Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."
John 14:8-14
"God longs to express himself fully through Jesus and through Jesus' people. Jesus wants to do fully all that he has been sent to do, working to the glory of God. He wants us to do and be all that we are intended to do and be. The only way we will accomplish that is through constant prayer. We must pray for the work of God in us and through us, pray for the glory of God to be seen in us and through us, pray for the love of God to shine in us and through us.
Reading this whole paragraph - verses 8 to 14 - we arrive at a frightening conclusion. Jesus announces at the beginning of the paragraph that whoever has seen him has seen the Father, and he gives us the evidence of the work that the Father has been doing through him. At the end of the paragraph he says that those who follow him and believe in him will do all these works and greater works still, in answer to prayer, so that the Father may be glorified. Our conclusion must be that the church should be working in such a way that, when challenged, we could point to it as proof of what God is doing. Even writing that feels and sounds almost blasphemous, which only goes to show how far short we are from this ideal."
N.T. Wright, Reflecting the Glory, p. 116-117
"He will do even greater things than these" - those words seem so far from my experience, with what I see in God's people in 21st century USA. What is there about my life, about my ministry, about the community of Jesus-followers across the US, that gives evidence of God at work in us and through us - that gives evidence of the power of God in acts that are greater than those of Jesus (I can't even wrap my mind around that - but the promise is right there on the page - in red letters!) - that results in the glory of God?
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