The power of genetics is happening right before your eyes. You can deny it or try and beat it all you want, but eventually, we all begin to look more and more like our parents. This is the expected outcome of growing older. Here’s what is also true: You have the potential to grow up and look like your Heavenly Father. In appearance and attitude, we become what we model ourselves on, and in the same way, we can become versions of our Earthly parents; by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can become more and more like Jesus.
Key Takeaway
You are no longer "just a sinner saved by grace". You have been given the power through the Holy Spirit to imitate your Heavenly Father. Mature, grow up, take responsibility, and you will look like your Father.
You have the potential to grow up and look like your Heavenly Father.
The power of genetics is happening right before your eyes. You are going to grow older, and the natural outcome is that you look like your parents. we also model and imitate them, so in large part, you're just like them.
In this collection, we have learned that we are born again sons and daughters of a perfect Heavenly Father. We want His blessing. We've acknowledged that the gap is caused when there is fatherlessness or the blessing is not given. God fills the gap. We can reverse the curse of our family. Through Jesus, we can change the outcome for our family for generations.
We can grow up and look like our Heavenly Father.
Ephesians 5:1- Be imitators of God. That's the expectation. Is God setting the bar so high so He can sit back and laugh at us? Or is it a supernatural possibility? The reason we can do this is because we are dearly loved children.
Ways To Shift Our Thinking
1.There has to be an awakening in your life to who you are and whose you are.
You are a miracle of God. There are 3 billion characters in your genetic code. No one else has the same DNA. In Genesis 1:27 it says you were created in His own image, He made them male and female. The enemy is constantly chipping away at this. He wants to convince you that you are incidental, but you are the furthest thing from it.
2 Corinthians 5:16—we regard everyone from a worldly point of view, but we are born of the Spirit of God. The born again are a new creation, the old is gone, and the new have come. This only happens if you are in Christ, in faith born again.
God wants you to wake up. You are born of Spirit (spiritual) and of water (natural, flesh, human).
2 Peter 1:3—This is your story. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness. He has given us a way out of the trap of the human gene pool. There are promises that allow us to participate in the divine nature. You have God's DNA in you. You can imitate your Heavenly Father.
How does God see you? As able and equipped, a new creation.
2.You have to accept that with the blessing comes the responsibility of growing up.
Get a vision, get stronger, get in the word, and take responsibility. Be a loved adult who loves kids so that they grow up to be loved adults.
You cannot separate being loved and taking responsibility. You don't want God's reputation in your sphere to be, "Here's my dearly loved child; they are 12 years along in the faith, and they still can't dress themselves." It's time to grow up, open the Word, and tap into the power of who God is.
Ephesians 5:2—Live a life of love; walk it out
verse 3—walk in holiness, purity
verse 8—walk in light
verse 15—walk in wisdom, don't be foolish
verse 16—walk in the Spirit
Ephesians 5:1 says here is who I am, Ephesians 5:2-16 says here is how I walk it out.
3.You adopt a lifestyle modeled after our Heavenly Father.
Get in the word, watch what He does in it, renew your mind, attempt to do what you see your Father do, and repeat. This doesn't happen overnight.
When you see God in Scripture, you get a glimpse of where you're going.
Ephesians 4:21-24- this is discipleship, the daily and weekly journey that trains you to see what direction you are going and how things are going to progress.
You want to be able to get into the meat of the Word and think like, talk like, act like, give like, and walk like your Father. That is who you are. Anything less than that is a lie IF you're in Christ.
If you're not in Christ, it doesn't matter because you're dead. But thanks be to God that Jesus, grace, and mercy came to make us alive with the gift of His life sacrificed for us.
Discussion Questions
If we end up looking like our earthly parents are we grow and mature, is it really possible to model and look like our Heavenly Father in the same way?
Read Ephesians 5:1. What does it say? Where is our identity in that verse?
How does being a dearly loved child impact your every day? Does it at all?
From a scientific standpoint, what is unique about the way you have been created?
From a spiritual standpoint, what separates us from the rest of creation? See Genesis 1:27 and 2 Corinthians 5:16.
We need an awakening to who we are if we are in Christ. According to 2 Peter 1:3, what have we been promised?
Louie said you cannot separate being loved and taking responsibility. As we have been given the blessing, how can we take responsibility in growing up? What can we do?
Read Ephesians 5:2-16; in what ways can we walk out our responsibility of being a child of God?
What is the process we must repeat over and over to model our life after our Heavenly Father?
Read Ephesians 4:21-24. This is discipleship. Are you being discipled and are you discipling others?
Scripture References
