Fellowship with the Father

1 John 1:3-4 “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”

The call of the Gospels is a call to relationship. While every religion in the world is a call to works and performance, the Gospel is a call to God. It is a call for us to abandon ourselves in our pursuit of knowing Him in every dimension. It is a call to a life-long and eternal adventure of discovering the greatness of the One who sustains all things by His World. John says the reason he recorded all that he has seen and heard and passed it on to us is that together we might have this amazing fellowship with the Father and with the Son, so that our joy may be full.

John goes on to explain that the only way we can have this amazing relationship with the Father is “walking in the light, as He is in the light.” Relationship with the Father requires total transparency. John said, “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness, we live a lie and do not live by the truth.” God does not expose our sin to condemn us but to free us from our sin in order that we may walk in the fullness of all He has for us.

In John chapter 14, Jesus talks about His relationship with the Father as an example to us of our relationship with the Father and the manifestation of that relationship. Jesus’ life was wrapped up in the Father. He told the disciples, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father --- because I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The words that I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing the work.”

Jesus is calling us to abandon our identity, which is so often tied to our appearance, our performance, or the affirmation of others. Jesus is calling us into a place of freedom and joy, where our identity is totally in the Father. Jesus goes on to explain that through the Holy Spirit living in us we can have this same relationship with the Father. Through the Holy Spirit, you have become one with the Father as Jesus is one with the Father, so that the words that you say and the work that you do is not your own but the Father living through you.

For the past several weeks I have been talking about raising our expectations of God. But those expectations and the fulfillment of those expectations lies in our relationship with the Father and our desire to bring glory to His name. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” Allow the Holy Spirit to raise in you an awareness of the Father in your everyday life.

Andy Clark