John 5: 19 – 20
Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these will He show Him that you may marvel.”
I heard Kenneth Copeland preaching on this recently and I have been trying to get my head around it ever since. Jesus told his followers that the Father reveals to him everything the Father is doing. We could sit and meditate on that all day but let’s keep going. The next thing is that Jesus said he could do nothing on his own. Okay, now that begins to mess with our theology a bit, doesn’t it? Don’t we believe that Jesus is and was capable of all things? How would we react to a person who said that Jesus could do nothing of himself? I am sure that I would take exception to that but then Jesus did say it himself.
The next piece in the puzzle is that Jesus tells us that he does what he sees his father doing. So, Jesus can do nothing of himself BUT he does whatever he sees his father do. Now we see the empowerment returning. Copeland taught that throughout Jesus’ ministry he only did what he saw his father do and only said what he heard his father say. This brings me to two conclusions. First, this revelation changes the way we read the Bible. think of it this way, whatever you read in red ink and whatever acts performed by Jesus that are reported in the New Testament, all of this was seen and heard by Jesus from the Father first. So we are now able to look at the inner workings of Jesus’ ministry and his relationship with the Father. I just read about when Jesus cursed the fig tree. So, as I read that passage I realized that God first showed Jesus or told him what to do and what to say to the fig tree. This revelation also means that Jesus walked in step with the Father every hour, every minute of every day. Every act in the gospels, every word uttered by Jesus was all at the specific direction of the Father. That is pretty big.
The second revelation I am gleaning from this teaching is that this is how we are meant to walk in this earth. We know that we are supposed to imitate Jesus and the Father (See Ephesians 5: 1). We are in Jesus, he in us. The Father has now made His abode in us and is with us at all times. It is through this miracle of God in us that we can do anything but only as we are led. And although we can do nothing in our own power and strength we know that in Christ all things are possible. You see, we receive our empowerment through Jesus. We imitate his listening for what the Father says and we watch what the Father does. We can live in the same space of Holy Spirit guidance when we turn our hearts to letting God lead us on a daily basis. If Jesus didn’t hear the Father speak then He didn’t speak. But when Jesus saw the Father move, he moved. He allowed God to be the power in his life and every miracle he ever performed was not of his own strength or wisdom but of the power of God that was one with him. In fact, Jesus said that he wasn’t even the one who performed all of those miracles but rather that it was the Father in him that did the works. Jesus just perfected the ability of letting the Father move through him all of the time.
Imagine when you are at work today that everything you do is led by the Father. You would enjoy a new level of success wouldn’t you? Jesus said that all things are possible to the person who believes (Mark 9: 23). Through today’s verse we see how that is true because our Father illuminates the path for us. We also see ever more clearly that our job is to believe. We are called to be believers. Through believing and listening to our Father we will be more like Jesus and we also will say, “It is the Father within me that does the work.”
