I like this statement, Stephen. Here is my understanding as I have received it from my spiritual teacher. There is God the Father. From Him everything comes, and by His will everything in existence…exists. But he gives us, tiny fragments of spirit, a little free will. We can either accept God as our eternal well-wishing, loving Father…or we can be envious of His position and want it for ourselves. This envy is portrayed in the activities of human beings on this planet. The desire to be God, to be the most powerful, the most intelligent, the most wealthy, the most beautiful, the most famous…this puts us all in endless competition. This competition takes the form of imperialism, slavery, exploitation, war, etc.
So first and foremost, we have God, our eternal spiritual Father. Now, his powers are unfathomable, inconceivable to the human mind. He is in heaven. But at the same time He is all-pervasive… We call this all-pervasive presence of God, “the Holy Ghost”. The Holy Ghost is within every atom, and between every atom in this world. He lives within our hearts. Without His help and His presence within us, we would not be able to take our next breath. He is the power the digest our food. In fact He is everything. But He is more than everything in His creation…because He lives personally , on His throne, in heaven. He is simultaneously ing heaven, and within our hearts. He is just waiting for us to turn to Him.
But we are deaf and blind. We are trying to make life on planet earth work for us, each of us trying to be a proprietor, a controller, and in this way… an enjoyer.
Actually we cannot be separated from God. We are infinitesimal spiritual sparks, emanating from God who is metaphorically like a great fire. When the sparks are out of touch with the great fire, they lose their effulgent quality. We are like leaves on the tree of life. And God is that tree. We are part of the tree. Here on earth, we are like leaves, trying to water ourselves…but it doesn’t work. Others, some few, are trying to water the other leaves…but that doesn’t provide eternal life to them, nor can it satisfy their desires. But if there is one leaf on the tree of life that waters the root of the tree…that leaf can say, “My cup runneth over.”, because his heart is filled with spiritual bliss. And at the same time, imperceptibly, he is serving all of the other leaves on the tree.
Now, God is watching all of this seeking for fulfillment by watering ourselves in so many ways, and by watering each other…and he sees that we are not aware that we are all part of the the great Tree of Life, which is God. So he sends His Son.
His Son is always cent percent watering the root. This is his spontaneous demeanor of the heart. And God sends him to us, an gives him great power. Just like a president of country sends his ambassador to another land. He is not the president. But he is empowered to act on behalf of the president. And he is to be received as we would receive the president himself. And if he is received properly , with all respect and honor that is due to the president, the president is very pleased. And the role of the ambassador is to convey the wishes of the president to those in a foreign land. Jesus is Gad’s ambassador. He is empowered by God to fulfill this position. He is authorized. And he shows by example, that the only way to be fulfilled within our hearts, is to water the root of the Tree of Life, our Father in heaven. He wants nothing for Himself. He only desires to be a source of pleasure to our eternal Father. Therefore he says, as a way of teaching to all of us, “Not what I want for myself, Lord, not my will, but only what is pleasing to you, Thy will be done.” In other words Jesus is teaching that our fulfillment lies in adopting the demeanor of pure devotional service to God. Not that we approach God, asking Him to be our order supplier, like Amazon.com, but that we ask God what can we do that is pleasing to You, that will give You pleasure. This is the teaching of Jesus in a nutshell. Pure devotional service. Unalloyed devotional service. Not mixed with our personal desires ad ambitions for enjoying life on planet earth.
So when Jesus tells us, that “I and my Father are One.” This does not mean that Jesus is God the Father. This means that we must receive him as we would receive God Himself, because Jesus is the intimate associate of God the Father in heaven, and God has sent Him to us, as His ambassador.
Then Jesus tells us that there is no way to the father except through him. Why is he teaching us in this way? Jesus tells us that he is metaphorically like an ox that is harnessing under the yoke of his master. If the master says turn right, or left, or go forward, the ox complies. Jesus tells us to take upon ourselves the yoke that he carries, that he serves. How can we do this? We can do this by accepting the heart of Jesus into our own hearts.
Therefore, we must cultivate an intimate relationship with Jesus. Just like covid. We catch covid by associating intimately with someone who has covid. We catch the devotional spirit of Jesus towards our eternal Father, by intimately associating with Jesus within our hearts.
Now, the Holy Spirit of God who is in our hearts…He gives us firstly, the ability to recognize Jesus as His ambassador. But He only gives this ability to those who are ready and willing to come closer to Him. Because we all have this God-given tiny free will. When we are ready to accept His guidance, He enables to recognize Jesus as our Teacher. And because Jesus is sharing his love of the Father with us, his teaching is perfect. In this way God the Father, God the son, and God the all-pervasive Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost … are One. Amen.