seen with your Father
John 8.38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do that which you have seen with your father. (compare that to 1 John 3.9-10 Whoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whoever does not do righteousness is not of God, neither he that does not love his brother).
This is a remarkable exchange. Keep in mind that Jesus is addressing those who believed his word. He has established that they must continue in his word to be his disciples; that they are to live truly free of sin. This is their initiation into the faith! The fact that they were choosing to pull back into what they thought they already knew about God wasn’t helping matters.
So Jesus gave these new believers a dramatically clear choice – either identify directly with Father as Jesus did (in both word and deed), or stay stuck in powerless symbolic religion and end up demonstrating that their father was the devil. What a perfect time for someone to step up humbly and say, “Show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us!” Really, why settle for your own opinions when God is throwing wide open a door to intimacy?
Jesus could care less about anyone’s inflated religious ideas or identities or affiliations. He passionately desires to introduce us to the Father, that we may also become sons and live truly transformed as sons. For Jesus, sonship was all about soaking in knowing the Father and obeying him; hearing him and saying what he said, watching him and doing what he did.
Heavenly things have with them Father’s unmistakable testimony. They are not subjective, nor is there any point in opening them for debate. Jesus was not trying to identify with these influential Jewish converts theoretically as sons of Abraham. He desperately wanted to see them broken free of their very real deception and sin.
Real freedom in God cannot come from head-knowledge or mouthed confessions. Jesus cannot be one of many philosophical options for us; neither can the freedom of being the sons of God remain some elusive religious ideal. There is a point of blessed desperation to reach and remain in where we say with Paul that we consider ALL a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing and even winning Christ Jesus. This is that glimpse of the treasure hidden in a field for which you quickly go and sell all you have - in order to buy that field. In this place we will truly speak and do exactly what we have heard and seen with our Father.
thank you for speaking the Truth in Love! i am very grateful! many times i feel i don’t belong or identify with the “pop-church” as seen and heard on too many radio/tv and other poor examples, but then i look at myself and see basically all those same flaws and fakeness in myself. man i just feel as if something has to give. i feel the Spirit drawing… and then, i get distracted/complacent/same old, same old. i want to reflect CHRIST in LOVE and TRUTH now more than ever but i seem to be able to talk a lot but not do so much about the reflecting, you know what i’m saying?
joshua bro! i hear ya brotha and will be prayin for sure
I’m sure Father has been exposing things to you and drawing. that is saying a lot brotha. you have approached a point where you will be moving from the KNOWLEDGE to the LIVING. it reminds me of what our homeboy Job said “I had heard of You with my ears, BUT now mine eye SEETH You.” bring that very statement before the Lord bro and you just might be shocked at what could be drawn from such a deep statement. lets LIVE Him and not just have the knowledge. but of course when following Jesus that knowledge never stops growing. be encouraged bro with your eyes set upon Jesus. we are going thru all these things together. much love
A huge thing to grasp in God is how to hear the Word. There are 2 easy mistakes. The first is to get so impatient that you run out to throw human action and ability at it. The second is to correctly hear how far above our action and ability God’s Word is, but then to freeze up in intimidation.
Understand this: every time you truly hear God’s Word, it is exactly like seeing Jesus walk on the water towards your boat and then hearing him call you to walk to him. Your guilt and fear won’t allow you to make the first move toward Jesus. Your enthusiasm may get you out of the boat, but it won’t keep you afloat. Both responses fail because they focus on your performance.
There is only one truly profitable response to hearing the Word, and that is to mix it with faith! The one who spoke the Word will accomplish it, he will both will and do it in you. Don’t berate yourself, since all that does is distance you from the Word that was just spoken into you to establish you. Instead, immediately identify with the Word. You are complete in him. Jesus’ obedience is your obedience. Jesus’ ability is your ability.
I respect that you called yourself on being all talk and no action. No one wants hot air with no follow-through, in themselves or in others. Yet that is the furthest thing from faith. Faith works, period. Recognize that speaking your own ideas probably won’t accomplish anything. But also recognize that when you hear the pure Word, and then you truly believe that Word and start speaking it along with God…you can all of a sudden move into a place where God won’t allow one of your words to fall to the ground.
Paul charts it out like this: I believed, therefore I have spoken. What I wrote above in the post is as much pointed at me as at anyone. I give myself to spending the maximum amount of time possible being totally hijacked by the Holy Ghost, and I definitely felt the Holy Ghost hijack me as I wrote it! So I mix the Word of God with faith:
“Oh Father I’ve got to see you to be able to imitate you - thankyou for revealing yourself to me! God thank you so much for pointing me toward the exact spot where the treasure of the kingdom of heaven is hid - I put my entire life before you right now, everything I am, everything I value, everything I possess - take it! I’ve got to have your kingdom even if it literally costs me EVERYTHING. Thank you for awakening and stirring up your passion in me, your desperate desire to see your Word fulfilled in my life. Oh God I want it just as bad as you want it for me. Thank you that you’ve made me your son and transformed my life! God give me wisdom to be able to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, fill me to overflowing with your Spirit and lead me. I yield to your leading, I love your rod and your staff, I won’t follow another. I thank you for the freedom of the sons of God, and I praise you for absolutely unleashing this freedom in every aspect of my life. I thank you God that all creation will get what it’s groaning for, that you are revealing your freedom in your sons this very hour, and that knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. Manifest it fully Father! Let the name of Jesus Christ and the full complete ministry of Jesus Christ be so radically demonstrated in my life and in the life of your church that there will be no possible human explanations available. Testify now unmistakably through your church so that the entire earth gets to hear your voice. Thank you Father!” >>
many thanks glen! you basically hit it with the whole “intimidation/fear/guilt”-thing, that has been an ongoing issue. how easily i forget/lose sight of the simple mixing of child-like faith with the GOD’s Word/promises. and hold onto them even through dark distant times. i really appreciate your willingness/open-ness/honesty and botherly love for basic strangers who type up comments and the like for anybody to read. i also appreciate the creative talents the LORD has blessed you with especially in song crafting! i love it all i just got ‘59 in the mail this week and i just smile and laugh, (because i think it’s so awesome) and listen and love it. and then it usually stirs me into creativity… but that’s another tale for another time! i really do appreciate this whole thing you got going on here, please keep it up! it is very encouraging/lifegiving/truth-speaking/challenging/correcting all in the name of LOVE and just plain more of what i think we all need! soooo muchas gracias for your reply!