1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

Rom. 11:36
36 Because out from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

John 1:12-13
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name,
13 Who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 5:26
26 For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son to also have life in Himself;

John 20:17
17 Jesus said to her, Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.

Rom 8:15-16
15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery bringing you into fear again, but you have received a spirit of sonship in which we cry, Abba, Father!
16 The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.

Related Reading
In 1 Thessalonians we have the revelation that the church is not only of God and of Christ but also in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word Father [in 1:1] indicates a relationship of life…God is the Father of the church people, for we have all been born of Him. It is a wonderful fact that we have been born of God and that He is now our Father!

Suppose your father was the president of the United States. If such were the case, you could refer to him as “my father, the president.”…To refer to our president may indicate that you are a citizen. But if you could say, “my father, the president,” that would indicate that the president is your father and that you have a life relationship with him. In the same principle, we can speak of God as being our Father. No longer is God only our Creator. He has become our Father, for we have been born of Him. (Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, 2nd ed., pp. 42-43)

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The Father is the source; He is the Originator, the Initiator, the Planner, and the Designer…The Lord Jesus said, “I know Him, because I am from Him, and He sent Me” [John 7:29]. This brief word indicates that the Father is the source. As the source, the Father sent the Son. John 13:3 also indicates that the Father is the source: “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all into His hands and that He had come forth from God and was going to God.” The Father is the Planner, and He sent the Son to carry out His plan. Because the Father is the Originator and the Initiator, the Son came forth from Him and received all from Him. (CWWL, 1982, vol. 2, “The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John,” p. 397)

For God to be the Father means that God is the Creator, the unique Initiator. The Son was sent from the Father. “The Son can do nothing from Himself except what He sees the Father doing, for whatever that One does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19). This must be our experience. We must receive grace from God to realize that we cannot initiate anything…In the beginning it was not us, but God [Gen. 1:1]. God is the Father, and everything originates from Him.

The day that God shows you that He is the Father will be a blessed day. On that day you will realize that you cannot do anything and that you are helpless. You will not have to try to hold yourself back from doing this thing or that thing. Instead you will ask, “Has God initiated this?” This is the experience of Abraham. His experience shows us that he had no thought of becoming God’s people. Abraham did not initiate anything. It was God who initiated. It was God who brought him from the other side of the Euphrates River (12:1-5).

If you know that God is the Father, you will not be so confident and will not say that you can do whatever you want. You will only say, “If the Lord is willing, I will do this and that. Whatever the Lord says, I will do.” This does not mean that you should be indecisive. It means that you truly do not know what to do and that you only know after the Father has revealed His will.

Abraham knew God as the Father. This kind of knowledge is not a knowledge in doctrine. It is a knowledge in which one is brought to the point of confessing, “God, I am not the source. You are the source of everything, and You are my source. Without You, I cannot have a beginning.” This was Abraham…The first lesson we have to learn is to realize that we can do nothing and that everything depends on God. He is the Father, and He is the Initiator of everything. (CWWN, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” pp. 8-9)

Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” ch. 1