Partake in His Nature

"...as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature..."  2 Peter 1:3-4

When I was growing up, my father taught me, corrected me, disciplined me, played with me, enabled me, etc.  With each year came a new level of relationship with him and a new level of responsibility with me.  As a toddler, I would fall and he would pick me up, laughing with me the whole time.  As a boy in elementary school, I would fall and he'd say, "Get up, boy.  What's wrong with you?"  He had taught me how to walk and expected me to do it - I grew  up to different levels of relationship with him.

Throughout these years he taught me obedience and the difference between right & wrong.  I got a lot of whippin's when I was young, but they decreased with age.  As I grew older, he enabled me to make more decisions by myself, even if they were wrong, because I was becoming a self-functioning human.  As I grew older, He trusted me more and more to years of his teaching and modeling.

Through many times of joy and discipline alike, and some rocky college years, I have grown to become my father's friend.  Apart from my wife, I consider him my closest friend.  He no longer has to put me over his knee or ground me from going out on Saturday.  I now partake fully of his nature.  He will often call me and we'll talk about what's going on in our lives and he'll tell me about what he spoke on recently, only to find that I wrote nearly the same thing in my journal the other day.  I partake of his nature because he raised me up in it so that I now truly know him at his core.  I grew strong in him.  I practiced his ways.  I am my father's likeness.

My father modeled for me the relationship between God the Father and His son or daughter.  Bill Johnson says, "There is a point in our relationship with God where obedience is no longer the primary issue."  This is because I have grown up in and adopted the Father's nature.  For a time, our Father teaches us, disciplines us, and picks us up when we fall down.  And our obedience enables us to grow and take on more responsibility.  But as I grow, I learn to walk rather than have Him carry me on His shoulders.  My whippin's decrease in number.  I talk on my own out of His language that He has taught me (See 1 Corinthians 13:11).  We talk to each other, not as Father to naive boy, but to a grown man, mature in mind and spirit.  Our conversations flow easily because we are of the same mind.  He raises me up in His ways so that I may partake with Him in His divine nature.

In John 15:15 Jesus says, "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you."

As we grow in Christ we begin to partake in His nature, so that we know what our Heavenly Father is doing on earth, and we are able to co-labor with Him in His Kingdom purposes.  I am no longer a child wondering why my Father is making me do something I don't like.  I am no longer a teenager fussin' because I can't go out and do whatever I want with whomever I want on Saturday night.  My nature is now that of my Father's.  My desires co-labor with His desires - there is no conflict and we both are well pleased and fulfilled.  There is no untruths or disobedience hindering our conversations.  I am not ashamed before Him because of uncovered disobedience.  I withhold nothing from Him and He withholds nothing from me.  We speak as the closest of friends. 

I always honor Him as Father, just as I always honor the authority of my earthly father.  I am always learning from Him, just as I still seek the wisdom and direction from my earthly father.  The difference now is that He can trust me to partake in His nature because I have fulfilled my obedience to Him.  He has raised me up in His ways and I partake in His Nature.  Let the Lord train you and raise you up as a father trains a son, so that you may fully partake in the divine nature of Jesus Christ.