Unless you become like little children and spend time with your Father, you will never get to the place of the fullness of his promise in your life. He wants to be a father to you.

But let’s be honest: some of you do not know the blessing of having a loving, affirming, attentive father. Some of you may not have even had a father in your home. Perhaps you grew up without one, or you grew up with a bad one.

Or maybe, like me, you grew up with a good one who, in some areas of his life—perhaps because of his past and relationship with his father—was not able to express emotions and affirmation. These painful realities create problems in our lives, deep in our souls.

The restoration God intends for you begins in earnest when you are reconciled to him as your Father.

I had an interesting discussion with an Orthodox Jewish man in the Old City of Jerusalem who often speaks to Christian groups. I told him that one of the things I am convinced God wants to do in this Hebraic Renewal movement is to restore the intimacy that comes with understanding him as Father.

Do you know how this devout man reacted? He rejoiced. You see, he knows, from a biblical point of view, how vital fathers are and how God is seen in Judaism fundamentally as a father and a teacher, not as a judge and lawgiver.

A Hebraic approach to understanding Scripture constantly draws our attention to the centrality of God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a father to his children. That was part of the core message that Yeshua, God’s Son, brought to us. He revealed the Father to us in a depth and in a dimension neither we nor his fellow Jewish brethren had ever seen before.

Nobody knows a father like a son. When the Son came, he uniquely revealed the Father. Not only did he reveal Him, but by his sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection, he made it possible for us to come into an intimate relationship with YHWH as our Father.

We who were far off have been brought near. God himself says, in the Hebrew Scriptures cited by Paul, that he wants to come and make his dwelling among us. “I want to walk with you. I want to be a father to you and you to be sons and daughters to me.”

Walking by the Spirit is a loving relationship that leads to greater intimacy with the Father.

An essential text for rightly understanding the Jewish roots of Spirit-living is I Corinthians 14:1: Pursue love and earnestly desire the things of the Spirit [spiritual gifts]. These two things go together. We pursue love by desiring God’s Spirit. To come into intimacy with him is to be changed. That change happens in his presence, by His Spirit, according to His Word.

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God (2 Cor 7:1). You and I are set apart by God’s Spirit. It is the heart of your Father to bring holiness to its maturity, to its completion, to its perfection in you by His Spirit.

Now, Christian people have very diverse backgrounds regarding their understanding of the work of the Spirit. Some of you may know a great deal about the healing presence of the Holy Spirit in your lives, but perhaps you don’t know that much about the Hebraic backgrounds of the New Testament or the Jewishness of Jesus.

On the other hand, there are some of you who know a whole lot about the language and culture of Jesus but know very little about the healing presence of the Spirit in your own life. Add to that the amount of different teaching and behaviors we have been exposed to and you can see the challenge we face.

I would say to you that the challenge is our opportunity. Jesus died to give us the Father’s Spirit. It is our birthright! Is it any wonder the evil one will do anything to keep us from paying attention to this vital truth?

I have three suggestions going forward.

(1) Take a deep breath, hold it in, now breathe… out … slowly and relax. Everything will be okay; this is God’s business, and His kingdom will advance. We are under the authority of Jesus of Nazareth and he is a good shepherd.

(2) Know that the supreme virtue is humility. Messiah was sent—as prophesied by Isaiah—to bring the good news to the humble, to the poor in spirit. Authentic humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking about yourself less.

How do you do that? By thinking more about God. As we explore the biblical revelation of Spirit outpouring, listen patiently, seek to receive, and above all, be slow to react defensively. The solution to misuse is not disuse; it is proper use.

I encourage you to be patient and understand that, at the end of the day, it’s not all about you, as wonderful as you are. It is about your Father. Humility is typically used in Scripture reflexively as a verb, meaning we are to humble ourselves. Humility is not one of the fruits of the Spirit, it is a choice.

As we walk through this study together, please remember that I do not have all the answers figured out. In my role as a teacher, I am, first and foremost, a learner. May we all have the humility of a child so that we can enter into the fullness of his kingdom.

(3) Finally, let’s go back to our formative text in I Corinthians 14:1, Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. I like the ESV translation pursue love because it captures the idea of exertion and intention. Paul says, “Pursue love” (love is action-oriented as he so eloquently expounded in chapter 13) “energetically and with intention.”

And, Paul continues, earnestly desire spiritual gifts. The terminology he uses can be literally translated as “the spirituals” or “the things of the Spirit.” It is not spiritual gifts, per se, that Paul has in view here, it is the things of the Spirit.

The Spirit manifests in an inexhaustible diversity of ways. For now, it is important not to limit Paul’s discussion to spiritual gifts. He is imploring us to eagerly desire the Spirit and the things of the Spirit.

Redirect your desire. That is where Paul wants us we start.

Instead of being focused on self and things that pertain to self, focus on God and things that pertain to the Spirit; that in itself is a work of his Spirit. It is a good desire. It is good to have a holy passion for the things of God. It is good to pray, “Father, give me greater desire for you and for the things of the Spirit to the glory of our Lord Jesus.”