Faith Without Answers • Apr 27, 2026
Father, Dear Father • Nov 27th 1987
Romans – The Play Part 6 – Abba Father: Understanding Sonship, the Holy Spirit, and Romans 8
In this powerful teaching from Romans 8, Gene Edwards explores one of the most intimate truths in the Christian life: our relationship with God as Father.
Many believers struggle with feelings of failure, guilt, weakness, and condemnation. Even after understanding biblical truths about justification, righteousness, and freedom from the law, Christians often find themselves discouraged by their ongoing struggles. This message addresses that tension and reveals the ministry of the Holy Spirit in bridging the gap between what God says is true about us and what we experience in daily life.
Drawing from Romans 8, Gene explains how the Holy Spirit continually bears witness that we are children of God. The Spirit not only leads believers but also confirms our identity as sons and daughters of the Father. This divine witness becomes a source of comfort, assurance, and strength when we feel unworthy or defeated.
A central theme of this message is the meaning of the phrase “Abba, Father.” More than a theological concept, it reveals a deeply personal relationship with God. The Spirit encourages believers to approach God with the confidence and intimacy of a child coming to a loving father. Rather than living in fear, performance, or condemnation, Christians are invited to rest in the reality of their adoption and divine sonship.
This teaching also examines the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding believers, the assurance of salvation, the believer’s identity in Christ, and the promise of future resurrection. Throughout the message, listeners are encouraged to see themselves as God sees them—not through the lens of failure, but through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
If you have ever struggled with self-condemnation, doubts about your standing with God, or questions about what it means to be led by the Spirit, this message offers biblical encouragement and profound spiritual insight.
Key Scriptures:
• Romans 8:12-16
• Romans 8:1
• Romans 8:11
• Galatians 4:6
Verse 16: You’re going to do better in relating to your own father, huh? I couldn’t do better. You had some problems somewhere in your life. You never had a daddy. I had five. You had five of them. This kind of distorts things, doesn’t it?
We need a father image. Because sometimes we don’t get one. Blessed is he who, having not seen, believes.
Give up whatever model is in your mind of what God is and take the real one. Praise the Lord. We all have an image, probably based on our dad, or maybe our mother, our brother, or our sister.
One of these days, saints, we’re going to get down talking about praying. I hope that you will give up everything you do in your prayer life. And you don’t really need to get much further than Daddy.
Go out and pull a big one. And just feel like you cannot stand—live—another minute. And find some place to lean back and just say: Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. Because the Spirit of God is telling you to do that. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is in you—constantly seeking to, and now that you know it, is showing you what a place you have in God, in Christ, and in the Spirit.
Father. Abba. Father.
I’m not going to get any further away from you than such an intimate relationship. There are no circumstances. There are no misdeeds that’re going to take me further than that from You. Spirit, lead. Lead my sister. Lead my brother.
And when You lead, we’ll cry out:
I’m a daughter of God.
I’m a son of God.
Lead, Spirit. Spirit, keep on telling me to call Him Daddy. Keep on putting this Father in front of me. I have not been given a spirit of fear. I have been given a Spirit that says:
Daddy. Amen.
Oh God. We are forty or fifty in this room, and we all have the same Spirit. Lord, we all have different needs, but work in us such intimacy. We’re forgetful. Spirit of God, remind us. In the worst moments, remind us. Spirit within us, cry:
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