Decades in the making, The Heart of a Father is the book Bill Thompson was truly called to write.

Father in the faith

As part of the pastoral team of a large church on the outskirts of Edinburgh, one of Bill’s roles was developing a ministry among men, enabling them to find their identity in Christ.

Bill quickly became regarded as a father in the faith, and over the course of many years, he has guided and encouraged a great many believers through his gentle kindness and depth of wisdom. Bill believes the Church is sorely lacking true 'fathers', who are willing to invest in those younger in the faith, walk alongside them, and encourage and disciple them.

The overall objective of the book is to help believers encounter the heart of God towards them and so come into a fuller understanding and experience of the bountiful facets of the Father’s heart towards us.

These the author considers one by one in a thoughtfully structured book, containing helpfully alliterative subtitles that ably describe each chapter’s subject matter. So, we have ‘goodness and generosity’, ‘honesty and humility’, ‘mercy and mission’, modelling and maturity’, ‘wholeness and healing’ and so on.

Abundant generosity

The first chapter, ‘The Father’s Embrace (intimacy and identity)’, truly sets the tone of the study, because Bill is quite clear that having a firm grip of our identity in Christ Jesus is foundational to the Christian faith. Secure in this, we must develop personal intimacy with our Father – “we are indeed as close to God as we want to be”, he helpfully reminds us (p.35).

We must develop personal intimacy with our Father – “we are indeed as close to God as we want to be”.

In the twin chapters, ‘The Lovingkindness of the Father’, and ‘Father to the Fatherless’, Bill is at pains to prove the overriding goodness of God to his children. With echoes of teaching from Dane Ortlund’s outstanding ‘Gentle and Lowly‘ (reviewed here), the author stresses our unconditional acceptance to the Father, his abundant generosity (not least in the person of the Holy Spirit and his outworking in our lives), and the extent and magnitude of his mercy to us – ‘his mercy sits higher than justice’, he states (p.60).

A Purposeful Father

This being a biblical study, the book is saturated in the Scriptures, with many references to those who walked the path of faith in days of yore, whose stories are recorded in the Bible. Helpfully, Bill also includes many personal testimonies of God’s faithfulness as a loving Father through the many years he has served him. He’s not embarrassed to also share some of the mistakes he has repeatedly made in his journey of faith, and the lessons he has (sometimes painfully) learned from them.

He’s not embarrassed to also share some of the mistakes he has repeatedly made in his journey of faith, and the lessons he has (sometimes painfully) learned from them.

One of my favourite chapters is ‘A Purposeful Father’, in which Bill expresses God’s intention for each of our lives. “Everything we are ever created to be has its origins in the Father. He is the author and initiator of the broad blueprint for our lives … and as we step forward the details will be revealed” (p. 129). Using Jeremiah 29:11 as a basis (“for I know the plans I have for you…”), and following the biblical examples of God’s call on the lives of Moses and David, Bill urges us to seek clarity on God’s call for our lives, reminding us that such call is first and foremost to God himself.

Experience the Father’s fullness

Personal experience of God’s moving in our lives is explored in ‘Encountering the Father’; touches of God’s Spirit that cause us to awaken and arise; heavenly interventions which bless us with the reality of his presence, and which help transform us into his likeness.

It’s impossible to cover all the book’s contents in this review, so comprehensive is it in its extent. Indeed, more than any book I know on this topic, ‘The Heart of a Father’ acts as a most helpful and practical handbook on the Father heart of God.

It’s impossible to cover all the book’s contents in this review, so comprehensive is it in its extent.

Carefully written and edited, with helpful summaries at the close of each chapter, ‘The Heart of a Father’ is an invaluable resource for anyone desiring to deepen their own walk of faith and come into a richer knowledge and experience of the fullness of the Father’s heart than previously known.

With teaching that is rich and deep, and full of wisdom, ‘The Heart of the Father’ ushers the reader into the very bosom of God.

‘The Heart of a Father’ (180pp) is published by Kingdom Publishers, and is available from Amazon for £6.90 (inc p&p)