Banner

Link to Home page Information about Sam Information on contacts Connecting up with Spiritual Fathers Read Sam's Newsletter Join the Mailing List and receive Sam's Newsletter Subscribe to our Podcasts
Download Teachings in text files Download teachings in Audio files Download teachings in video files Information about financial support Download Sam's teachings in text, audio and video formats Information for Sam's Books

The New Season
Being About Father's Business

Studio Session 134
Sam Soleyn
12/19/2007



Now in this new season, God is clearly restoring the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. In this new season, reconciliation is occurring between the household of God and the father; the land will not be destroyed. From reconciliation and from the restoring of God's household, mature sons will arise who will handle the affairs of the Fathers house in such a way that the prayer of the LORD Jesus Christ that we be one, will actually be seen in the earth as being fulfilled. And the nations will seek us out to understand how we are successful when they are not; what is the essence of our success in governing ourselves.

From the point where we have begun to discuss the new season to how we are to engage this season through the restoration of spiritual fathers, we've come now to the discussion of the process by which spiritual sons are made into mature sons. John, recording the advent of Jesus, said in John chapter 1 verse 14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as the only begotton of the Father, full of grace and truth.” He goes on to say, “He came unto His own,” (meaning He came to the Jews), “and His own received Him not but as many as receive Him, to them He gives the power to become the sons of God.”

Now we understood from an earlier broadcast that you are a son the moment you are born of the Spirit. So when he says, “You're given the power to become a son of God,” he's not ordaining a different time frame in which you are born into the household of God, he's merely acknowledging that there is a different level of sonship, the sonship that in a mature way, handles the affairs of the Fathers house. Because as Isaiah said in Isaiah 9, “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” The intention of God is to give sons into the earth, but the reference there to sons is a reference to someone who represents the Father in an appropriate and mature fashion. Perfection is not the goal, nor is equality the goal; maturity is the goal and exact representation is the goal.

So it says that Jesus did not count it robbery to be considered the equal of God, but He emptied Himself and became a servant and so in the role of a servant, was the exact representation of the Father. So the goal is not, the goal for Jesus was not, equality with the Father; He did not think it a thing to be grasped, although He was equal with the Father. He did not consider His purpose for being to establish His equality with the Father, that enabled Him to take on the form of a servant because a servant is by definition one who lowers himself beneath the position of the one whom he serves. So the goal of our faith is not to seek equality with Christ, the goal of our faith is to seek to exactly represent Him in the earth, just as Jesus did not consider equality a thing to be grasped; it was not the goal of His existence, He did not seek to exalt Himself to the place of equality, He sought to confine Himself to the purpose of His mission which was to exactly represent the Father.

So when we speak of Jesus being the only begotten Son, one of the most significant components is that the Son would be an exact representation of the Father, “If you've seen Me,” He said, “you have seen the Father because the Father and I are one.” And His maturity in sonship that allowed Him to represent the Father so exactly was that He did nothing of Himself, although He could act independently of God because He was the equal of God, yet He confined Himself to exact representation which required Him to forgo anything that would even seem to be an alternative to what God himself was doing. In all of this, He is defining sonship for us. The goal of our being born again is not for us to remain as children, the goal of our being born again is to be raised to the maturity where we are able to exactly represent the LORD. So when the Scriptures speak of 'huios' it is speaking of exact representation, that we are able, we are capable, we're competent to, exactly represent the LORD in the earth.

In another series I spoke about Ambassadors of Christ and this was the thing that was at the heart of what I was saying and I spoke of how exact representation allows one to do what Jesus would do if He were here but in fact He's choosing to be here through us and to act as Himself, through us. But for our purposes in this broadcast, our intention now is to talk more about how we grow from being a child who is born, to a son who is given.

When a child is born, that stage of sonship (and that child is a son) that state of sonship is referred to variously as the infancy of the child. There are two terms that capture that state of being for a new born; one is 'nepios' and the other is 'padeion'. And they both refer to from birth up to the stage of potty training, you're born into the family and you've survived childhood. Now there is another stage that is called 'teknon', that's a son also but it's an interesting kind of son. The term applies when the son has gone through the bar mitzvah, the recognition that he's now a male in the household who is beginning the journey to adulthood, to the fullness of his adulthood where he becomes the exact representation. Now a 'teknon', after his presentation at the bar mitzvah recites his obligations as one coming to adulthood, setting forth in his own words that he knows what is required of him from this stage onward throughout the rest of his life. Until this stage, he's deemed not accountable for these obligations that come with being and moving on toward maturity.

And historically, after the bar mitzvah, the father would then enroll the son as an apprentice in the family's business. So if the father were a cobbler, a maker of shoes, or a blacksmith, or a tent maker, or someone who bought and sold livestock, or was in the business of buying olive oil or olives; then the son would begin to learn the skill and would begin to learn the trade at the age of 12. So at the age of 12 he would be starting to learn his fathers business. And then when he was 30, after having spent about 18 years learning the business of the father, it would be nearly the time for the father to at least scale down his involvement in the day to day operations of the business. So at the age of 30, the father would present the son to his creditors, to his debtors, to his suppliers, to his clients and he would say, “This is my son, this is my son.” There would be a presentation of his role now as the one who represents the father and he would be saying, “From now on you're going to have to deal with my son; he is my exact representation, he is me, to you. Whatever he tells you, that is what I'll be saying. You cannot have another deal with me that contravenes what he does or says, not without his consent; this is my son.” This was the process.

Now observe this in the life of Jesus. He's born as a child, Simeon and Anna saw Him at the temple when He was but a baby; He was 8 or 9 days old and He was brought up to the temple to be, as it were, dedicated or presented. And they gloried in the fact that God's promise to them that they would not die until they had seen Emmanuel, the One who represented God with us who would save His people from their sins, they rejoiced. When the Son was born, the angels from the realms of glory came and sang in a heavenly chorus announcing that peace had come to the earth in fulfillment of what the prophecy of Isaiah declared when it said, “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon His shoulders and of the increase of His government and of peace there would be no end. Clearly the government was not established when the Child was born, only when the Son was given.

Now we find Him at the age of 12, He's come to the temple to be enrolled, to be counted among the adults of the nation or among the sons of a nation to begin the process that would lead to His fulfilling His destiny. Now the most fascinating story of His life, one of the most fascinating of these stories is when He comes to the temple at the age of 12 and for a long time this has remained more or less a mystery until now, we can see what it was. He comes to the temple, He's dedicated and He should be going home with His parents, with Mary and Joseph but they can't find Him. So Mary backtracks and you remember the story, Mary finds Him in the temple in Jerusalem, they lived in Bethlehem. Now Bethlehem is over the hill from Jerusalem, Bethlehem is not a considerably long way away, it's probably 8 or 10 miles from Jerusalem; so it's not that far away.

So she goes back to find Him, finds Him in the temple, there He is questioning the doctors of the law. Now here is how our inability to understand what is written causes us to conclude things that are not accurate about the word. Historically we have thought that He was in the temple arguing with the doctors of the law; He wasn't arguing with them, He was questioning them. A questioning is not the same as an argument. We have the idea, here was this little Christian fellow arguing with the Jews, trying to prove to them how wrong they were. That's not at all what was happening. You see, He was at the age of being able to be an apprentice and He needed to find out about His Father and He needed to find out about Himself because it was time for Him to take up the families business. And the people who understood who His Father was, and the people who understood who He was, were the doctors of the law in the temple. So He went to question them, not to argue with them but to learn from them, according to the Scriptures, who His Father was and who He was because it was time for Him to be about His Fathers business. His father was not Joseph, that was just His father in the flesh; His Father was the LORD God.

So when Mary finds Him and asks Him “Why have you been thus with us, why didn't you come home with us, why have You lagged back here?” What was His answer? His answer was: “I must be about My Fathers business.” If His father were a seller of olives, He would have been about His fathers business, if His father were a tender of sheep this was the age when He should learn about His fathers business, if His father were a blacksmith or a cloth maker this would be the time He would have to learn His fathers business. So it was time for Him to be about His Fathers business because this was the time that He should enter the apprenticeship of what the Father did, to be a member of the household of His Father. With an eye toward being able, at the age of 30, to represent the Father as an exact representation.

So what do we know about Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30? He has been about His Fathers business. What is He doing? He is learning obedience by the things that He suffered, that's why that scripture now becomes important; you learn obedience by the things you suffer. If He were just a carpenters son, learning the business of carpentry, what is it to be learned by suffering? I mean you don't learn anything by having a nail driven through your finger or a sharp instrument cutting deeply into your flesh; that's not redemptive. But if you're about to represent God the Father, then obeying the Father in everything would come with much suffering because you would have to put to death in your flesh, in the members of your body, the desires that were against the will of the Father. So He learned obedience by the things He suffered. And what else is said of Him? “And He grew in favor with God and man.” He progressed well in learning the family's business. And then at the age of 30 what happens? From heaven a Voice comes, after John baptized Him, and as the Holy Spirit descends upon Him as a dove, then from heaven the Voice says, “This is My beloved Son.” A Child was born but now a Son was being given. Given to whom? Given to the world. On the mountain of transfiguration sometime after this, the message would be completely different, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to Him.” This was said to Peter, James and John when Peter wanted to celebrate and commemorate the moment of seeing the glorified presentation of Jesus Christ, together with Moses and Elijah by building three booths, three tabernacles, on the mountain and God corrected him by saying, “No, no, no, I'm not speaking now as I did before when I spoke to the fathers by the prophets. In these days now, I am speaking by My Son; listen to Him.” This is the Father saying about the Son, “This is My beloved Son. This is the One who represents Me, now listen to Him. Dealing with Him, you will deal with Me.”

So Jesus mapped out His own course by saying, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” Why has God ordained this process by which to present His sons? The answer is, the original plan of God for mankind in creation, was to have the earth see God as He is. When God said to Adam, “Have dominion and rule.” The intention of God in this grant of authority was that Adam should arrange the affairs of the earth in a manner that reflected the heavenly kingdom. The earth was supposed to be a type and a shadow, to the inhabitants of the earth, by which they would see God, though He is the invisible God and though heaven is invisible from the viewpoint of earth, yet the earth would see the type and the shadow of the Almighty God through the sons who in their earthly estate would exactly represent the Father; they would be the exact representation of the Father.

Here we're not concerned in the least about equality...religious people always bring up the question, “Are you saying that when you have a destiny in which you are meant to represent the things of God and you hear God and you talk to God, are saying that somehow you are an equal with God?” And the answer is: that is rubbish, of course we are not the equal of God. Who among us knows all things? Who among us in omniscient, all knowing? Who among us is omnipotent, all powerful? Who among us is everlasting, except by the Spirit of God in fellowship with our spirits? So it's absurd to consider that equality is the goal. In this life we will die, so in this life we are not the equals of God; God is a Spirit, we are spirits in flesh. But that's not an excuse, that doesn't set aside what is in fact true. And that is that the Spirit of God, bearing testimony with our spirits that we are the sons of God, informs us in the earth, trains us and shapes us in the earth that we might become exact representations of God the Father and of the LORD Jesus Christ, having the same attitude that was in Christ, having the same character that Christ displayed to us that the Father had.

So we are after exact representation, not equality. What is to come in the future ages, that is what is to come. But let us cross the threshold now as we understand that the goal of our faith is not equality with God, but the goal of our faith is exact representation of the nature and the character of God. You're born as a child, you're given as a son. A son is a reference to the mature state of a child who has grown up, who has been apprenticed to the Fathers business, who has learned the Fathers business in the toe of a spiritual father who has brought them to maturity and who now, because they've been brought to maturity, these spiritual sons are now able, like the fathers who brought them to the LORD and brought them to maturity, they're able to handle the authority and the rule of the LORD Jesus Christ that's given to them in measures commensurate with their maturity.


That is the goal of this thing and at the end of it, what Adam lost is given back to us; Adam lost the right to live in creation as a ruler, indeed he lost the right to live in creation as THE ruler because he was given dominion of the whole earth. In Christ, we are restored to all that was lost through Adam. Adam was the first son chronologically; Christ is the Last Son chronologically in the earth. But indeed Christ was the first Son because God anticipated that Adam....God knew that Adam would sin, so before He made Adam He made a propitiation, He made Someone who would die in substitution for Adam and all that Adam inaugurated and all that we who are the sons of Adam, did. The Last, then, was the First, and the First was the Last. Jesus was the first Son who was ready to come when Adam, the latter of the two sons, when Adam failed and fell. Coming in a later time, the First Son came to rescue the last son, but in chronology He came as the Last Son to redeem the first son from his folly and his fall.

In Adam we all die, in Christ we're all made alive again unto God so that what God inaugurated when He made the human race, may fully come about, namely He was creating sons for His glory. And when the age concludes, all creation is waiting for the revelation of the mature sons of God. This is the season now where the sons are being brought from immaturity to maturity. The methodology by which this is to be accomplished is the methodology of mature sons, fathers in the LORD, patriarchs of the faith, who will restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. The good new is, such a time has come.

I'm Sam Soleyn, God bless you, I'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.