After inspiring John to recount a historical parable, which we saw in the previous post, Jesus now begins to speak directly to his overcomers. He says,

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for whatsoever things he does, these also does the Son likewise.” (John 5:19)

Here Jesus explains why he could do what he did and also tells us why we can’t do what he did. We do not see the Father in the same way that Jesus did. We do not see what God is doing; therefore we cannot do what we see the Father doing. The mark of the overcomer, however, is that, like Jesus, he wants to do what he sees his Father doing. This is the selflessness that God requires of those he would glorify. The coming glory is not for ourselves; it does not come so that we can lord it over others; it does not come so that the world can acclaim us as “great.”

When the revelation of the sons of God occurs, the time of the first resurrection and the glorification of God’s overcomers, these sons will only do what they see their Father doing. They will not strike out on their own and they will not work independently of each other. They will be as the army of God described by Joel,

Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD comes, for it is near at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great and strong people; there has not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, through the years of many generations. A fire devours before them; and behind them a flame burns: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be in great pain: all faces are drained of color. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march each one on his way, and they shall not break their ranks: Neither shall one jostle another; they shall walk each one in his path: and when they lunge between the swords, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executes his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can endure it? (Joel 2:1-11)

God will reveal his overcomers in the darkest time of man’s history, the time we have now entered, the Day of the LORD. The darkness has not become as dark as it will get because the resurrection has not yet occurred, but we are getting close. Joel describes that terrible time. And Jesus, in John 5, begins to reveal the incredible power that God’s army will wield in that day. Now read John 5:19-47. I believe that Jesus both describes his spiritual power and the power that the Overcomers will display upon their glorification.

First, like Jesus, the Overcomers will only do what they see their Father doing. Second, like Jesus, they will have the power to give life to whomever they will. Third, the judgment of all mankind shall be placed in their hands. Fourth, those who believe upon them, just as they believed upon Jesus, will pass into everlasting life and escape condemnation. (This is true because the Overcomers willingly bore their cross, just as Jesus did. This is how they overcame, “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Revelation 12:11))

Fifth, and now hold on to your hats, the Overcomers will have life in themselves, the actual creation-causing life which Jesus himself bore. The hour is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the sons of God, and they that hear shall live! Yes, believe it or not, the Father will use his overcomers to restore the entire earth as a new creation and to bring life to the dead that dwell therein! These are the “greater works” Jesus promised to them that believe. These are the works that those who come in their Father’s Name will soon do! Like Jesus they will proclaim, “I only do what I see my Father doing,” and they will do all of the things that Jesus himself did when he walked the earth two thousand years ago. But, this time they will do these works throughout the world and not just in Judah and Samaria.

In various Scriptures God calls the Overcomers his “first fruits.” He calls them this because they will be the first of mankind to come into maturity, the first to be made fully into his image. This is the sole purpose of creation… God is procreating himself. He is begetting, or bringing forth, sons in his exact image. This explains why he created every plant with seeds which re-produce after their own kind and why he demanded that men’s gardens contain individual seeds which did not cross pollinate.  He wants each seed to become the exact image of its parents, just as he intends each of his sons to bear his own full and true image. Because they come in their Father’s image they will proclaim that they are come in their Father’s Name!