Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live (Heb 12:9)!

Here, a contrast is made between our earthly fathers and our spiritual Father in terms of the discipline we all receive as their children. The literal translation of the phrase “human fathers” in NIV would be “fathers of our flesh,” and that of the phrase “the Father of our spirits” would be “the Father of spirits.” Apparently, the writer are influenced by the terminology found in Num 16:22 and 27:16—“God of spirits of all flesh.” The plurality of the word “of spirits” is noteworthy, and it presupposes the idea that all spirits are born of God.

Here, we have an important fact in another world that we need to accept: God is our spiritual Father. This may sound already familiar to you, but should be meditated upon more seriously. Probably, the best resource for this truth is found in the person of Jesus himself. The Bible teaches us that it was through Jesus that we were introduced to the Father.

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known (John 1:18).

It was when Jesus was 12 years old that he and his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. But after the Feast, while the parents were returning to their town, Jesus remained in Jerusalem sitting among teachers, listening and asking questions to them in the temple courts. When the parents found him after three days, he said to them:

Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house (Luke 2:49)?

In Jesus’ mind, his true father was the Father in heaven. He was only twelve that time, and in no sense he was joking.

This consciousness of God as his own Father is seen everywhere in his words and deeds. Needless to say, it was not merely a matter of his mental consciousness, but of the spiritual fact of who he was. Look at, for instance, the following words:

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they (Mat 6:26)?

It is rather tragic that we have been all brainwashed through educations into thinking that all animals live and die according to the ecological system of cause and effect in the natural environment. There are many things yet to be discovered and many studies to be done in that area, and there is nothing wrong about it. But one thing that is absolutely missing in this thinking and not beneficial to our faith is that no appropriate room is given to the role of God—his goodness and intention.

Some are atheists denying the existence of God while some believe in some kind of a higher power not knowing what it is. Others believe that there is God, and even confess that they know him personally, or testify to the fact that he blessed them in specific ways. Yet, to have God as merely as your God and to have him as your Father are not the same. There is a vast difference between the two.