Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
Why You Need God: Six Essential Reasons
What happens when your earthly father experiences leave you with a distorted view of fatherhood? How does this affect your ability to connect with your Heavenly Father?
In this heartfelt exploration of divine fatherhood, I share personal reflections about my own father—a man of few words who prepared me for life's challenges by pushing me beyond comfort zones. Though my experience was largely positive, I acknowledge that many listeners may have grown up with absent, inconsistent, or even harmful father figures. These experiences inevitably color how we approach our relationship with God.
The beautiful truth is that God transcends the limitations of human fatherhood. Unlike even the best earthly fathers, He offers perfect love, guidance, and support. I outline six compelling reasons why we all need God in our lives: to know our inherent value, to trust in His perfect plan (Jeremiah 29:11), to experience His love and forgiveness, to receive His protection against visible and invisible dangers (Ephesians 6:12), to access His healing power, and to rest in the assurance that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39).
Whether your earthly father was present or absent, loving or distant, God stands ready to fill that void with perfect fatherly love. Take the first step today in developing this life-changing relationship—He's been waiting for you all along.
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
Well, I'm back. Everybody, I hope you're as excited about me being back as I am. It's amazing that the simplest little things that you take for granted sometimes and you get into a habit of doing things, and one of the other things I noticed while I was away is that our need for God in our lives. So I'm just wondering how many people out there actually realise that, wow, I do need God in my life, and you sometimes wonder why? Why do you need God in your life? Well, I believe that all kids, boys and girls, they need their father, and so it's not a matter of needing your father, it's a matter of having the father constantly in your life. Now, not all fathers are equal. As dads go.
Speaker 1:Mine was a good one. He played with me, he taught me important lessons, and he didn't pump me up with false flattery or set me up with unrealistic expectations. False flattery or set me up with unrealistic expectations. In some ways, I used to say that I wasn't brought up. I was kicked up, but there was a reason behind that. He prepared me. Dad taught me to face challenges by putting me in situations that weren't always easy or comfortable. He pushed me out of my familiar safe environment and gave me survival skills. It wasn't convenient or easy, but I am the man that I am today because my dad taught me to be strong, confident and brave. He gave me the inner fortitude to push through when things got tough, even to the extent where it was almost like a family tradition. My grandfather joined the military, my father joined the military, all my older brothers the military, all my older brothers joined the military and I joined the military, and one of my two younger uh sisters, dale uh, also joined. So I don't know what happened with cheryl, but for some reason she she managed to get away with not doing that, but perhaps that's for another time.
Speaker 1:Now, in talking about that, I want to first off, let you know okay, I'm not putting my dad on a pedestal. Okay, he was not perfect because he was my physical father. You know, not all kids are as lucky as what I was. Some grow up with dads that didn't teach them anything. Some grow up with no dad at all. Dads matter and having a lousy dad or no dad or no dad, this can not necessarily scar, but it could change the myriad of the way a person grows up.
Speaker 1:So is God a really good father If you could create the ideal father-son, father-daughter relationship, what would it look like? Would he be your best friend, the one you go to for most difficult problems, the one who always listens, perfectly, comforts you and then gently guides you to see what you need to see. To see what you need to see so that you can make changes that will help you grow? See, your Heavenly Father wants to know you and for you to know him. See, it's a two-way street.
Speaker 1:A lot of people don't look at it from that perspective. You've got to understand that in all relationships it's two ways. You've got to give and take in both areas, knowing this, there is one father who is perfect in all ways, and that's your heavenly father. He loves you more than you can possibly know. He wants the very best for you and he wants a close relationship with you. It's just going to take one thing, and that's you. You have to want it, you have to believe it and you can have it.
Speaker 1:You have to work at it, though. It's not just an automatic thing. If you weren't close to your physical father, that may be a tall ask. It may be hard to see God as your loving, nurturing father, and he is, because you may be, you know, like superimposing qualities of your own dad onto him. If anything you think you know about fathers were shaped by the one who raised you or the one that wasn't even there, then it's going to be tough for you to get past this. But I just need you to look at it from. You know, if your benchmark, your starting point, is John 3.16, god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So how many people do you know that their father can honestly say, without a shadow of a doubt, that he would give up his life for his child? Not everybody would do that. And I honestly think, even if you say, oh yeah, you're one of those dads, you're one of those fathers, until push comes to shove, you don't know what decision you're going to make and which way you go. Even Jesus, when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, right, he actually got there and he showed his human frailty by calling out to God and he's saying, father, if there's another way, basically saying, let this cup pass me by. In other words, if there's an option too, can we take that? But then, realising the enormity of what he was about to do. He said but not my will be done, but yours. How many fathers do you know that could do that?
Speaker 1:Now, my dad wasn't much of a talker when I was a child. We could travel for hours in the same vehicle without any conversation. So it's taken me many years to open up to my Heavenly Father. I just wasn't used to talking and didn't know how to open up. I didn't see the value in that. I didn't think he'd want to listen to me, and that was mainly because my father, being so quiet, he was one of those ones that he only spoke when he had something to say. Quiet, he was one of those ones that he only spoke when he had something to say. And on top of that, he would, you know if there was something that he needed to explain to me or converse with me. And it wasn't until he got quite ill late in his life that I actually started to get a better understanding of why he was the way that he was. So it's taken me years to learn he's always been there.
Speaker 1:This is our Heavenly Father, wanting me to realize it, wanting me to just start talking, to realize it, wanting me to just start talking. I didn't mind listening to him reading the Bible, but I wasn't holding up my end of the relationship. And once again and this is what I don't want to happen with any of my listeners you know, it was only when I was in a really bad situation that I actually started talking to him. There's an innate truth about relationships the more time and effort you put into them, the greater the intimate bond that forms. And I realized and this is where I was when I was in the wheelchair a very, very first time. It makes it sound like I do this on a yearly basis or something, but that's for another time, for another time. But it wasn't when I was really in a bad situation that I realized that God actually just gave me that little bit of nudge, and so I actually realized that it was my relationship with the Father, from my perspective, that was lacking.
Speaker 1:And you know you want to make him your best friend, you want to make him the one that you go to about everything. I mean put it this way If it's written out as an equation, it'd look like this Time plus effort equals an intimate bond. Let me say that again time plus effort equals an intimate bond. There's no shortcut to intimacy. Much like a bank account, you can't expect a great turn without making regular deposits. So I've come up with well, I didn't come up with them myself, but basically I've come up with a strategy to look at six main points of why I believe that we need God. All right Now, I'm not saying that these are the be all and the end all, because there's many other aspects in relation to this. All right, and and I've got some scriptures to sort of like back this up and then you can take your own um spin on it and then you can add to it yourself.
Speaker 1:Okay now, if you want a loving father, son slash, daughter, or even grand daughter, grandson relationship unlike anything you've ever had before, then you have to do your part. He's there, he's always been there and he's waiting for you. I know it may be difficult, uh, to comprehend that, but it will take time and sometimes you may not even know how to do this. It would be like, just from an earthly perspective, if you've got a friend, a relative or somebody that's in your family and you don't really talk to them a lot. You need to find a way to start getting that conversation happening and once you do, you'll be surprised what you find out.
Speaker 1:The great thing is, god doesn't place qualifiers on the ability to spend time with him. He just invites you to do it Imperfectly, as we are's what? How we'll start, but you'll get better over time because he will teach you how. I mean. It's a I mean. Sometimes you say, okay, well, why bother? Well, you need your father, you need your heavenly father, you need your natural father, and if you can't have your natural father, then your heavenly father is your only option. And that is who you really need to have in your life. And you're saying, okay, pastor Phil, why? Well, you need to know how much you matter to him. Right, best friends become best friends because they grow to love each other. God already loves you. 1 John, 3 to 1.
Speaker 1:Knowing that, really knowing it affects everything you think, feel and do. It has the ability to change your life in a profound way, and it's an intentional way that you can do this. Point number two, right, you need to know that he has a plan for you. Jeremiah 29, 11, which is one of my favorite scriptures, for I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Wow, a future and a hope. I would have put that the other way around, but he's doing that. He's guaranteeing you a future.
Speaker 1:How exhausting is it to need all the answers straight away all the time? You don't. When you let God reveal what he wants for your life, instead of you trying to make what you or others want happen, then, and only then, can positive changes occur in your life. Then, and only then, can positive changes occur in your life. Those changes become the catalyst for other changes. It can be hard to let go of control, but so refreshing and peaceful when you do See. It's important to find out the plans and the purpose God has for you, not you trying to tell God the plans and the purpose that you've got for yourself. Trust me, I've tried that and it doesn't work.
Speaker 1:Okay, number three I'm going to go through these fairly quickly because I want to. I want to cover a very, very large area of understanding and then, over the next few weeks, we're going to talk, because I'm excited being back and I'm really excited about being able to, you know, speak to you about what God is saying to me and letting me know what he believes, and that's the important thing he believes you need to hear about Now. Point number three you need his love, mercy, compassion, peace of mind and forgiveness. Now, you notice I didn't break them down into individual. Oh, you need his love, and then do something on mercy and compassion. See, his love incorporates all of that.
Speaker 1:The best part about having God for your best friend is knowing that, no matter what, he loves you and he wants the world for you. He supports you in hard times, forgives your weaknesses and flaws and is right by your side celebrating your success. See, so many people think that they're going through a rough patch and they say, oh well, god's, you know, forsaken me. Oh no, he hasn't. It says in his word that he would never leave you nor forsake you. We are the ones that walk away from God, but based on that, why should he chase after you? And based on that, why should he chase after you? He wants you to come running back to him because he will always be there for you. God is always there for you. See, having him as your best friend, and he takes that friendship to the highest of highest. Not only is there him being in your life, but he wants to make sure that everything about it counts. Everything about it counts, but he also has the power to give you things that your human friendships can't. He can actually move in so many that taint your life, the traps you are stuck in darkness, guilt-ridden recesses and keep you from reaching out to God. His forgiveness is far more meaningful and life-changing. His mercy and compassion are bottomless and the peace of mind that comes from surrendering to him fully produces true happiness.
Speaker 1:I want you to read Psalm 63, 1 through to 4. All right, I'll let you look up the scriptures, because I want you to sort of look at them and see what it's actually saying to you. You need to get that revelation, knowledge, that Raymond, knowledge of the word. All right, point number four you need his protection from dangerous situations. Amen to that one, and I'll read this one out for you. And I want you to highlight a couple of things in this.
Speaker 1:This is Ephesians 6.12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Now, this is what he is doing for us, because we don't wrestle against things in the natural. We are being attacked spiritually and that's what we need to be aware of. There are dark spiritual forces at work. You can't see them, but they're really real. 1 Peter 5.8.
Speaker 1:All right, you also need protection from your own natural tendencies that steer us wrong and that will harm us and others, unintentionally or depending on who we are and how we are living our life. It can be intentional. That means it can be caused by you. Putting on God's protection is like getting dressed in the morning. You wouldn't consider leaving home naked, but there's a spiritual nakedness that leaves you vulnerable and open to attack. Ephesians 6, 13 and 18. And if you want to get some clarification on that, go back to okay, that particular passage of Scripture where it talks about putting on the whole armor of God.
Speaker 1:Right, number five you need his healing for physical and emotional aches. You've fallen off your bike for the first time and scraped your knees. Tears are welling in your eyes, but here comes Dad to scoop you up in his arms, kiss you and make you feel all better. That's what dads do, or that's what they should do. And when I'm talking about falling off my bike and sookin' I mean okay, on two or three, all right, not now, okay.
Speaker 1:Your Heavenly Father is no different in his desires to comfort you, and he has the power to remove those hurts completely. Remove those hurts. It doesn't matter what type of hurt you suffer chronic, terminal, self-inflicted or trauma-based. God can handle them all, and I'm preaching myself right now in relation to that. That doesn't mean, of course, that you, just just because you can, you, ask him to take all of these things away. Sometimes, in his infinite wisdom, he knows you need to hurt for some greater purpose that you can't see right now. Trust him, let him scoop you up and hold you in his lap and let your cry and your tears be there until you are able to see the purpose. That's his purpose. Now, I don't want you to misunderstand this. Okay, I'm not talking about that. He makes you suffer. No, he's just saying that when you go through times of suffering, pain and heartache, or sickness and disease, he takes advantage of that and uses it to bring glory to him. Right, it's not about him making you suffer or letting you suffer. No, that's not what this is saying right here. No, that that's not what this is saying right here.
Speaker 1:If you go back to ephesians 6 okay, it'll give you a better understanding of it but also romans 8, 38 to 39. This brings me to point number six. You need to know that, no matter how short your fall from perfection is, he loves you. There is nothing you can do that will ever make God stop loving you ever. That doesn't mean he's always proud of your choices or that there won't be consequences attached to them. It means that, no matter what you've done, what you will always do, god's love is unswoven. He's always there. He's always been waiting for you with open arms, ready for you to climb back into his lap. And, like I said, if you go through Romans 8, 38 and 39, it'll give you a better understanding. So you're going to ask me or I hear you saying okay, how do you draw closer to God?
Speaker 1:I've said this several times when I've been speaking, that the relationship with God needs to be planned. Okay. Now I've always said, if you spend the first five or ten minutes of each day in the morning with him so in other words, spend some time in prayer or reading the Bible and the last ten minutes of each day, as you grow in your relationship with the Father, that time will increase. Or what you'll do is you'll find that, okay, I'm doing my standard five minutes of reading the Word and five minutes of spending some time in prayer and you get there and go. It's not enough. When it's not enough, that means that you're on the right track, and that's one of the things I noticed while I was away. Yes, I was still doing my daily devotionals and things like that, but I was very easily distracted by my family, the situations that they were in, what they were dealing with and also spending time with my grandkids, and, yes, that is a very, very good distraction, but I'm diversing. Okay.
Speaker 1:Now the first thing some people are going to say is well, hang on. Okay, if I've got to start my day off spending some time with God, and I've got to acknowledge that I need him to be with me, and I've got to acknowledge that I need him to be with me through the day, but when you know time is money and all of this sort of thing, here's just a few little ideas that will help you start with that opportune time with a conversation with God. You can do it in the shower, when you're going for your morning walk, while you're in the gym exercising, standing in line waiting to get served. Stuck in traffic is a great one. Stuck in traffic is a great one. See, it is so easy when you're stuck in traffic to start being the opposite to a loving son or daughter of god and you get dragged into everything else that's going on in the traffic. Just put on some praise and worship music and start listening to him and then just spend a little bit of time in prayer and you'll be surprised how quickly you get through that traffic.
Speaker 1:Laying in bed of a night time I do this a lot. I can't fall asleep and I'm thinking okay, well, if I can't go to sleep, maybe I should spend some time talking to the Lord While commuting to work via public transport. Now, a lot of people do use public transport all over the world and it is challenging sometimes, but what a perfect time to do it. I remember many, many years ago when I used to work on the trains as a guard and everybody's enthroned in conversation and they're all talking to each other and perfect strangers, so making new relationships and doing all sorts of other things or reading a good book. So why not make it the Bible? But these days you go on to public transport, you can hear a pin drop because everybody is stuck in their social media, their phone, their laptop, their iPad okay, kindle or whatever.
Speaker 1:What a perfect time to spend some time with the Lord, and there are always different ways you can converse with him Talking out loud or silently, praying in tongues, reading the Bible, listening to an audio Bible, keeping a prayer journal, silently meditating, thinking about ways God has blessed you or answered your prayer. See, everybody looks for the big things that God is doing in their life, but I've noticed recently all these little things that he has done that I forget to acknowledge that his hand has been there in my life, like I said before, singing praise and worship songs, keeping a journal of things you are grateful for God for doing, writing out scriptures that speak to you and then journaling about the impact that they have had and what they've done in your life. While distracted, praying isn't the most effective way of finding different times to spend time with him, but talk to God, cultivate the habit of sharing yourself with him and building that relationship. You need to be reverent. He's the God of the universe. He knows everything, sees everything, can do everything except sin. That's just for us. He loves you, but he also wants you to keep things in perspective and he wants you to be respectful.
Speaker 1:See proverbs 1. 7 says this you may not understand him fully, or understand why he does or allow certain things. Tell him that, share your confusion, your frustration, your hurt, your fear of him. He knows them already, but he's an important part of building a relationship with him. Take time to listen to him. All right, and end your day with him. Sometimes, at the end of the day, talking to God can be the best thing for you. Whatever false messages you've been told from other fathers, this one rings true God cares deeply for you. He always has and he always will. God bless, and we'll talk to you next week and we'll get more and more into a better understanding of the reasons we need God in our life. All right, okay, take care, talk to you soon. Bye for now.
