Doctrinal Mastery: Hebrews 12:9

Heavenly Father Is “the Father of Spirits“

In your study of Hebrews 12:9, you learned about your relationship to God, who is “the Father of spirits,” and how this can impact your life. This lesson can help you memorize the doctrinal mastery reference and key scripture phrase for Hebrews 12:9, explain the doctrine, and apply principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge in real-life situations.

Understanding, applying, and memorizing. As students first understand, then learn how to apply this understanding to their lives, memorizing doctrinal mastery passages becomes easier. More importantly, the doctrine and principles from the passages are more likely to have a lasting impact.

Student preparation: Invite students to think of situations they face when it would be helpful for them to understand or remember that they are children of Heavenly Father.

Possible Learning Activities

This doctrinal mastery passage lesson is designed to be taught after the lesson “Hebrews 12:9,” which is the contextual lesson for the doctrinal mastery passage Hebrews 12:9 . If this doctrinal mastery passage lesson needs to be moved to a different week, be sure to teach the corresponding contextual lesson during that week as well.

Explain and memorize

Help students practice explaining the doctrine in their own words. The following is one way to do this. This activity could be adapted by inviting students to role-play this situation in pairs, small groups, or as a class.

In the previous lesson you learned that God is the Father of our spirits. Imagine that you are speaking with a friend who is questioning who they are. Use Hebrews 12:9 to help them. As you answer their questions or address their concerns, consider including the following:

What it means that we are children of God and why it matters to know this
How understanding or not understanding this truth could impact our identity and self-worth
Ways the world tries to influence our knowledge about who we are and our relationship to God, and why we would want to resist these influences

Help students memorize the scripture reference and key scripture phrase for Hebrews 12:9, “Heavenly Father is ‘the Father of spirits.’“ One way to do this is to display the first letters of each word in the scripture reference and key scripture phrase on the board: H 12:9, H F i “t F o s.”

Invite students to try repeating the reference and key scripture phrase by using the first letters as hints. After a few repetitions, erase some of the first letters and see if students can still recite it accurately. Then, erase all letters and repeat the scripture reference and key scripture phrase as a class.

Practice application

Help students review the principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge. The following activity is one way to do this. Consider displaying the following key words and asking the questions below.

To help you review the three principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge, consider the following key words:

Faith
Perspective
Sources

Answer the following questions. If needed, you can refer to paragraphs 5–12 of the “Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge” section of the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document (2022).

How do each of these words relate to the three principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge?
Why is it important to understand and apply these principles?

Invite students to prepare to apply the principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge and the doctrine taught in Hebrews 12:9. One way to do this is to display the following prompt with its blank spaces on the board and fill out the missing elements together as a class. Alternatively, consider using the scenario provided as an example after the prompt.

(Name) is a young person who (situation or conflict). This makes him/her feel . Regarding his/her relationship to God, he/she thinks .

For example, one completed scenario might look like this:

Leslie is a young person who excels in many extracurricular activities and is a leader among her peers. This makes her feel happy. Regarding her relationship to God, she thinks her life is already going so well that she doesn’t really see a need to focus that much on Him.

Consider displaying the questions found under each of the following principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge. Students could discuss them together as a class, in pairs, or in small groups.

Examine concepts and questions with an eternal perspective

How do you think Heavenly Father would see this person? Why would it be important for this person to know how Heavenly Father sees them?
How could a better understanding of their divine identity as a child of God impact the person in this situation?

Seek further understanding through divinely appointed sources

What have you learned from your study of Hebrews 12:9 that could help in this situation?
What other sources could the person in your scenario study on their own to find additional insight?

Allow students time to find, search, and share some of the additional resources mentioned in the question above. If they need help, consider referring them to the “Commentary and Background Information” section at the end of the previous lesson, “Hebrews 12:9.”

Act in faith

What experiences, either personal or otherwise, come to mind when you think of acting in faith? How can you use these to help the person in your scenario?
What recommendations might you give to the person in your scenario to help them act in faith?

Consider concluding by bearing testimony of our divine identity as children of God or inviting students to share their testimonies. It may also be beneficial to allow students to share what they have learned and felt by asking questions. For example, “Why do you think Hebrews 12:9 is a doctrinal mastery passage?” “What have you learned in your study of this passage that you did not know before?” or “How could you personally apply this passage to your life?”

Doctrinal mastery review

The following review activity should be used in a lesson that will be taught soon after this one.

To help students with their memorization and understanding of Hebrews 12:9 and its key scripture phrase, say the reference and invite students to repeat the phrase “Heavenly Father is ‘the Father of spirits.’” Then repeat the phrase and invite students to say the reference. It might also be beneficial to include other New Testament doctrinal mastery passages as part of this review.

Supplemental Learning Activity

Alternative scenarios

As an alternative to having students fill out the prompt provided earlier in the lesson, consider displaying a few simple scenarios, such as the following, and allowing students to choose one to respond to.

Susie has a poor relationship with her parents. When she thinks about being a child of God, she wonders if He is just another person unhappy with her choices and wanting to tell her what to do.
Amari spends a lot of time keeping up with trends of the world. He sometimes engages in behaviors that are against the commandments of God and wonders why he doesn’t feel more happiness in his life.