I am thoroughly convinced that you could live the rest of your life without telling a single person about Jesus, and the Father would still be absolutely ravished and helplessly lovesick at the thought of your name.
You could go out to dinner every night for the rest of your life and never pray for a single waiter, and he would still be enthralled by you. You could never tithe another dollar, go to another church service, or even read another page of your Bible, and his affections for you would still be endless.
The reality is that you are the most loved, holy, and successful that you could ever be the moment that you let Jesus through the doors of your heart. The rest of it — the attendance, the prayer, the prophecy, the tithing — is just for the love of it.
It’s an age-old understanding that tithing and attendance will never initiate being intimately acquainted with the Father’s heart. But it also seems to be an age-old mystery how one might bypass simply marveling at the outer mural of the Father’s heart, and actually make home deep in is center.
Last week, my friend and I were on the bus into town when she asked what I learned from Scripture that morning. I unhesitantly said, “Nothing.” My gaze shot up as I was immediately confounded by my own response, “Did I really just say that? I’m a Christian, of course I learned something today.” I checked in with myself, but arrived at absolutely nothing. It turns out that I actually spent the entire morning simply getting loved by the Father.
KNOWING THE FATHER’S HEART
Jesus, in Matthew 11, exclaims,
“My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Jesus has all authority to unlock the Father’s heart to whomever he wills. And he’s actually eager to do so. There’s a verse in 2 Chronicles 16 that reads,
“The eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout all the earth so that he may support those whose hearts are completely his.”
Not only does Jesus have the key to unlock the Father’s heart for whomever He pleases, the Father is actually searching for hearts to support. He longs for people who are willing to truly take up their crosses to follow his Son. He’s eager to reveal his heart to you.
CHOOSING THE FATHER’S HEART
In my community at home, we use an analogy to describe how stupidly available freedom and intimacy are. Here’s the Adria twist…
Jesus ripped the jail cell door off of its hinges, but he won’t walk inside to drag you out. The door is open for you to freely walk in and out of, you simply need to choose action. When we look for other things to satisfy us — money, clothes, porn, influence, sex, alcohol, etc — we’re standing at the back of the open jail cell, trying to rip the bars off the window. The bars are never going to come off. Turn around and walk through the door.
Choosing to walk through the door can mean 8 billion different things to 8 billion different people. For me, it meant finally removing myself from my old “community” and spending four months in the metaphorical desert with Jesus. I wept and begged Jesus to give me community every day, and made a pact with him that I’d stay in the desert with him until he gave me godly community. I had no idea how long I’d be in the desert, but four months later, he spoke a resounding “yes!” and flooded me with community.
I tried to rip the bars off the window through alcohol and men for a while. Jesus never walked into my jail cell to take me by the hand and walk me out. I had to release my grip from the window of the world and choose to remove myself from the cell’s three walls.
God’s eyes are searching the earth for people whose hearts are his. He desires to reveal himself to you. You have the strength to let go of the window, take up your cross, and walk boldly through the door of freedom.
ACTIVATION
If this message was for you today, I want you to pray these words.
“Jesus, I’m sorry that I’ve chosen the jail cell when you paid a price for me to live in freedom. You are so much better than every window that the world offers. I can’t save myself by my own strength. I surrender my entire life, and I want you to reveal the Father’s heart to me. Be my compass.”
