A lot of people who don't believe in the identity of Jesus as God in the flesh like to use these words as proof that Jesus is not God: "My words are not my own." Afterall, if He was God, wouldn't He have just said, "These are MY words."? Well, no.
In actuality, these words confirm that Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus didn't go around proclaiming to the world that He was God in the flesh (I think He would have had a much shorter lifespan if He had), because His words, His actions, and His fulfillment of prophecy were to speak as a testimony of who He was. He let people discover who He was. This is always how God works, because God is seeking those who have faith. Belief comes through the hearing of the Word (Romans 10:17). God doesn't just appear to us and say, "Believe in Me." We have to search for Him and prove our faith.
Acts 17:26,27 And He made every nation of men of one blood, to live on all the face of the earth, ordaining fore-appointed seasons and boundaries of their dwelling, to seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and might find Him, though indeed He not being far from each one of us.
Jesus knew that the majority of His audience didn't believe in His identity as the Messiah and God in flesh, even some among his disciples. When He said, "these words are not my own," He was essentially saying, "This mind of mine did not make these words up. This body of mine is subject to the Spirit inside that is speaking these words." Jesus is showing that the flesh He existed in was in agreement and obedient to the Father. He was not teaching on His own authority apart from the Father.
So, WHO Jesus was speaking to is important to take into account when understanding His words. If He had told all the people, who believed He was merely a prophet, that these words were His own, He would have been confirming in their eyes that He was merely a man, or else they would've realized He was saying He was God and stoned Him. In the below verses, He confirms to unbelievers that he is not some random guy teaching His own doctrine.
John 5:30,31 I can of my own self do nothing; as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
Again, in the below verse, Jesus is speaking to those who don't believe in His identity as God in the flesh.
Mark 10:18 But Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except One, God."
Since they didn't believe He was God, He was saying, "Why are you calling me this, since you don't believe in who I am?"
When He speaks to His disciples who believe (or almost believe), He speaks differently.
John 20:28,29 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, Thomas, you have believed. Blessed are the ones not seeing, and believing."
John 14:8-11 And Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Am I so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? The one seeing Me has seen the Father! And how do you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The Words which I speak to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me, He does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe Me because of the works themselves.
When God appeared to people in the Old Testament, He sent the angel of Yehovah, a physical form of Himself, to speak for Him. Everyone who saw this "Man" said they had seen God. It's similar to how we do a video call with someone, they are seeing us, but not the actual us. This is how God could "send Himself" through Yeshua, a body of flesh.
John 5:37 [Spoken to unbelievers] And the Father himself, who has sent me, has borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his appearance. And you do not have his word abiding in you; for whom he has sent, him you do not believe.
See below how He calls the Father's Word His word? How can it be His word too if He is not the Father in the flesh?
John 14:23,24 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word, and My Father shall love him. And We will come to him and will make a dwelling place with him. The one who does not love Me does not keep My Words. And the Word which you hear is not Mine [not mine alone as an individual] but of the Father who sent Me.
So when people use these verses to prove that He is not the Father, I think, hm, interesting. In my eyes, these words only confirm that He is indeed the Father. I see Jesus' veiled way of speaking as a test. Those who have faith will seek out His identity and believe, but those who do not have enough faith will be challenged and even offended by the identity of Christ as God in the flesh.
1 Peter 2:7-10 Therefore to you who believe is the honor. But to those who are disobedient, He is the Stone which the builders rejected; this One came to be the Head of the corner, and a Stone-of-stumbling and a Rock-of-offense to those disobeying, who stumble at the Word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession, so that you might speak of the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; you who then were not a people, but now the people of God, those not pitied then, but now pitied.
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