All of us have a mental image of God that is created by our own spiritual failure. To have the correct concept of God is basic to our understanding of Biblical truths, and creates for us a foundation for worship. To know who He is, and what He is like is a moral responsibility of every Christian. We are obligated to our heavenly Father for our existence, and we are to love our Creator with every ability in the power of our mind and soul. All of us are guilty of idolizing something other than God, which is an assault on His character, and is a disgusting sin. When we glorify something other than God we are engaging in thoughts that are undeserving of the love He has given us. Although we knew God, we did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in our thoughts, and our foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, we became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man. (Romans 1:21-23) We create images in our mind about God that are not true, and we believe God is different than what He actually is.
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10) When John the Apostle was taken up to heaven and beheld the visions of the book of Revelation he was looking at future events that his mind and language could not describe. So he used the words and experiences of things that were common during his time. So any words we use to visualize God are only images we constructed in our mind from the experiences we have had in our lifetime. He is incomprehensible to describe with our own ability so the Holy Spirit divulges His character to a seeking heart, and to those who have a desire to know what they cannot understand. So through these pages we try to comprehend the Unapproachable, and try to understand the Incomprehensible.
Faith is the foundation of Biblical understanding, and the love we have for God is in our desire to know Him. God came to us in the personification of Jesus Christ, and in atonement He reconciled us to Himself. Through faith and love we are able to behold the power of His being. Our heavenly Father takes our soul by the hand and leads us to the way of pure faith. Through the Holy Spirit He removes all intellect and reason and grants us a simple understanding of faith that gives us the ability to know the true love of God. A love that surpasses all knowledge and imagery we have pictured in our mind. What is God really like? Nobody knows. All we can do is take the scriptures that reveal a fragment of His being and meditate on them. Even the name of God is a secret, and His nature is incomprehensible to the human mind.
I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. One million ministered to Him; one hundred million stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. “I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:8-10; 13-14)
An attribute is a quality or characteristic of someone. It is our mind’s concept of God’s disclosure of Himself. We are a collection of character traits that compose us as a whole. These traits vary from each individual person, and sometimes they vary within themselves with the same person. We know as a person we have intelligence, memory, and a will. We are able to reason with one another through these gifts. We have a built-in conscience that proclaims God is our Creator, and with this comes the knowledge of right from wrong. God instills in every one of us a temperament that composes each one of us as an individual. No two people are alike. We are totally dependent upon God for our survival.
On the other hand, God exists in Himself and for Himself. We think with thoughts and words while things of this nature are not suitable for God. He is a single unitary being and is unable to be divided or separated. As a result His being is in perfect balance, and between His character traits there is no contradiction. All of His works are in total unity of His being, and when He loves He is simply being Himself. There are things we struggle to understand. The Trinity is one of those things that is hard to place into perspective. The Scofield Bible proclaims, “there are three Persons in the Godhead: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. They are one nature, the same in Their attributes, in Their will and in Their purpose.” All of us live by faith. Whether it is faith in the world or faith in God. Every one of us accepts certain unexplainable things by faith.
We witness daily the miracles of the earth. The plants grow, the rivers flow, and the wind blows from where we do not know. The sky is forever blue until the clouds make way their path, and darkness consumes the day. Lightning strikes and fire devours the forest, rain and then a mighty wind, and all is washed away. We live a life of mystery as to how the universe displays. All its glory handed down to us from God in only six days. We are able to harness the power of the atom, but have never seen one for ourselves. Trinity equals unity, and for what God proclaims to the believer there is no need for proof. The secular man demands evidence because there is doubt in His heart.
How many Fathers have sacrificed their Son for you? How many Kings have stepped off their throne? The answer is not many, it’s just One. Who died for us once and for all, and who rose from the dead so that we might have this glorious relation with the Creator of all things. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17) Faith has to go before us like a shield to deflect doubt, and to go before all effort to understand what we cannot comprehend. We do not question the Word of God, and it cannot be dealt with by reason. If we stand here and sit in judgment of the Author we place doubt in our mind, and the true meaning of the Word will not be revealed to us. Let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.” (Romans 3:4) The Trinity is complete unity of person. There is nothing before it nor is there anything after it. All three persons are One and are inseparable. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. (1 John 5:7)
There is a fashionable conclusion among Christians that God is some how three different people working together as one. Each person dealing with a specific duty. In one aspect it is true, but God cannot divide Himself to the point where one person is active while the other two are idle. All three members of the Godhead work in unison, and all the works of God are done as one. We find this evident in many scriptures. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14) Here we have Christ through the Holy Spirit offering Himself to God. The labor of creation is attributed to God the Father in Genesis 1:1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Then to the Son, in Colossians 1:16: For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And by the Holy Spirit in Psalms 104:30: You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.
God exists by His own ability, and beside God there is no one or anything that created themselves. He has no beginning and no ending. He is in a state of perpetual existence. This nonsense that our universe and all of life came into existence by some kind of accident is total rubbish. Our Creator is perfect light of the Spirit, and can not be gazed upon by mortal man, because it would bring instant death. Elijah had to have His back turned to God when God passed by. Only through the faith God grants us, and the love His mercy are we able to realize the existence of God. He exist outside of the realm of our imagination. Time, matter, and space have no control of Him. He is everywhere in His creation yet He is nowhere, and we are dependent on Him for each moment of our existence. We were created in His image, and for this reason we are honored above all other creatures including Angels. We are a lower than them now, but when we receive our resurrected bodies we will judge them. This may have something to do with the revolt in heaven where one third of the angels turned against God. We have been granted this lofty status yet we are mutineers. We as a race of beings are an enmity against God. Sin has festered itself in many ways in our lives, and we as moral beings, created to serve in the palace of God only serve ourselves. When we place our will above the will of God we remove Him from His throne, place Him on the shelf, and put our desires above His. This is the sin of Satan, of Lucifer the fallen one, and with this sin many shall fall into the pits of hell. Jesus said, “You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:23-25)
All life comes from God, and no person or thing has life in itself. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. (John 5:26-27) The creation of all things is for the pleasure of God, and depend on Him for life. The plants need food and water, the animals need oxygen to breath, and we as a necessity need the knowledge of God to survive. For us to believe in Him adds nothing to His existence, and to disbelieve in Him takes nothing away. He does not need us in any way. But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)
It is difficult for us to comprehend that God is limitless. Anywhere you go through all of creation God is there. His greatness cannot be conceived by the human mind, and He is infinite. No measurement can contain Him, because measurements come in degrees, and there are no degrees for God. When we accept Christ as our Savior we are as limitless as God. We possess the life of God and share with Him His infinitude. The mercy of God is boundless, and anyone who has suffered from the pains of guilt will know where sin abounds, grace abounds even more.
God never changes. He is perfect, and holy in every way. His love and kindness cannot be measured, and His character is permanently fixed. I think this is one of the most wonderful things about Him. We can always depend on Him, and we can always trust what He says, because He is perfectly holy. The only improvement that can be made is on man’s side of the coin, because there will never be a change in the moral character of God. Any being that changes is not eternal, and is not self-sufficient. Everything He is has always been, because He is a single uniform entity, and is unable to be separated in any way. In our world we have decay and death, and through the Holy Spirit of God the change in mankind is metamorphic. It is the only way that change is permanent. We receive a higher consciousness when God breathes eternal life into our spirit. He takes away the dysfunctional parts of our being, and replaces them with the eternal law of God.
He possesses and controls all knowledge. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding? (Isaiah 40:12-14) He has derived every source of knowledge that ever existed, and knows everything perfectly. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:11) For the mountains shall depart And the hills be removed, But My kindness shall not depart from you, Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” Says the Lord, who has mercy on you. (Isaiah 54:9:10) The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)
God is Almighty, all-powerful, and all that He gives is returned to Him in the end. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” (Revelation 19:6) Mankind views the power of creation as a recognizable design and affixes these patterns as the laws of nature. They place their faith in the laws, and refuse to recognize the power of God. Christian faith on the other hand places their faith in the source of all things. The Master of creation. Jesus Christ instructed us to address Him as a person: “Our Father who art in heaven, holy be thy name,” and we can continue to enlighten ourselves with His magnificent attributes. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:20) Power belongs to God.
He is exalted above all that is created to the point that human imagination cannot conceive His supremacy. Thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has an apologetic and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the remorseful.” (Isaiah 57:15) It is the Spirit that gives us the true reality of God, and nothing else has any value and doesn’t last. The distance between an archangel and God is infinite, yet we comfort ourselves with the knowledge of His presence. He places in our hearts a desire to seek Him, and provides to us some measure of understanding, but His infinite transcendence is impossible for us to comprehend. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude. (Daniel 10:6)
God is everywhere all the time. If you ascend the highest mountain, God is there. If you travel to the most distant star, God is there. If you search out the smallest molecular place in all of creation, God is there. He knows no limits. God is the air we breathe, the water we swim, and the space we occupy. He is within all things, and without all things, yet not excluded from anything. True reality originated from the Spirit, cascades out of the essence of the Spirit, and apart from Spirit is pointless. It enables us, as an individual, to have a personal relationship with Him that is shared with no one.
The heavenly Father I know lives within my mind, and it is the most wonderful relationship I have ever experienced. He is always there; He is always with me; I am never alone. As I go through the day we converse back and forth just like the best of friends. I always loved my dad, and we had two distinct times in our lives when we fellowshipped. In the beginning we argued a lot, because I struggled to see his view of things. It was the same way with My heavenly Father. When I lived out of His will we argued a lot, but once I subjected myself to His instructions we became the best of friends. He guides me; He comforts me; He protects me from evil. He blesses me beyond my wildest imaginations. He is a father, a brother, and a friend all wrapped up in One.
His unfailing attitude gives me hope for a future with Him in heaven. I realize there will be one hundred million people with me as I worship Him. The unspoken relationship we have, and His tenderhearted approach to my scared soul, brings me great peace and joy. He takes pleasure in blessing others, and has showed me true happiness comes from giving. He makes His Son shine on all people regardless of their attitude toward Him. To those who repent of their sins, He is merciful; to those who are poor in spirit, He is forgiving; and to those who are frightened, He is friendly and compassionate. Are you a prodigal child? Have you turned your back on Him previously in life?
Do not be afraid. His Kingdom is based on righteousness and justice, and He is fair to everyone who calls His name. The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all peoples see his glory. (Psalms 97:1-6 NIV) For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God. Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. Amen. (Psalms 86:10-11 NIV) So we have this great revelation that God is forever God. He cannot change. Everything that exists is good to the point that it comes from God. It is we who distort His goodness with our evil behavior, but thanks be to Jesus Christ who provided us a way to escape sin.
Through the boundless and unlimited power within the divine nature of God is an everlasting compassion to forgive His children their wrongs. As children of darkness, we may enter into the glorious light of God. He has always dealt with us in mercy, and when we ignore His beckoned call He has dealt with us in judgment. In the misery of our sinful condition His mercy stands as a light of forgiveness to all who will believe. His grace is directed toward our sin debt by placing merit where none existed. The good pleasure of God bestows grace upon us undeserving sinners, and lifts our heads out of the mire of the lustful world. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:5-6) “For the law was given to Moses, but grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ.”
God is love, and by the power of His love there is no beginning. There is no end because His love has no limitation, and through His perfect purity His love is immeasurable. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:17-19)
As much as people love pleasure, we would think they would search out God, because there is no pleasure in hell. Love has no inclusion of self, because it only gives willingly to the person of affection. With all the abilities of God, He still wants us to love Him, because His love for us is forever. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:13-15) This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10 NIV)
In every one of us is a mystery surrounded by the universe of our mind, the spiritual sense of a religious instinct, the feeling of an undiscoverable Presence that runs through the veins of our soul. Some refuse to believe it, and are consumed with insanity. Many try to cover up the Presence with drugs, immoral acts, and perversion. Supernatural in nature, this manifestation is the absolute essence of moral purity. Perfect in righteousness, and in His unfathomable holiness. To those of us who have experienced His presence, we cry “Abba, Father, my Lord and my God.” He is the Supreme Being that possesses all knowledge and all power. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” (Revelation 22:13)
We all have a choice to make as to whether or not we will obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to turn away from sin, and commit our life to Christ in faith. We do this through Bible study, prayer, obedience, and worship. Through our meditations we count ourselves dead unto sin, and alive in Christ. We open our soul up to the Holy Spirit so He can have a work inside us. We grow closer to God the person, and we make ourselves available to serve others for the glory of the Kingdom. We comfort ourselves in the knowledge that there is a man, Jesus Christ, on the right-hand-side of God the Father, and the more we know God, the more we will feel the desire to share our gift of salvation with others.
In His wisdom He has permitted sin to exist in certain areas of His creation. He has granted man a free will, and given us a moral choice to choose between good and evil. I don’t completely understand why, I just know that sin was first found in Lucifer, a created being. Satan, the devil, is described as a seal of perfection, full of wisdom and beauty. He was in the Garden of Eden and every precious stone adorned him. He was anointed as a guardian cherub and ordained by God. He was on the holy mountain of God and walked among the fiery stones. He was blameless in his ways from the day he was created until wickedness was found in him. His business made him very rich and his heart became filled with violence. The pride in his heart placed him above the throne of God. In Isaiah 14:13-14 we have the five “I wills” of Satan: “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; And I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
Satan convinced one third of the angels to follow him and He led a great revolt. Then in Revelation 12:7-9 we are told, And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. In Luke 10:17 Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” The Bible says, “Satan is the father of all lies and there is no truth in him.” Lucifer fell from the truth by his own free will. Satan told Adam and Eve if they ate of the forbidden fruit they would not die. This is where the real trouble started on earth because when Satan speaks a lie he speaks of his own character and will. Those of us who lie, or live a lie are the children of Satan. Pride closes our mind to the truth. In Romans 8:6-7 the Apostle Paul says, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
All that Satan is and all that he is doing is permitted by God so that through Satan’s works God can be manifested to us. Without the darkness we cannot see the light. God allowed evil to come to us so He might be able to show His mercy, love, and compassion. If we had never sinned, how would God have the opportunity to show us the eternal riches of His grace? He allowed Satan to enter into the Garden of Eden to make it possible for us to overcome evil through His unmerited mercy through the death of His beloved Son. We are confronted with His unknowable wisdom in providing salvation for us through faith in Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 3:9-10 NIV, Paul says, “To make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.” His plan is to totally eradicate sin from all places, and in Romans 8:28-31 we read, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Maturity In Christ 