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.
No comments:
Post a Comment