In John 14:7-9 (Amplified), we read, "If you had known Me (had learned to recognize Me) you would also have known My Father. From now on, you know Him and have seen Him." Verse 8 says, "Phillip said to Him,'Lord, show us the Father (cause us to see the Father-that is all we ask) then we will be satisfied.'" Verse 9 continues, "Jesus replied, 'Have I been with all of you for so long a time, and you do not recognize and know Me yet, Phillip? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say then, show us the Father?'"
For years I've watched God's people struggle for a vision of the Father. They still haven't seen that as they watched Jesus, they are watching the Father. We still walk in condemnation of their past even though they've been set completely free. We still walk trying to be good so that God will bless us. We haven't yet realized that we're blessed because He is good and not because we are good.
We still struggle with sickness and disease as God's chastisement or teaching. We still haven't gotten hold of grace and mercy in Jesus. Most of the time we continue to see our Father under the law of the old covenant instead of the law of grace under the new covenant.
Somehow we've failed to say the same thing that Phillip said, "Show us the Father." We haven't understood the most basic teaching of Jesus from John 10:30 (Amplified), "I and the Father are one."
Jesus said that "No one has seen the Father except the Son, but when you've seen Me, then you've seen the Father." I can't help wondering how we got so mixed up when it comes to Knowing Him. The only way, and the easiest way to know God is to watch Jesus. If Jesus didn't do it, then God doesn't do it. If Jesus didn't make you sick to teach you something, then God won't make you sick to teach you either.
Jesus declared in John 10:10 (Amplified), "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that you may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, 'til if overflows). "It should be very simple to determine just be this scripture who God is. If it steals, kills or destroys, then it's not God.
I never saw Jesus refuse healing to anyone or ever heard Him tell someone that the Father wanted them to keep their sickness. If He didn't to it, then God doesn't do it. I never saw Him turn anyone away who needed help and neither does the Father.
Somehow, we got the whole of the gospel turned upside down. It seems that the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, healing, prosperity, authority, power of His name and deliverance have suddenly come from the devil. And, sickness, poverty, condemnation, hard times, trials, and tests were from our Father. How could we be so blind as to mistake our greatest enemy as being from our Father?
How can we proclaim to be saved by grace, only to be put under the Law? We seemed to have fallen prey to the deception of the enemy as to what Jesus paid for on the cross. Why is it that we're so quick to believe the lie of the devil about a God Who loves us so much that He died in our place? How could we think for even a minute that our Father is the cause of all our problems?
Even when we were unsaved and lost, He loved us at our worst. Jesus says in John 17:23 (Amplified), "I in them, and you in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and (definitely) recognize that you sent Me and that You have loved them (even) as You have loved Me."
If you can even imagine the love that the Father has for Jesus, then you can begin to understand how God is your answer and not your problem. The only way to know God is to know Jesus. If we begin to understand what Jesus did for us, then we can begin to understand and know our Father.
How it must hurt the great heart of God to have His children think of Him as a murderer or a killer of children. To think of Him as the source of all the hell and heartache of His children, that when something terrible happens, we blame Him. If my children thought that of me, then I don't think I could handle it. Here is a Father who went to the greatest length of His love to free us and then we view Him as a terrorist.
We're going to get a view of our Father through these next set of lessons that will reveal the fullness of His goodness and love for us. From now on, we'll see Him in Hi place of grace and love and not judgement and death.
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