The Ultimate Guide to Experiencing the Father’s love

Dec. 6

One of the remarkable realities that came out of the revival starting in Toronto in 1994 is that God is a good Father who loves us. It wasn’t just a good theological idea that believers began to explore; people became radically transformed by experiences with the Father’s love.

In the last 25-plus years, the revelation of God’s Fatherly love has spread throughout the global church. God desires that every Christian can know His love in a real, experiential way.

So how do we get to grips with this truth, and feel the Father’s love on a daily basis? In this article, we hear from Sarah Jackson, who alongside her husband Ben, are the executive directors for Catch The Fire to unpack questions like:

WHY CHRISTIANS NEED TO KNOW GOD AS FATHER
HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR OBSTACLES AND RECEIVE GOD’S LOVE
HOW THE FATHER’S LOVE CHANGES CHRISTIANS/US
EXPERIENCING GOD’S LOVE: WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

Sarah’s family was radically transformed when her parents encountered the love of God in her teen years. She then moved from the UK to Canada to do Catch The Fire’s School of Ministry in Toronto, where she stayed on staff for many years, teaching and leading others into daily encounters with their heavenly Daddy. Sarah now also leads the prophetic team at Catch The Fire church in Toronto, alongside speaking in schools and events.

Why Do Christians Need to Know God as Father?

In the New Testament, as Jesus reveals Himself, He is consistently pointing to the Father. Jesus’ aim is that we get to know His Father as our Father. Jesus did nothing except what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). He was constantly in communion with His father. Jesus' goal is for us to experience communion with His Daddy; that our spirits, like it says in Romans 8:15 would cry out, “Abba, Father!” That we know Him as Abba and are able through Jesus to enter into that deep revelation of love and identity that our heavenly Daddy brings us.

Jesus says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9 NIV). We read these radical passages in John where Jesus reveals His deep, expressive love (for example John 3:16-18, John 11:35-38, John 17:20-21). When we read these passages, we’re invited to let our hearts believe them.

What Stops Us from Understanding the Father’s Love?

I think a lot of us have based our perception of who God the Father is on our earthly experiences. All of us have had imperfect parenting experiences. All the ways that we can receive love are necessary; through words, through eye contact, through physical touch, through affectionate communication. When we have lacked in any of those areas, and our hearts are in pain, we develop walls to protect ourselves from love. Our imperfect earthly experience of love affects our experience of our heavenly Father's love. Some of us shy away from the thought of God being our Father because that's been a very challenging or painful relationship.

“Our imperfect earthly experience of love affects our experience of our heavenly Father’s love.”

Many of us have a lot of knowledge of God, but our hearts have not yet experienced or encountered Him. Therefore, we read the scriptures and we're like, “Yes, God loves me. That's great.” But our hearts haven't experienced it, and are perhaps suspicious or fearful. We feel unworthy and like we don't measure up. We remember messages from our childhoods that we weren't good enough, or we were failures, and those words stick in our hearts.

Dr. Caroline Leaf says it really well in her book, Who Switched Off My Brain?, that in a conflict between your mind and your heart, your heart wins. If your mind says, “Of course God loves me,” and your heart says, “I feel so afraid of experiencing God as Father”, your heart will win. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as [a person] thinks in his heart, so is he.” (NKJV).

Our hearts have this dominant override effect. Many of us are stuffed full of head knowledge, stuffed full of scriptural knowledge, and we mentally assent to it, but our hearts which perhaps are afraid, perhaps have never experienced that love, are overriding our mind’s understanding.

How Can We Overcome Our Blocks and Receive God’s Love at a Heart Level?

My dad would say that it's time to pray a dangerous prayer, to say, “Holy Spirit, would you come and reveal the Father's love to me?” In Augustine’s writings on the trinity, he said the Holy Spirit was the bond of love between the Father and Son (De Trinitate book 15). For so many people it begins with this childlike prayer:

“Father, I want to know and experience your love in my heart. Father, would you come and take down the walls I've used to protect myself and show me your love. Would you show me what holds me back from being loved by you.”

““Holy Spirit, would you come and reveal the Father’s love to me?” ”

I think when the desire of our heart is to experience God’s love, that He is so kind that this simple prayer starts us off on a journey into love. It starts us off on a journey into His heart. For me, it was that journey into experiential encounter with the love of God that really began to transform my mindsets and struggles

What Does It Look Like to Experience God's Love?

When we encounter His love, it is an experiential and felt thing. That could be being filled with a rush of peace or experiencing Him in your emotions. God interacts with many of us through our hearts and our feelings.

I've seen people begin to weep as they experience the revelation that they are loved. I've seen people laugh and cry. Sometimes people are just overwhelmed by peace.There's no one way to describe what will happen to you, but it is a tangible encounter. It’s a moment when your heart is experiencing the deep love of God that roots you and grounds you in love.

A Life Changed by Love

When I think about how the Father’s love changed my life, there's so many things that I could describe! The Father's love brought safety and a deep settling of who I am in Him. Where before I had quite deep seated insecurities and fears that I spent a lot of energy trying to hide from people around me, what I now continue to experience with the Father is this settledness, “This is who I am, I'm loved by you.” At the end of the day, regardless of anything else, I'm loved.

“Experiencing the Father’s love isn’t a one time event, it’s being invited into a relational journey for the rest of our lives. ”

Knowing the Father daily is part of my life now. On the days when I am feeling my weaknesses and my inadequacies really strongly, I’m able to just say, “Father, how do you see me? What are you saying to me today?” and experience Him putting His arm around me—I just feel this deep inner sense of reassurance and love. Knowing who He is enables me to know who I am.

Experiencing the Father's love isn't a one time event, it's being invited into a relational journey for the rest of our lives. We may have some significant encounters that root us, ground us, and transform the way we live. But in Ephesians 3:17, we read that we're being rooted and grounded in love; that's a continual process of establishing my root system and being connected to Him and His love.

How Does the Father’s Love Transform Believers?

One of the most profound transformations I’ve seen was my dad's experience. My dad had a radical journey of encountering the Father's love. He suddenly became a man who was just so expressive of love; to me, to my siblings, and to us as a family. He started taking every opportunity to tell us how much he loved us, how much he believed in us, and how much he affirmed us. He came from a background of doing ‘the right Christian thing’ and being a very devout person, but not having that foundation of love. When he encountered the Father's love, he switched into this mode of, "I must communicate the love of the Father." That’s been very powerful and transformative in my heart and in my family.

“Their ability to say yes to the Father’s love was the key that enabled them to say yes to loving themselves.”

I've seen marriages restored as people realize how loved they are. That love enables them to forgive and suddenly see their spouse with new eyes. I remember a few girls who came through the School of Ministry who hated the sight of themselves. Their ability to say yes to the Father's love was the key that enabled them to say yes to loving themselves.

As they received His love it transformed their hearts and transformed them. It was like watching a person blossom into life in front of your eyes—one of the most profound experiences I've had.

What Would Change if the Global Church Experiences the Reality That God Is a Father Who Loves Us?

If the global church experiences the reality that God is a Father who loves us, I think the church would become so radically powerful in love. The church would be known to be people so full of this powerful transformative love. I see groups of people who are so loving and so represent the Father that they are safe, powerful, and dangerous all at the same time.

“We’re not focused on that orphan mentality of protecting ourselves anymore, but we’re able to love the people around us radically. ”

I think the church would become very radical because when we live secure in our identity as the beloved children of our Daddy, we're not focused on trying to get what we need. We're not focused on that orphan mentality of protecting ourselves anymore, but we're able to love the people around us radically. We're able to be radically generous because we know who our Father is and we know that He provides for us.

We'd do business differently because we would be looking with our Father's heart of love and we would see who He is and what He’s doing in every moment of the day. We'd be parenting our children in ways that would transform them into being such powerful beloved people.

Instead of the church being known for being filled with judgment and accusation, we'd become a place filled with love and power that could powerfully and radically transform the most broken people into loving, whole people. I think it could be very exciting.

Are You Hungry To Experience the Love of the Father? Here are some recommended resources:

The Father's Love Letter by Barry Adams
Experiencing Father’s Embrace by Jack Frost
Abba's Child by Brennan Manning
James and Denise Jordan’s A School and B School in New Zealand.
Encountering the Father’s Love led by David and Faith Dalley in the UK and internationally.
Leaders School in Toronto led by the Catch The Fire School of Ministry.

Sarah says, “A book is a great place to start, but to be part of a course, and to be in an immersive environment where your heart can be bombarded by love, where you can receive in a ministry environment, and where you can sit in the presence of God and be loved to life by Him is a real key. Don’t just do that once but to do that again and again!”