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Father

Father

Experiencing Grace Podcast
Experiencing Grace Podcast
Disciples’ Prayer 2 | Father | Ep. 14
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The Disciples’ Prayer Series – Part 2

Praying “Father”: Embracing Our Identity and Relationship with God

Welcome back to The Disciples’ Prayer Series! We’ve explored the unity in addressing God as “Our” Father—now, let’s focus on the next word: “Father.”

Jesus taught us to pray this way for two powerful reasons: To reveal the Father in a way never understood before. To declare that we are sons of God.

Jesus: The Revelation of the Father

Throughout His ministry, Jesus unveiled the mystery of God’s nature. He declared, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” and emphasized, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Though fully God, Jesus chose not to operate in certain divine attributes (such as omnipresence or omniscience) during His earthly ministry. Instead, everything He did, He did as a man in obedience to the Father—showing us that we, too, can walk in obedience.

Sons Through Adoption

While Jesus is the only begotten Son, we become sons through adoption, empowered to cry, “Abba, Father!” This isn’t about physical gender but spiritual identity—both men and women inherit the promises of Christ.

As co-heirs with Him, we share in His inheritance: “God appointed Him heir of all things.” That means all things belong to us in Him, and we are raised up to reign with Christ!

Free from Slavery, Called to Serve

Being sons means we are not slaves to the law. Christ redeemed us so that we could live by faith, rather than striving under the law’s impossible demands.

Yet, as free people, we choose to serve—not out of obligation, but out of love. Unlike servants who work for acceptance, we serve because we already belong.

The Father’s Heart of Restoration

The Prodigal Son parable illustrates God’s heart: He doesn’t accept us as mere servants but embraces us fully as sons. The Father restored his son with a robe (honor), a ring (identity), sandals (freedom), and a feast (celebration)—a picture of our complete redemption.

If you pay close attention to the parable, you’ll see that when the younger son asked for his inheritance, the Father gave both of his sons their inheritance: the one who left and the one who stayed, but neither of them saw the Father rightly.

The younger brother wanted what was his without a relationship with the Father (until he repented). The older brother misunderstood his Father, working for what was already his (“I’ve slaved away for you.“). Jesus reminds us: “I no longer call you servants… Instead, I have called you friends.”

Sons Who Serve

Understanding our sonship is key: we don’t serve to earn God’s love—we serve because we already have it. The Father disciplines us as His beloved children, shaping us into His image.

One day, when Christ appears, we will be like Him!

Dive deeper into this truth through the full message, audio, and notes. Let’s embrace our identity and live in the freedom of sonship!

Father

Notes:
JasonGraham_Father_DisciplesPrayerSeries.pdf Download

The Disciples’ Prayer Series – Part 2

Lion and Cub

The devoted have repeated this word in their prayers for centuries. Jesus modeled the use of this word when teaching us how to pray in scripture. Why? I think it is of utmost importance to understand in-depth what it means for God to be our Father–and us to be His sons–from the rest of scripture.

In the teaching attached to the top of this entry we look into what the scripture explains about God our Father.  We’ll look at why we are sons, and how we are made into sons.  We answer the question, “Are we sons like Jesus is the Son of God?”

The teaching also explains what the benefits are for us to be sons of God, and they are amazing.  Among other things, this teaching also seeks to explain how our relationship with God the Father is defined in His acceptance and discipline, as well as presents an answer to the often-asked question, “If we are sons, then are we still servants?”

As a side note, being a Son of God is a spiritual position, and has nothing to do with physical gender.  Women believers are Sons of God in the same way that men believers are the Bride of Christ.  Both of these terms indicate spiritual truths about our position in God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

For those of you who like to download or stream the audio of these lessons, unfortunately there were technical difficulties that prevented this lesson from being recorded when I taught it at my church.  I will update audio if I’m able to get it recorded at some point in the future.


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