When Jesus shared the story of the prodigal son, all the Jewish people who heard Him would have been familiar with the condemnation and punishment (death by stoning) that the law specified for a stubborn, rebellious son (see Deut. 21:18–21). However, instead of the law they were familiar with, Jesus revealed the Father’s heart of grace and forgiveness in the new covenant. Hallelujah!
Did the son sin against his father? Yes, most definitely. But did the father heap guilt and condemnation on his son before he received his son? No, he did not. Did it matter to the father that his son’s intention for returning home was simply because he was hungry? No, it did not. When the prodigal son “was still a great way off,” his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his son’s neck and kissed him. What a wonderful picture of God’s heart of love!
This is an eyewitness account of what God the Father is like from Jesus Himself! See how He described God’s response to those who have sinned. How is it that the father saw his son even when he was still a great way off? That’s because the father had been waiting and longing for his son to return. He must have kept his eyes on the horizon daily, hoping that each day would be the day his beloved son returned home.
Beloved, can you see God’s heart of love for you even when you have failed Him? You just have to take one step toward God and your loving Daddy in heaven will run toward you with no condemnation. He wants to embrace you, kiss you, and lavish you with His love and blessings! He is waiting to clothe you with the robe of righteousness, put the signet ring of authority back in your hands, and shod your feet with the sandals of right standing. He wants to reinstate you, wash you, and throw a party because you came home!
Our God is a God who will run toward you with
no condemnation!
You can come boldly to God today and experience the intimate love of your heavenly Father in a deep and personal way as never before. I pray that this experience will heal, renew, restore, and transform you in a spectacular way because His love for you is nothing less than spectacular!
Today’s Thought
I can come boldly to God, my loving Daddy in heaven, and He will embrace me with no condemnation
.
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You for how Jesus unveiled Your immense love and heart of compassion and forgiveness for me. Open my eyes to see that no matter how many mistakes I may have made, I don’t have to be afraid to come to You. I am now and always Your beloved child, and I always have fellowship with You because of the finished work of Jesus. It blesses my heart to know that You are always waiting to embrace me, protect me, and provide for me because You are my loving Abba Father. Amen
.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”
G
ALATIANS
4:6
No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord
.
R
OMANS
8:39
NLT
Today’s Scripture
“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the L
ORD
Almighty.”
2 C
ORINTHIANS
6:18
P
erhaps as you read yesterday’s recounting of the parable of the prodigal son, you struggled in relating to God as your Father. I often see this struggle in people who never experienced the love of their earthly fathers. Their fathers were never around for them, or hurt them terribly. I was reminded of this when Lena, a lady from Washington, wrote to me after her husband, who had pastored a church for twenty years with her, walked out on the family and away from the ministry.
For years she prayed for God’s healing and restoration of the family, but after the divorce and her ex-husband’s subsequent death, her oldest son, Jay, went through a real crisis of faith. He told his mom that though he loved God, he hated the church. He also took to a lifestyle that revolved around women, booze, and drugs. It was clear that he was extremely wounded, and those vices were his way of medicating the pain and managing the struggle he had about his dad.
Then one day, Lena received her monthly gift from my ministry via a Christian television network that she supports. This was her reaction:
I thought, “Great…another book to read,” and tossed it on the table. Just then, the Lord spoke to me and told me to give Jay the book. I thought, “Are You crazy, Lord? He hates reading!” But I heard the Lord say again, “Give him the book to read!”
Although I was sure that he would never read the book, I knocked on his bedroom door, went in, and said, “Jay, this book came today and I was wondering if you want to read it. It is simple to read and I heard it’s a good book.” He took off his headphones, gave me a disgusted look, and said, “Sure.” He then took the book, tossed it on the bed, and went back to his video game. I walked out and said to the Lord, “He is not going to read it, but there, I gave it to him.”
Two days later, I took the mail in to Jay and he was lying on the bed reading the book. I almost passed out! A couple of days later, he was still reading. I could not believe it!
After a few days, Jay came into the living room and said to me, “Mom, I thought that God was not healing my back because I don’t live right, but God is going to heal me because He loves me!” And he told me he wanted to give the book to his friends, so I agreed to buy him six more to give away and one for myself
.
What an answer to my prayer! I know God has started a work in Jay’s heart, and I’m expecting Him to continue this work and do the same for my other children! It’s time for the prodigals to come home and the hearts of the fathers to turn to their children! God is so awesome!
Let’s cast aside our legalistic and distorted ideas about God we may have received from our own fathers. Take that one step toward your Daddy God even when you have failed and experience His embrace. He loves you and accepts you just as you are. He has no condemnation for you, but all the power to help you when you fail and feel defeated.
Today’s Thought
My Father in heaven has no condemnation for me, but all the love and power to help me when I fail and feel defeated
.
Today’s Prayer
Father, thank You for making me and calling me Your child. Change any wrong beliefs I have about You that have kept me in fear, guilt, and insecurity. Fill my heart every day with Your love. Thank You that You never demand perfection from me and that I can experience Your love even when I have failed. I believe that in Your love, I will find the joy, confidence, fulfillment, and freedom my heart longs for. Amen
.
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!…
1 J
OHN
3:1
NLT
…“The beloved of the L
ORD
shall dwell in safety by Him, who shelters him all the day long; and he shall dwell between His shoulders.”
D
EUTERONOMY
33:12
Today’s Scripture
“…for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”
M
ATTHEW
26:28
NLT
T
here was a time when I did not know what the main function of Jesus’ blood was or why it provided protection. I just covered everything with the blood of Jesus because I knew His blood protects us from the schemes of the devil. But the main reason His blood was shed was
for the forgiveness of all our sins
. It’s imperative that you understand this because it will give you the confidence to come before the throne of God boldly and see Him as a loving Father.
My friend, “the accuser” will come at various times to make you feel guilty. He will prosecute you for every one of your failures and make you feel unworthy to enter God’s presence. He will bring back every piece of dirty laundry, show you evidence after evidence of your failures, and condemn you for being a hypocrite. While you are trying to deal with stress and fear, the devil goes straight for the deepest root by using the law to heap guilt and condemnation on you. He knows that when you are under
condemnation
, fear, stress, and all kinds of sicknesses will follow, so he goes straight for the jugular.
What should you do then? You should kill condemnation at its very root and eradicate it from your life. No matter what the devil condemns you of, the truth is that the blood of Jesus has been shed for the forgiveness of all your sins. There is not a sin, not one iota of guilt or condemnation that the devil can throw at you today, that Jesus’ blood has not completely removed.
Iris, who lives in South Africa, has a testimony to share that demonstrates the liberating power of God’s gift of no condemnation. Growing up with alcoholic parents, Iris had suffered sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her father and became an alcoholic herself at age thirteen after her mother was killed in a car accident. Shortly after she was put in a children’s home at age fifteen, she started taking drugs and leading a promiscuous lifestyle. Later in life, she got married and had three children, but her marriage failed, ultimately leading her into a downward spiral of depression and ill health. By that time, she had been born again but still had no knowledge of the love and grace of God. Only when the Lord showed her what her root problem was did real healing begin to take place:
In church, I went through months of “healing” for my brokenness and yet I couldn’t get out of the ditch I was in. Then one day, sometime in 2011, I tuned in to your television broadcast on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and heard your message about how condemnation is the root of our problems. I listened really carefully and realized that what you said was true. Every problem in my life went back to condemnation. And when I understood that and received the gift of no condemnation from the Lord, I felt, for the first time, so FREE!
From then on, I have been watching your program every night. I am so much better physically, mentally, and spiritually. What years and years of being in church could not do for me, my Daddy God did in a short time by having me watch you on TBN and by my reading your daily devotionals. I can truly say every day is a blessing to me now because of the freedom I am experiencing in so many areas, and I just want to live life giving praise to my Daddy God every day for His words of life and grace that have healed my body, my heart, and my mind. My prayer is that He will give me the same anointing that is on you to impart His love, His favor, and His grace to others
.
What a wonderful testimony! My friend, receiving your freedom and breakthrough does not depend on how littered your past is with painful experiences or the mistakes you have made. Like Iris, when you receive Jesus’ grace, love, and life, you can receive the liberty and future you want to see. When you eradicate condemnation from your life, you begin to step into your freedom, healing, and breakthrough.
Beloved, for every failure in thought, word, or deed the enemy brings to your mind, receive this afresh today: there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Receiving this truth and being conscious of it every day will cause you to reign over any sin, addiction, depression, or challenge that is holding you captive. When Jesus died on the cross, all your failures were already condemned in His body. Today, you are free to live a victorious life not because of your obedience to the law, but because of your obedience of faith in Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
Today’s Thought
There is not a sin, not one iota of guilt or condemnation that the devil can throw at me today that Jesus’ blood has not completely removed
.
Today’s Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your perfect, sinless blood that was shed for the forgiveness of all my sins and failures, and the removal of all my shame. I know that I can do nothing to deserve Your love and blessings in my life. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, to see that Your blood covers me completely. I humbly believe that there is no condemnation for me, and that I’ve been set free and empowered by Your grace to reign over every sin, addiction, and depression. Amen
.
“But how can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I condemn those whom the L
ORD
has not condemned?”
N
UMBERS
23:8
NLT
But the L
ORD
will redeem those who serve him. No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned
.
P
SALM
34:22
NLT