The Story Behind The Letter
As shared by Barry Adams - Feb. 21, 2024
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My Journey Home In October 1997, I responded to a call for pastors to come forward and receive prayer at a conference that I was attending. The young man who prayed for me simply said... "I see a picture - You are a little baby and God is your Father and right now He is re-attaching your umbilical cord to Himself." While I didn't see fireworks or feel anything dramatic, looking back, that was the beginning of my quest to begin to find out more about knowing God more intimately as my Father. |
Over the next 9 months, I read every possible book and went to every meeting that dealt with the Fatherheart of God. In June 1998, I attended a men's retreat in North Bay, Ontario where the weekend's goal was to get to know God more intimately as a Father.
Near the end of the weekend, the speaker, Jack Winter, asked if I had wanted to be prayed for to receive a deeper revelation of the Father's love for me. As Jack prayed for me, I began to feel all the pain & disappointment of a little boy just wanting to be loved. In contrast to the emptiness, I also felt the incredible warmth of God the Father wrapping His arms around me. Wave upon wave of the love of God began to touch the deepest places in my heart that had been so wounded and discouraged as a child.
While I had always had a theological understanding of God as my Father, this was the first time that I had such a powerful encounter with God that impacted my body, soul & spirit. After encountering God in such a powerful way, I began to see the Father's love everywhere I looked in the Bible. It was like the 'lights had been turned on' and I could see the theme of the Fatherheart of God throughout the entire Bible.
I can remember the day that I asked God to help me to better comprehend His love in light of all of the scriptures that I was now seeing throughout the Bible. In my heart, I immediately heard a still small voice say... "If you put the scriptures in the right order, they will form a love letter". That was December 1998 and by January 1999 I had compiled a series of paraphrased scriptures into a PowerPoint presentation accompanied by Brian Doerksen's song 'Faithful Father' that I played as a sermon illustration in my home church.
I was amazed at how the congregation began to respond to this simple message of Father's love. Many of the people seemed to be having an intimate, powerful encounter with their Heavenly Father. Everywhere I played this simple presentation, the results were the same. I began to see in a deeper way the incredible need that we all have to be loved in a way that only God the Father can love us. It was at that point that I felt that I needed to get this message on the Internet.
By November 1999, we launched www.FathersLoveLetter.com offering the Father's Love Letter as a free Flash video. In January 2000, we almost shut down our Internet provider because of the number of people watching the video at once. By September 2000, the demands of this new ministry were such that I had to ask the church that I pastored to release my wife and I into full time ministry to share the message of Father's love.
We have since added a narration version of the Father's Love Letter and many other FLL resources. Father's Love Letter has been now translated into 125+ languages and this message of God's love is finding its way into many places around the world.
In Father's love,
Barry Adams
Near the end of the weekend, the speaker, Jack Winter, asked if I had wanted to be prayed for to receive a deeper revelation of the Father's love for me. As Jack prayed for me, I began to feel all the pain & disappointment of a little boy just wanting to be loved. In contrast to the emptiness, I also felt the incredible warmth of God the Father wrapping His arms around me. Wave upon wave of the love of God began to touch the deepest places in my heart that had been so wounded and discouraged as a child.
While I had always had a theological understanding of God as my Father, this was the first time that I had such a powerful encounter with God that impacted my body, soul & spirit. After encountering God in such a powerful way, I began to see the Father's love everywhere I looked in the Bible. It was like the 'lights had been turned on' and I could see the theme of the Fatherheart of God throughout the entire Bible.
I can remember the day that I asked God to help me to better comprehend His love in light of all of the scriptures that I was now seeing throughout the Bible. In my heart, I immediately heard a still small voice say... "If you put the scriptures in the right order, they will form a love letter". That was December 1998 and by January 1999 I had compiled a series of paraphrased scriptures into a PowerPoint presentation accompanied by Brian Doerksen's song 'Faithful Father' that I played as a sermon illustration in my home church.
I was amazed at how the congregation began to respond to this simple message of Father's love. Many of the people seemed to be having an intimate, powerful encounter with their Heavenly Father. Everywhere I played this simple presentation, the results were the same. I began to see in a deeper way the incredible need that we all have to be loved in a way that only God the Father can love us. It was at that point that I felt that I needed to get this message on the Internet.
By November 1999, we launched www.FathersLoveLetter.com offering the Father's Love Letter as a free Flash video. In January 2000, we almost shut down our Internet provider because of the number of people watching the video at once. By September 2000, the demands of this new ministry were such that I had to ask the church that I pastored to release my wife and I into full time ministry to share the message of Father's love.
We have since added a narration version of the Father's Love Letter and many other FLL resources. Father's Love Letter has been now translated into 125+ languages and this message of God's love is finding its way into many places around the world.
In Father's love,
Barry Adams