Father's House Blog

In the last blog we looked at the three stages into true freedom, as seen in the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4.4-42. I called these three stages the In-Stage (where the woman is focused on her own need for healing from the father wound), the UP-Stage (where the woman begins to engage in intimate worship of the perfect Father) and the OUT-Stage (where the woman begins to give away to the lost what she’s received for herself, the Father’s love). Encountering Jesus at the well leads to this woman being set free. And free people set people free.

Last time I wrote that I would share the testimony of a woman called Nycolette. Her story gives us a great and graphic illustration of the way the Holy Spirit leads us through the three stages of IN, UP and OUT in the process of being set free.

Stage 1: THE IN-STAGE

Nycolette writes the following about her inner, father wound:

“I was left very bereft from an early age when my parent’s marriage broke down. I missed not having a dad.  I really began to miss him in my late teens and 20’s.  I worked in a vibrant buzzing office with girls whose dads would just pull up at lunchtimes to take their daughters to lunch - how I envied them.  A tinge of sadness filled me on my wedding day when he was not there to walk me down the aisle.  Although my two brothers stepped in on the day the aisle was not wide enough for all three of us so I ended up going solo with them a pace behind.  I carried the pain for many years and I found it difficult to understand and relate to our heavenly Father’s love as I could not equate having a father to anything good”.

Having written so honestly about her father wound, Nycolette now talks about a Father’s House day workshop we did at her church on the Father Heart of God, and the impact it had on her:

“Then a Fathers House team came to our church and shared about the Father’s heart and it changed my life.  I now understand how much God loves me and that I truly am his child - his daughter - and that he cares about everything I do. Even though my earthly father was absent, my Heavenly Father was there at every parent’s evening, every school play and every recital. I saw that he had brought gifts of friendship and love into my life that helped and did not harm me”.  

This is a really powerful example how an encounter with Jesus can bring the father wound to light and bring healing. As Nycolette confessed the father shaped void in her life, the Holy Spirit began to fill that cavity with the revelation of the Father she’d been waiting for all her life, the one whom Jesus called Abba, Father.

Stage 2: THE UP-STAGE

Having gone through the IN-STAGE, where her father wounds are exposed and healed, Nycolette now went into the UP-STAGE and began to see God as Abba, Father – as the One who loves us like no eartly father ever can. This initiated the UP-STAGE, a stage of falling in love with her Heavenly Daddy. Notice the intimacy of the language that Nycolette uses. This really is PROSKUNEO worship of the Father – worship that involves approaching Daddy in order to embrace him.

“For years I lived with rejection but now I truly was able to make peace with my past.  I was able to speak to my own father for the first time in 37 years and I realised that I didn’t need him anymore – my heavenly Father is more than enough.  When I get sad, disappointed and bruised by the world I know that I can crawl up into his lap and have him wrap me in His blanket of love. I picture myself holding a warm mug of hot chocolate whilst gently resting in the security of his loving arms, feeling safe. The teaching helped me to understand that my Father is all sufficient and supports and soothes me in a way that an earthly father cannot. I feel that I am his daughter and I finally belong to someone who truly loves me.”

Now that’s what I call intimate worship of Abba, Father!

Stage 3: THE OUT-STAGE:

But Nycolette’s journey to true freedom doesn’t end with worship. She takes the Father’s love OUT to those who have never known it. Having learned to walk in Abba Father’s love, she now gives it away, especially to the lost and the broken-hearted.
My wife Alie and I saw this very vividly when we revisited her church and showed a DVD of her testimony as part of the teaching in the main services. Nycolette was there that morning as were many hundreds of other people. She wrote to us at Father’s House the week afterwards to explain what had happened in the immediate aftermath of sharing her story that Sunday in church.

“Just a quick update, following the viewing of my testimony I was approached by several people wanting to share how it had touched their lives.  I was told that two people had decided to commit their lives to Christ once they started talking about it in the lounge after the service.  Later that day, I went to visit a friend who is also a member of our church and she had guests staying who had also been at the second service on Sunday.  A young girl (17) and her mom began to share with me how they had cried through the whole service and found the whole experience moving.  During our conversation it was clear that God was still at work and their tears began to flow.  At some point as others left to make refreshments the conversation became more drawn to where this young lady was going in her life.  As I shared and encouraged her it was evident that God had begun an amazing work in her heart and during the conversation she accepted Jesus and I was able to lead her in a prayer of salvation and she came to faith and relationship with Christ”.

This is a wonderful illustration of what I call the OUT-STAGE. Having been set free and fallen in love with the Father, Nycolette immediately gives the Father’s love away to those who need it. IN leads to UP and UP leads to OUT. Wholeness leads to Worship and Worship leads to Witness. Nycolette was healed for the harvest.

That’s a challenge to ALL of us!