Thanks to you and so many of our other Operation Blessing partners, I was honoured to have visited Mozambique recently. We provided food and aid relief to over 2 000 of the over 700,000 displaced people that have fled the violence in the northern regions, travelling 400km+ on foot to reach safety. Almost 70% of these people were women and children, many of whom had lost husbands, fathers, brothers in brutal attacks on rural villages in the Cabo Delgado region of northern Mozambique.
Meeting these people that had seen and experienced things that my mind could not even comprehend, hit my heart deeply and I was struck to my core by the despair and sheer hopelessness that so many of these innocent people carried on their faces. It was almost like a white flag being waved in surrender; with nothing left to hold onto, at the end of their tether.
The truth is… there is still hope for them!
In this region of Mozambique, around 90% of the people are Muslim and don’t believe in Jesus as their Saviour and God as their Father. Yet, in the midst of all the chaos of them fleeing, in the midst of their fear and pain, the Father sees them, He knows them, and He sends them help. Before many of them can recognise their Father God for who He truly is, He is there already. Pouring out His love. Revealing His Father’s heart for them through the help and love that so many people and organisations from around the world were, and still are, showing them.
What a deep revelation of the Father that experience was for me. My own spiritual adoption into sonship was so much more about Him who had called me His “son” than about me having done or earned the right to be called a son. No newborn baby has ever done anything to earn their “daughter” or “son”-ship, yet their father would move heaven and earth for them the second they lock eyes with them. How much more does the Father desire to do that for me and for you? How much deeper is His affection for us?
Encountering Intimacy with Our Father
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!””
Romans 8:15
The passage in Romans 8 doesn’t end there, though. Paul reveals to us that there is more to this story of sonship for all of us. I believe God shows us that with His Holy Spirit and we get to experience a tiny glimpse of what heaven is going to be like, as we encounter the intimacy of our God and we can’t help but cry “Abba, Father”!
True sonship is not about our position or our ranking as sons and daughters, but rather about the depth of our relationship with the Father that we are invited into. The communion of our hearts with our Abba is brought to life as we open ourselves up to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I wonder how differently tomorrow would look for us all if we decided to let ourselves journey into the reality of our adoption into the family of our Abba, Father.
Written by Clayten Gouws, Operation Blessing Manager – Southern Africa.
