THE HOMECOMING ... OR THE CINDERELLA STORY
Credits to John & Carol Arnott for their tireless efforts to free orphans to walk in sonship.

Jn.14:1-5

We are going somewhere and Jesus has gone ahead of us to prepare a place for you and me.

Jn,14:6-11

Where are we going? …to the Father?

Jesus is saying that he did nothing but what the Father did through Him, and said only what the Father said.

What has been my past perception of the Father God? A judge? A fog. I loved Jesus for what he did for me but I just couldn’t imagine or get my brain around the omnipotent, all powerful, Creator Father God until this message.

Jesus came to reveal Father God as a loving Father…Jn.3:16.

Jesus came to reconcile us to the Father. Jesus came to die for us that we might be in right relationship with our loving Heavenly Father and be welcomed into His house as His loving kids that love Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and their neighbor as their-self. Jn.1:12

This is the journey Home.

There are 2 journeys. 1^st The inward journey in which a loving Holy Spirit draws us to know and love God with all our hearts because of what Jesus did for us while we were yet sinners. We read, meditate, and study Gods word to renew our minds and bring us back into agreement with Him.

2^nd the outward journey which is bringing the love of the Father and the kingdom of God to the all mankind.

2 things we believe:

First the great Commandment:

Love the Lord thy God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our Mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourself.

Second the Great Commission: Go and make disciples.

What does it look like, when in the church, we get someone saved, and immediately send them out to witness?

It usually winds up with no power, little or no faith, and people ministering out of their own hurts and wounds.

So our objective in the next few sessions is to learn the great commandment so we can do the great commission. To receive the Fathers love to such a degree that His love is oozing out of every pour of our being…It is a fact that we radiate who or what is in us. What ever we are around or who we hang with seems to go into us. If I hang with flee infested dogs…guess what? I’ll probably get flees. If I hang with people who have the flu, sooner or later I will probably get the flu unless I protect myself…Conversely if I drink regularly from the living water found in the presence of God I will always have enough not only to overcome the fiery darts of the devil, but enough to give away to those who need it.

A farmer had 2 dogs who were always fighting. A neighbor asked which dog wins the fight. The farmer replied, the one I feed the most. The mind is the same way. If I input porn into my computer along with a little violence, and rap.  What is going to come out? Garbage in garbage out. It’s time the church made a decision to take off the old man and put on the new. We need to make a life commitment to download directly from God, His love, His purity, His holiness but most of all His love.

The New Testament is about a loving heavenly Father who is love. This loving Father made us because He wanted to share His kingdom with His loving children who walk in love. This is our goal, to be one with Jesus, to look like, to be like, Jesus.

Our quest begins with being totally healed of our past and or getting rid of all our past (friends) flees.

Our sights must be set not on doing but receiving a revelation of the love of our loving heavenly Father.

Many people trust immediately in the grace God has freely given; in others it takes weeks, months, even years to let down or let go their defenses because of the hurt, distrust, broken promises, etc. from not only from parents but cultural and anyone in authority over them as children growing up. Some walk around like porcupines not knowing the damage they do when others get close to them. People get around you and they wind up getting stuck…Want to know how porcupines make love? Very carefully.

When I got the revelation of Fathers love for me I ceased striving…trying to be good enough to get to heaven. What happened, I fell so in love with my loving heavenly Father there was no way I wanted any disapproval from the one who had done so much for me. I came out from under the law (trying to obey the 10 commandments) into a love relationship that all that was required of me was to believe and receive the love that my heavenly Father had so lavishly poured out on me.

Saints, the issue now is not what you do; but why you do it.

Heb.1:1-3. The Son is the express image of the Father.

As a new Christian I was in love with Jesus because of what He did for me on the Cross. Father was like a fog on the outer edge of the universe. When I got a revelation of Dad I began to read my whole bible from a new perspective. Later I saw another side of the Father.

Gen 3:22   There were 2 trees in the garden…

Satan tempted Adam & Eve in the garden and ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good & evil which put mankind out of the garden and Gods presence. Had God not put Adam & Eve out of the garden would they have eaten of the tree of life? Would they become a carrier of rebellion and evil forever spiraling downward possibly becoming unredeemable like Lucifer and the rebel angels?

I don’t know. But if true, I can now imagine our loving heavenly Father with tears in His eyes and love in His heart for the ones He had made in His image and likeness saying to Adam & Eve “You must go!” At that moment the plan to redeem mankind was put into place.

Adam & Eve at that time could have received an orphan spirit and now without the presence of the Lord in the cool of the day and they had to learn to earn their living from the sweat of their brow or die. This went on for 4000 years until our loving Father could stand it no more and sent His Son to reconcile us back to the Himself. Could it have been at that point that Father God planned a homecoming party called the marriage supper of the Lamb.

As you receive the Fathers love directly from His heart to your heart, by soaking in His presence, you will know the love that has been freely poured out on each and every one of us. You will be an orphan no more.

Cinderella

Enslaved by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, she was beat, abused, and made to do all the nasty chores around the house. One day an invitation came to attend the princes ball.  The fairy godmother (Holy Spirit) changed Cinderella into a princess and away to the ball she went. She caught the princes eye, they danced, they fell in love with each other but suddenly the clock chimes began to ring and Cinderella dashed home as everything returned to a pumpkin except the slipper she dropped as she left. The prince searched all over the kingdom until he found the poor little wretch in rags. and behold the shoe did fit…Then they were married and rode of into the sunset and lived happily ever after. NOT…WHY?

Problem is because Cinderella had been so wounded by her life’s struggles she is not able to give the prince the love He deserves.

She had learned to survive in a cruel environment. She had learned never to trust anyone. She only knew of broken promises, lies, and how she was used selfishly by others. Her hopes were always crushed. She was brought up a slave so she continued to try desperately to please the King and prince by chopping wood for the fire place and doing things she thought would please Him. That is how she grew up.

That is what life does to people.

So when you hear about Jesus our prince coming to rescue us, we almost can’t believe it much less give Him the love and respect He deserves.

What is the remedy?

There needs to be a home coming. Like the prodical son we need to be taken into Fathers house (a safe place) where our wounded heart can learn that we are not a slave any more but a princess and that we are no longer orphans but sons of a wonderful and loving heavenly Father.

A safe place is where people notice you and are interested in what you have to say. It used to be that what you said was not received or you were told to shut up and sit down and be quiet.

Many times we can’t love others because we don’t love ourselves or we are afraid of betrayal. But God has a wonderful plan for your life from this day onward. We are going to a wedding where we are the bride and Jesus is our groom.

Jesus is looking for His bride that loves Him with all their heart, and who is holy and unblamable in His sight, because of the blood covenant he made with her.

Scripture says that we should confess our sins and pray for one another so that we may be healed.

We must be healed of all the wounds of the past. The only way to be set free is by becoming totally transparent. We must bring everything to the light out into the open. Let no evil come close to you. You are truly free when no matter what button the devil pushes, you refuse to respond. The devil looked at Jesus and could find nothing in Him. Right now we need to do some soul searching. Ask yourself, can the devil find any stronghold, hook, or unconfessed sin in you? If you think he can then repent, turn from your wicked ways and seek God's face...Whom the Son sets free is free indeed...

Finding Father

Salvation testimony:

I was a good Catholic, brain washed to the church and its religious programs and traditions. I didn’t know anything about the Word of God. All I knew was I wanted to try everything good or bad once and to live life to its fullest. I worked hard, played hard, cussed, and drank, but not to get drunk; rather to fit in with my friends who did the same. Little did I know but my world was coming to an end. Everything was going terribly wrong. I was doing everything my way and it wasn’t working. My wife was leaving me for another man. I came home from a business trip to find him in the house with my wife and children. My kids, now in their teens were rebellious. My business was going south. Everything that took 18 years to build working 70 hours a week seemed to be going into reverse. I was loosing control. I was told by my wife that I was a workaholic and she felt very alone. My excuse was that once I had enough money to send the kids to college we could relax and enjoy life. One day the sheriff brought the divorce papers to my office. I felt like my life was falling apart. I felt like committing suicide to get some relief from the pain.  I said to myself; Why? I awoke in the middle of the night full of fear. Who am I? What is this existence that I am in? What’s it all about? I started searching for some answers. I looked at every religion on the face of the earth and wound up coming to the conclusion that the God of the Bible was in fact the true God. A few days later I was watching a Jimmy Swaggart TV broadcast and with tears in my eyes and snot all over the place. I gave my heart to Jesus. I received Him into my heart and told Him that my way was not working and everything was falling apart and if He would help me out of this mess, I would serve Him the rest of my life. That was a very selfish reason but I prayed with JS and was reborn …Amen.

How many are in love with Jesus and are so glad that He has redeemed us from the judgment we deserved. How many have asked that the Holy Spirit to come and make His home in us. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus’ death on the cross and have received the Holy Spirit to become the temple of the Holy Spirit and He is our comforter, power, and abiding hope of glory…Amen. OK, so I need to ask at this point what is our hearts vision is of Father God? Jesus is the good guy who saves and heals and is our soon coming King and bridegroom. The Holy Spirit is our comforter and the power we need to walk the walk and many other things. 

Father God on the other hand has been portrayed as the big Judge in the sky. My view of Father God is that He wasn’t very pleased with me and if it were not for Jesus He would zap me. Maybe your view of the Father is one that precludes you from approaching Him directly because your view of Him is a big fog or because He is seen in the Old Testament as the big all powerful one who created everything and the one who brought the flood on the earth because of mans sinful nature. Well it is our desire to show scripturally the real loving heavenly Father and what He is really like.

Jn. 14: 6

Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” So after memorizing and quoting this scripture many times to evangelize; it finally hit me one day that Jesus is not the end of this walk we call Christianity but the beginning. If Jesus is the way…We must be going somewhere. Could we in truth be on a quest? Paul even said that he had not arrived yet, but was pressing on to the high calling to win the race set before him. We are going somewhere and if Jesus is the way. There must be a destination…That scripture also says that we cannot get to Father unless we go through the door through the Lamb of God who drank the cup of wrath that belonged to us, and who shed His blood for all mankind to redeem us and restore us to right relationship with His/Our Father who art in heaven…Amen? Jesus came to earth because Father said to Jesus; ‘I can’t live without them another moment…Will you do for them that which they cannot do for themselves so they can be restored back to me? I made them in My image and likeness above all My creation because I wanted to have a family and to have fellowship with them and to share everything that I am with them. Then I found that in Heb.1:3 that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. In fact Jesus came to reveal the Father to us. Jn.17:26-27. Jesus job is to show us God the Father who really, really loves us. What a revelation. Phillip says in Jn14:8, show us the Father…Jesus says, “He that has seen me has seen the Father.” So from my point of view everything that I loved about Jesus was also true of the Father…But my view of Father used to be I would go to Jesus for whatever I needed and He would go to the Father for me…In fact Jesus, fully man, subject to everything we have experienced in regards to living life on this earth but said that He did nothing apart from His loving Father. What a huge statement that we often overlook and just skip over. Jesus says that He didn’t say anything nor do anything but what My Father says or does. Then consistently, He would go off by Himself to pray or fellowship with His loving heavenly Father. So in fact it was the Father working through and with Jesus that healed the sick, raised the dead and loved us enough to die for us. Glory to God!

John 3:16. Father God so loved the world…

1Jn.4:8. God is love.

1Jn.4:16, God is love.

Father God is a lover looking for love, so he fashioned you.

Turn to Luke 15:11…We have all read the story of the prodigal son but maybe there is some hidden rhema we have yet to discover? I love this story because it shows me there is hope for everything. How many sons are in this story? How many say two? How many say three?

Let’s read…The father divides his wealth. I would have probably done something completely different, like go clean your room. What is this spoiled son really saying…I’m bored…I wish you were dead and I want my inheritance...NOW. So Father goes and divides his wealth and gives the son his money who promptly goes away to a far country a lives it up until he has gone through all his money…”a fool and his money are soon parted.” Vs 14-16. But he has made some good friends by spending some of his money on them, right? So he goes to one of them looking for a job. The friend relents and puts him (a Jew) in charge of his pigs. Some friends just don’t know how to help us. Then what happens…This spoiled son has nothing to eat but pig pods but no one would let him have any.

Looks like attitude adjustment time!

Looks like the spoiled son is being spoiled (humbled) by the world. Vs. 17-19. Then he starts thinking about his former life and the servants on Dads farm and how much better his servants have it than he in his present circumstances. So he starts rehearsing his coming home speech he will make to his father. He reasons that he could do the jobs they do and have it made…So he quits his pig job and heads home.

            Vs 20-24. Now, watch this…While yet a long way off the Father sees him. Why? The Father loves His son so much that He is longing to have his son back home and has probably been watching the road every day since he left…But today is the big day. Father runs to son, not son to Father, and throws himself on his son and kisses him. Vs 21. Son starts his speech but father interrupts and sends servants to bring the finest robe to put on him.

What would you and I have done? Probably we would have given him a hard job with many restrictions and made the son pay back every cent he took; but not our loving heavenly Father. In fact he gave this son a ring and a royal robe (this represented authority to buy and sell) also, slaves didn’t wear sandals only sons.  Father God is a lover looking for love, so he fashioned you!

Play the Fathers Love Letter CD and then soak in His Presence to Captured CD…

The Orphan Spirit

John 14:16 “I will not leave you as orphans but I will come to you.”

          What! Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit and zings in a statement that would leave most New Testament scholars in a tailspin. What is Jesus referring too? Clearly the apostles were not orphans because the bible talks about who their parents were, so what is Jesus referring too.

          Definition of an orphan: Someone who is fatherless. Someone who has no identity.

          Where is Father? In heaven? Since God is Love and God created heaven it must be a lovely place full of love especially since in Him we live and move and have our being. John 17 says to be in Him is to be in love. When believers die we will dwell in Fathers love forever.

          Now lets see if we can find out who the first orphans were. Jesus said I saw Satan fall like lightening. A battle that took place right after Satan rebelled being caught in the sin of pride. Do you realize that Satan was the first orphan and because of his disobedience he was kicked out of heaven (Gods house). Satan and all the rebels who followed him from their rebellion to now have no Father. Satan and his demons must know and feel a tremendeous loss in his heart of hearts because he is outside of Gods love for all eternity. Satans plan has always been to cause as many of Gods people to feel the same way. Abandoned and without hope. Hell is total separation from Gods love. God never created us to be outside of His love.

          Gen 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” What a picture of love. Adam awoke looking directly into his loving Fathers eyes. That is our true destiny to be able to look into our loving Fathers face. Can you see this picture from the angels point of view? It must have seemed like God was kissing Adam. Adams eyes flew open to behold his loving Fathers eyes of love. What an awesome moment to behold His loving Father in all His glory.

          Gen3:9-13, “And the Lord God said to the woman. What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate.” What does Eve do? She passes the blame to the serpent. The sin of rebelliousness and disobedience to a parent brings in a spirit of guilt and alienation to a person such that it makes that person want to run and hide. Sorry that is just the way we are built. This feeling of alienation or not being in right relationship with the parent is called an orphan spirit.

          At this time we need to point out 2 things. 1. Before their sin they both were called Adam. They were one and inseparable. After sin entered, there is now separation between the sexes. Adam names his wife Eve. Vs. 20. That is why God hates divorce. 2. Before sin entered they did not wear clothing. After sin they knew that they were naked. They felt shame and tried to hide and cover themselves.

But notice in vs 20 that a loving Father clothes them in spite of their disobedience.

          Raising 5 children myself I now realize that is why no one would own up to their disobedience. “Who broke the vase?” (not me was always the answer) They would blame someone else or sought to hide because of alienation and the orphan spirit that has been passed down from Adam & Eve.

          Gen 3:22-24 So God says to them; You must leave the garden lest you eat of the tree of Life and live forever. (And do what?) degenerate lower and lower until they became like the demons maybe even unredeemable? No, they must go out of the garden, but Adams loving Father had a wonderful plan to redeem him. Do you think Adam would go willingly to till the ground. No! So God with tears in His eyes drove them out and placed angels and a flaming sword to block re-entry by man until His plan of redemption could be fully implemented.

          When everything went wrong, our loving heavenly Father says, through Jesus. Jn 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans…I will come to you.” So Gods love cries out to us down through the ages. I will make for you a way of escape. He certainly tried for 4 thousand years by sending His words and 10 Commandments through Moses, David the king and the Prophets. For thousands of years God has been trying to show us that rebellion brings death.  What was His plan and purpose? God uses the old testament law of His word to bring us to repentance. The people would start to serve Him and then fall away bringing calamity on themselves throughout the Old Testament. These cycles went on until 2000 years ago when God so loved us that he sent us His only son Jesus to open the door or way back to the garden, to heaven. Jesus, fully man and fully God was the only one who could redeem us. John14:6. He said no one comes to the Father except through me. Only God could redeem us. Only in the form of sinful flesh could the stain of sin be taken away. Jesus overcame the world, the flesh and the devil to destroy Satans’ hold over us and redeem mankind. He became the spotless lamb of Fathers love and paid the debt for our sins in full to as many as will believe and receive Him as their Lord and Savior... Jesus is our way home to our loving heavenly Father.

While Jesus is the way home, there are many of us who have not found Jesus and are still living as orphans.

As orphans we have no significance, no inheritance, and no home. An orphan must fight for all that they can get. As an orphan we often think that everyone is against us. We have no safe place. We have no place of rest.

Websters describes a father as the person we get our self-worth or significance from. So if we don’t know our Father, we don’t know our significance and we keep living like an orphan. Even in the church, even if we have been saved 10 or 15 years, even if we have had wonderful parents. As orphans, we are not adopted, we are not paid for, if we are living that way. You see from the moment of our birth, things start to go wrong and the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy Gods plan. Especially in the areas where we misbelieve, misunderstand, and give back to the devil what God won for us on the cross. The devil is constantly looking for ways to deceive us. He wants you divided, he wants you to be in agreement with him. (not with Gods word) He wants you living like an orphan. How many have ever met an orphan? As orphans, we try to deal with life on our own terms. Generally speaking, orphans are very hard people. Satan does no want you living in the love and security of your loving heavenly Father.

When I got this revelation, I  began to question my whole life especially in the areas where I was behaving as an orphan.

I remember as a child, I had a desire to build forts and hideouts so that no one could find me. I tried to find places to hide that if someone were to break-in I would be safe. I was in fear and had no security.  I never felt safe. I gave up trying to please my Dad because he was so strict and demanding. I felt like I had to perform in order to be loved by him. I felt like leaving home (running away) especially if I got a bad report card at school.

Heb.12:7-9 Read…Orphans don’t like discipline and don’t receive it as love trying to help but think of it as condemnation or disapproval. Most orphans take correction as “You hate me.” And think people are against them.

Even as an adult, I found it difficult to trust people to help me. After all I could do things better than anyone else. I looked at everything in a negative vein as opposed to blessing them for caring. I used to blame everyone and everything for the way I was. The school I went to was probably the reason I didn’t have a good job. I would go into a fantacy world TV, to escape thinking about my inabilities. I blamed my parents, my teachers, everyone but my self for the way I was and for the circumstances and situations I got myself into. Even as a so-called Christian I had performance issues like fasting to get God to speak to me or setting my alarm for 4 in the morning so I could read my bible for an hour, pray for an hour, and still go to work. I was so driven to try to please God. God saw me wearing myself out and had pity when I discovered I didn’t have to do for God but just be the child of God He made me to be.

It was not until I was able to be real before God and man, that breakthrough finally came. In one meeting before about 100 people, I began to confess my sins, all of them before God and man. All the ugly, all the fleshly, all the rotton lies, the lust, the thievery, and bad habits poured out of me for what seemed an eternity. One brother came up to me afterward and said Jim I don’t know how you did it, I would never want anyone to know those things about me. 

Not long after, God came to me in a dream. He revealed himself to me as a loving heavenly Father who loved me just the way I was but cared enough about me not to leave me that way.

 I look back now and know there were times when the enemy wanted to kill me but God wouldn’t let him. I am a walking miracle as once I was in an auto accident and shattered my knee and broke my leg in 2 places. The doctors said I would never walk again. I had been very athletic in my youth and didn’t even consider that possibility. After 3 weeks in the hospital with metal pins holding my bones together I was released. They tried to roll me around in a wheel chair but I would not stay in it. The doctors said after about 2 months that they were very pleased with the way the bones were knitting and there may be a chance I could walk with crutches and gave me a pair with the warning not to over due it. At 7 months I was given a cane and told how swave and debonair I looked with the cane. About 2 years later at Life church here in Mobile during the praise and worship the Lord spoke out loud in my mind and said: Go to the alter, lay your cane down there and run around the church and show everyone what a healing God I am. I did and have never received a pain in my legs again. Not that the devil didn’t on cold and rainy morning try to put it back on me. But I have never received it and the Holy Spirit would rise up within me and I would command the devil to leave and never return.

The orphan spirit causes one to live like they don’t have a safe and secure place in the Fathers heart. He has no affirmation, no protection, no comfort, no belonging or affection. The orphan is self oriented, lonely, very few friends, and feels isolated. He is insecure and feels he must strive to achieve, and earn everything he gets in life. This easily leads to a life of anxiety, fear, and frustration. The orphan spirit is a spirit of slavery as opposed to a spirit of freedom.

Spirit of Sonship.

Definition: It is all about having a loving heart attitude of submission to authority and trusting Daddy to take care of you; instead of what you can do in your own strength. It is about having so much trust in your loving Daddy to bless you instead of having faith in what the devil can do to destroy you. Sons are so secure in Dad that they trust Him in every situation to bring them through and win the day. Sons have significance, faithfulness, loyalty, and are others oriented.

Go through the chart.