Joseph Prince - To The One Who Feels Unloved
The Father's love is also healing. Amen. When Jesus revealed the name "Father", He's going to tell us: "I'm going to teach you all over again, how to be a son, how to be a daughter". Amen. By you being conscious of the Father. He's going to redefine "Father" for you. But it starts by you acknowledging "Father". I'm gonna read to you some statistics right now. Now, the source of these statistics is actually from the National Centre For Fathering. Fathering in America. A poll, alright?
Now, according to the poll, 72.2% of the US population. Now, think of that. 72.2% of the US population. Fatherlessness is the most significant family or social problem facing America. It's more than 50%! And the poll tells us fatherlessness is the most significant family or social problem facing America. Now also, 85% of youths in prison come from fatherless homes. 85% of youths in prison come from fatherless homes. 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes. 60% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. No wonder Jesus said: "I have revealed to them the name Father". Amen. We are suffering from an orphan spirit. So we feel like we grew up where we don't feel the father's presence, the father's love. No one told us about God the Father who loves us. And we feel like we got to take care of ourselves because the home that we expect unconditional love, warmth, and provision and all that... instead we came home and we got frightened, more frightened.
So we start going out into places looking for love in all the wrong places, only to find ourselves being abused even more. So friend, when we are born again, God comes and says: "I am your Father. I am your true Father". And even though you have experienced your earthly father in that way, sometimes it is because he himself has not received the Father's love. And you find that even in the book of the Old Testament, the Old Testament actually ends with the word "curse". The New Testament ends with the word "grace". "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all". Why the curse? In the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, it tells us this. God says: "Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse". Notice the word "Lest, I come"? So what brings the curse? A fatherless generation. God says: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children". Notice that? Whose hearts first? "The hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers". "Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse".
This is the very last word of the Old Testament. So God is saying if there's no father, the curse will come. Amen. And aren't you glad that the very first chapter of the Bible tells us the book of the generations. Amen. Of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. And He is the One that introduced to us the Father. But there was a barrier between man and the Father. And because of that barrier, man could not come to God. And God wants to reveal Himself as Father. Okay? But man was so afraid. You know, naturally, there is a fear of God that is not the fear of the Lord the Bible talks about. Okay? It's called the spirit of bondage again to fear in Romans 8. The Bible says: "You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear". Why is the word again there? He's talking to the Jewish people who were under the covenant of Old Covenant law, and they had a spirit of fearing God that is not the true fear of the Lord. A true fear of the Lord is born out of a revelation of you being forgiven.
Remember this, David said to the Lord: "If thou Lord should mark iniquities, who can stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared". It is a fear of the Lord that is born out of a realization that God loves you. And He has given you His Son, and His Son went to the cross because of you. Who are you that the Son of God, the King of Kings, should die and bleed for? Amen. And you realize that. That gives you a revelation of His love. So David understood that. The fear of the Lord comes out of that. The true fear of the Lord. But this fear of the Lord that they had in the Old Testament is a fear, a true fear, like you fear snakes or you fear you know, in my case, lizards and all that. Okay, so that fear, they transfer that to fearing God.
In other words, they won't come to God unless there's a go-between. "You go to God for me". It is what they said to Moses, when God spoke from Mount Sinai. "You hear God for us, you go to God for us". Alright? "We don't want have a direct relationship with God". But where does a child in tears belong? In the Father's arms. Amen. God wants you to really come close. Sometimes words are unnecessary. You come close to the Father, He just embraces you, words become redundant. You know, in a family relationship, you don't have to talk so much. You look at one another and many a times you know. Especially when a father looks at you. You know the Father says to you: "Before you were born, I formed you in the womb". And He has a calling and a purpose in your life. You are not an accident. You are not a mistake. The way it was done, may be a mistake. But it was God's plan, the moment the seed is formed, God destined for you to be there. And for every one of you, God has a purpose. And He was a Father to you long before you were born. He is a Father to you. But we were not born again.
So the natural reaction of the flesh is always to think hard thoughts of God. "God cannot be that good. God is out to get me". Alright. It is further confirmed by religious figures that always portray a sombre face and holier-than-thou attitude or, you know, you are so dirty, always dirty. You know, some of the movies I watch. Sometimes I get angry the way they portray Christians, you know, and it's always the preacher who is you know, a lady who is self-righteous about another lady who has a baby out of wedlock and all that. And this lady is a Christian lady, and she's...why don't you show people who are joyful? People who are gracious? The way Jesus is. Amen. So that's how the Father is. Jesus says: "If you want to see the Father, see Me. He that has seen Me has seen the Father".
So one way to find out more and more about the Father is for you to go through the Gospels and see Jesus' heart. If you want to know what the Father will do for you, see what Jesus has done. For example, the question: "Will my Father heal me? Is it the Father's will to heal me"? Look at Jesus. Did He ever deny any one of their healing? Did anyone that come to Him leave unwell, leave sick still? No! Now, He didn't say: "Everyone in Israel was healed". Because not everyone came to Him. But my Bible says: "Everyone that came to Him were healed. As many as touched the hem of His garment were healed". As many that came to Him. So in other words, Jesus never denied healing to anyone. So is this the Father's will? Yes. Because whatever Jesus did is to unveil the Father.
Alright, and Jesus told one of his disciples Philip and says that: "He that has seen Me has seen the Father. And how sayeth thou show me the Father? You know, I've been, I've been so long time with you". He said that in the upper room. Imagine that! Three and a half years. That's why I say it's important to understand that familiarity is different from intimacy. You can be familiar with someone but not intimate with Him. Someone may just pass by Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit, they have an intimacy with Jesus. Amen. I want intimacy, how about you? Praise the Lord. So the more conscious you are, that you know God is your Father. Amen. And think about it. Think about this. The Father loved you so much, that He gave you His Son. Friend, God does not have to give His Son. God chose to give you His Son. What motivated God to give you His Son?
Now, before that, let me establish something. You need to know that the Father loves the Son. The Father loves the Son, with all His heart. Amen. When Jesus came out of the River Jordan, the Father opened the heavens to Him and says: "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased". And yet He gave up His Son for you. What does that tell you? He loves you. He gave up the Son that He loves. You will never know how much you are loved until you know how much God loves His Son. Because He gave up His Son for you. Wow. Gave up His Son for you. The Bible say: "He that spared not His own Son, how will He not also freely give us all things"?
If we think that God will withhold healing from us, for example, healing, because healing is maybe you know, God priced healing and not everyone can have healing. Okay? That means we are saying that healing is more important to God, more precious to God than His Son. Because He's willing to give us His Son, but He's not willing to give us healing. No. Church, He gave us the best. Amen. When He gave us His Son, He gave us the best! "If He spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not"? Meditate on that for a while. Meditate on this verse. Make this verse your meditation. "How shall He not"? Think about that! Even that phrase: "How shall He not? How shall He not with Him also freely..." Wow, that word "freely"! Let it sink into your heart. "How will He not with Him also freely give us all things"? If He gave you His Son, which He did, "how will He not freely give you all things"?