Jesus was speaking to His followers in John 8:19 (Amplified) which says, "Then they aid to Him, Where is this Father of Yours? Jesus answered, You know My Father as little as you know Me. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also."
In this simply statement, Jesus not only showed us the Father's will, but the Father Himself. If we really knew Jesus, then we would know the Father. We've tried figuring out the Father's will and His Person, by the carnal minds of religion, for more years than we care to admit. We've been taught from The New Testament, by reading about The Old Testament. They've taught the Father deals with those of us in the new covenant, the way He dealt with the old covenant saints, without realizing the complete differences in the covenants.
God's will was the same for them as it is for us now, but the people had to function by the Laws that would keep them in a place where His will could be expressed. The people of the old covenant were still dead in trespass and sin. They were spiritually dead and separated in their spirit by Adam's transgression in the Garden, so God couldn't express the full Gift of His will by the Law. God still had to deal with them as flesh and not Spirit.
Jesus said in John 10:10 (Amplified), "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)." If Jesus wasn't speaking about the Life of the Spirit of God, then they wouldn't have needed what He came to offer, because they were alive already. Everyone within the sound of His Voice was alive in their flesh, but they were all dead or separated from the Life, that was in the Spirit of God. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:6 (Amplified), "What is born from the flesh is flesh (of the physical, is physical); and what is born of the Spirit is spirit."
When we were born-again, we received the Life, Grace, will and Good pleasure of the Father. Since our spirit was now made alive and our flesh was considered dead with Jesus, God's will could be given in the unrestrained fullness of His Love. Before, His will was restricted by the sinful flesh and His will was held back by spiritually dead men. Through Jesus' Sacrifice, the flesh was dead by the cross and the spirit was made alive by His resurrection.
We've been taught that God still deals with us according to the dead flesh or carnal man. Little has been taught about our new creation man of the spirit. Our instructions, discipline, correction, reproof, understanding, Wisdom and Grace, all come to us and through us, by our spirit. God's will isn't only the same Expression of His Character, but of His Very Self. This was always His will from the moment He decided to "make man in Our Image and Likeness." Genesis 1:26 (Amplified) tells us, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), make mankind in Our Image, after Our Likeness."
At this time, there was no flesh and blood man, but only in God's Likeness as a spirit. God fashioned a body for this spirit man to live in and be able to contact the natural world He made for them. God was still directing, fellow shipping and walking with man, by His Spirit. It was only after Adam transgressed, that he was separated in his spirit from the Spirit of God, according to Genesis 2:17 (Amplified) which says, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die."
Genesis 5:5 (Amplified) says, "So altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and he died." God told Adam that, "He would die on the same day he ate from the tree." This death was the separation from the Life of God's Spirit and it continues even to this day for those who reject and refuse the Life that Jesus spoke of in John 10:10. The best known scripture of all time, tells us God's will for mankind. Thus, Jesus says in John 3:16 (Amplified), "For God so greatly Loved and dearly prized the world that He even gave up His Only begotten (Unique Son), so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost), but have eternal Life."
The Life that God sent through faith in Jesus, was restored Life and connection back to Him, Who is Life. We've misunderstood the fullness of God's Grace and His will, which has left us in a place that makes Grace difficult to understand. Jesus is God's will. In order to understand God's will for us today, we must only heed what Jesus told them in His Own Words. Thus, John 8:19 (Amplified) says, "Where is this Father of Yours? Jesus answered, You know My Father as little as you know Me. If You knew Me, you would know My Father also."
We cannot know the heart, will, joy, Life, Grace, Love or the Person of the Father, when we won't see Him in the very earthly ministry of Jesus. We argue among ourselves about things that have been gleaned form man's teachings about the Word of God, many of which have left us with a distorted view of our Heavenly Father. This has resulted in an inability to trust Him in anything, other than going to Heaven when we die and some Christians aren't sure of that.
The Life that God gave us by His Own will, was restoring us back to what God's will for mankind was from the beginning. The "worst" that man would have ever known before Adam's fall, was the Garden of Eden. Paradise was the worst we would have ever experienced. In the Garden, man would not know "Good and evil, Blessing or calamity," but only Good, Blessing and unbroken fellowship with the Father. This was all restored to everyone who would receive and believe in Jesus Christ. This is and always was, God's will.
God's Very Own Spirit now lives in us by Jesus and it's His Life that we now enjoy. His Life in us, is His will for us. This is why Jesus came, according to Luke 2:14 (Amplified) where the angels announced Jesus' birth to mankind forever, saying, "Glory to God in the Highest Heaven, and on earth peace among men with whom He is well pleased, men of good will, of His favor." We see the will of God being announced to all who will receive.
If it had been God's will to deal with mankind by his flesh, then there wouldn't have been a need for a new covenant or new creation. Jesus was our Redeemer and He redeemed those who will believe, back to to before the fall in the Garden and placed us once again into God's family. We keep seeing and dealing with ourselves, by who we once were in the flesh and that's how we expect God to deal with us. Because we still see ourselves more by the flesh and separation of carnality, we fail to enter in and be led by God's Grace and His Spirit. If God wished to guide us by our flesh, then He wouldn't have needed a new covenant. Hebrews 8:13 (Amplified) tells us, "When God speaks of a new covenant (or agreement), He makes the first one obsolete (out of use). And what is obsolete (out of use, and annulled because of age), is ripe for disappearance and to be dispenses with altogether."
The full will of God is able to be displayed in the lives of those who believe in Him, His written and spoken and revealed will of God, through the Person of Jesus Christ. How could we believe that sending Jesus was God's will for mankind and then believe that Jesus didn't do God's will when He came? That's foolishness at its best. Jesus said that, "When we see Him, we see the Father." Jesus was and still is, God's Perfect will for mankind. What we see Jesus do, is what we see the Father do and what Jesus didn't do, we will not see the Father do either. Jesus healed, He didn't make people sick. Jesus fed the hungry, He didn't take food away from people. Jesus Blessed, He didn't curse. He gave life, He didn't take life. If we will simply know Jesus, we will see God's will for mankind.
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