How God’s Family Multiplies

Deuteronomy 22-24; Galatians 4 

“My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now…God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba Father’. So you are no longer a slave, but God’s son…”

Galatians 4:19, 20, 6, 7

Paul used family images to describe the identity of the Galatian disciples of Christ as God’s children. We have the Spirit of the Son, Jesus Christ, indwelling us through the Holy Spirit. We have intimacy with our holy father God through Christ. However, Paul goes deeper and describes his role as the Galatian church planter - like a birthing mother. The pains of childbirth, like ‘intercession-travail,’ marked the birth of the church. Paul was in intercession-pain as he called them to Christ.  He was contending for Christ to be “formed in you.”

Have we, like the Galatians, been birthed into the family of God by a spiritual mother or father?

Are we birthing others through our prayers, witness, discipleship, and partnership with the Holy Spirit?

We were made to multiply.

“Lord Jesus, multiply through me, for your glory.”