Daddy's Little Girl, Day 2

Leslie Basham: Even if you’ve been abandoned by your earthly father, you’re not alone. Here’s Blair Linne.

Blair Linne: "Whatever lie you are tempted to believe because your biological father is not there, you have a heavenly Father who will never leave us and never forsake us."

Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth for Friday, June 17, 2016.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: I hope you are making plans to honor your dad this weekend as we celebrate Father's Day. My dad has been with the Lord many years, but I still like to take the opportunity on Father's Day weekend to thank the Lord for blessing me with a dad who honored Christ and who loved His family well.

But I know that this weekend can be really difficult for some women who experienced a painful relationship with their father. Blair Linne knows that kind of pain. She also knows the joy and healing that come from knowing God as her heavenly Father.

Yesterday we heard part one of a message from Blair. At the True Woman '14 conference, she gave a breakout session called "Daddy's Little Girl." As we listen to part two, we'll be reminded of the amazing fact that you can be adopted into God's family and know Him as your perfect, loving father. That's only because of what Jesus has done for us—making us right with God.

Before we hear this message, don't forget that Blair Linne will be delivering brand new spoken word poetry this year at the True Woman '16 conference. Blair's poetry was a highlight at the last True Woman conference, and we're thrilled to have her back this year.

To register for True Woman '16, visit ReviveOurHearts.com. Be sure to do it quickly because we are close to reaching capacity.

Now, let's listen to part two of Blair Linne's message, "Daddy's Little Girl."

Blair:

A Father Loves

We want to look at who Jesus is. We kind of want to go from the beginning, walk through how our adoption actually plays out.

So Jesus is our brother. In Bruce Ware's book on the Trinity, he describes Jesus, and what he says is,

Jesus is not one-third God. He is fully God. And He eternally exists with the Father and the Spirit, and each of them possess the full identical same nature.

So Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—God. And therefore, what distinguishes the Son is His particular role as Son in relation to the Father and Spirit, and the relationships He has with each one of them. So Jesus has always been God the Son. He has always submitted to the Father. So authority and submission are eternal realities, which is wonderfully beautiful when we understand that. Jesus submitted to His Father in eternity past and in the incarnation as well. He's always submitting and loving the Father.

And the next one is that Jesus is God in the flesh—Immanuel—God with us. And the beauty of that condescension, Jesus coming down from heaven to earth, is that He is not ashamed of us. I mean, Jesus, the holy God—holy, holy, holy—yet willing to come down to this earth and become our Brother, which is amazing because we are sinners.

So the beauty of the incarnation, God becoming flesh, is that if Jesus was God only—as we think through the incarnation—if He was God only, He would not truly be able to sympathize with our weakness. If He didn't come in the flesh, He would not be able to bear with us in sympathy. And that's a wonderful part of the atonement as well. Because Adam was the one who sinned, the atonement had to come through man, in a sense. But a human being could not bear the full cup of the Father's wrath and rise from the grave because He was perfect. So it had to be a God-man. It had to be Jesus. He was the only one who could actually fulfill the requirements for the atonement. And I praise the Lord that He has done that!

So while on the cross, the Father and Son relationship was marred. Jesus was willing to be separate from His Father. We see in 2 Corinthians 5:21, it says, "For He made Him [who was Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." So we see, while Jesus was on the cross, He eternally existed with the Father. There was never any disunity, never a problem piece of their relationship. They were always in one accord.

And yet we see on the cross, what does He cry out? He says, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Jesus' relationship with the Father was broken because He took on sin—not His own sin, but our sin. We deserved to be on that cross. But Jesus says, "Out of love, I am going to do this. I am going to bear the penalty, the wages of sin, which is death." And I praise God.

There's that old song, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" I was there! I was there! Meaning, I put Him on the cross. My sin put Him on the cross. And He bore that for me, for you.

Adoption comes through our new birth. So for those who have repented of their sin and have placed their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, they actually can call God their Father, which is amazing. And that's the result of this new birth. We see that in John 3, with Nicodemus coming at night and Jesus speaking about the new birth.

But also in John 1:12–13, it says,

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

So the beauty of that, in our adoption, it's not just, "Well, my mom was a Christian. My dad was a Christian. So I'm a Christian, too. My mom was adopted. My grandmother was adopted by God through Jesus. So I'm adopted, too."

No, this is we are born of God. Personally making a decision to say, "Jesus, yes, I will serve You. I believe You are the Son of God. I believe that You died for my sins. And I'm willing to forsake my sin and follow You." So it's a specific, personal confession that we all must make.

And the beauty of that is Jesus is the giver of grace. Ephesians 2 says," For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" (v. 8). What a wonderful gift that we are able to receive by God—freely by God. Because we are all sinners, there's nothing that we can do to earn God's salvation. So God has chosen to stay and to love us even when we were unlovable. The Bible says, "While we were yet sinners"-in our sin, Christ died for the ungodly while in our sin.

And this is the beauty of adoption. The adopted child does not bring anything to the situation but their need. And the same way the hymn writer says, "Nothing in my hands do I bring, but simply to thy cross I cling." And that is all who are trusting in Jesus. We say, "God, my good works are as filthy rags, so I'm just going to sit and receive Your abundant grace. I'm going to receive Your mercy."

I thank the Lord we are broken individuals, but yet God says, "I want to have a relationship with you, in your brokenness, in your weakness. I want to love you." And I think that is a wonderful truth also to meditate on. God doesn't save us so that He would just tolerate us. "Okay, I saved them. Okay, that's it." No. He says, "I want to fellowship with you. I love you. I delight in you."

Do you believe that God delights in you? Do you believe that God delights in you—just you, who you are as a daughter of God?

There's a Scripture that Jesus says, it's in John 15:9. He says, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love." I think if we meditate on that, just meditating upon that truth . . . He says, "As the Father has loved me"—this eternal love—He says, "So have I loved you." And then He says, "Abide in my love."

I feel like, in my life, I have had to fight to hold fast to the fact that the Lord loves me despite me. The way the Father looks at me, He sees Jesus. He sees Christ. Not that I am Christ, but He lives in me. And as a result, He loves me with an everlasting love.

And we clearly see this love at the cross. We know the Scripture, we may be familiar, John 3:16, maybe a little familiar. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

And Scripture also says "this is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down His life for us." And that's 1 John 3:16. So the very act of laying His life down in our place shows how great His love is for us. And as a daughter of God, we must know that Jesus loves us.

Ephesians 1 says He chose to save you, even as . . .

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons [or daughters] through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite in him all things, things in heaven and things on earth (vv. 4–10).

So the beauty of God's love is that He sent His Son to taste death for believers so that we do not have to. And we know that this is the guarantee because Jesus resurrected from the grave. So it is finished. He rose with all power. He defeated sin and death and the grave, and we do not have to face that death. We don't have to be bound by our sin. And it's because of Christ.

So Jesus now is interceding for us as His children. And the resurrection gives us hope. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, we are now able to live in newness of life, the Scripture says.

Romans 4 says, "Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them" (vv. 7–8).

So the beauty is, as we're born again, we're justified. We're declared righteous by God. We're sanctified, and we're Spirit filled. We're new. So once we're truly born again, we receive this new nature as God fills us with His Holy Spirit. And then also we're kept by God. God is faithful to keep His children and care for His children. He will not lose one, the Scripture says.

Revelation 3:5 says, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."

So the bottom line is, God is not like man. The Bible says, "A faithful man, who can find?" The Scripture says, "God, He is faithful." Even when we're faithless, He will never deny Himself. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So adoption means we have God as our Father. We have God as our Father. Just think about that! God is our Father. He's promised to care for us, to protect us, to provide for us. He will even discipline us in love, the Scripture says in Hebrews 12. And He does this to show that we belong to Him.

Now we have a new head of the house, a new role in the family, a new identity and purpose. Adoption means that we are loved and we are cared for. God saw fit to save us, not because we deserve it, but because of His mercy.

Yes, we have God as our Abba Father, and so now we're "A Daughter Restored."

A Daughter Restored

A few things to note is that a restored daughter is forever secure in her Father's arms.

Is your relationship with God intimate? Do you realize you never did anything worthy for God to call you His daughter, so, therefore, when we feel like we're not earning or keeping up with God's grace . . . we never earned it to begin with! We were never good enough. We will never be good enough.

The Bible says your earthly father may have rejected you. Scripture says, "I will never leave you or forsake you."

Psalm 27:10 says, "For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in."

She's also able to cling to God in, I believe, a unique way. So I want to speak to the women who have had your father. You may be in this room, and you had a wonderful father who was a believer, who was a model of our Father God. Even you, you have to trust God. We have to love God more than our parents.

And the love that you have for God, the Scripture says, it should look as though you hate your parents in the sense that you have such a passion and a desire to honor the Lord and to put Him first. There are going to be times that it may be hard, as far as your parents and how they're processing you putting God first. So if your father was there, you still have to love God more.

But I believe those who do not have their father or did not relate to their father, I believe they can connect to God in a very unique way. It's similar to . . . if anyone in this room has ever had a specific need. I've been encouraged by Joni Eareckson Tada who has great physical suffering. And even as we were praying on the prayer call before the conference, she asked God, "Lord, just give me breath."

And because of her suffering, she's able to cling to God in a unique way. How many of us ask God for breath? "Help me to breathe. Help me to speak clearly without coughing." Her suffering allows her to depend upon God uniquely.

If you've ever gone through a financial trial, or, for example, you don't know where you're going to get your next meal. How are you going to feed your family? You're clinging to God in a unique way, and you're able to understand God as Provider in a way that someone who has always had a meal, has an abundance of food, they may not understand.

So here is a unique opportunity to meet with God in a way that never would have existed if everything had gone perfectly according to our plan. Although none of us would have ever requested to grow up either without a father or not being able to connect with our father, we can look at this as an opportunity to draw nearer and nearer to God.

So you could go through a trial, and honestly, you may not be able to get your biological father on the phone. But you can pray; you can get your heavenly Father. He hears your prayers. God is good, and He gives these good gifts. Even suffering, even these difficulties are ultimately for His glory.

Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, character hope, the Bible says. Ultimately, our suffering is what solidifies our hope. And that's why we're able to say, "Thank You. Thank You, God, for these difficulties. Thank You for these trials, because You're working in a hope in me that I may not have had otherwise."

I just want to share a personal story from a friend of mine. This friend shared with me years ago that she had been molested by her father for several years from about the age of nine to thirteen. And when she was thirteen, she got pregnant by her father. He forced her to have an abortion, and her family pretended as though it didn't happen.

I can only imagine what that might be like, to feel alone and to try to bring up the circumstances, and people shut you out as though you're the problem, something's wrong with you.

I met her actually when I was in Los Angeles. She's from New York. We would fellowship together. We went to church together. And she just grew in the Lord—grew in her adoption and understanding her identity in Christ.

We were going to this church, and this guy was interested in pursuing her, and she just kept turning him down. "Nope, nope, no." I mean, literally, he asked her, "Will you marry me?" three times before she said, "Yes." He was very, very persistent, but she finally said, "Yes." She faced a lot of fears. She'd had a lot of broken relationships before becoming a believer.

When her fiancé visited with her and went to go see the family, one of the people that they met was her dad. So they went to New York and sat down with the dad, and the fiancé was able to minister Christ to her father. It was amazing, because my friend had forgiveness in her heart. Now this whole time, her dad had not acknowledged his sin at all. He refused to acknowledge it, even when she went there with her fiancé.

Did you know that she asked him to give her away on her wedding day? I just thought, What an example of honoring your father even when it doesn't seem like he deserves that honor, but to still say, "I'm going to honor you." And the truth is, she'd already forgiven him in her heart regardless of whether he would acknowledge his sin or not.

It was some years into her marriage, literally a couple years ago, she took another trip to New York to visit her family, visit her dad, and he finally apologized to her. But the thing is, like I said, she had forgiven him a long time ago—a long time ago—and she was free. She was a free woman because of this change that had happened through her and because she understood who she was in Christ. She was not going to be held bound by the sin of her father even.

God must give us His perspective. We can only bear this type of fruit by walking in His Spirit. And I don't know, again, your specific situation, but I do want to think through, how can we start this healing process?

As we kind of close, we're going to walk through this fairly quickly. So as we meditate on this reality, of our new birth and our adoption in God, we can pray honestly about our hurts, first off. So you can take your fears, you can take your specific circumstances before God. You don't have to hide, you don't to pretend that the sin didn't happen. You can take it before God. Honestly, you can tell Him how it made you feel. Tell Him what's been going on in your heart and in your life. You can get honest with God, because He knows anyway.

A Scripture is in Matthew 5. It says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven" (v. 44). So even begin to pray for your father, pray for your dad.

And the second thing here is to forgive. Because we have been forgiven, we can choose to forgive others. A good Scripture to meditate on is the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18. So those who are forgiven much, love much.

And again, your father may never ask for forgiveness, or he may never have an opportunity to ask for your forgiveness. But you can still forgive him, because you've been forgiven through Christ.

And so the third thing is we can honor our father. This does not mean that you put yourself in a position to be in harm's way, because I don't know the specific circumstances. But if there is no danger, pray about how you might be able to encourage your dad. Think about ways.

Even with my father, like I said, my father wasn't there. He wasn't able to provide. But I have a kind father. He's a sweet man. And even in the times when I would come to visit him in Chicago, he would give me a little bag of candy.

Is there anything that your father has done? Did he take you to church? Did he provide for you? Did he give you a kiss on the cheek? Did he show love toward you? Think about those things, and maybe you can encourage your dad by sharing those things with him.

And also, be a member of a local church. The reason I put this here is I think this connects so much to our adoption, because when we come to Christ, not only do we receive God as our Father, but we receive brothers and sisters, spiritual mothers, spiritual fathers. We receive a family. We are the Body of Christ.

And it's beautiful how in James, even the call to the true religion, part of that is taking care of orphans. Our call is to care for one another.

So you can have an opportunity, even if you didn't see it modeled in your father, you can look at your pastor maybe or the godly men in your church, the godly women in your church to see how they relate to each other, the godly single women in your church, how do you submit to God? How do you submit to authority?

Talk to the children. What is your dad like? How does he train you up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord? You can ask these questions. Not to idolize, but to learn and to grow, to be blessed by the church.

And now know that you are no longer fatherless. Whatever lie that you tempted to believe because your biological father is not there, you have a father, a heavenly Father who will never leave us and never forsake us. We are never alone. God is always with His children.

Isaiah 41:10 says, "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; [personally] I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Nancy: That's Blair Linne talking about the amazing joy we can have if we've been adopted into God's family. The King is our perfect loving Father.

Blair delivered this message at True Woman '14. If you missed any of it, you can listen to the entire message at ReviveOurHearts.com. Blair will be back in just a moment to pray.

Perhaps you know someone who had a difficult relationship with their biological dad. You can send them a link to today's program at ReviveOurHearts.com.

Blair not only delivered that message at True Woman '14, she also electrified the audience with her spoken word poetry.

Blair:

He's free. He's full. He's fruitful forever.
That's the way it has been and will always be . . .
So may we find ourselves hidden in Christ our Treasure
Becoming True Women who are full, fruitful and free!

So I’m so excited that Blair will be back this year at the True Woman '16 conference. She’s writing new pieces based on this year’s theme of crying out to the Lord for revival. True Woman '16 is coming to Indianapolis September 22–24. There is not much space left, so if you’re planning to join us, visit ReviveOurHearts.com to register soon. And if you can’t be with us in person, you can join a simulcast from True Woman on Friday night, September 23. We're calling that prayer event, Cry Out! That's because we'll be joining with women all across the country in crying out together to the Lord.

I don't think that I have to convince you that the problems facing this world today won’t be solved through any human solutions. The next president, whoever he or she may be, will not be able to solve deep-rooted problems that spring out of our individual hearts. The only way to experience true freedom, and God's blessing, as a nation is for the Lord to turn the hearts of people to Himself. On Friday night, September 23, we're going to be crying out to the Lord to do just that.

I want to encourage you to start planning now to get a group of women together in your area to cry out for that nationwide simulcast prayer event for women. For details on how you can participate, how you can get a group together, visit ReviveOurHearts.com.

As we look to the past for people who show us what it means to cry out to the Lord, George Muller definitely comes to mind. He watched God provide for hundreds of orphans, day by day, exactly what they needed when they needed it. We’ll hear the powerful story of George Mueller’s prayer and God’s power, starting Monday on Revive Our Hearts.

To close our time today, here's Blair Linne to lead us in prayers.

Blair: Our gracious Father, our heavenly Father, we just come before You right now as Your daughters. Your Word says that unless we turn from our sins and become like little children, we will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

I pray, Lord, that You would give us hearts to be Your child, like these little children, Lord, with humble hearts, dependent hearts. I know with having two little children, just the needs that they have, how they cling to me, how they need me for everything. I pray, Lord, that the women in this room would cling to You for everything.

And I pray for the specific women, Lord, their specific circumstances. God, would You heal each hurt, the pain, the fear? God, would You set them free? Help them to meditate upon this glorious truth of the gospel, the good news, that through Christ we have a Father who's faithful, who's loving and kind, filled with mercy and compassion. God, may we trust Your good hand. In Jesus' name, amen.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

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