Since the beginning, Serving God has meant and required Hearing God. Our obedience, is paramount to God. But if we cannot hear Him, true obedience and serving become impossible for mankind.

Jesus worked under this principle, as He says in John 5:19 “… Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do. For whatever things He does, these also the Son does likewise.”

Quite simply, Jesus heard God and then He both obeyed and He acted. Jesus did not ‘think’ He knew what God wanted – He knew exactly what God wanted.

Yes, Jesus was and is one of the three Persons of the Trinity, the Godhead, but when He was on earth as a man He gave up His omnipotence, His omnipresence and His omniscience and became essentially like one of us, relying on the Holy Spirit to hear from God the Father. Jesus confirms this inability to read the mind of God the Father as He says in Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not the angels of Heaven, but only My Father.”

Jesus heard and obeyed God just as those in the Old Testament had been expected to hear and obey God.

Some 3,500 years ago Moses was taken to a mountain and told by God in Exodus 25:9 “According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments of it, even so you shall make it.” Just to make sure Moses got the point, God reiterated a little later in v40 “And see that you make them after their pattern, which was shown you in the mountain.” God was telling Moses – make the tabernacle exactly like you saw in heaven and do not change it! In other words – “Obey me!” Acts 7:44 again confirms this direct command saying “The tabernacle of witness was among our fathers in the wilderness, as commanded by God, speaking to Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen.”

The same happened to that other great man of the old Testament, Abram as we read in Genesis 12:2 “And Jehovah said to Abram, ‘Go out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house into a land that I will show you.'” And when Abram did exactly as God asked, the blessings began on his life and his name was changed to Abraham, as we read in Genesis 17:1-5

“And when Abram was ninety-nine years old, Jehovah appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am the Almighty God! Walk before Me and be perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.’
And Abram fell on his face. And God talked with him, saying, ‘As for Me, behold! My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you a father of many nations.'”

All the many battles which King David fought, he won. Second Samuel 5:23 gives a typical explanation for this: “And David inquired of Jehovah, and He said, ‘You shall not go up, but go around behind them and come upon them over across from the weeping trees.'” Each time he was to go battle, David sought the word of the Lord and followed the Lord’s instructions. Yet when David acted on occasion without seeking the word of the Lord, disaster ensued as when David decided to move the Ark irreverently and “Uzzah reached out to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen upset it. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzzah. And God struck him there for the error. And he died there by the ark of God” Second Samuel 6:6b-7.

The methods which Moses and Jesus used “See in Heaven and Copy on Earth” are also required of all Christians today. Whether or not you have yet noticed it, this is included in what Christians call the Lord’s Prayer, as Matthew 6:10 says:

“… Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven…”

In the Book of John there are many records of how Jesus lived this principle:

In Action:

John 5:30 says “I can do nothing of My own self. ….”

In Judgement and in Judging:

John 5:30 says “… . As I hear, I judge, and My judgement is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of the Father who has sent Me.”

In Teaching:

John 7:16 says “Jesus answered them and said, ‘My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.'”

In Speaking:

John 8:28 “… When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know that I AM, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these things.”

John 12:49-50 “For I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His command is life everlasting. Therefore whatever I speak, even as the Father said to Me, so I speak.”

John 14:10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The Words that I speak to you I do not speak of Myself, but the Father who dwells in Me, He does the works.”

John 14:24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My Words, and the Word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”

In Doing:

John 14:31 “But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has given Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go away from here.”

Jesus serves God first by hearing God. As was said above, Jesus as man communicated with the Father through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, in John 16:13 explains that we Christians will do the same because He returns to the Father saying: “However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears, He shall speak. And He will announce to you things to come.”

The principle in which Jesus lives was as above, as He said in John 5:19 “… He sees the Father do … whatever things He does … the Son does likewise.”

We as Christians would be wise to live under the same principle, for Serving God means Hearing God! And Hearing God, means putting in effort!

Amen and Amen.