The Character of Abba Father’s Heart – Holiness

Last week I tried to get a bike ride in before a snowstorm that was expected to blanket the Denver area. As I peddled out to the reservoir the clouds grew dark grey. Soon a gale force northwest wind hit hard and humbled me. I had to put my bike in low gear, stand-up off my saddle, and pound down on the peddles as my heart-rate raced out of control. It hurt and I wanted to turn around, especially as another biker passed me (from the opposite direction) with a thumb down, to show her disgust with the wind. What kept me crawling forward was the hope that eventually I would have that 40-mile-an-hour wind at my back.

And half dead I reached the point where I started to head southeast – and everything changed! I went from 6 miles an hour to the high 20’s. I felt like I could compete in the Tour de France, I even started to sing as I glanced at the white caps on the lake, hurling along by the glorious tail wind. As the pain left and I could think again, I pondered the invisible yet powerful wind. The sub-theme for the next few weeks of our blog series on The Character of Abba Father Heart is Holiness, or the Father’s Holy Heart.

Sometimes when I have encountered the Holy Heart of the Father I have been overwhelmed and humbled by whom He is, so pure and full of a glorious light that his holiness reveals my weakness and sin. At other times His holiness has led to a deep healing that has united my heart to His gracious eternal heart of love. And there have been times where Abba Father has unleashed the Wind of His Holiness, through the Holy Spirit who has empowered me to live out the Father’s will in a supernatural way for His glory.

If you survey the heroes of faith in the Bible who have experienced a Holy Father, you will find these three points present: Humility, Healing, and a powerful filling of the Holy Spirit. During the next few weeks we will unpack these truths as we consider the Holy Heart of our Father.

Take some time this week and meditate and pray through Isaiah 6, a passage that clearly highlights the Holiness of God. As you consider this passage, notice how the seraphs were calling out “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty …”(vs. 3). I know of no other passage in scripture where a characteristic of God is repeated three times in a row. The Hebrew word for “holy” is qadosh, which means sacred or totally pure without defect. Heaven wants us to know how important the Father’s holiness is and how each of us needs to encounter wind of His Holiness.