Your Beloved Identity

There’s a message that has shaped my life deeply over the years. It’s a message the Lord marked me with years ago and I’ve carried it ever since. It’s the message of our beloved identity as children of God. Not symbolically, but truly. Actually. Adopted into His family. Welcomed into a relationship with our Father.

I want to share the key concepts with you over the next three blogs and let me say this from the start: this isn’t just another teaching. This is foundational and life-altering. I didn’t always understand that. For a long time, I taught almost solely about the fire of God, revival, and repentance. I preached with urgency but missed the critical anchor of the love of God. I thought the message of God’s love was basic, something we understand from Sunday school as children.

I had been in ministry ten years before I was ever asked to consider the Father heart of God. I remember it clearly. I was leading a young adult internship and one of the leaders said, "Will you teach on the Father's heart?" I thought, I’ve never taught that before. I didn’t even know where to begin. So I started studying. I pulled every resource I could find. I went through scripture looking for any glimpse into the nature of God as Father.

And something happened.

As I prepared to teach, that message started to do something in me. It began to settle my heart. It softened places that hadn’t been touched deeply by God’s love. It rewired the way I related to God. I stood in front of those interns and preached the Father heart of God for the first time.

And the room wept.

That moment marked me. I knew this wasn’t a one-time sermon. This was a message God was entrusting to me. Something I was meant to carry for the rest of my life.

That’s why I want to share it with you now. If you’ve heard of God’s love as a Father dozens of times or if you’re new to this message I want to encourage you to lean in and draw on the revelation of God’s love for you.

Read slowly 1 John 3:1.

"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God"

Read it one more time.

These are the words of the apostle John. The one who laid his head on Jesus’ chest at the Last Supper. He was known as the beloved disciple. Now older he was writing to the Church from a deep place of intimacy with the Father. And still, after years of walking with Jesus, he can’t get over it. He is stunned. He’s saying, “Behold what manner of love this is. Look at this. This love is overwhelming.”

That word behold carries weight. It is not a casual glance. It is stop everything and pay attention. It is awe. Wonder. Reverence. And that same response should still rise up in us today.

Let me ask you. When was the last time the love of God moved your heart? When was the last time you stopped your busy life and sat in the revelation of the Father’s love for you? When was the last time you were stunned by the reality that you are not just forgiven but chosen, adopted, and cherished?

This is more than a theological truth. It is a family reality. The Father calls us His own. He brings us close. The Father doesn’t need more servants. He has ten thousand times ten thousand angels to do His bidding. The Father wants a family, and He wants you in that family. He wants you to experientially know your beloved identity as His child.

And the model of that love is found in how He loves Jesus. Jesus said it clearly in John 17:23, “You have loved them, even as you have loved Me.”

Let this truth strike your heart: the Father’s love for Jesus is the same as the love He has for you. You are loved with the same intensity. The same delight. The same joy. You are not just accepted. You are delighted in.

So today I invite you to behold. Behold the love the Father has given us that we should be called the children of God.

Let the truth of your adoption move you again. Ask the Holy Spirit to awaken wonder in your heart. Because this is where everything begins: with a revelation of your beloved identity. You are a beloved child of God.