What the Father Does

Jesus said, “I only speak what I hear the Father speak; I only do what I see the Father do.”  It is important, even essential, that we know the Lord Jesus and our heavenly Father closely, intimately.  This is the very nature of the new covenant we have with God through the blood of His Son.  Jeremiah spoke it and the writer of Hebrews repeated it. (Jer. 31: 31-34, Heb. 8:7-13)

How can we speak, how can we preach, except we be sent?  We must experience His very presence and hear Him send us.  We often hear of Isaiah’s call when his eyes were opened to see the Lord high and lifted up.  He saw the glory of God and he was “undone”.  What is that?  What does it mean?  One cannot explain it but all your pride, all your self-sufficiency, all the good you thought you were is blown away.  And you blurt it out.  You confess you are not clean.  And immediately that uncleanness is burned up.  The Lord opens His heart to Isaiah, and He will do the same with you.  He looks for one He can send on behalf of Himself.  Too often, we run on what we think He wants.  It takes a personal, direct confrontation with the holy One of Israel, Elohim, your heavenly Father.

Either you are His child, or you are not. (Rom. 8:9)  By His Spirit in us we know our heavenly Father.  Continue reading in Romans, chapter 8.  The Lord’s central thoughts toward us are written there.  We understand we have access to the throne of grace.  Like little children, we learn to come to Him to have our sins forgiven, and we find He sends out in that grace to bless someone.  First be a blessing to your family.  Jesus was such from the age of 12 until 30.  We are in such a hurry to do “public” ministry.  If we understand the target we can become and the true spiritual maturity required for public ministry, we would not be in a hurry.  Yet the Lord knows how to prod us out onto the stage so to speak.  If you have never heard this, hear it now.  David was tending Jesse’s sheep until the day he was called and anointed.  Then he went though a ton of training before he came into all that his anointing by Samuel indicated and began.

Moses tended sheep on the backside of the desert for 40 years before he was a shepherd to an entire nation for 40 years of wilderness wandering.  I have experienced the training of waiting and faithfully doing what the Lord puts in my hands to do.  Take care of your family, please.  The time will come when He will lead you out, even thrust you out.  He, the Spirit, will lead you through the doors to places where you will be fruitful.  To what purpose has God called you?  Is it clear?  If not keep seeking Him.  Seek His face continually.  He will speak.  He did not call you to remain empty without direction.  Quietness is not silence.  Stillness is a peacefulness with your mind free from clutter and distraction.

As I thought about all I am writing, I caution us not to be afraid to step out.  I recall knowing a stirring in my spirit as I stood in a very large meeting at a Bible school.  I had something to speak out and was not ready to let it out.  Then a loud voice from a woman who I would later receive from, called out, “Quench not the Spirit.”  Oh, woe was me.  Then another voice, “Some of you young men are afraid of your own shadow.  Jesus will take you by the hand and. . . .”  I don’t recall the finish.  It is enough that He takes us by the hand.  Do you know such fellowship with Him.  He is seeking you out and calling you to Himself, so you can find your rest in Him.

As we walk with Him, we grow in grace and the knowledge of Him.  Paul prayed that for us all.  He was praying for those he knew of firsthand but those prayers never stop.  Jesus prayed we would be one as He and His Father, our Father, are one.  He taught His disciples that they would know the Father directly.  It is always with Jesus.  He is forever the mediator of the new covenant.  He is never out of the picture.  As we come to, and know the Father directly, we find a maturity that enables us to know and carry the love that the Father has for men.  I have written before, we become a gift that the Father gives and sows into the earth.  Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it abides alone.  And if it is sown it will bear fruit.  It will yield a harvest.  Death works in us that life might work in others.  This is the way of our Father’s kingdom.  Get to know your Father.