Seeing The Father Lesson 4

     John14:8-9(Amp) tells us, "Phillip said to [Jesus], Lord show us the Father (cause us to see the Father), that is all we ask, then we will be satisfied. Jesus replied, Have I been with all of you for so long a time and do you 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?"

     Along with the other disciples, Phillip could physically Jesus, walk with Him, speak with Him and know Him as a Man Who performed miracles, but he couldn't see or know the True Identity of the Spirit and the Father, because he couldn't see into or by the Spirit.  In John6:63(Amp) Jesus says, "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."

     Today, can we really know Jesus and the Father better than those who walked with Jesus then?  The answer is, "Yes."  Many of us feel that we could believe and have more faith in our lives, if we could have physically walked with Jesus.  The disciples walked with Jesus only in the sense realm and by the carnal, natural senses.  They were only "with Him."  We are now made to be one Spirit with Christ and living in Him.  Wishing to see Jesus in order to believe, means we're only knowing Him by our natural senses and seeing Him only like the disciples did, by the flesh and carnal realm.

     Paul writes about coming to know Jesus more intimately and deeply, by the Power of the Out-flowing of His Resurrection and by the Spirit, in Phil.3:10(Amp), saying, "For my determined purpose is that I may know Him, (that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him), perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the Power out-flowing from His Resurrection which it exerts over believers that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His Likeness, even to His death, in the hope That if possible I may attain to the Spiritual and moral resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead even while in the body."

     Through our new creation person and in the spirit, we can actually know Jesus better and more intimately than those who walked with Him, while He was living in His flesh and blood Body.  We have the privilege of living with and in Him, by our new creation person in the spirit.  God's Word is Spirit and Life and Light in our lives.  It tells us that God's Word and Jesus are the Same Person.  The Father and Son speak to us by the Holy Spirit, not to the carnal persons Jesus spoke to then, but directly One on one, in person and into our new creation spirit.

     For some reason, when we speak to God's Church about the Super-natural, they only see the dark side of it.  We've been born of a Super-natural realm, by a Super-natural Father Who is Spirit.  We're born into the Super-natural, by a Super-natural Word or Seed.  The realm of the dark side of what we call "super-natural," can only be explained by the same carnal realm that satan continues trying to rule.  Things the enemy tries bringing upon mankind by his realm of darkness, is manifested by what we can see, feel, hear, smell or taste.  It deals with the carnal man and woman, by his/her senses.

     We see things move, hear things that go bump in the night, we feel things that give us goosebumps, we smell sulfur and are touched by the taste of fear.  It is all manifest in the natural realm and not the spiritual.  Think about the stories told about the dark side of this life, like haunted houses.  They know it's haunted, because they have seen or heard strange things.  Some swear they smell dark spirits.  Satan functions in the natural realm and once he brings us to be fearful, he can begin moving deeper into the realm of our flesh and soul.  He enters into our emotions and mental abilities, until we become captive in these natural bodies.  

     Our Heavenly Father deals with our spirit, which is now alive in Him and is able to discern Truth from lies.  He is capable of touching our flesh by the Power of the Holy Spirit, like those in the Upper Room, like the sound of the mighty win and flames upon their heads.  He doesn't do these things, in order to show off.  Those in the Upper Room were born-again and went forth in the Spirit to lay hands on the sick and preach the Gospel, by the Power of the Holy Spirit in their spirit.

     If the Church today was simply led by signs and wonders like those under the first covenant, then it wouldn't produce more.  How long did those in the Wilderness remember the signs that led them out of Egyptian bondage, before they didn't "mix it with faith," moving by the flesh instead of the spirit?  Their lack of faith resulted in their never entering the Promised Land.  If we will only believe by seeing signs, then we could be led by signs from the enemy, as well as from on High.  We have a better way to know Jesus, by His Spirit and His Word, than those who walked with Him in His flesh.  We can know Him spirit to Spirit, because we've been made God's children in His Own Image and Likeness, after His Seed Who is Jesus, the Word.

         

Seeing the Father Lesson 3

     So few of today's Christians know Jesus as He really is.  Jesus' disciples only knew Him after the flesh and not the Spirit, before His death and Resurrection.  They could only know Him as a Man, by their five senses.  After His Resurrection, they could truly know Him as He is.  Jesus' flesh was a veil that covered His Spirit and prevented them from seeing Him as He truly was, until after His Resurrection.

     From the beginning, Jesus was and still is, the Word of God.  Gen.1 says that until God spoke the Word, nothing "became."  John1:1-3,14(Amp) says, "In the beginning (before all time), was the Word, Christ, and the Word was with God and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being."  Verse14 continues, saying, "And the Word, Christ, became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled, fixed His tent of flesh and lived awhile among us; and we actually saw His Glory, His Honor, His Majesty, such Glory as an only begotten Son receives from His Father, full of Grace, favor, Loving Kindness and Truth."

     We don't read about Paul meeting Jesus, until his encounter on the Road to Damascus.  Acts9:3-6(Amp) tells us that, "Saul, had an encounter with Jesus that changed his entire life and mission in life."  This encounter wasn't just a physical one, but one by the Light and Spirit of Jesus Himself.  Paul wrote about this experience in 2Cor.12;3-5, where he met Jesus in the "third heaven."  Paul wrote to the Church, about the Revelation he received from Jesus Himself.  Peter referred to Paul's letters in 2Peter3:15-16(Amp), saying, "And consider the long suffering of our Lord (His slowness in avenging wrongs and judging the world), is salvation (that which is conducive to the soul's safety), even as our beloved Paul also wrote to you according to the Spiritual insight given him Speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in those Epistles of Paul that are difficult to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist and misconstrue to their own utter destruction, just as they distort and misinterpret the rest of the scriptures."

     Paul wrote to the Church in Galatia in Gal.1:11-12(Amp), saying, "For I want you to know brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed and made known by me is not man's gospel (a human invention, according to or patterned after any human standard) For indeed I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through a Divine Revelation given by Jesus Christ (the Messiah)."

     Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth in 2Cor.5:18(Amp), saying, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a purely human point of view, in terms of natural standards of value. No, even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now, we have such knowledge of Him that we know Him no longer in terms of the flesh."  This is a radical statement to make, unless Paul knew Jesus now in His Spirit, more than as a Man.  Most of us still see Jesus more after the four Gospels and as a Man, than we do after the Spirit.  We fail to see the total fulfillment of our salvation and the Glory of the Gospel of Christ, by doing this.

     Peter had trouble receiving the messages Paul preached, because they were so different from what they knew of Jesus.  They only knew Jesus by the flesh, knowing the flesh was still under the Law and was confined to one place at a time.  Through Jesus' Resurrection and the Holy Spirit, we can be in this world having Revelation knowledge, along with the Power and Authority in and by Jesus' Name.

     The twelve disciples could only deal with Jesus in the flesh, by what they could see, hear, feel, taste and smell.  Paul knew Him only in the Spirit.  Jesus asked Peter in Matt.16:16(Amp), "Who do you think I am and Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."  Peter went onto deny Christ in Matt.26:72(Amp), which says, "And again he denied it and disowned Him with an oath, saying, I do not know the Man."  Peter still only knew Jesus by the five senses.

     We mostly refer to the four Gospels, when thinking about Jesus' Words, when Paul's Epistles are also His Words now in the fullness of Who Jesus is now, instead of before the cross.  Before the cross, Jesus spoke to people who were under the Law and not born-again yet.  He couldn't disclose the fullness of God's Plan, lest satan should hear and try stopping the Plan.  Jesus spoke in Parables and "Hidden Truths."  They followed Jesus only in the five senses and couldn't see Him beyond the veil of His flesh.  Jesus repeatedly said, "It is the Father in me that does the work."  They couldn't see into His Spirit and His True Identity, but we can now do this.  

Seeing the Father Lesson 2

    Jesus says in John14:7,17(Amp), "If you had known Me (had learned to recognize Me), you would also have know My Father. From now on you know Him and have seen Him."  Jesus goes on to speak about the Holy Spirit, Who was working in and through Him, in Verse 17, saying, "The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you constantly and will be in you."

     How can we know and see the Father?  Only by God's Word and His Spirit.  John5:19(Amp) tells us, "So Jesus answered them by saying, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing of Himself (of His Own Accord): but He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does is what the Son does in the same way in His turn."

     So when we have seen Jesus, are we are seeing the Father?  Yes, but not the flesh and blood Man, but the Spirit Who is living and giving Life to the flesh and blood Man.  Like Jesus' disciples, we have trouble seeing the Father, because we still see a flesh and blood Man, instead of the Spirit of the Father.  John4:24(Amp) says, "God is a Spirit (a Spirit Being), and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (reality)."  Jesus prayed in John17:17(Amp), "Sanctify them, purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy by the Truth, YOUR WORD IS TRUTH."

     To worship in the Spirit and Truth, is to know the Father, in and by the Spirit and by His Word.  Gen.1:26(Amp) reads, "God said, Let Us (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) make mankind in Our Image (after Our Own Likeness)."  Jesus said that we are created new and made in the Image of our Father.  It's not our flesh that was made new, but the Spirit that makes us able to "see" the Father.

     Everything that Jesus did as a flesh and blood Man, was done by the Father Who was in Him.  Jesus said, "When you see Me, you have see the Father."  Jesus wasn't saying that when we see His flesh and blood body, but by the works of the Father within Him.  We still ourselves and others, more by the flesh and blood, instead of by the Father within us.  When we do this, we limit ourselves from seeing and doing the work of the Holy Spirit, Who is the True Life and Image of the Father in us, just like He was in Jesus.

     "What do you see when I say Jesus?"  Do you see the letters that spell the Name J E S U S?  Do you see the Man from Galilee, Who walked on the water?  Do you see the Man dying on the cross?  Or, do you see beyond the veil of the flesh and the grave, into the Spirit of the Risen Christ?  Do you see Him now through the Revelation that He gave the Apostle Paul in letters written to God's people in His Word, which is Truth? 

     God doesn't look like flesh, but is a Spirit.  What color is a spirit?  What sex is a spirit?  Is it short or tall?  Is it something we can see or is it made in God's Image and Likeness?  A spirit is a Spirit being of God Himself now living in us that we must see by His Word and by the Revelation through His Word.  When the people looked at Jesus, they could only focus on His humanity, instead of seeing the Father by the works.

     2Cor.5:17(Amp) says, "That now we have such knowledge of Jesus, that we know Him no longer after the flesh."  Does this contradict what we think or believe about Him?  Through this Revelation from the Holy Spirit, Paul is simply saying that "We now, by the Holy Spirit and the Word, can have a better relationship with Jesus than His disciples had when He was on earthly and in His flesh.  We can know the Father in the Power of Jesus' Resurrection.  We can come into His Presence and into His Throne Room of Grace, without anything to hinder us, because we've been made righteous by the Spirit and have been created and made "One Spirit in the Lord."

     We still live in flesh and blood bodies, but now the spirits living in our bodies have been created new, after the Image and Likeness of our Father God.  The only way to understand this, is by the Spirit and Truth, by Revelation through God's Word.  The Father is looking for people who will worship Him, not by man-made religion and tradition.  The Father created us new, made us His sons and daughters who know Him by His Spirit and His Word.  We are to know the Father Spirit-by-spirit, as His Own Redeemed and Blood bought children, who have come home to Him by conquest and Love.

     Do we then not see Jesus?  Of course we stills see Him, but not just as a Man, but after the Father Who moved through Him and did the miracles, signs and wonders.  The Father did these through a man, Who was totally subject to the Spirit, according to John3:34(Amp), which says, "For He Whom God has sent speaks only God's Word; God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the Gift God makes of His Spirit.."  It was God in Him by His Spirit. 

Seeing the Father Lesson 1

     In John4:23-24(Amp) Jesus says, "A time will come, however is already here, when the true (genuine) worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as these as His worshipers. God is a Spirit (a Spirit Being), and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (reality)."

     The Father is seeking people who worship in Spirit and Truth, but how do we do so?  Jesus went on in John6:45-6(Amp), saying, "It is written in the Book of the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God (have Him in Person for their Teacher). Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to Me. Which does not imply that anyone has ever seen Him except He Who was with the Father Who comes from God; He Alone has seen the Father."

     We're born-again and know we're born of the Spirit, but we still haven't seen the Father with our natural eyes or senses.  It would be awesome if we could have actually walked with and seen Jesus, like His disciples did.  We read in John14:8-9(Amp), "Phillip said to [Jesus], Lord, show us the Father (cause us to see the Father)-that is all that we ask; then we will be satisfied. Jesus replied, Have I been with all of you for so long a time and do you not recognize and know Me yet Phillip? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How then can you say, show us the Father?"

     The disciples saw Jesus wrapped in flesh, as a Man, but couldn't see beyond the flesh into the Spirit.  God is Spirit.  Would we have been able to recognize Him and the Father in Him?  Do we still seek to see and believe by what we feel and after the things in the physical world, instead of the Truth of God's Word?  After His Resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples, where we read about His encounter with Thomas in John20:28-29(Amp), which says, "Thomas, answered Him. My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Because you have seen Me, Thomas, do you now believe (trust, have faith)? Blessed and happy and to be envied are those who have never seen Me and yet have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied) on Me."

     How do those of us who have never seen Jesus, trust and rely on the Father?  We do so by seeking Him, by and through the Word and Spirit, according to Jesus' teaching in John6:63(Amp).  Thus, He says, "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."

     Most of us would love to touch Him, see Him and hear Jesus speak to us, like the people did during His earthly ministry, but God's Word says that we have a better relationship with Him now, than those people did.  How can this be?  We are now new creation spirits, by the new birth.  God is a Spirit and we are spirit. God is seeking those who will worship Him in Spirit and Truth.

     Jesus is "the Word made flesh," but the flesh only covered the Spirit of God's Word.  Everything Jesus did, He did by the Spirit within Him, Who is none other than God Himself.  John3:34(Amp) tells us, "For since He Whom God sent speaks the Words of God (proclaims God's Own Message). God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the Gift God makes of His Spirit."

     Jesus repeatedly said, "It is not Me but the Father in Me that does the work."  We keep seeing Him by His flesh, but it was the unseen Spirit within Him, Who did all the works.  The people couldn't see the Spirit, but only His flesh, so they couldn't recognize the Father when seeing Jesus.  We doubt God's Word of healing and/or deliverance today, because we want to "see" before we can believe.  Jesus said that, "The Words I speak to you are Spirit and Truth (reality)."  Do we believe the Spirit and Truth or do we still need to see God with our natural eyes?  The One Whom God sent (Jesus) only spoke God's Word, so God gave Him the Spirit without measure, according to John3:34.

     The Holy Spirit wrote through Paul in 2Cor.5:16-17(Amp), "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a purely human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). No, Even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint (as a Man), yet now we know Him no longer in terms of the flesh. Therefore, if any person is ingrafted in Christ (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old previous moral and Spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."

     As the new creation family of God, we don't see Him as the Man from Nazareth, or the Man on Calvary's cross or as the Man in the tomb, but by the Word and the Spirit.  We see Him as the Resurrected Lord of All creation and exalted High Above the heavens and earth.  We see Him by the Word, which is Spirit and by Truth, which is His Word.  We have a better relationship than the flesh and carnal mind could ever have.  He lives in us and we live in Him.  We have become one Spirit with the Lord Himself.  We must learn to see God by His Word and by faith in His Truth.  If we wait until see Him in our flesh, then we're exhibiting unbelief and lack of faith in God's Word.