Parable of the Faithful & Unfaithful Sons & Daughters
Priscilla Van Sutphin  10-21-17
www.upstreamca.org

      A Father had many sons and daughters and He was so proud of them. He raised them up in the best way He could, but He could not keep them in His presence always. He had so much work to do that He entrusted them to other earth parents to raise. He had so many that He had to give one or two, on up to eight or even twelve to any one other family to raise them.

     He gave them all His name. And He granted them abilities and talents, in varying measures to all of them. As they grew they encountered many of life’s problems and He granted to many of them protection to a degree, but not to the fullness needed to prevent all pain. Many of the parents He gave them too, did not believe in the faithfulness of the Father so they were ignorant and did not know how to look to Him for the wisdom in raising them or to pray for them to keep them from the enemy in the earth.

     Some of the parents did believe and to them, WHEN they asked, He gave them wisdom. But so many did not think to ask Him, nor had very much communication with them, even though He made Himself available to them at any time of night or day. This Great Father had an enemy, who sought to kill, steal, and rob the children of the knowledge of their Greatest Father.

     The Father, saw the plight of the children even ahead of time, and His 
Son Who was an overseer and participant in the creation of all these children, offered Himself from the moment Father saw the problems coming with His enemy, to die for the sake of these children the Father had so loved. So at the designated time and place, this Son came down onto earth and died and suffered a terrible and horrendous death, but not before being tortured unlike any other man in history, for the sake of releasing all those children from the hands of the enemy spiritually. He was not even recognizable when they nailed Him finally to a cross and left Him hang there naked in front of many people.

     You see, the Father, because of laws He set in motion, could not always rescue them from ALL of life’s perils, because He had given to the enemy a degree of ruler-ship over the earth upon which they lived. But when the Son of Glory died, He provided this wonderful gift called GRACE to all the children who would call on the name of the Son , and surrender their lives to Him. Immediately angels would be dispatched to help in the process of that child growing up and being healed and delivered from the clutches of the evil enemy.

     There was never a time when that enemy didn’t seek to put doubt and accusation in the minds of the children against the love and fairness, and justice of the Great Father. He had a whole army of minions that tried to dissuade the children from ever holding firm to the TRUTH of the Father’s words. He would lie, and scheme, and play tricks in the minds of the children, making them think that his thoughts were their thoughts. He would steal, rob and cause illness and do things to cause them to be rejected by others, and to be fearful.

    The Father, noticed also that some children, once they surrendered to the Holy Father, and accepted what his Son did, and decided to surrender to His will, and ways of doing things, began to do something funny. It seemed that The world and those who didn’t like the ways of the Great Father, often would mock and persecute, and reject the children who did surrender to His ways. So those persecuted, became timid, and hid the light that shined through them with a mantle of fear and trepidation.

     They denied that they Belonged to the Great Father. The Great Father grew so sad, that tears flowed from His eyes profusely, hour after hour of the day, as He saw His beloved children pretending like they didn’t really belong to Him, or that they were not who they really were. He felt like the earthly fathers did, who were abandoned sometimes by their children and unappreciated for all the things they had done for them.

    Another thing happened when the children did not demonstrate their love for the Father in public, and acted ashamed of belonging to Him. They would spend a lot of time PRETENDING to be like the rest of the children in the world who didn’t know Him. The enemy of the Great Father, found that with those, he could rob and steal from them, because they were full of fear. He found a legal right to hurt, to steal, to render the covenant void in areas of their lives where they were weak.

     And because of the fear and intimidation of those who persecuted them, the people began to give in to other sins. They began to compromise the very Truth that set them free from the laws of sin and death. This opened wide the door of their souls for the enemy to kill them, and steal from them many things. His whole aim seemed to be to get them to doubt their own selves and the Father who made them, to rob them of their FAITH.

    Many of the children to whom He had given great gifts and opportunities, seemed to take credit for everything they did for Him. They forgot about His GRACE and forgot about His admonitions to not take the glory for themselves. They wanted the fame and money that came from position and power in the organized churches. They thought somehow that if they did more, they could have a greater place in heaven. They forgot the Words of the Son that admonished against this. The buildings in which many held church became so important to them, that they would no longer follow the words of the Son that said to leave the 99 and go find the one that was lost.

    The Father was so grieved that after all the time they had in the world to learn from His Word and from other people’s mistakes, and from the Holy Spirit Whom He had given to them as a great gift so they could always hear from Him, that He was in anguish, and thought about how He could get them to remember the great sacrifice He made and His Son made for them. He So longed to be kind to them and to have more communication with Him, but again and again He was ignored. His heart was so broken and in grief for the way they trampled on the great gift of grace given them. He grieved at the way the enemy was stealing their FAITH. 

     He reread through the book of life. He kept this great book in which was recorded by angelic scribes, every thought, movement and act of the children on earth. Every time they spoke of the Lord it was recorded. Every time they prayed or laughed. All the history of a man was contained in these books. The Father was SO GENEROUS, towards all who had said, they loved the Son, but the ones whom He was most pleased with were those who OBEYED what the Son told them, for just like an earthly parent, who is pleased when their children obey them, so the Great Father was pleased when His children did not lie, nor pretend, nor steal, or kill, or speak ill of others. He kept track of every detail and had told them they would have to give an account one day for every word that came out of their mouths. He kept track of every time His children looked to Him for guidance and thanked Him for all He had given them. He watched each time they were disregarded by others and yet did not give in to the enemy’s hatred.

     So in this time coming near to the time His Son would return and make things right in the earth. He thought to bless greatly those children who were willing to suffer anything just so they could do what is right in the eyes of their Beloved Great Father. He wanted to share with them the glory that He had given to the Son, because He knew that the evil one was planning to kill them all if he could. He saw how they were being worn down by the cares of life, and the stresses of all the evil that was growing in the world. So He thought to pour down into them, more of His LIGHT so they could truly be released from all the darkness in their attitudes and motivations. He wanted them to be free of the torments the enemy had done to them, and to make a display of His power through them. So many Had grown weak and emaciated spiritually.

      He prepared the armies of angels for this time that He would do this.
He began to make note of all who were willing to not deny Him before men. He made note of the ones who had suffered pain, affliction, sickness and torments from the evil one and yet had not denied Him, nor grown bitter. He wrote it all down and decided to show favor at a set time to all those faithful children. But the ones who pretended to be like others in the world, and refused His offers of love, and healing presence, He declared unworthy of the gift of the greatest light.

     He decided to give them light, but it would only be in proportion to the suffering and pain they had been willing to endure on His behalf, to what they were willing to give up, and the obedience they showed towards His voice and ways, for those who had truly been willing to follow the SON in all His ways were the most pleasing because they had shown love back to Him in these ways. He did not count the acts done for Him, that He didn’t tell them to do. For they were not in obedience to His will, but only works done in striving and pretense of real relationship.

Rev 3:5 AMP Thus shall he who conquers (is victorious) be clad in white garments, and I will not erase or blot out his name from the Book of Life; I will acknowledge him [as Mine] and I will confess his name openly before My Father and before His angels. [Ps 69:28; Dan 12:1.]
Rev 17:8 The beast that you saw [once] was, but [now] is no more, and he is going to come up out of the Abyss (the bottomless pit) and proceed to go to perdition. And the inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been recorded in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will be astonished when they look at the beast, because he [once] was, but [now] is no more, and he is [yet] to come. [Dan 7:3.]

Rev 20:15 AMP And if anyone's [name] was not found recorded in the Book of Life, he was hurled into the lake of fire.

Rev 21:25-27 AMP And its gates shall never be closed by day, and there shall be no night there. [Isa 60:11.] 26 They shall bring the glory (the splendor and majesty) and the honor of the nations into it. 27 But nothing that defiles or profanes or is unwashed shall ever enter it, nor anyone who commits abominations (unclean, detestable, morally repugnant things) or practices falsehood, but only those whose names are recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Rev 22:19 AMP And if anyone cancels or takes away from the statements of the book of this prophecy [these predictions relating to Christ's kingdom and its speedy triumph, together with the consolations and admonitions or warnings pertaining to them], God will cancel and take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the city of holiness (purity and hallowedness), which are described and promised in this book.