Have you ever had someone completely misunderstand you? I remember when I first started dating my wife, Cheree. I was absolutely smitten; I thought she was the best thing in the world (and I still do!). But not everyone was on board. Some people, for their own reasons, didn’t want our relationship to happen. They started whispering things to her, painting a picture of me that was far from the truth. They ran my name through the mud, asking her, “How can you possibly like that guy? You need to kick him to the curb.” But here’s the beautiful thing: as we spent time together, Cheree saw the truth for herself. She’d say, “You’re nothing like what those people are saying.” Praise God for that!
That experience is a powerful metaphor for our relationship with God, the Father. There are so many lies and misrepresentations out there, whispered by the world, by our past experiences, and even by religious spirits. These whispers paint a picture of a distant, angry, or disappointed Father. But what if the person you encounter when you spend time with Him is nothing like the rumors you’ve heard? What if the whole point of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection was to reintroduce you to the Father you were always meant to know and love? It’s time to set aside the gossip and have a personal encounter.
The original blueprint: who is God the Father, really?
To understand who God the Father truly is, we don’t need to look at complicated theology or human opinion. We can go right back to the beginning, to the very first pages of Scripture. In the story of creation in Genesis, we see the Father’s heart and nature on full display, long before it was distorted by sin and misunderstanding. The first thing we see is that He is a creative genius. Look around. From the frost on a Pennsylvania morning to the intricate systems that allow deer to give birth to more deer and fish to more fish, we see an incredible tapestry of life. He didn’t just make a static diorama; He kicked off destinies, lifelines, and systems that would continue for thousands of generations. And when it came to humanity, He did something radical. He said, “Let us make man in our image” (Gen 1:26). He put His own thumbprint, His very nature, onto His creation. The Bible says He looked at everything He made and called it “good.” This is crucial: He doesn’t make mistakes. If you are sitting here reading this, you are not a mistake. You are not so powerful that you can mess up the plan of a creative genius. You are His masterpiece, the way He made you to be.
A heart that blesses and empowers
After creating mankind, what was the Father’s very first interaction with them? Did He give them a long list of rules? Did He stand back with a critical eye? No. The Bible says in Genesis 1:28, “Then God blessed them.” His first desire was to bless. And this isn’t the casual “bless you” we say after a sneeze or the southern USA “oh, bless your heart.” When God blesses, it’s an act of commissioning. He imparts authority, purpose, and destiny. He shared a part of His own authority as ruler of the universe and said, “I’m giving this to you. Have dominion. Take care of this world.” He set them in action, spoke destiny over them, and gave them an assignment. This reveals the Father’s heart: He is not a hoarder of power but a generous giver of purpose. He wants to empower His children, not control them. He sees us, His creation, and His heart overflows with a desire to bless us and set us on a path of meaningful existence.
The very source of life and presence
Beyond creativity and blessing, we see that the Father is fundamentally a life-giver. Genesis 2:7 paints a stunning picture: “[T]he 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.” The very buzz of the electrons in your system, the vitality that makes you alive, comes directly from Him. It’s His breath in our lungs. Paul echoes this in Acts 17:25, stating that God gives to all “life, breath, and all things.” Your existence today is a direct gift from the life-giver. And He doesn’t just give life and walk away. He is inherently present. In Genesis 3:8, even after Adam and Eve disobeyed, we read that they “heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” The fact they recognized the sound means this was a regular occurrence. This wasn’t a distant deity watching from the clouds; this was a Father who enjoyed strolling with His children, who desired fellowship and relationship. This is the original blueprint: a creative, blessing, life-giving, and present Father.
The whispers of doubt: unmasking the four big lies
If that is the true nature of the Father, where did the other picture come from? The one of the harsh, distant, and disappointed God? Jesus identifies the source in John 8:44, calling the devil “a liar and the father of lies.” Interestingly, the enemy’s strategy isn’t to invent new concepts but to distort the beautiful truth of who God is. He takes the original blueprint and twists it into a monstrous caricature. The first lie directly attacks God’s creative genius: the whisper that says He makes mistakes, and you are one of them. It tells you that you’re a distortion, flawed beyond repair. But Satan cannot create; he can only distort what God has already declared “very good.” The second lie twists His nature as a blesser. It claims God isn’t a blesser; He’s a curser. This lie makes people live in constant fear of God’s judgment, always worried they’ve done something to earn a curse, forgetting that in Genesis, God never cursed mankind—He cursed the serpent and the ground for man’s sake. The enemies of God come under His curse, and His children come under His discipline to restore them to Himself.
The distortion of life and presence
The third lie is perhaps the most painful. It says the Father is not a life-giver but a life-taker. It’s the lie that blames God for tragedy, sickness, and death. It’s a very pervasive lie. When a catastrophic event happens, what do insurance companies call it? An “act of God.” This is a profound lie from the enemy, designed to make us fear and resent the very one who breathed life into us. The fourth lie attacks His presence. It paints our Heavenly Father as distant, out of touch, and uninvolved in the details of our lives. It’s the deist god, the clockmaker who wound up the universe and walked away. This lie isolates us, making us feel alone in our struggles. But Scripture and history are filled with stories of people encountering His overwhelming glory and presence. He is not distant; He invites us into relationship, into walking with Him, just as He did in the garden. These four lies form the foundation of a spirit of religion that keeps us from the intimate, loving relationship we were created for.
From a distance to daddy: the life-changing encounter
So how do we move past the lies and experience the truth? It happens through a personal encounter. Look at the story of Moses in Exodus 33. He is desperate for more of God and boldly asks, “Please, show me your glory.” God’s response is breathtaking. He says, “I will make all my goodness pass before you.” The first thing God reveals in His glory is His goodness. He is fundamentally, thoroughly, and completely good. He knows we can’t handle the fullness of His holiness in our imperfect state—it would obliterate us. So, in His goodness, He protects Moses in the cleft of the rock, showing him what he can handle. His heart is always to reveal as much of Himself as we can receive. This goodness is not a passive quality; it’s an active, powerful force.
I had my own overwhelming encounter with His presence when I was about 13. I was at the front of a service, responding to an altar call, and before anyone even prayed for me, I started losing my balance. I thought, “What is going on here?” I just decided to worship, and suddenly I was lost in this incredible encounter with the Holy Spirit. The next thing I knew, from somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard the sound of crashing chairs. When I came to, I discovered I had fallen over and had taken out several rows of chairs—just plowed right through them without feeling a thing. I was simply in the presence of His glory. That was the moment I was truly baptized in the Holy Spirit, filled to overflowing. It’s in those moments that God moves from a concept in a book to a living, breathing, overwhelming reality. That’s the encounter He wants for all of us.
Breaking the father mold: your past doesn’t define your future with him
The baggage we carry from our earthly fathers is one of the biggest roadblocks to knowing God the Father as He is. As a pastor, I see it all the time. People unconsciously project their experiences with their human dad onto the Heavenly Father. If your earthly father was distant and disengaged, you may struggle to believe God is present and involved. If your father was harsh, critical, and never satisfied, you may assume God sees you the same way, always finding fault.
I want to speak to the dads out there. It’s up to us, men and fathers, to break these cycles. I looked at my own life, my dad’s life, and my grandfather’s life, and I saw a pattern. I knew I didn’t want to pass that on. We have an opportunity to introduce our children and those we mentor not to our own perfection, but to the perfect Heavenly Father we are on a journey with.
And for all of us, we have a choice. Will we continue to see God through the broken lens given to us by the “father of lies”? Or will we allow His Word to define Him for us? Isaiah 44:2 says, “Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you. . .” He made you, so He knows who you are. He formed you, so He knows why you exist. And He promises to help you. Your Heavenly Father is not disengaged, critical, or harsh towards those who come to Him through Christ. It’s time to let go of the distorted image and embrace the truth of the One who loves you perfectly.
Your personal invitation is waiting
Why is getting this right so important? Because everything Jesus did was to bring us back into this relationship with the Father. That’s where we find our true identity and sense of value. You are not defined by your job, your successes, your failures, or what others say about you. You are defined by the One who dreamed of you before the foundation of the world and wrote out good works for you to walk in. Secondly, we need an accurate understanding of the Father, because we are called to represent Him well in the earth. Just as Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), the world should be able to look at us and get a glimpse of what the Father is really like. When they encounter us, they should walk away saying, “You’re not like what people say. God is way better than I thought He was.”
This is the journey. Salvation isn’t the finish line; it’s the starting gate. It’s the moment you are brought back into the family, back into relationship with the One who knows you and loves you. It’s the beginning of walking with Him, reflecting His creative genius, blessing others, breathing life into dead situations, and being present for people. It’s the beautiful reality of the Spirit of adoption crying out from inside of us, “Abba, Father.” Daddy (Rom. 8:15). It’s a term of both intimacy and obedience. If you’ve never taken that step, or if you thought it was just about a prayer to avoid hell, there is so much more for you. There is a relationship with a good, good Father waiting for you. The invitation is open. It’s time to come home.
Listen to the whole message here:
https://youtu.be/8KDH9bsWv3I
