The Gift of the Father – A Voice From Heaven

This week while reading through the gospels I was blessed to be reminded of the story of Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River. This is where the Father opens the heavens and undeniably invades earth with powerful words of love and encouragement, “this is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased,” Mathew 3:17. In times of revival and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the voice of the Father breaks forth to begin a new work, just as He did with His son Jesus and his disciples.

I sense the Father is doing the same thing in our day. I can’t tell you the conversations I have had in this last season with a variety of different people who are being awakened, loved, and called into a new work by the Father. And I have observed similarities in each of these stories where hearts have been opened to hear the voice of their Father. In each of these situations I noticed:

• A time of crisis or brokenness that has led them to turn to Jesus with hurting hearts crying out in prayer for help.
• For others a season of fasting, and seeking to be still before the Lord.
• A renewed passion for His Word, not for more knowledge but for an authentic relationship.
• The Father speaking through others by way of divine appointments, dreams, visions, scriptures, and prophetic words.
• A new call to trust the Father and step out in faith, being willing to risk security, reputation, and comforts of this world.
• A peace and an inner joy that words can’t describe as they hear the Father.
• A new inner boldness to live for the Father’s fame even though the journey is not completely clear.

These conversations have renewed my hope and heightened my expectation for new and continued works of God the Father for today. Each bolded truth listed above can be traced back to the Scripture and the first century church. Truly, the voice of the Father always comes to His people when He is ready to move and show Himself glorious and mighty to save.

Jesus demonstrated to us how to open up our ears to hear the voice of Heaven as He journeyed to the Jordan to be baptized by John. There Jesus identified with the sins of the people, despite being without sin; he was baptized as a sign of repenting of sin and turning focus back to the Father.

Join me as together we step into the Jordan River and repent of our lack of trust in the Father. May the blood of the cross wash over our sins and may we each step out with a renewed passion to seek His face. And in His perfect time, Heaven will open and we will hear the loving Voice of our Father lead us into a powerful new move of His Spirit.