Doing What the Father Does

From the beautiful sunshine coast of Australia, this is the Awake Nations Ministries podcast equipping the church for revival, Reformation and Kingdom impact. Learn more about us by visiting awakeaus.com let's go to John, chapter five. I'm going to share some things today. I don't know if I'll get through this whole message. If not, no worries, we'll get through it.

But I wanted to read From John, chapter 5, verses 19 and 20. This is the passage where Jesus is speaking about himself and the modus, his modus operandi really how he did ministry. So Jesus answered, said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself. Watch that. The Son can do nothing of himself.

But what he sees the Father do, for whatever he does, the Father, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, shows them all things that He Himself does. And he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel. Well, so most Christians do not struggle with believing in God and not even believing that he can do anything. How many believe God can do anything?

Yeah, most of us have no doubt about that. God can do all things. All things are possible for God. But you know, the Bible also says that for those who believe all things are possible. That's in Matthew 17, Matthew 19.

For with God, nothing is impossible. So it's not just enough to believe that nothing's impossible. Satan believes that the demons believe that James chapter one. But there's a place where we have to believe. And as we believe, then guess what happens?

Something takes place. But the word believe is more than just intellectually give assent to something like, oh yeah, yeah, I believe that. I believe Jesus is the Son of God. It's a Greek word, pistis, which means to cling to, to adhere, to embrace. So it's like you're holding fast to something, you're becoming one.

It means to rely on, to embrace. It's a very different word. Not just giving assent intellectually or academically to a fact. Okay, so we believe God's present, but yet like God's omnipresent. He's everywhere.

Right, but how do we live? Like, if he's everywhere, think of the potential of that. Wow. If he's everywhere. When I go to work, the God of the universe, the omniscient, all powerful one is there when I'm at home, whatever I'm doing and wherever I go, he's there.

Think of the potential of that. Untapped potential, largely. And what does that mean? Though we become distracted, many of us are distracted. And so we believe God speaks, but rarely do we expect him to speak to us in the ordinary moments of everyday life.

It's something very different for us. So this produces a common, you know, there's this dissonance that takes place and between what we believe and what we're actually experiencing. Okay, and I call this functional disconnection. It's functional disconnection. What do we mean by this?

That we're operationally faithful, but we're relationally distant. We go through the motions, we do the right things, but our hearts and our connection to him isn't what it should be. We do the right things. People are sincere, they're committed, they serve, give, attend. But they're living from responsibility instead of relationship.

They're managing their faith rather than experiencing their Father. Life becomes about managing our faith. Oh, I got to make sure I read the Bible every day. Got to make sure that I do the right things, that I check all the boxes and becomes about managing our faith rather than hearing from the Father, knowing who the Father is, walking with the Father. So Jesus shows us how he lives.

He did not live hurried, pressured, or driven by expectations of other people. He only did what he saw the Father doing. He lived by staying aware of, of the Father. Instead of asking, what should I do next? Jesus lived asking, what is the Father doing right now?

What is the Father doing right now? So this flies in the face of corporate management in the church. Why? Because we have a two year, one year, five year vision plan. Whatever strategy, Jesus didn't have that.

He said, I live and respond based on what I see the Father doing. I replicate on the earth what I see the Father doing in heaven. The Son can do nothing of himself. We said last week. That's what the, the concept in theology known as Kenosis, Philippians 2, where we empty.

The Son emptied himself, although he's God, he emptied himself of his privileges and of his powers. And he became a man who fully depended on the Father, a man who lived under the lordship of his Father. And so this is how Jesus shaped his entire life and ministry. All right, John 15 is a powerful passage of Scripture. Remember in John 15, Jesus talking about the vine and the branches, right?

It's the final week of his life. He's about to go to the cross and he's gathered with his disciples and he begins to speak to them. So think about that. If you knew that you were about to leave the planet in a few days, you weren't going to be around much longer, what would you say to Those nearest and dearest to you, what would you say? Jesus speaks to them about a vineyard.

Interesting. A vineyard? Like what? What are you talking about Jesus? That's random.

You're not getting enough sleep. What's going on here? Not to be disrespectful, but I mean, can you imagine people like, what are you talking about? Well, he's using an analogy, obviously. He's speaking to them about a branch and a vine and his father being the vineyard dresser.

And he's saying that as a branch remains in a vine, as a branch stays intact or connected to a vine, it bears much fruit on its. If that's not happening, it cannot bear fruit itself unless it abides in the vine. Then he says, neither can you unless you abide in me. I'm the vine, you're the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

So that's John 15, 4, 5. Now, the word here that is translated abide, or some translations, English translations say remain, is meno in Greek. Meno is a very powerful term. It means to remain, to stay in position, not move away. It means to stay in one place, not to settle, to not be restless, to continue without leaving.

Faithfulness over time. Faithfulness over time. When the going gets tough, the flaky run away, right? People run away. Life gets difficult, people are challenged, there's testing and seasons.

A lot of people, what do they do? Move on, move on to the next relationship, move on to the next church, move on to the next. Right? And I know there are times when that's necessary if things are toxic, abusive, etc. But what I'm saying is, the problem with that is wherever we go, there we are.

God's trying to do a work in our lives. And rather than stay, remain, abide, and let him do that work, we actually move on. So when the pressure is on, rather than saying, okay, Lord, I'm staying here, I'm not leaving, it means also to dwell relationally, to make one's home with someone. In fact, the same word is actually used in John 14:23. It's a derivative.

It's mone. This word is meno. Mone is translated abode. So you've got abide, then. You've got abode.

Abide is a verb. Abode means. It's a place, it's a noun. Okay? An abode means a permanent dwelling.

Not a tent, but a house, not a tent, but a house. It's a settled home, a place of belonging. It's a residence where someone lives, not visits. And Jesus says this in John 14:23, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him permanent.

Permanent. God is saying something crucial about the Christian life. Okay, first of all, God's not coming and going. He's inviting us into a shared life. He's inviting us into a relationship that's constant, that's consistent.

It's a powerful thing, okay? It doesn't mean to visit occasionally and then return to normal life to check in during crisis and then move on, get back and do what's normal. It doesn't mean to touch base on Sundays and forget about him during the week means to stay connected.

Do we teach this even in the church? Guys, show up on Sunday, chuck your money in the offering, serve, volunteer, right? But the goal is to become like Jesus and to have this living, vibrant relationship. And it changes everything, right? Because the branch that abides the Menno bears much fruit.

Guess whose fruit it is? The fruit of the. The fruit of the Spirit is called the fruit of righteousness. It's called the fruit of peace. There's different terms for it, but ultimately the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy, and Holy Spirit.

So the fruit of the Spirit means it's his fruit. What does that mean? Just as in the natural, that a branch does not have to make any effort to produce fruit, the branch just stays connected to the vine and the SAP. The life flows into the branch and it bears fruit effortlessly. His nature, his life flows into us and begins to change us.

The righteousness of the new covenant is inside out righteousness. It's God working in us both to will and to do his good. Pleasure that life is being imparted. We're beginning to change. It's a powerful thing.

It's a powerful thing. So Jesus is telling us something very powerful. And this is what he says. He says, I live from God. I don't live for God.

Even though he did do his Father's will and live to glorify his Father. But he wasn't like, oh yeah, I'm living for you, God. Oh, God, you know, you know, don't you see my efforts? Don't you see what I'm doing? Like, God, you've got to, you've got to acknowledge, like, I'm pretty good.

Yeah, no, he's actually saying, no, you live from that place of abode. You live from that place of relationship. And everything you do, it's his life flowing through you, in you, through you, and out to others. So it's to you, in you, through you. That's what it is.

And so Jesus says, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. First of all, I want you to understand this. The Son can do nothing. He wasn't using hyperbole here. He wasn't saying that.

I like this false sense of humility. I don't do anything, you know? No, he was meaning that literally. He intentionally would not do anything unless he saw his Father do it. So let's break this down a little bit, okay?

The Greek word for seas is blipe. Blipe in its grammatical form reveals how Jesus lived. Number one. Okay, are you ready? In Greek, when you parse a verb, there's this thing called tense, number, voice and mood.

Every, every verb has a tense, a voice and a mood. The tense is the present tense here, okay? And it literally means continuous action, not a one time event. So the Son can do nothing, what he sees, always, continuously, that's how he lived. Wasn't a one off, it wasn't occasional hit and miss, but it was his lifestyle, right?

Habitual. Okay. It's the active voice. Now the active voice actually means intentional attentiveness, not passive reception. So Jesus was actively looking for what the Father was doing.

He was engaging his spiritual senses with purpose. And then lastly, the subjunctive mood, the word but creates a condition of total dependence. Jesus is saying, apart from seeing, I do nothing.

That's what it literally means. Apart from seeing, I do nothing. Wow. So think of it this way. Jesus is living.

He doesn't wake up and go, let me check my daytimer, let me check my diary. What are we doing today? What's on the to do list? No, he actually said this. He said, what's my father doing?

And he began to look, Father, what are you up to? What are you doing today? And it wasn't like God gave him an eight hour plan. He laid it out. It was moment by moment.

Hello. And all the control freaks. Yeah, all the control freaks. See guys, control is a really bad thing. Can I say that?

It's a sick soul. If you're a control freak, you need healing, you need deliverance. Honestly, you know why? Because it literally means you're Lord, your Lord. But the fact is meekness, the Greek word praos, meekness literally means this.

Are you ready? It means I have no brights, I have no plans. I just submit to whatever he wants to do. And guess what? If you're a meek person, yet you literally.

You don't get bent out of shape. It's like, okay, so the Father hasn't told me what to do. So what does Jesus do? Lazarus is dead. Everyone's saying, hey, do you need to come?

Lazarus is sick, but Jesus stays put. And the pressure that was on him, can you imagine? You need to do something, Jesus. What are you waiting for? Don't you care?

Don't you love him? Can you imagine if a pastor did that? Somebody's dying in the hospital, and the pastor just sits back, says, no, Father, wait. Now you better be able to raise that person from the dead like Jesus did. But the point is, you have to recognize there is a place where you wait.

You don't move, you don't act, you don't do anything until you see the Father, just like Jesus. So Jesus maintained this ongoing awareness. Seeing was not a special event reserved for moments of prayer. It was a natural result of staying connected. Now he lived constantly beholding.

We talked about this in our first session. This series is on Jesus as the last Adam. Constantly beholding. Right? As we behold, we're transformed.

We're transfigured. So we behold were transfixed with him. We're transformed into his image and likeness. That's what happens. So the idea of beholding his face changes us.

It changes us. So Jesus lived from that place of constantly beholding his face. What are you saying? What are you doing? Now, some have said he must have been, like, amazing in terms of the prophetic revelation that he walked in.

Like, was he a seer? You know, we use all these different terms. Which was an Old Testament term. Was he a seer? Or how did that mean?

Okay, so what it means, this word, seeing, blephen, is actually not about visions, dreams, and supernatural revelations. It's not what it's about. It means recognizing, recognizing. So in the context of Jesus and the Father, it's recognizing what the Father is doing. So notice carefully what Jesus says.

He doesn't say, I receive instruction from my father. I receive dreams, visions, revelations. No, he says, I see what the father is doing. So this is relational language, first and foremost. Of course, you can have dreams.

You have visions. People do. It's part of the new covenant, right? Prophesied of that. Acts chapter 2, 17 and 18.

Sons and daughters are prophesying visions, dreams, all of that. But let me tell you that dreams and visions are not the primary means by which God wants to relate to us. Hmm. We see it exemplified in the life of Jesus. Okay, so what is it?

It's someone who's so close to another that they notice movement, recognize patterns, and understand intentions without needing verbal explanation. Hmm. That means notice timing, sensing when a moment is right or not. Ready? Sensing.

Restraint. Restraint. Knowing when to hold back, even when opportunity presents itself. It means recognizing divine moments. Discerning when God is opening a door versus when we're trying to force one open.

All right, okay. How many have tried to force the door open? Hello. I've done it a few times in my life in ministry, and it was never good. It was never good.

Perceiving spiritual dynamics, understanding what is really happening beneath the surface. The surface. So you can look at something and read it through the natural. This is what it looks like, but no, beneath the surface, what's really happening. So it's a very powerful thing.

And this is what we're invited into. Think about it. That relationship that you have with, you know, with someone who's so close to you, you can tell. A mom can tell what a what the need of a baby. Right.

Just through relationship. How the baby's acting, responding. Yeah, you can be. If you're married to someone in a long term relationship, you've been a long time, you know exactly what that person's thinking. You know what that look means, right.

You know what the silence means, right. You can literally understand and read that person because it's relational. Even friends can have that type of relationship. Right. Now what happens is when people live from.

You ready? Like, Jesus didn't live from plans, he didn't live from. Well, I tried this and it worked. So let's try it again. Do you notice that even in his miracles and his healings, he didn't necessarily replicate the same pattern?

I mean, one time he lays hands on someone, another time he speaks a word, another time he spits in someone's face. That's shocking. I mean, he does all these things. Well, he spit on the dirt, right. And he put.

I get it. So I should clarify that. So it's still spittle with mud. Right. But the point is Jesus did things differently.

Why? Every situation demanded insight and response based on what the Father was saying. And it was very profound. Often there was. There was a reason for that.

But what happens is many of us, we disengage from noticing God's quiet presence in our life. And guess what happens? We get so busy, we just do active things. We just keep repeating what we're doing. And then God, can I say this?

Interrupts our plans. He interrupts the patterns of our life. At Times he's trying to get our intention. Plans fall apart unexpectedly. Momentum slows.

Without explanation, Doors close that seemed certain to open. So these interruptions are not punishment. They're not abandonment. They're God. It's not like God's being difficult to us.

It's his mercy. When attentiveness is gone, God often removes the things that distracted us. Not because he's angry, but because he wants us close again.

He wants us close again? Yeah, he's jealous. He wants a relationship. He's jealous. The Bible says that in James 4, the spirit of the Lord yearns jealously for us.

Wow. He wants that type of relationship with us. Here's another way. Kind of a way of warning sign. Right.

Is our soul. Often the first interruption is not external. It's internal. Before our circumstances collapse, the soul sends signals. Restlessness, an inner agitation that nothing external can calm.

You ever been there? I'm bored. I'm restless. An inner agitation. Nothing external can calm it.

Dryness. Spiritual practices that once gave life now feel empty doing it. Unsettledness, a sense that something's wrong, but we really can't quite put our finger on it.

And then deep tiredness, exhaustion that sleep does not fix.

See, these symptoms aren't always signs of sin. Not at all. These aren't always signs of sin, not at all. But they're often signs that we are doing things for God without staying connected to God.

Okay, so if we pay attention to these internal warnings, we can return to presence before external interruption becomes necessary. Whoo. Is this making sense? You see how we walk with him, right? Jesus was troubled in his spirit.

It says in John 11, troubled in his spirit. Something was wrong, and Jesus recognized this. So this diagnostic is all about how do we know if we're living disconnected? You might feel constant pressure to perform, produce, and prove yourself. Silence feels uncomfortable rather than restorative.

Some people just can't be still. Do you notice that? Can't be still. If they stop, it's like, stay busy, stay busy, stay busy. Why?

Because it drowns out the numbing, like, the pain. Got to stay busy, got to stay busy. Prayer feels like a task to complete rather than a relationship to enjoy. You make plans first, and then you ask God to bless them afterward. God bless my plans.

We don't say that. What do we usually do? We say, oh, the Lord showed me, and we ask him to bless it. I hope this is right, God, you know, rather than wait, just wait. If he doesn't speak, can I give you some really helpful advice?

Don't do anything. Now, I know all the procrastinators say amen, maybe he's speaking, but for whatever reason, you not hearing as a procrastinator as well. So there's a balance in all this. We have to recognize that, okay, more about God than you experience him before you live from a place of presence, encounter. But now it's just, yeah, I know all about God.

You know all the answers. You got the theology down. The one thing about the wonder and the awe of having a true and living relationship with God is simply this. The more you know him, the more you realize you don't know Him.

Yeah, you go deep, you're 100 meters under, and you're like, surely I'm at the bottom. And it's like, no, there's still hundreds of meters to go. He's inexhaustible. The, the Bible says in Romans 12, his riches and the knowledge of God are inexhaustible.

The more you know him, the more you realize there's so much more to know about him. And there's so much more. Like, I thought I knew him, I thought I understood. I'll just share something with you. I don't necessarily share this with everyone from time to time, but I felt recently God said, I want you to share this.

And so I've been sharing it. I have a practice, a commitment that the Lord challenged me probably about two years ago, and he said, I want you to learn something new about me every day.

I want you to learn something new about me every day. There's hardly been a day go by that I haven't learned something new about Him. Now I have to be intentional. Sometimes it just happens. But there's days when I have to be intentional.

Going back to John 5:19, the son can do nothing but what he sees the Father doing. The Greek means he's intentionally and continuously beholding the Father. There's a lot of things that vie for our affection, our attention, and we can be like, take our eyes off of him and look at those things, tend to this, respond to that, and put out fires. But rather, we live according to the Father. I'm intentionally beholding him.

And it's continuous, it's ongoing, it's uninterrupted, like, what are you saying? I'll do nothing until you speak to me. And as we live in that place, we begin to experience more and more of Him. Now, I want you to please understand that maybe what we're doing here in terms of it being diagnostic, like, what is God saying? What Is this about.

He's trying to say, let's do an assessment. Let's do a diagnostic on our souls and our lives. Right. This is 2025, almost going into 2026. You think this is a good time for us to maybe say, okay, God, what are you saying?

What do you want? New year, new opportunities? For many of us, it's a reset. I know it's just a day on a calendar, but ultimately for us psychologically, we begin to think this way. So what can I change?

What can I bring into alignment? Very simple.

Put it aside. Everything you've planned, put it aside. Yeah. And just say whatever you will, Father, whatever you show me. Whatever you will.

James said, there's those who go and they say, you know, I'm going to go to such and such a city and I'm going to start a business and I'm going to scale it. It's going to go well. And no, he says, no, no, no, don't say that. You should say, if the Lord wills, I'll do that. That's what it's all about.

So here's where we go. All right, ready? Let's end with this hearing, not just seeing, going back to the Garden of Eden. Genesis chapter three, verse eight. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. By the way, that word, presence is the Hebrew word for face. They hid themselves from the face of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Okay, now. Now the Hebrew word, it says here they heard the sound of the Lord God in the garden.

What does God sound like? Anybody? Can you tell me, what does God sound like?

Rossing water. Yeah, there's all these metaphors in the Bible. There's another metaphor that says the voice of the Lord is as the sound of thunder, but yet we all know he's not in the thunder. He's not in that. He's a still small voice.

Yeah. These are just metaphors in different ways. So none of it adequately captures what God sounds like. If I were to ask someone, what does your spouse or your partner sound like? How do you describe that?

Other soft spoken, perhaps they're kind, they're this, they're that. Right. But it's really hard to articulate that, isn't it? And so with God, it's not so much about description. It's not so much like we can explain it, but we can experience it.

We're called to, to experience God and it Says here they heard this sound. Well, how do we know it wasn't an animal, maybe walking in the grass, in the bush?

Now, it says the word for sound is the Hebrew word qol, Q, O, L. And qol, most of the time is translated voice in Hebrew. They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool of the garden. It's an anthropomorphism, which means that God as a human, came like a man and walked and did things. So what is it that that he is saying? They heard the voice in the Hebrew language.

It means, as was the custom, as what they were used to and had experienced once again. Now, this time, after they ate and disobeyed the Lord, this time, God shows up and they hear the voice of the Lord. Now, did he call out? Yes, he did. But they heard the voice of the Lord.

They recognized the voice of the Lord. And it's interesting. It says, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Now, the word that is translated cool actually is the Hebrew word ruach, spirit, wind, breath. So they heard the Lord.

The voice of the Lord walking in the what? The spirit, the breath, the wind of the garden. That's what it's saying. It's actually a powerful thing. When Adam and Eve sinned, something profound shifted.

But notice carefully what scripture says and what it does not say. Okay, you ready? Watch this. This is really important. This is so good.

Watch this. God did not stop speaking. God did not leave them. He rocks up in the garden. God did not withdraw his presence from the garden.

What changed was human response to the presence. The same voice that once brought comfort now caused fear. Wow. It says that they hid themselves from the Lord. If you study this in the original, it actually means this, that he was their hiding place.

But the moment that they sinned, they hid from Him. In the New Covenant, we are told that Jesus is now our hiding place. Our life is hidden in Christ, within God. With Christ, our life is hidden, so he becomes our hiding place. So what I'm talking about here, guys, is moving away from a place of shame into a place where we're not numbing our spirit, trying to stay busy.

You know, how do we hide? Today? Hiding looks like maybe managing our life independently, making decisions without consulting God, solving problems without seeking his wisdom, planning our futures without his direction, functioning without awareness, going through spiritual motions without spiritual connection, doing religious things without relational engagement, staying busy without staying present, filling every moment with activity. So there's no space for stillness, no room for the quiet voice. Now, let me say this what does it mean that they heard the sound, the wind, the breath, the ruach of God.

Okay, it means this, that the garden was literally an atmosphere of presence.

So it wasn't like, oh, yeah, God spoke to them. He came down, walked among them. What a beautiful paradise. No, it literally means they lived in the Presence. They lived in the Presence, but now they're hiding from the Presence.

So Jesus as the last Adam comes to restore that, to remove fear. No shame driving us into hiding, no guilt separating us from the Father's presence. Awareness is restored. Seeing what the Father is doing becomes natural again and relationship becomes central. Every action flows from communion.

Not striving, not obligation, not trying to force things. So Jesus is actually specifically modeling healthy humanity available to all who are in Him.

Yeah, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. All right, so normal humanity restored the three lives. Let me show you this and we'll stop the three lives. The biblical story traces a single thread throughout history. The life Adam lost.

Open awareness, unhindered fellowship, walking with God without fear, that was lost. Adam stuffed up the life Jesus lived. Constant connection, seeing the Father doing only what he saw, speaking only what he heard. And then now the life that we're invited back into, restored relationship through Christ, the Spirit dwelling within, the Father, making his home with us. Three lives, one invitation, the call home.

Let me close with this. This week, Lynn and I were talking, and I felt so strongly during worship that the Lord wanted me to touch on this. You know, in Jeremiah, he said, these people are backslidden in their hearts. Backslidden in their hearts. They worshiped, they prayed, they sacrificed, they did all the right things, but they were backslidden in their heart.

You can be religious, you can be do all the right things, and yet your heart can be far from God. He's called us into a relationship just as Jesus had with the Father. A relationship of presence, a relationship of walking with him, a relationship of knowing his will. And when you know his will and you know what he's saying. Right.

The testimony of Jesus, that spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. So what does that mean? It means very simply this. You can look at a situation and you can try to diagnose it based on your soul, my emotions, what do I do? Oh, I feel rejected.

I'm afraid I don't know how this is going to go. And we try and we live and respond. Or actually, a better word is we react from our soul. We don't live from our spirit, and we start saying things. Some people's literally their jaws wired to their brains.

And they say all these things that are like, not God's will and not his ways. Where's God? Why did this happen? What's going on? And we say all these things and we react rather than live from our spirit in communion with the Father.

Because the Bible says that the Spirit, his spirit, capital S, bears witness with our spirits, that we are sons of God. So it's a relationship which God speaks to us that way. And that's normal Christianity. That's what we were created to live in and walk in. But most people, most Christians, live according to their senses.

They live according to their flesh and their souls, how it, what they sense, what they feel, what things look like. Basically, they get triggered over stuff that's happened in the past rather than say, okay, Father, what's going on here? Show me your perspective. Help me to see what you're doing, what's happening here, and let me see it the way you do it and show me how to respond. I can tell you I am far from perfect in living this out.

But I'm saying more and more, I want to live this way. I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to react. I'm not going. I'm just going to say, show me.

And there are times when God will show you things, even about what's happening in other people's lives. Not so that you can rebuke them necessarily, but maybe that you can pray for them and love them and know how to minister to them, to see them recovered and restored. And this is what it means to live as those who are redeemed by the last Adam. Even when things go awry and people come against us and the enemy attacks now, see it through his eyes. It's an opportunity for the victory.

It's an opportunity to push back, to pray through whatever we do, content to see the breakthrough.