The Lord Jesus Worked in the Father’s Name and He Sought the Father’s Will

The Lord Jesus as the first God-man is our pattern and our model, becoming a mold in which we as the many God-men are being put to be conformed to His image.

In His being, Christ was a man filled with God, a mingling of divinity with humanity. In His work, Christ didn’t do anything from Himself but did the Father’s will, spoke the Father’s words, accomplished the Father’s work, and did everything in oneness with the Father.

In John 10:25 we see that the Lord Jesus worked in the name of the Father – He did everything one with the Father, worked as the Father, and He did all things for and with the Father.

Also, the Lord Jesus didn’t seek His own will but the will of the Father, the Sending One (John 5:30). He denied Himself, rejected His ideas and opinions, and took the Father’s will as His will, doing all for the fulfilling of the will of the Father.

Wow, what a God-man! To His image we are being conformed as we eat Him as the bread of life – in this bread there’s Christ’s fine and balanced humanity, and as we eat this bread we are being conformed to His image from within!

Lord, keep us eating You until we look like You, work like You, and are You! May our food be the will of the Father, and may we take Your yoke upon us and learn from You!

Christ Worked in the Name of the Father

What did the Lord mean when He said that He worked in the name of the Father (John 10:25)? Does it mean only that He emphasized all the time, “I do this in the name of the Father”?

To work in the Father’s name means to work as the Father, as if the Father would do that thing. The Lord Jesus was the Son with the Father and by the Spirit, fully mingled with God, and He worked in the name of the Father.

He came in the Father’s name (John 5:43) and He did nothing in His own name – He did everything in the Father’s name.

Even though He could so so many things apart from the Father, the Lord Jesus chose to deny Himself and do everything one with the Father and in the Father’s name.

Today we need to do things not in our name but in the name of our sending Lord, that He may get the glory.

When we are being entrusted to do something for the Lord or when we’re sent somewhere to do something / speak something for Him, we shouldn’t take the opportunity to promote ourselves, our ideas, our intentions, or our good thoughts.

We need to learn from the Lord and deny ourselves, our ideas, our opinions, our intentions, and speak and do everything in the Lord’s name, one with the Lord.

Christ Sought the Father’s Will and Not His Own

In John 4:34 we see that the Lord’s food was to do the will of Him who sent Him and to finish His work.

The Lord’s food was to do the will of the Father, and in this case in particular, His food was to save the sinners and satisfy them with the living water.

When He was on the earth, the Lord Jesus strongly declared both in word and in deed that He did not do His own will but the Father’s will.

When He was rejected, the Lord Jesus extolled the Father’s will. When He was acclaimed and He had a successful work, the Lord retreated in the desert to spend time alone with the Father. The cross He told us to take is the Father’s will, and He took the Father’s will as His will.

The cup He took in Gethsemane was not the cup of martyrdom or suffering only, but the will of God the Father.

In Matt. 11:29 He tells us that if we take the Father’s will as our yoke, we will find rest for our souls. We need to learn of Him and take the Father’s will as our sweet rest – His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

Seeking to Do God’s Will and Not Our Own Will

In working for the Lord and with the Lord, we need to learn from the Lord Jesus and not seek to do our own will but the will of God the Father, the Sending One.

When we are entrusted to do something for the Lord, we need to firstly deny ourselves, reject our ideas and intentions, and not try to accomplish our own purpose.

We may have many good intentions, and they may be based on the Bible and our good views concerning ethics, morality, and spirituality.

I was helped by brother Witness Lee’s sharing on this subject in, The God-Man Living (page. 125-126),

The Lord did not seek His own will but the will of Him who sent Him (John 5:30b). First, He denied Himself; second, He rejected His idea, His intention, and His purpose. He would only seek the will of the One who sent Him. All of us should be on the alert for this one thing—when we are sent to do some work, we should not take that chance to seek our own goal. When we go to perform God’s work, do we go by seeking our purpose or God’s purpose?

How much we need to be purified in our intention and in our will by the cross, so that we will solely seek to do the Lord’s will and accomplish His purpose.

To seek our intention is absolutely impure – we need to turn to the Lord, exercise our spirit, and allow the cross to operate in us to eliminate our natural intention, will, and purpose.

When we work with the Lord and for the Lord, we should seek the idea, purpose, goal, and intention of the sending Lord. We need to learn this and practice this.

We have this One, the God-man, in our spirit, and He can live such a life in us. Christ in us can do such a work in us. He is ready, waiting for us to turn to Him, that we may learn from Him.

Let us take His yoke, the Father’s will, and do everything in this way. When we do the Father’s will, the result of our work does not matter.

Whether people persecute us or acclaim us, whether the result is great or small, we will be satisfied, content, and happy with doing the Father’s will.

Lord, duplicate such a life and work in us. Save us from doing something according to our own intention and will. Lord, save us from going out to accomplish something according to our own intention and idea. Purify us through the cross, Lord, that we may not do a natural work or a work for and in ourselves. We come to seek Your will, O Father. May Your will be done. May Your will be our food, and the fulfillment of Your will be our satisfaction.

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msg. 2), and, The God-man Living (ch. 14), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 2 (entitled, The Pattern of the Lord Jesus—the Work of Christ in His Human Living and Earthly Ministry).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Christ is a genuine man, / The perfect and finest man, / Obedient, serving, no appearance of evil, / The finest personality, / Divinity expressed through humanity.
  # We must eat Jesus till God can / Have the fulfillment of His plan— / One man expressed for all to see, / One church in each locality.
  # Oh, lightest burden, sweetest yoke; / It lifts, it bears my happy soul, / It giveth wings to this poor heart; / My freedom is Thy grand control
  # Every moment, every member, / Girded, waiting Thy command; / Underneath the yoke to labor / Or be laid aside as planned. / When restricted in pursuing, / No disquiet will beset; / Underneath Thy faithful dealing / Not a murmur or regret.
• Picture credit: Oh, What a Christ (facebook page).