 pleased Him regarding His begotten Son, therefore if you are pleasing God the Father it is because you are making progress in accordance with His Spirit into His Son as you abide where God is seeing more and more of His Sons life in you. Our life, led by the Holy Spirit, is one where our Lords life should always be ever expanding in us and one where our life is ever losing ground, and if not, we are beginning to stagnate in our knowledge of Christ, and not hearing, or being led by the Spirit any longer, which is the case of many in the Church today.
We can know God personally, only as He reveals Himself in His Son, according to His will, and not according to how much personal information we have gained though our own efforts about Him, i.e. we are solely dependent upon God given insight.
One who only has knowledge about God, that is, someone who can quote all the right scriptures does not necessarily possess an interpersonal knowledge of God, i.e. the word that someone knows and has, has not impacted their inner life as it should. To know the heavenly Father we have to draw up close to Him, In Christ, and to do so, will require a level of self-sacrifice on our part because relationships take time and are costly because there is pain, joy, love, and learning. We all approach God on His terms and not ours; He grants us access as He communicates His will to us. If Jesus had explained to the Jews that they are to be perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect, in saying so, He put this perfection out of the reach of any of our human abilities, consequently, the one who spoke of this level of realization is the only one who is capable of such a thing… this is my beloved “son” in whom I’m well pleased.
Jesus had quickly pointed out the spiritual insufficiency of the Jewish sect the Pharisee by explaining to them that although they searched and examined the scriptures however were absent of the life and love of God. They knew of God, could speak of Him intelligently and even adhered to His laws and commands yet they remained distant from God, spiritually blind and steeped in error; error to the point where others were acceptable to them, even receiving them, however Gods Son was not.
You search and keep on searching and examining the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and yet it is those [very Scriptures] that testify about Me; and still you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory and approval from men; but I know you and recognize that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name and with His power, and you do not receive Me [because your minds are closed]; but if another comes in his own name and with no authority or power except his own, you will receive him and give your approval to an impostor.
However, and in my opinion, the Church certainly understands that it is In Christ via Gods mercies, grace, power, according to His word, yet the fruit of a divine union and relationship, leading us to life and the love of God, has not yet fully been realized, or developed in the manners and ways according to the Fathers. Because the Father has great expectations and confidence in His Son, in whom He was and is well pleased, and in whom is eternal life and His love, more than sufficient life for all branches, In the Vine, there is an abundance to produce plentiful fruit, and through much bearing of fruit, the Father is glorified.
Unfortunately, today, what we see are many wild branches growing off of the Vine, branches in grave need of cultivation and pruning that these scraggly branches might bear fruit. Consequently, there are many men calling themselves Prophets, Apostles, or Teachers who stand up as the Churches representatives simply because they are on our TV’s or are Pastors of mega assemblies all explaining to us what is Gods will, yet, what many are missing in their messages is what is inevitable, and that is the pruning that needs to come. The pruning to be accomplished is by the Husbandman, He will accomplish it in accordance with His Will, and in His manners and time periods, and not ours. Therefore, what the future holds for the Church can only be understood in terms of the pruning that is still to be accomplished, because the Father intends to have an abundance of good fruit and not sour grapes in His vineyard. How this pruning is coming about I don’t know but something is coming, we all know it, and certainly the vineyards care, in the hands of the Church, has suffered loss.
 Leaving this love they became overly preoccupied with works. Any good work that we might accomplish in life has to find its source in the Lord, and especially His love, one that is based in a relationship of love for Him. We hear Jesus saying to Peter three times do you love me, feed my sheep. Jesus did not say go and feed my sheep but instead first said do you love me. What had Jesus told the disciples regarding His own relationship He had with His Father and you can bet all good works came out from this love relationship with His Father.
You cannot separate good works, either individually or collectively, from a meaningful relationship with the Lord; work apart from Jesus that is not according to His heart and mind is lawless and will meet with Jesus disapproval which presses against our heart with these words, I never knew you, which I believe to be a relational statement. All work must have a single source, and if not, you are simply a hireling, or you have ulterior motives in your heart. This source as you have already guessed is Jesus. Good works are a consequence of the fruit of the Spirit working in us. In Galatians 5 Paul identifies nine different fruit that are to be working and existing in us, which speaks more to the character of the individual than their works (service), that is, if genuine work is to be accomplished, which brings glory to God and Christ. Why glory, because the good works source is not man but God In Christ in us. Many can do work that looks religious and charitable yet its source is not the Vine, however its source is man’s nature and not Christ, the carnal Christian can do all kinds of religious things that look good on the surface, reasoning this is what Christ is like and would do. Every religious thing can be accomplished by ambitious self-motivated men. Many religions, religious organizations, and churches have been built by well-meaning men yet without an ounce of God’s grace In Christ as the source for such working. These churches look good, feel good, taste good, and are even very successful, but in terms of any relationship with the Lord they fall short.
Not only do we think of work from the perspective of ministry or service but in terms of walking a sinless life before God, good works. We are solely dependent upon God’s grace working in us, that is, that which proceeds from Him In Christ which is all sufficient toward us that we might work in our walking holy and upright.
Additionally, the fruits I’m speaking of are personal in nature, i.e. they characterize the person who possesses them. Love, joy, peace, patience, longsuffering, self-control, patience etc. all speak of the character of the one whom knows these. I say know because they are spiritually produced and have much more to do with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirits than it does with us. What is in us is antithesis to these fruits and there is no person who can know these apart from Jesus Christ and their subsequent abiding In Him, that is if you want to know what is genuine. The fruit is known by the tree that produces it. In other words, as branches there is never a shortage of life that flows from the source where we can begin to characterize this life by the fruit that begins to form on the branch. An apple tree is known by the fruit it produces. The life of Christ in us is understood in terms of the fruit it produces where Paul had identified nine for us in Galatians. One particular fruit I would make mention of is self-control where if Christians truly had this fruit working in their lives they would have control over all sorts of negative things that control them, e.g. the tongue, eating, and various habits that are difficult to break.
How can anyone expect to have continual communion and fellowship with the Son and the Father until they learn to come into an alignment with Gods Will. The sum total of His will is understood in terms of Christ moral life, His righteousness and holiness, and heart of passion to obey the Father in all behaviors that are of the mind, will, and emotion. Once an individual comes into a personal synchronization with Gods royal moral law, In Christ, then he or she will realize His continual communion, where we recognize that this communal blessing is God Himself; there is no greater possibly blessing than to know the living God in Christ.
God, in Christ through the Spirit, works to this end that we might know the Father and the Son in true fellowship and to do so we have to come into alignment with their holiness. Setting our minds upon the instruction in righteousness of the Spirit puts us on solid ground for continual communion with God thus in this communion we will know peace, grace, and mercy unto bearing the fruit of this divine relationship. The first thing that Moses encounter regarding knowing God had been His holiness.  In like manner, we are meant to be holy or our God is holy and as we make progress in this manner we will make progress in knowing our God and Father.
However, we must understand that God does the work