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Sonship: A Journey into Father's Heart
The prophetic revelation of sonship is sweeping around the world today like an ocean groundswell, restoring the place of the Father’s love in the Christian life. The Father loves you, and whether you are a man or a woman He has called you into sonship. This is what Jesus came for you to receive - living in a continuous experience of His love pouring into your heart in the same way that Jesus Himself experienced. - Discover the love of the Father like Jesus experienced it. - Learn about the centrality of your heart in all aspects of your spiritual walk. - Remove the hindrances in your life to the love of the Father. - Grasp the perspective of God’s grand plan of redemption for mankind. - Find the rest the Bible promises for every believer. - Enjoy the supernatural freedom available for the sons and daughters of God.This book is also available in Norwegian as 'Sønnekår', and in Spanish as 'El Corazon de un Hijo'.
- GenresSpiritualityFaith
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 23, 2025
Wow! Wat een bijzonder boek. Ik ben hier nog steeds op aan het kauwen, over na aan het denken en tot me door aan het laten dringen. Dit boek voelt als het begin van mijn eigen “journey” (nog meer) naar het hart van de Vader.
Het enige wat het boek nog sterker had kunnen maken, was nog meer voorbeelden, praktische tips (hoe wandel je nu verder) en getuigenissen.
Het enige wat het boek nog sterker had kunnen maken, was nog meer voorbeelden, praktische tips (hoe wandel je nu verder) en getuigenissen.
October 22, 2017
The emphasis on a loving God is beautiful, I'm sure the man has a great inner life. However, the entire charismatic framework that he uses makes the book a lot less so. The writing and reasoning is poor.
However, in the strange world of charismatic belief, the emphasis on a loving God is welcome, if it leads to a kinder Christianity.
However, in the strange world of charismatic belief, the emphasis on a loving God is welcome, if it leads to a kinder Christianity.
January 24, 2014
I became a little girl when I read this book.
May 5, 2024
Review of James Jordan’s book, "Sonship"
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1John 4:1
In reviewing this book, I want to be clear that I am not judging James Jordan. I am judging the content of his teaching, whether it is in line with the Word of God, or whether his teaching is false.
In the first chapter, The Father’s Revealing, Jordan says this; “I once read something by Andrew Murray which impacted me greatly and which leads into the purpose of writing this book. He wrote, “What the Father’s love was to Jesus, His love will be to us.” He goes on to say that “...the great shortcoming of our Christian experience is that even when we trust Christ we leave the Father out."
Murray was the son of a Scottish missionary to South Africa. He was a Pastor and writer in the Dutch Reformed tradition and a Calvinist. However, Jordan misunderstood the statement he so admired. “What the Father’s love was to Jesus, His love will be to us.” Jordan’s confusion lies in the latter half of the sentence…”His love will be to us.” The question is, to which person in the first half of the statement…”What the Father’s love was to Jesus…” does the pronoun, “His” belong? Rules of grammar keep us from misunderstanding written text. The sentence is perhaps more easily understood if the phrase beginning with "as" follows the subject and predicate of the sentence. "Jesus love will be to us as the Father's love was to Jesus." The “His” in the second half of the sentence refers to Jesus, not the Father. In other words, had not Murray used the pronoun, “his”, the sentence would be written like this, “What the Father’s love was to Jesus, Jesus’ love will be to us.” This turns Jordan’s understanding of Murray's meaning upside down.
As Jordan mistakenly understands it, “His” refers to the love of the Father instead of referring rightly to the love of Jesus.
Murray's biblical text for this statement is where Jesus says this to his Apostles. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” John 15:9 Jesus had just said to them, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:5-8.
Jordan quotes Murray again, “His life of dependency on the Father was a life in the Father’s love” True! Jesus was completely dependent on the love of his Father, and we are called by God to be fully dependent on the love of Jesus. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” John 15:9
Murray authored the book, "Abiding in Christ", and the following makes clear what Murray was saying:
Our blessed Lord not only said, "Abide in me," but also, "Abide in my love." Of the abiding in Him, the principal part is the entering into and dwelling and being rooted in that wonderful love with which He loves us and gives Himself to us. "Love seeketh not its own;" it always goes out of itself to live and be at one with the beloved; it ever opens itself and stretches its arms wide to receive and hold fast the object of its desire: Christ’s love longs to possess us. The abiding, in Christ is an intensely personal relationship, the losing ourselves in the fellowship of an Infinite Love, finding, our life in the experience of being loved by Him, being nowhere at home but in His love.(Andrew Murray).
Derek Prince, commenting on John 14:6, (where Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.”) made the following statement: "This verse speaks about a pathway and a destination. Jesus is the way, the Father is the destination.” Then he made this observation, “The problem with most of the Church today is that we have become stuck on the way!”
Jordan approves of this statement and repeats it for emphasis. "We have become stuck on the Way!"
Jordan ignores the clear teaching of Scripture. We are commanded by the Father in John 15 to abide in Christ.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:4-11
The Greek word used by the Apostle John is menó. It is defined as to stay, abide, remain. It's important to remember that Jesus spoke only what His Father told him to speak.
For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. John 12:49
So if, as Jordan claims, God the Father is the destination of the believer, why did he command us to stay, abide, remain in Christ?
Consider further this verse taken in its context in John 14.
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Is Jesus saying he is the Father? Not at all. Jesus is stating that he is the exact image of the Father. Whatever is true of the Father is true of Jesus. This is one of many verses in Scripture in which Jesus affirms that God is One. Jesus is the way because he and the Father are one. He is God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. At the bottom of all this is Jordan's misunderstanding of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
Jordan seems to treat God, not as One, but as three...not as One God subsisting in three persons, but as three Gods in hierarchy.
The Elect of God worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, without confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. (From the Athanasian Creed).
God is one in being, essence, and nature. He subsists in the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father never acts apart from the Son and the Spirit. The Son never acts apart from the Father and the Spirit. The Spirit never acts apart from the Father and the Son. He proceeds from the Father and the Son.
The love of the Father is the love of the Son and the Spirit. The love of the Son is the love of the Father and the Spirit. And the love of the Spirit is the love of the Father and the Son.
As those who are in Christ, we believe that all things come from the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 1Cor. 8:6
The persons of the Godhead are coequal and coeternal in majesty. God’s very nature is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And in God's plan of redemption, It is the Father who chose the elect in his beloved Son before the foundation of the world. The Elect are the Father's gift to the Son.
For Prince to state, and Jordan to affirm, that Jesus is the pathway and the Father is the destination is an example of Biblical misunderstanding. Do the Scriptures contradict themselves? Are we united throughout eternity to Christ, or is he only a stepping stone to the Father? What do we make of the examples of our union with Christ (the Church as the bride of Christ; the organic union of the vine and the branches; Christ as the head and the Church as his body?) “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:31-32 Does the bride marry her husband in order to be a daughter? Preposterous! No. She loves her husband and is united to him. Because God is One, when we abide in Christ, we also abide in the Father, and to love Christ is to love the Father also.
Finally, Jordan’s greatest transgression is that he does violence to the Gospel of Christ in saying this:
“The gospel is simply this. It is about a Father who lost His kids and who wants them back.”
No! The Gospel is the announcement from God about the person and work of his Son, Jesus Christ, and what he did to save sinners. It is through the Gospel by the work of the Holy Spirit that God saves sinners.
Consider the Gospel that Paul preached:
1Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.
Paul received the Gospel from Christ himself, not from any man. Jordan’s gospel is no gospel at all. It is false. The Gospel is not about a needy God who lost his kids and wants them back. The Gospel is the announcement by our merciful God about the person and saving work of His glorious Son to save sinners, the fallen sons of Adam.
Sonship: A Journey Into Father’s heart is full of false teaching and a false Gospel. May God give James Jordan grace, so that he might see the truth and repent, and may God pour out his grace on those who have been led astray that they might know the truth and be set free.
"Not many of you should be teachers my brothers, knowing that we will receive greater judgment." James 3:1
4 people found this helpful
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1John 4:1
In reviewing this book, I want to be clear that I am not judging James Jordan. I am judging the content of his teaching, whether it is in line with the Word of God, or whether his teaching is false.
In the first chapter, The Father’s Revealing, Jordan says this; “I once read something by Andrew Murray which impacted me greatly and which leads into the purpose of writing this book. He wrote, “What the Father’s love was to Jesus, His love will be to us.” He goes on to say that “...the great shortcoming of our Christian experience is that even when we trust Christ we leave the Father out."
Murray was the son of a Scottish missionary to South Africa. He was a Pastor and writer in the Dutch Reformed tradition and a Calvinist. However, Jordan misunderstood the statement he so admired. “What the Father’s love was to Jesus, His love will be to us.” Jordan’s confusion lies in the latter half of the sentence…”His love will be to us.” The question is, to which person in the first half of the statement…”What the Father’s love was to Jesus…” does the pronoun, “His” belong? Rules of grammar keep us from misunderstanding written text. The sentence is perhaps more easily understood if the phrase beginning with "as" follows the subject and predicate of the sentence. "Jesus love will be to us as the Father's love was to Jesus." The “His” in the second half of the sentence refers to Jesus, not the Father. In other words, had not Murray used the pronoun, “his”, the sentence would be written like this, “What the Father’s love was to Jesus, Jesus’ love will be to us.” This turns Jordan’s understanding of Murray's meaning upside down.
As Jordan mistakenly understands it, “His” refers to the love of the Father instead of referring rightly to the love of Jesus.
Murray's biblical text for this statement is where Jesus says this to his Apostles. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” John 15:9 Jesus had just said to them, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:5-8.
Jordan quotes Murray again, “His life of dependency on the Father was a life in the Father’s love” True! Jesus was completely dependent on the love of his Father, and we are called by God to be fully dependent on the love of Jesus. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” John 15:9
Murray authored the book, "Abiding in Christ", and the following makes clear what Murray was saying:
Our blessed Lord not only said, "Abide in me," but also, "Abide in my love." Of the abiding in Him, the principal part is the entering into and dwelling and being rooted in that wonderful love with which He loves us and gives Himself to us. "Love seeketh not its own;" it always goes out of itself to live and be at one with the beloved; it ever opens itself and stretches its arms wide to receive and hold fast the object of its desire: Christ’s love longs to possess us. The abiding, in Christ is an intensely personal relationship, the losing ourselves in the fellowship of an Infinite Love, finding, our life in the experience of being loved by Him, being nowhere at home but in His love.(Andrew Murray).
Derek Prince, commenting on John 14:6, (where Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.”) made the following statement: "This verse speaks about a pathway and a destination. Jesus is the way, the Father is the destination.” Then he made this observation, “The problem with most of the Church today is that we have become stuck on the way!”
Jordan approves of this statement and repeats it for emphasis. "We have become stuck on the Way!"
Jordan ignores the clear teaching of Scripture. We are commanded by the Father in John 15 to abide in Christ.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:4-11
The Greek word used by the Apostle John is menó. It is defined as to stay, abide, remain. It's important to remember that Jesus spoke only what His Father told him to speak.
For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. John 12:49
So if, as Jordan claims, God the Father is the destination of the believer, why did he command us to stay, abide, remain in Christ?
Consider further this verse taken in its context in John 14.
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Is Jesus saying he is the Father? Not at all. Jesus is stating that he is the exact image of the Father. Whatever is true of the Father is true of Jesus. This is one of many verses in Scripture in which Jesus affirms that God is One. Jesus is the way because he and the Father are one. He is God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. At the bottom of all this is Jordan's misunderstanding of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
Jordan seems to treat God, not as One, but as three...not as One God subsisting in three persons, but as three Gods in hierarchy.
The Elect of God worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, without confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. (From the Athanasian Creed).
God is one in being, essence, and nature. He subsists in the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father never acts apart from the Son and the Spirit. The Son never acts apart from the Father and the Spirit. The Spirit never acts apart from the Father and the Son. He proceeds from the Father and the Son.
The love of the Father is the love of the Son and the Spirit. The love of the Son is the love of the Father and the Spirit. And the love of the Spirit is the love of the Father and the Son.
As those who are in Christ, we believe that all things come from the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 1Cor. 8:6
The persons of the Godhead are coequal and coeternal in majesty. God’s very nature is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And in God's plan of redemption, It is the Father who chose the elect in his beloved Son before the foundation of the world. The Elect are the Father's gift to the Son.
For Prince to state, and Jordan to affirm, that Jesus is the pathway and the Father is the destination is an example of Biblical misunderstanding. Do the Scriptures contradict themselves? Are we united throughout eternity to Christ, or is he only a stepping stone to the Father? What do we make of the examples of our union with Christ (the Church as the bride of Christ; the organic union of the vine and the branches; Christ as the head and the Church as his body?) “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:31-32 Does the bride marry her husband in order to be a daughter? Preposterous! No. She loves her husband and is united to him. Because God is One, when we abide in Christ, we also abide in the Father, and to love Christ is to love the Father also.
Finally, Jordan’s greatest transgression is that he does violence to the Gospel of Christ in saying this:
“The gospel is simply this. It is about a Father who lost His kids and who wants them back.”
No! The Gospel is the announcement from God about the person and work of his Son, Jesus Christ, and what he did to save sinners. It is through the Gospel by the work of the Holy Spirit that God saves sinners.
Consider the Gospel that Paul preached:
1Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.
Paul received the Gospel from Christ himself, not from any man. Jordan’s gospel is no gospel at all. It is false. The Gospel is not about a needy God who lost his kids and wants them back. The Gospel is the announcement by our merciful God about the person and saving work of His glorious Son to save sinners, the fallen sons of Adam.
Sonship: A Journey Into Father’s heart is full of false teaching and a false Gospel. May God give James Jordan grace, so that he might see the truth and repent, and may God pour out his grace on those who have been led astray that they might know the truth and be set free.
"Not many of you should be teachers my brothers, knowing that we will receive greater judgment." James 3:1
4 people found this helpful
April 4, 2022
This is a Great Book
This book is filled with revelation about what it means to live as a loved son or daughter of God. It was encouraging, challenging, and freeing all at the same time. Highly recommended.
This book is filled with revelation about what it means to live as a loved son or daughter of God. It was encouraging, challenging, and freeing all at the same time. Highly recommended.
May 10, 2017
A refreshing and comforting reality that we are meant to be the Father's dearly loved children.
July 23, 2024
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I can not wait to study this book so I can understand Sonship better.
May 30, 2025
His story with his father makes me cry. This book is about receiving God's love.
May 18, 2014
Definitely, a worthy read!
April 12, 2014
Changed my whole view on God the Father - fabulous book
November 15, 2014
Sons and Daughters
We are the sons and daughters of God, who want nothing but to be free, through the blood of Jesus Christ.
We are the sons and daughters of God, who want nothing but to be free, through the blood of Jesus Christ.
February 11, 2016
really good stuff on seeing yourself as a Son and being ok with your weaknesses.
November 9, 2017
This has been one of the most revealing books I've read about my Christian faith.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews