As I opened the Scripture, God directed my attention to the fourteenth chapter of John. As I read and listened for what God wanted to say to me through this passage, I was awed by the insight He gave me and which I would now like to share with you.
In the fourteenth chapter of John, Jesus is sharing with His disciples that He soon will be leaving them to return to His Heavenly Father, and that when He does so, He will send the Holy Spirit to be with them. In verse four, Thomas expresses his confusion, saying, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus answers, “I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (v.5) Then He goes on to explain that to know Jesus is to know the Father, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me…,” and “…the Father abiding in Me does His works.” (v.10) Did you get that? The Father was abiding in Jesus and the works that Jesus did, He did not do on His own initiative or through His own power, but “…the Father abiding in Me does His works.”
In the same way that the Father was abiding in Jesus and working through Him, Jesus wants to abide in you and me and do His work through us. That’s why He says, “…he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” (v.12) He goes on to say of the Holy Spirit, “He abides with you and will be in you…” (v.17) We have the promise fulfilled–the Holy Spirit abiding within us. Jesus said that when the promise of the Holy Spirit had been fulfilled that, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (20) Did you catch that? We are in Jesus Christ and He in us. But He abides in the Father! Thus He takes us right along with Him and we have the privilege of abiding in the fellowship of the Trinity along with Jesus.
When we cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work in us, we have the same privilege of allowing Jesus to live through us that Jesus experienced as He allowed His Father to live and work through Him. Jesus said, “…so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.” (v.31) The work of the Father in and through Jesus required Jesus’ obedience. In the same way, we must obediently cooperate with the Holy Spirit as Jesus lives His life in and through us.
Is it any wonder that Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father but through Me.” (v.5)? No one could possibly enter into that sweet fellowship with the Father except through Jesus Christ by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit!
Pastor Cindy
