For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of
John chapters fourteen to seventeen. Some of it will be what I have already
written and some will be new. Therefore it may sometimes appear that I leave
off in the middle of a topic to be continued, since I have reached my daily
word count limit. We will also return to placing a blog posting daily for the
time being.
In order to follow this you ought to have read from the first
posting in the series – John 14 (One).
“Jesus answered: ‘Don't you
know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who
has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't
you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I
say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is
doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is
in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves,’” (John
14:9-11).
Why is it that the church seems so powerless? In the
passage we’ll discuss next, Jesus mentioned that His Disciples would do greater
things than He did, yet we don’t often see it. Is it not maybe that we are not
one with Him as He is one with the Father? He said that the Father lives in Him
and the works that the disciples saw and the teaching that they heard was
actually not His, but the Father working through Him. Jesus was completely
surrendered to His father. He did not think of His own comfort for one minute.
He had no material possessions and no place to stay (Matthew 8:20). He spent
all His time and energy either praying or ministering. His life consisted of
receiving from the Father and giving it out. There was no time for
entertainment, watching television, keeping a luxurious or even ordinary home and
so on, if we could speak in modern terms.
How do we compare with Jesus? If we want to do greater
things than he did, if we want revival – even as a church – how does our
availability compare with His? There are a few individual groups doing great
things, but what about the rest of the body? As the Father in Jesus did the
work while He was on earth, so Jesus in us wants to do the work. Jesus said to
the Father in His last hours before the crucifixion as recorded in John 17:4:
“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”
Now He wants us to do the same through Him that lives in us. He wants us to
complete the work Father gave us. Do you know the work the Lord wants you to
do? Maybe you do not have a specific Christian mission, but are placed in an
ordinary day job and therefore think you are not called. Whether we are called
to full-time ministry or full-time secular work with part time ministry, we
still need to hear from the Lord on a daily basis what work He wants us to
complete.
Jesus had to take action. He had to pray during the
night to hear from His father what He wanted Jesus to say and do in order for
the Father to do for people what He intended to. He had to exercise faith to do
and say what His father told Him to. It was not any easier for Jesus to act by
faith as it is for us. Do you think it was easy to spit in the mud and smear it
onto the blind man’s eyes, having to believe that he will see, or to believe
that Peter would find the coin in the fish’s mouth?
Jesus was exactly like any Spirit-filled Christian when
He was on earth. He had the Holy Spirit, the Word in Him and He had open
communication to the Father living in Him. Under guidance of the Holy Spirit He
had to hear from the Father through the quickening of the Word in His heart.
This would have created faith in Him to do what He had to. The more time He
spent in prayer, the more power He had available to do miracles.
Because we have the fullness of Christ living in us, we
should be able to do the same if we devote the same time and energy to it.
Lord, I want to be like Jesus.
Thank you Lord that
your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not
return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the
purpose for which you sent it.
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