Jesus made this statement in John 14:9 when one of His disciples said “show us the Father.“Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Please realize the context of this. These men had been with Him for a long time, witnessing supernatural events on a regular basis. They saw Him rebuke a storm, walk on water, cast out demons from people, heal all manners of sickness and disease, raise dead people, provide ample food where there was none for people who came to hear Him teach, find a coin in a fish’s mouth with which to pay their taxes and curse a tree and it withered. So, for one of them to say show us the Father would indicate someone wasn’t paying attention!! Jesus WAS showing them the Father!

Hebrews 1:3 says of Jesus, the Word, the Son of God, “who being the brightness of His (God’s) glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,…”

The Passion Translation says it like this: “The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendor, the exact expression of God’s true nature–his mirror image! He holds the universe together and expands it by the mighty power of his spoken word. He accomplished for us the complete cleansing of sins and then took his seat on the highest throne at the right hand of the majestic One.

So if we want to know what God is like, we must look at Jesus. The character of God Himself is directly illustrated to us in the life and character of Jesus Christ. People get confused when they read the old testament and see a God who is in favor of killing people. That discussion is for another day. Jesus is the express image of God Himself.

So what was Jesus like? I think most of us are familiar with the bible stories of what He did while He was alive on the earth. 1 John 3:8 says His purpose in coming to the earth was to “destroy the works of the devil.” In order to do this, He cast demons out of people and healed all manner of sickness and disease. Does this witness to you that God loves people? I mean, really loves people. It does to me. Is it His will that we be sick? It doesn’t look like it to me. As a second witness to this fact, did you know our bodies were created to heal themselves? Well, who created our bodies? This tells me that sickness is not God’s will, otherwise, why would our bodies work to heal themselves?

Sickness is a thief and a killer. Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10. Sickness steals your time, your attention, and your money. Sickness is not abundant life, which is what He promised.

So we can conclude, just from the John 14:9 and Hebrews 1:3 verses, that Jesus perfectly represented the character and the will of God for mankind. So why don’t we see people experiencing more of this? Because they don’t believe it. The benefits of God depend on faith in His promises. They won’t just land on us.

Believe that God wants you well today! Jesus has plainly showed us that is God’s desire. He has destroyed the works of the devil. He’s a good God who wants good things for His people. We need to put our faith in that truth.

Dear Jesus, We are dense in our understanding of who You really are. Illuminate our hearts today with truth as we ponder Your character and Your power as Your Word says.