Genesis 1:1-3 (Amplified) says, "In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned and created) the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters And God said, Let there be light; and there was light."
The beginning of what we know as creation was formed and fashioned for man, not God. Like all fathers, our Heavenly Father longed for family and fellowship with someone in His class of being. God always was and is and did not become God when He created the heavens and earth. Of all the beings in the world of the spirit, there was none in His class of being. The angels were created by and for Him, but were not in His class of being.
In Genesis 1:26 (Amplified), "God said, Let Us (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our Image, after Our Likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea; over the birds of the air, all (tame) beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth." Everything God created was for mankind to inhabit.
Mankind was created by a Spirit, in the same Image of His Spirit and in God's Likeness. We were living spirits like God is a living Spirit. Jesus tells His disciples in John 6:63 (Amplified) that, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
When the Father created us, we were made just like Him according to John 4:24 (Amplified) which says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being) and those that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth (reality)." We've always been spirit beings first and clothes with flesh as a means to be in contact with the physical world that God made for His family to live in.
In Genesis 2:7 (Amplified) we read, "Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Spirit of Life, and man became a living being." We were made by a Spirit, in the same Likeness and Image of our Father. We became "Born of the Spirit," by a Spirit. We were then clothed by flesh and bone as physical beings in a physical world. The fleshly housing of man made him able to have contact with the physical realm and things of it. We were to inhabit the natural world the Father created for us, but we were to learn, grow, be led by, speak and deal in the spirit. We were to be led by the Holy Spirit just like Jesus was in His fleshly Body. And, we were do like Jesus Who only did what He heard from the Father and let the Father in Him do the works. Jesus was a flesh and blood Man Who was so sensitive in His Spirit, that He always heard when the Spirit spoke to Him.
Remember that God is a Spirit and this Spirit is the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "I only go where the Father says to go, I only do what the Father says to do and I only says what I hear the Father say to do." When Jesus made this statement about only doing what He heard the Father telling Him to do, He was simply being led by the Spirit.
We were made to walk in the spirit and live in the spirit, while being housed in this physical flesh and blood body. This body was only intended to be "clothing" for our real self, which is our spirit. After the fall of the man Adam in the Garden, we became more and more reliant on the physical contact rather than the spirit. Today's Church is even looking to see or feel the presence of the Lord. We've tried seeking and feeling God in our natural body. God is a Spirit and the Word of God is Spirit, according to John 6:63 (Amplified) which says, It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life-Giver) the flesh conveys no benefits whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life).
We were made in the spirit in His Likeness and Image and we were clothed by flesh, but our true resemblance to our Father is our spirit. We were made to communicate with Him by our spirit because our flesh cannot perceive or recognize spiritual things. Our flesh still hesitates to accept the reality of miracles, even when God performs them directly in front of us.
When the Holy Spirit, coupled with the Word, is revealed to us, we can then see the real Kingdom of God. Through His resurrection, we have already been placed in His Kingdom with Jesus. Ephesians 2:6 (Amplified) says, "And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together (giving us joint seating with Him) in the heavenly sphere (by virtue of our being) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
The Holy Spirit is the One Who reveals Jesus to us by the anointed Word of God. When we read God's Word, we are seeing our Heavenly Father through Jesus. Jesus came to reveal God to us as Father. Until Jesus arrived on earth, we only had a vague picture of God from the old covenant. Jesus brought a new revelation of God by a new covenant, as Father. Man never dared bring God into the familiar "Father." Now, through Jesus, the Father has been revealed and now the Holy Spirit is revealing Jesus to the Church in a more intimate manner than ever before.
Jesus said, "When you see Me, you have seen the Father." The only way we can know God in the intimate, familiar "Father," is by watching Jesus in His earthly ministry. If we will listen to the Holy Spirit, then we will be able to know what God's will is in every area of our lives. If we wonder if it's God's will to heal the sick, then the Holy Spirit will reveal the answer by asking, "Did Jesus heal all who came to Him?" If Jesus did heal everyone who came to Him, then that is God's will for healing. Everything Jesus did while in His earthly ministry is God's will. Did Jesus place hardships on the people in order to teach them something? If not, then neither does the Father place hardships on us to teach us something. When the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us, we are to see our Father in everything He did.
The Shekinah Glory of God is the presence of His Spirit. This same glory was given to Jesus at His baptism in the Jordan River. John 1:33 (Amplified) says, "And I did not know Him nor recognize Him, but He Who sent me to baptize in (with) water, said to me, Upon Him Who you shall see the Spirit descend and remain, that One is He Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."
Now we can understand what Jesus meant when He said in John 17:22 (Amplified), "I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one (even) as We are One." The "glory and honor" Jesus speaks of is the indwelling Shekinah, the actual presence of God Himself Who is living and making us one with Himself, just like He and Jesus are One in the Spirit. John 16:14 (Amplified) says, "He (the Holy Spirit) will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you."
The Holy Spirit can reveal Jesus and everything that is His (including the Father and Son relationship) to us. And, because of this revelation, we can truly know this Awesome God as Father. We can know His will, His heart, His grace, His healing, His mercy, and His very self by seeing Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.
Many times we only see Jesus through the four gospels. We Him as He gives small insights of the new birth and family relationship to the old covenant people. Jesus could not reveal the entire plan of God to them because satan would have tried preventing His death on the cross. 1Corinthians 2:7-8 (Amplified) says, "But rather what we are setting forth is a wisdom of God once hidden (from human understanding) and now revealed to us by God (that wisdom) which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification (to lift us unto the glory of His presence) None of the rulers of this age or world perceived this, for if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory."
1Corinthians 2:10 (Amplified) goes on, "Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the Holy Spirit searches diligently, exploring, and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny)."
The Holy Spirit show us what no man ever knew before about our Father. This is His work and ministry. He is the Only One Who can know the heart of our Father. Without the Holy Spirit revealing God as Father, we retain a portrait of the old covenant God. We call Him "Father," but still act like we don't know Him. We fear His presence many times, like He only comes to condemn or punish. We view Him by the things He did in the Old Testament. Without the Holy Spirit's guiding, we fail to understand what God did in the old covenant as grace and love.
Some of us fully expect for God to bring trials and tests and hardships upon us in order to discipline us like in the Old Testament. This comes from not seeing God in the Father Image. Once we learn how to listen to the Holy Spirit, we can enjoy a fellowship with Him as family. I cannot recall ever being afraid of my earthly father. I knew I could go to him at anytime for anything and he would always be there. I was comfortable in his presence and enjoyed his company. I never had to make an appointment or "prepare" myself to come to him.
We act like we must fast and pray in order to be heard by God and we've spent countless hours waiting on heaven to hear us, when all we needed to say was, "In the Name of Jesus." When we approach the Father In the Name of Jesus, we have entered into the Throne Room of Grace. All of heaven hears us when we use that Name. We have struggled putting faith into our prayer life and personal life, by not allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the Father, through Jesus. None of Jesus' disciples had a problem wondering what His will was towards mankind, because they knew Him.
We should, by the Holy Spirit, know our Father by simply watching Jesus. Have you noticed that we approach them in different ways? We think of Jesus in one way and think of the Father in another. Jesus said, though, that, "When you see Me, you have seen Him." Wouldn't it be wonderful to be as sure of the Father as we are of Jesus? He only came to do the Father's will. Everything we saw Jesus do is the will of the Father. It is true when we got saved and until we reach the final end of our walk and go home to heaven. If Jesus did it, then so has our Father.
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