Living in your Sonship..

​ Last week, we learned about Sonship. It is a huge topic that rarely gets addressed. This week I want to talk about how to apply it to our lives. Before we get into that, let me just clarify why we say Sons and not “sons” or “sons and daughters.” It really is important. God calls all of us, both male and female, Sons. I am using a capital S for extra emphasis. I am not talking about gender. In the Hebrew world view/culture, only sons inherit anything. We are heirs of God. So Sons are heirs. But to God, we all are heirs. Therefore, all are Sons.
I want to run a scenario by you to teach a little about what we are really talking about. I think we can all relate to it, regardless of the specificity of the example. I’d like you to recall being 7 or 8 years old. If you were like me, that was the age I realized people were making fun of me. Another boy in class made fun of everyone, and I was laughing. Suddenly, I was his target, making fun of the way I laughed. I had two choices: 1) become introverted, with low self-esteem, afraid to laugh out loud anymore, or 2) harden my heart and determine to never get hurt again by becoming a fighter. Throughout my life, I chose both many times. You most likely did, too, or you just chose one or the other. Both are the thoughts of orphans. Both are the result of us taking things into our own hands and falling short of the whole purpose of Jesus dying: to set us free. If we aren’t aware of this truth, then we allow things to shift us and mold us and change us. Eventually we believe that we are the way we act. “I am not a loving person,” “I am a fighter”, “I am confrontational”, etc. We actually believe the lies, that we are depraved and vile. The circumstances of our lives have made us who we are… but it is all just lies.
No matter how you respond in this way it is not the response of a Son. Thankfully, Christ comes into our lives, shows us the Father, and we start a relationship with Him. Holy Spirit clothes us to heal all our wounds, and to transform our minds, but we have to allow that. The Way, the Truth, and the Life comes and shows us who He is and who we are. Here, in the knowledge of Him and our Sonship, we can release the pains of our past and walk in newness of life. We can be free, just as He promised we would be. Last week, I mentioned that we say God hates sin. If He hates sin, can’t be around it, and can’t stand it, how then did He become it? But why did He become sin? He did it in order that a trade could happen. He became sin so we could be righteous. Sons know they are righteous, not because they did good things, or because they didn’t do bad things. They know they are Sons because they know who their Father is.
Someday, we will grasp this fully. As for now, we rely on Holy Spirit to reveal it and walk with us. Every time a circumstance is trying you, and you find yourself losing godly character, being affected by that stuff, you need to change your perspective. You (me, all of us) can lose your perspective so fast. But if God really is Lord of your life, if you truly know He is LORD, then when all that stuff comes at you, you just keep your eyes on Him and those things just don’t matter.
So, let’s finish with you back at 8 years old. Your friends start laughing at you, making fun of you for something, and it hurts. But now, you know you’re a Son of God, and He is LORD… so you smile and laugh with them because you realize they don’t know what they are doing, they are not your enemy, and they don’t realize they are Sons. You take a deep breath of Truth, and you thank God that He loves us all so much. You feel peace instead of turmoil, joy instead of pain, and realize you are free from the things of this world. You’ve learned how to live in your Sonship.

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