Jesus had a clear understanding of Fatherhood. He made so much progress in three and a half years because He had so much understanding of the realm of Fatherhood. It is His journey in the last three and a half years of His life that is presently being unveiled to us.
The epistle of Paul is the unveiling of how God raised Jesus to become Christ. Christ is a father in the holy place. He is a father that holds the entrance into the Kingdom. Through Christ men will have access to enter into the Kingdom of God. It is clear that one cannot have the Kingdom if he/she has not been made a father.
There are different levels in the realm of Fatherhood which play different roles in the covenant or promise. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all fathers who played different roles regarding the promise; no one can talk about the promise without mentioning their names. The children of Israel had a different revelation of the Father who revealed Himself as the “I am, that I am” (Exo 3:14).
The "I am" has different levels. It is a journey of different phases that culminate at ending up in God. The highest level of the "I am" is the covenant of the Almighty. The Almighty is the expression of the highest stature of Fatherhood. The essence of the Almighty is to make one attain the stature that can bear fruitfulness. The nature of the Almighty is what brings forth the promise child. The Almighty led Abraham to the point where he could bring forth a son.
The essence of Fatherhood is to beget sons and daughters for God. These sons and daughters are the kind that the father can receive to Himself. Faith becomes precious when it is tried.
Precious promises are needed for a man to escape corruption that is in the world. This corruption is the kind that destroys the soul and its lust. The forces that engineer this world show that men are not ordinary; they have journeyed with lust and have become mad.
The issue of loving the world is in different cadres. Anyone who loves this world will not possess the Love of the father. It took a while to confirm what was inside Abraham whether it was a love for Isaac his son or a love for God. As Abraham was journeying with God, God was working in Him and changing his status within the Fatherhood dimension. This is why it is important to identify which sphere of Fatherhood a man has arrived at.
A man who has gained entrance into the Kingdom is not just a child but a father. The conversion to being a child is a fatherly stature in the spirit. We would not arrive at the promise of God if we have not received the promise of the Lord and of the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:16-18). If a man does not access the promises He cannot have the final promise (2 Pet. 1:4). There are promises or inheritance that a man has to come into before he can come into God’s ultimate promise of rest (Heb. 4:1). God’s promise of rest is salvation.
Those who are coming towards the promise do not come uncertainly but have a promise in mind that they have come to access. We need to receive a kind of grace to come into abundance for the purpose of approaching the promise (2 Pet. 1:8). There is a mark that is being watched out for so that we can gain access. The quality of life that lies ahead requires exceptional standards that must be met.
The veil ahead is a major separation between man and God. The separation is so great that priests (men who have access into all the terrain of the holy place) are separated from the most holy place and cannot tell of the sacred things that go on in there.
The purpose of the New Testament is to provide an abundance of grace unlike any other that was available in the Old Testament. As we journey with God we will continue to have access to more grace. There is need for the hope of glory that purifies to make sure that men do not forget the process that purged them from their sins (2 Pet. 1:9). If a man does not have that hope in him he would not purify himself and his old sins would return (1 John 3:3). This is why the stature of Christ is needed in the soul to be able to see this hope and to avoid blindness.
The place of making the calling and election sure is the place of abounding (2 Pet. 1:8-10). A man who has attained this has attained to righteousness and peace and is reigning in life. It is from that realm that a man would be received and be welcomed into the things beyond the veil. It is great victory to break through into that realm of fathers of the vine. The vine is an entity of the most holy. The vine and olive trees are entities of the land of promise. The olive and vine trees are characterized by oil and fruitfulness respectively unlike the figs which are defined by their sweetness.
To be fruitful in the knowledge of a thing is the ability to fully comprehend it. There is an evident fruit that full knowledge leaves with a man. We must be fruitful enough to relate with Jesus as a father and interact with Him as such. We must come to a point where we fully understand Jesus as the son of God and can boldly say that we know Him who is true (1 John 5:20). We also ought to be able to see the father that is in Him and not just acknowledge that there is a father in Him (John 14:9).
It is our various strengths of comprehension that defines who we are. The words that the Father spoke to Jesus worked in Him and influenced His judgements afterwards (John 12:50). We are all supposed to grow in grace because it is our growth that will determine what we will become.
We are supposed to come and partake of a particular communion. Partaking is not just a participation but it also connotes inheriting some measure of a thing. The life of the vine is supposed to reach throughout all of its branches. The vine is a tree of Fatherhood; a tree of fruitfulness. The tree of Christ also has its own fruit (Gal. 5:22-24). The fruit of the spirit is a product of walking in the law of Christ which is a result of having the spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9).
The end of abiding is to bring forth much fruit (John 15:5). The wine of the vine is the wine that the Father desires to drink. Therefore, it must be a very pure and strong wine for it to be regarded as God’s planting. A man has to journey to the point of abiding to escape corruptible by breaking into the realm of the incorruptible. The Father of our Lord Jesus is a tree of much fruit and is only glorified or made manifest by those who bear much fruit (John 15:8).
There are phases of the Father’s manifestation (stages of fruitfulness) which come before the Father is glorified (John 15:1-11). These stages include fruitfulness, more fruit and much fruit. It is a branch that has borne more fruit that will afterwards be pruned or purged to be able to bear much fruit. This purging is a work of the incorruptible seed and is different from the purging of Christ.
The essence of the inheritance is to purge. The incorruptible word has its levels of dealings (1 Pet. 1:4). The one who is reserved in heaven is the Son of God who is made higher than the heavens (Heb. 7:26). He has the nature of being harmless and undefiled. The nature of bearing much fruit so that the Father might be glorified is produced by stages of purging. These divine thoughts open men to cutting covenants that do not fade away.
It was after taking the communion that Jesus made a journey towards the mount of Olives (Matt. 26:30). That communion was necessary for Him to gain access into the next realm.
The new wine is supposed to raise children who have lost identity with this present world (Psa. 128:3). The life of man has always been confined to the present. The essence of the breaking away from the present is to raise up children of the vine. No one can purify himself of this present on his own. He has to be shaken for the things which can be shaken to be removed (Heb. 12:26-28).
Therefore, Jesus must disconnect us from our various cups and lead us to a point of taking His own cup and receiving His own baptism (Matt. 20:23). Every one of us are going to be led to the point where we would bear much fruit and the Father would be glorified.