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Pastor Stephanie
UNDERSTANDING THE DEEPER MEANING OF GOD'S NAME
"ABBAאבא FATHER" and how that affects us as sons and daughters of ABBA FATHER in CHRIST.
Behold Him, when we see Him, we are transformed. Today we are going to behold God in His most powerful name
Why God created Adam and Eve? Why God allowed them to be fruitful and multiply? Is because of His name Abba
In relation to man, in relation to humanity, who does God wants to be identified as?
How does He wants to be known by His people on this earth?
That is why Jesus came and die on this cross for your sin and my sin. It is because of this, Abba. This is how He wants to be known
MATTHEW 6:9-10 NIV
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, YOUR WILL be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
How should we pray?
Jesus said to His disciple, this is how we should pray. Our Father in heaven.
Jesus saw into His future, the day He will die for us on the cross and all the disciples will be able to call God Father. This Father is not the earthly father, He is our Father in heaven.
Jesus came to reveal man’s Father in heaven.
Listen with your heart. This message is not trying to understand what Abba means, this is about we catching in our spirit, who is God, Elohim, who is God, who is He to us.
Listen from your heart. Listen from your spirit. This revelation of God as Father, or Heavenly Father
Many of us grow up in this world, we know our Father as earthly father.
Father in heaven.
Jesus came to say we have a Father in heaven. This realm. Very few people has seen heaven in our physical eyes.
Where is this Father? He is in heaven, that is why we cannot see Him in our 5 senses.
Your Name is greatest! Yud Hei Vei Hei
We are His children. We take our father’s name, it means we came from our father. Now through Jesus Christ, we got His name! Our Father’s name. We are born from Him!
We want God’s kingdom to rule and reign in our lives
Let the truth of your kingdom reign in me!
Your glory and the life of your river flows!
What truth do you want? The truth of this world?
Your will be done! When we call God Father, this is what we want to happen.
Father has the final say, on earth as it is in heaven.
The will of God was done in His heaven.
Start with Father. Through Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross for us, He now has reconciled us back to the Father
MATTHEW 6:26 TPT
“Consider the BIRDS (of heaven) —do you think they worry about their existence?
They don’t plant or reap or store up food, yet your HEAVENLY FATHER provides them each with food.
Aren’t you much more valuable to your Father than they?
The birds of the air is the birds of heaven.
Birds live in the heavenly realm, that is why they don’t worry.
We have Heavenly Father living on the earthly realm and we worry.
Through Christ, Holy Spirit helps us to live in the heavenly realm. Everyday, day by day, like the birds
Heavenly Father, Father who is living in heaven.
We live our life by knowing this Heavenly Father
Some form of worry, whether big or small, still worry
Today when we receive the Lord, we are called believers. This means we believe.
MATTHEW 6:31-32 TPT
“So then, forsake your worries! Why would you say, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’
For that is what the UNBELIEVERS chase after.
Doesn’t your HEAVENLY FATHER already know the things your bodies require?
Believers believe
Unbelievers don’t believe
Unbelievers is chasing the things of the world
They worry about jobs, money, the basic necessities of life. This is what unbelievers are occupied with.
If your mind, 90% is occupied with, you are unbelieving believers.
God is the possessor of heaven and earth. El Elyon
The birds know they are flying in the heavenly.
Human being created by God does not realise this truth, that Heavenly Father who is above, He sees all our needs
My Heavenly Father knows what my body requires.
You have a Heavenly Father. He is the One who sent Jesus down
Father
ab ►
Strong's Concordance
ab: father
Original Word: אָב
Transliteration: ab
Phonetic Spelling: (awb)
Definition: father
In the original pictographic script,
the first letter is a picture of an ox.
As the ox is strong, the letter also has the meaning of strong.
The second letter is the picture of the tent or house where the family resides.
When combined, these letters form the meaning "the strength of the house."
When God is in the house, He is the strongest
We are not strong in our own will, we are strong in God’s will.
Man corrupted because of Adam’s sin.
Today people marry and enter a house.
God is the One who will hold the family together.
In Christ, all the characteristics will come out.
Strength in the home.
Think of God, Abba. He is the only strong one. That is where we need to be born again.
If we are strong on our own, we don’t need Jesus.
We need the heavenly strong one
He comes and dwell in us.
What Hebrew letter is in the heart?
Lamed in the house
JOHN 14:1-2 NKJV
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
The heart is the dwelling place
God wants to give us a place to dwell in the heaven.
Our hearts has to be born again. We have to have a new heart.
AHAB – HEBREW WORD FOR LOVE
157. aheb ►
Strong's Concordance
aheb: to love
Original Word: אָהַב
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: aheb
Phonetic Spelling: (aw-hab')
Definition: to love
In your heart, only one God and one Saviour
God wants to dwell
A picture of heart, a picture of home
Love has heart inside
We can only love up to a certain extent
It takes a lot to love your enemy, this is called human love
Eternal unconditional love of the Father
The natural love is without the last hei
Abraham was called father when he had no children, that is why miracle happened when his name was changed from father to father of many.
There is no family if it is not start with a father (physically in this earth)
That is why beauty of the heavenly birth.
The deeper meaning of Abba
This is a story of someone in Tel Aviv in 2007:-
"Washing my hands in the restroom, I overheard an exchange between a Jewish father and his son.
You should know that they both knew English and Hebrew.
The father said to his son (in English), “When I ask you to do something, I want you to call me Abba.”
Hearing this, I was surprised by three things:
That he was speaking in English and Hebrew in the same breath.
That he was using an everyday experience for child training
(good for him!).
Most people think Abba means “Daddy,” but that’s not quite right.
“Daddy” doesn’t have the bite of Abba.
It’s personal, which is part of the meaning, but that’s not the whole story.
Abba doesn’t mean “Daddy.”
Abba doesn’t mean “Dad.”
Abba means “Father, I will obey you.”
Most people think Abba simply means having an intimate relationship with your father, but there are actually two elements, not just one.
The two elements of Abba are:-
INTIMACY
OBEDIENCE
It is not the law’s obedience
First intimacy with God
It’s the obedience part that we miss with equating it to just “Daddy.”
Back to real life
The Jewish father-and-son exchange I witnessed in Tel Aviv revealed both elements:
The son was struggling to follow his father’s instructions as they washed his hands together (he was a small boy, by the way!).
As they spoke, you could tell they were close in relationship by the feel of trust they had.
Yet the father was teaching his son to say Abba because it meant more than just closeness.
Abba for that dad primary meant authority that commands obedience.
The close connection was just part and parcel for the obedience.
Father do not provoke the children to anger, the renewal of the mind to not obstruct the new characteristic of the spirit to come forth
The father here speaks of authority
Our Father loves us and He has the authority to correct
If you don’t love someone, you don’t have the authority to correct
It commands obedience
We today obey not because we have to, but because of the close intimate relationship with the Father
Abba is more like the English “Sir” than “Daddy.”
Abba is not merely about intimacy;
it’s also about authority.
Abba is a term of endearment, intimacy, and close relationship,
on the one hand.
And obedience on the other hand.
All these cannot happen without Christ
We look at God and let Him change our life
“Daddy” is an inadequate translation
It’s both intimacy and obedience, so neither “Sir” nor “Daddy” are adequate translations.
2 Aleph in the word Abba
Intimacy
We just want to follow Him and do what He says
The true meaning of Abba is “Father, I will obey you.”
Both elements must be present:
Only a child can use it (intimacy)
Only an obedient child can use it (obedience)
Both elements must be present, only a child can call
Only you have the right to call Father when you are His child
If we call God Abba, we are His child. He give us the right to call Him Father
It is used only three times in the New Testament—
And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”
MARK 14:36 NKJV
ROMANS 8:15 NKJV
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
GALATIANS 4:6 NKJV
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
MARK 14:35-36 NKJV
He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him.
And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.
Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”
Abba is heart language.
But Abba is not just a feeling word, but also a discipleship word.
Jesus’ use of “Abba”
Both elements are present in Mark’s account of Jesus’ passionate plea to God (Mark 14:35–36)
So close to the Father to the point of obedience
Jesus has a will of His own, and He could choose whether to obey or not, to go to the cross for you and me.
We choose. God gave us free choice.
Some people knows God all their lives the intimate part.
There will be others who know Him like Jesus, who will surrender His will to God.
Our lives will change, from baby to sonship
It is not a feeling word.
It is a discipleship word. The disciples don’t go by feeling.
We have been trained
In lives, we don’t do everything by feeling, even in our physical life. In the realm of 5 senses, we can also overrule over our body over earthly matters.
Discipline your body. We have the ability to discipline our body.
The people who are more discipline becomes more successful in the world.
The power in Abba. The Aleph. We call forth the strong One to come out. Not my will but yours be done.
We call Him Abba
Holy Spirit is bringing us into greater things.
This supernatural power of God is happening in each one of us
Where God is leading us here.
God put us here is to bring us closer to God
He is our Father, and will work supernaturally in our lives
He will overcome all our fleshly desires
It is not by force. It is out of intimacy
The supernatural power from Abba - power!
Aleph power
He does not ask us to churn out power to serve Him
We call Him Abba everyday
This is where supernatural power is released in our spirit
Intimacy.
Jesus is in a trying time in the Garden of Gethsemani, so he withdraws to be alone with God in prayer.
This is an intimate experience with the Father.
An obedient heart.
The substance of Jesus’ prayer that begins with Abba expresses a willingness to obey.
The babies grow. Come feed and grow with milk.
Abba will give us second Aleph. Give us the power to choose to obey Him
The obedience part, this is intimate experience with the Father
Feast are appointed time.
God has given us this appointed 3 days - Holy Spirit Power Feast
We put aside all the earthly concern, and He refreshes us and empower us
We will never forget the experience
We are going into the world with the power of God, with the fire of God.
An obedience heart
If you don’t want to go through, He will take away.
But the intimacy causes us to say, not by my will but Yours be done. Surrendering of our will to His will.
Jesus surely prayed in Aramaic, and John Mark, as translator of Jesus’ prayer in Mark 14, wanted to make sure that the reader understood the nuance of this Aramaic word.
Jesus was connecting intimately with the Father and also expressing his submission to God.
That’s why he prayed, “Abba.”
Paul’s use of “Abba”
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” ROMANS 8:13-15 NKJV
Intimacy Abba, involves submission
First, notice the similarity with Jesus’ prayer: The Aramaic term (Abba) followed by the Greek term (pater, Greek for “Father”).
Paul uses Abba for a specific purpose, which is to express both intimacy and an obedient heart.
Intimacy.
Notice what motivates this prayer: It’s the “Spirit of sonship” which stands in opposition to “fear,” we learn from this passage.
That is, we have a close relationship with God, as close as Father to child.
An obedient heart.
Yet, it’s not just about the INTIMACY;
it’s also about the heart of OBEDIENCE in the one who cries Abba.
Heartbeat, where your passion comes from
Speak from your heart
Heart is the most intimate part that don’t tell lies
This is the place of intimacy and obedience heart
God doesn’t want us to love Him from our head but from our heart.
In the immediately preceding verses—Romans 8:12–13—we see that our cry of “Abba, Father” is an act of submission of our will:
“Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.
And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”
Abba is a word that is so powerful that brings forth intimacy as well as obedience
Now we can call Him Abba Father.
Paul’s point here is not merely the intimacy of being God’s child; it’s that, but it’s also embedded in an impetus—an imperative—to obey, to “put to death the misdeeds of the body.”
Putting to death the work of the flesh
The context of Abba in Romans 8 is about obedience in suffering, just as it was in Mark 14.
GALATIANS 4:6
Paul writes, “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our HEARTS, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’”
We are again called children of God in this passage, like with Romans 8, but the context here suggests a contrast between obedient slaves and obedient sons (Gal. 4:1–11 for more context).
And we are to be obedient children in this passage: “But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles?
Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?” (Gal. 4:9).
We are heirs with responsibility—obedient to God, not to the rules of man.
Father God is our real Father, with our new nature.
Obedient children use “Abba” when they pray.
So, praying “Abba” means “Father, I will obey you.”
Serving God as slave and serving God as son
We receive the spirit of sonship
God as our Abba
We will serve as son
GENESIS 22:7-8 NKJV
But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.”
Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.”
So the two of them went together.
the patriarch Isaac and his relationship of obedience to Abraham:
He was facing impending suffering through sacrificial death like Jesus was (Mark 14)
He was a son of promise like we are (Rom. 8, Gal. 4)
Isaac is in the same situation as Jesus and us.
Isaac’s carrying the bundle of wood, the flint, and the knife up Mt. Moriah with his father, Abraham.
He doesn’t use the Aramaic word Abba because he doesn’t speak Aramaic.
He’s a Hebrew before Hebrews became Jews, who became Jewish exiles.
The story comes to us in Hebrew, but when he says “Father,” he means Abba, which is “Father, I will obey.”
Even though he doesn’t use the word, he elicits the meaning.
Abraham means father. Abraham’s blessings, Abba’s blessings
Look to God and not the concern of this world
We hear nothing out of Isaac’s mouth the whole time—that is, until he says, “Father!” (Gen. 22:7).
He had made it all the way from the land of the Philistines to Mt. Moriah—a three-day journey—without questioning anything.
But he started to wonder: The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
Abraham didn’t really give him an answer (at least a clear answer), yet Isaac continued in good faith, intimate father-son connection
(he continued up the mountain when the servants were left at the bottom of the mountain), and obedience to his father.
We know the posture of Isaac’s heart was to obey because that’s exactly what he does!
He follows through with his father’s apparently cockamamie plan to kill him.
We know, of course, that Abraham was being obedient, too—which is probably how Isaac learned obedience.
The plan, as it turns out, was not crazy but from God.
Isaac’s “Father” on Mt. Moriah is the same “Abba, Father” that Jesus cried—also from Mt. Moriah.
Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
MATTHEW 27:45-46 NKJV
Abraham offered up Isaac on Mount Moriah, the exact same Mount where 2,000 years later the Father offered up His Son to die for us!
Genesis 22:2: “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the Land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering, on one of the Mountains (of Moriah) which I will tell you of.”
They were both questioning, in their own way, the plan of their father, yet because of their intimate, trusting relationship with their father, they were also both willing to obey.
Intimacy.
And obedience.
Abba.
That’s the biblical meaning of “Abba,” which is a far richer meaning than mere “Daddy.”
When someone say, “Abba means Daddy,” because while it surely includes the intimacy that people mean by “Daddy,” it goes beyond that.
Abba means, “Father, I will obey you.”
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