Lesson 3 Knowing The Father

     In John 14:9 (Amplified) Jesus asked, "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?"
     Most of us have wondered about who the Father is and how He operates.  We've drawn forgone conclusions about Him and have tried to walk in what we thought was God.  Jesus said that "No one has seen the Father, but the Son."  But, then He said that "When you see Me, you have seen Him."
     We've tried getting a glimpse of God by reading His Word and frequently we've failed to see Him clearly.  We have a distorted view of God when we read about His dealings of people in the old covenant.  We hear about grace and mercy, then we run into the God of the old covenant.  Few have realized that God had to deal differently in the old covenant than He does in the new covenant.
     In the old covenant, before men could be born again, God had to deal with mankind by the flesh and not the Spirit.  The old covenant men were spiritually dead to God and walked completely in the carnal realm.  God couldn't lead them by the Holy Spirit like He does now.  Instead, there needed to be laws and sacrifices for man's failures in order to keep them in a place of mercy until Jesus could be brought into the earth.  The old covenant really was a covenant of mercy and goodness that kept God from destroying the old covenant people altogether.  Romans 6:23 (Amplified) says, "The wages which sin pays is death, but the (bountiful) free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord."
     When sin was with the old covenant man, mercy would receive the life and blood of a goat or lamb to cover the sin.  Therefore, mercy preserved the life of a sinner time and time again.  We wonder at the way God dealt with man and sometimes we allow ourselves to believe that He deals this way still in the new covenant.  Because we don't study and listen to the Holy Spirit, we get ourselves in the place of the double minded man in the book of James.
     Paul told Timothy in 2Timothy 2:15 (Amplified), "Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial) a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing (rightly handling and skillfully teaching) the Word of truth."  To rightly divide the truth of God's Word, you must let the cross be the place it divides.  The old covenant, through the blood of goats and bulls, could keep men from destruction until the Lamb of God could cleanse them.  Now, because of Jesus, God doesn't have to deal with man as in the flesh.  Instead, God can now, by the pouring out of His own blood, bring life to those who will believe.
     In the beginning, God dealt with Adam by His Spirit, but after the fall God had to deal with him in the flesh or natural man.  Once again, when man gets born again, God deals with us by His Spirit and His Word.  We have erroneously accepted that because of the old covenant, God still is doing that which He did then.  We are still looking for judgment, punishment and anger from God.  To rightly divide the Word of truth, you must see the truth of the resurrection of Jesus and the power of His Blood to give us new life with God in the Spirit.