ARE WE OUR FATHER?
Man desires so intently to be God, he will formulate all sorts of ideas to convince himself that he is God. The primary machine for this is realization. This realization, or perhaps presumption, comes partly from knowing that the Spirit of Christ is within, and if people are one with Christ who is one with God, then, by their reasoning, they must be God. One scripture even says to think it not robbery to be equal with God Philippians 2:6. Yet, with only a small amount of unbiased research will reveal an equalizing factor. In effect, this verse simply says of Jesus, who was already in the form of God did not think a usurping thought to be equal with God. He did not grasp after it. He did not name it. He did not claim it. He did not try to prove or convince anyone who He was--not even Himself. Even so, was He His Father?
Let us note the natural and learn a valuable lesson, as pertaining to whether we are our God or not. My friend, Preston Eby, and I were discussing this point and he related the following thought, which says if very well.
In the natural, a son and daughter are 100% of their parents. Being from their root and branch, they are everything their father and mother are. The son and daughter carry every gene and chromosome of their parents. They can look like them, act like them, and even think like them, and it is the same with each and every child of God. Their essence is their Father's essence. Having been born of the Spirit and the Word, they are also the very substance of God their Father and Heavenly Jerusalem their Mother.
Let us assume that the son and daughter come to the revelation that they have within themselves both their mother and father. With this they begin to reason: "Since we have everything in us that is in our parents, then let us start recognizing our mother and father in ourselves. With this understanding, we will no longer need to honor our mother and father out there. We will honor them in a much closer way, in ourselves. Therefore," the sister may say to her brother, "When I see you, I see our father, and when you see me, you see our mother. And if we are alone, we can look into ourselves and see both, and from within we can honor them by honoring ourselves. Since our substance is everything Mom and Dad are, we should no longer have the need to look to them for anything; for we are in fact our own father and our own mother. Our DNA will prove it!"
Well, even if they would try this, it would only last until the kids tried to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, and it is the same with us as being the sons of God. We are everything that God our Father is. We are of His substance. If we were anything else, we would be bastards. When I see you, I can truthfully say that I see our Father, and when you see me, hopefully, you see our Father. Likewise, in gatherings around the world, we see our Father in so many things and in so many people; but if we should turn to our brothers and sisters and worshiped our Father in them, we would turn our focus from Him to ourselves, and the true Bread from heaven would not be given. It would be our own carnal husks of self-aggrandizement with which we would be filled. A table spread with such pride might make us carnally fat; but we would starve in the Spirit and be of little use in the Kingdom of God.
Some today make claims of being the I AM, or THE CHRIST, and very often it is out of a self-propelled spirit of grandeur. With such a spirit, they miss the mark by a wide margin and become clouds without rain. Others, I am sure, are merely being blown about by the wind of those empty clouds. The latter, no doubt, misunderstand spiritual truths. Whichever is the case, pride or ignorance, please let us be sure to know that although we may be one with our Father and one with Christ--we are not our Father! Despite the fact we find Him in each of us--we are still not Him; and even though we may be in His very image--it does not make us Him. We can be everything He is, do everything He does, manifest godliness at all time, and we can exercise all His authority as it is given to us--but we will never be Him! We will forever have God as our Father, and we will always be His sons and daughters--but not HIM!
You will not offend me by saying, "My Father and I are one, I AM in the Father, and the Father in me," or "I AM who I am in my Father"; but I will be very concerned if I hear, "I AM God My Father," and especially if you teach others the same.
Elwin R. Roach