DOING GOD’S WORKS 3
(Week 20/09)
Olubi Johnson
In our last article, we saw that the motivation for doing the great works the Lord Jesus did is two-fold: to bring glory to God by removing the reproach of the blasphemy and rebellion of men from the church like David did by killing Goliath and secondly to disciple the nations. This week, we want to see how to do these great works. We do these great works like the Lord Jesus did them: by ‘seeing’ them in our hearts and then acting on what we have ‘seen’:
John 5:19-20 ESV So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (20) For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
Now how do we ‘see’ what God is doing?
We ‘see’ what God is doing by having the ‘eyes’ of our understanding or our minds flooded with divine light from the life of God injected into our minds through our spirits from the Holy Spirit as we receive the life of God and speak in tongues frequently:
Ephesians 4:18 ISV They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.
John 1:4 ISV In him was life, and that life brought light to humanity.
2 Corinthians 4:6 ISV For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:17-18 AMP [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, (18) By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),
1 Corinthians 2:7 MKJV But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which God has hidden, predetermining it before the world for our glory;
1 Corinthians 14:2 ESV For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 14:18 ESV (18) I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
Please note that our ‘seeing’ here is not necessarily by having explicit visions or hearing an audible voice, but rather we ‘see’ and ‘hear’ what God wants to do through us through our normal thoughts and emotions by God’s compassion, just like men ‘see’ and ‘hear’ what Satan wants them to do through their normal thoughts and emotions by the lusts of flesh:
John 8:38 KJVR I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
John 8:44 KJVR Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Ephesians 2:2-3 MKJV in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience; (3) among whom we also had our way of life in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
So, just like men are moved to do the works of the devil by the lusts of the flesh, the Lord Jesus (and us, as we develop spiritually) was moved to do these great works of God by the compassion of God acting on His soul: mind, will and emotions and body:
Matthew 14:14 MKJV And Jesus went out and saw a great crowd, and He was moved with compassion toward them. And He healed their sick.
Luke 7:11-15 MKJV And it happened on the next day, He went into a city called Nain. And many of His disciples and a great crowd went with Him. (12) And drawing near the gate of the city, even behold, one having died was being carried out, an only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a considerable crowd of the city was with her. (13) And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep. (14) And He came and touched the bier. And the ones who bore him stood still. And He said, Young man, I say to you, Arise! (15) And the one who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother.
Now, the more frequently and the greater the measure of the life of God that is injected into our minds from our spirits by the Holy Spirit, the more frequently and clearly we will ‘see’ and so do these great works of God like the Lord Jesus did.It is for this reason the Lord Jesus said:
John 6:27-29 ESV Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (28) Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (29) Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.“
We do the work of God by believing on the Lord Jesus: by ‘drinking His blood’ and ‘eating His flesh’:
John 6:52-57 ESV The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (53) So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. (54) Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (55) For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. (56) Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. (57) As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
We ‘drink His blood’ by frequently confessing our sins so the blood of Jesus cleanses from our spirits the sin nature that blocks or hinders the flow of the life of God into our spirits and minds causing our minds to be darkened.
Hebrews 9:14 CEV But Christ was sinless, and he offered himself as an eternal and spiritual sacrifice to God. That’s why his blood is much more powerful and makes our consciences clear.
Now we can serve the living God and no longer do things that lead to death.
1 John 1:5-10 ISV This is the message that we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness-none at all! (6) If we claim that we have fellowship with him but keep living in the darkness, we are lying and the truth is not in us. (7) But if we keep living in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (8) If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. (9) If we make it our habit to confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we say that we have never sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
Luke 11:34-36 AMP Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye (your conscience) is sound and fulfilling its office, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound and is not fulfilling its office, your body is full of darkness. (35) Be careful, therefore, that the light that is in you is not darkness. (36) If then your entire body is illuminated, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright [with light], as when a lamp with its bright rays gives you light.
We ‘eat His flesh’ by confessing or saying in faith with our mouths (Rom. 10.10), the promises of the written Word through which we partake of the divine nature: the life of God.
2 Peter 1:3-4 ESV His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, (4) by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
So, by doing God’s work of believing on Him whom He has sent: by frequently ‘drinking His blood’, ‘eating His flesh’ and praying in tongues, we will cause our minds to be flooded with divine life and light and so we will ‘see’ and do these great works like Jesus did on a consistent basis!
