- His name is Jehovah Isaiah 26:4, Exodus 6:3
- His name is Yahweh (The Real Jewish name for God so Holy they would not even pronounce it)
- His name is Jah Psalm 68:4 “The Lord Most Vehement”
- His name is El Shaddai “God Almighty” Genesis 28:3 Exodus 6:3
- His name is Everlasting God Genesis 21:33 Isaiah 40:28 >perpetual, without end<kinetic
- His name is a Strong Tower Proverbs 18:10
Where would you expect to find God in the Bible? You will find God in Genesis through Revelation! Each book, each chapter, each verse reveals yet more about God. The Bible is God revealing Himself to us. God, though He wants us to understand Him, knows that our finite minds will never be able to wrap fully around who He is. He will continue to reveal Himself a little at a time to us , and our comparing our Revelation of God combined with the Revelation to another person or more will indeed give a fuller picture of who God is.
We have tried to understand the concept of the Trinity but many of our explanations seem woefully inadequate. We have also tried to describe the character of God in a multifaceted manner, but there has always seemed to be something that was missing. What if we were to not just say that God was a triune God or that His character was multisided with yet a side that came into play that is often missed...like His Sovereignty. We have tried to portray God as a triangle, but what if He is more like a pyramid. A pyramid is a triangle that is 3D and has a side that is often missed...the bottom. When looking at the character of God in order to get a more complete view, we must turn it around and look at it from all sides.
Finding God in the Bible
-Woe is me. God revealed should always awe us.
Every time God revealed who He is to people, They responded with awe, or reverence toward Him. There is just something about who God is that brings people to the realization that they are full of filthiness or rottenness to the bone, and that they are woefully inadequate to enter into the presence of a Holy God.
-Fear follows when we see God for who He is!
- Elohim Genesis 1 - Elohim is the plural form of God. Genesis Chapter 1:26 says “Then Elohim said, “Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness. Let them rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the domestic animals all over the earth, and all the animals that crawl on the earth.”
The words “Let us Make” are given as a discourse between God and another being(s). These words infer that God was talking to a fellow Creator(s). This is where the argument for God as a singular person falls flat on its face. Creation is done by none else than the All-Powerful God-head known as Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three persons are the embodiment of God. Though each of these are complete all three are independent and yet agree with each other and are submissive to each other. It is the unity of these three persons that created the world, the universe to operate with such harmony. It is their wisdom and foresight that created the world to follow such precise mathematical calculations.
- John 8:56-59
Before Abraham was…”I am”. I am was known by all the Jews to be a name for God.
- John 10:30
Jesus was claiming to be God by saying “I and my Father are one”. Notice the distinct difference in “Father” “I”. Where there is a father there always will be a son or daughter. In this case it is a Son.
- John 15:26/1 Corinthians 2:10
Jesus offers His followers the Holy Spirit (or the Comforter), saying that when He (Jesus) is gone, He will send the Holy Spirit to them. This second passage gives us insight into part of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Holy Spirit searches out the deep things of God and reveals (unveils) them to us. The Holy Spirit is the means by which we have our breath, redemption, and our sanctification.
The role of these three throughout the Bible and History (His Story) are inexorably connected. The Father gives the Word (the Son John 1:1) the Authority and the Holy Spirit moves to fulfill their will. Nothing is done in the absence of each other.
>The Word Elohim comes from the prefix “El” meaning Leader, or Father. “El” often accompanied a descriptive word like Ohim (plural form) or Shaddai (Almighty). The Old Testament used “El” no less than 200 times.<
El Shaddai has been used several times as a name for God and has always been interpreted as God Almighty. While the prefix El is usually rendered as meaning Father/Leader, inserting “El” before “Shaddai” brings them together to mean Almighty Father/Leader.
I have noticed that if you study out the gods of the previous generations they all have some warped element of “Who God Is”. Whether it is a god of life, and fertility, or a god of providence, or even a god of war/anger...people who have not understood GOD have relied on the revelation they have received from the god of this world, who loves taking truth and warping it people’s minds.
The Canaanites had a god they called el which by their definition meant father of mankind. Does that come as any surprise that the first reference to God would get hijacked by the devil? Just about every culture has stories about a god who came in the flesh which is a rip-off of the promises that God gave in the Bible. The Bible has indirectly influenced everything whether we want to admit it or not.
>Proclaiming God!
God has proclaimed Himself in in many different ways and as having many different characters. We cannot just look at one specific character of God and say “that is God”. We would be narrow minded and would not take into consideration who God really is.
- Psalm 102:1-28
In the desperation of life, The clock ticks on rapidly removing the present to the past. The troubles of life leave no one untouched, and at some point we all are faced with the reality that we live in a fallen world. It is then that the Lord moves in His Holy sanctuary and announces who He is. It is when we feel overwhelmed and ask God for help, that He will uphold us in His Mercy.
Our Heavenly Father is our only true definition of a father and it is His Father character that we as fallen humans try to duplicate. Fortunately God has given us the avenue of His Spirit to indwell our hearts creating in us a new character...His. This enables us to replicate the Father character that God has wanted to impart to His children.
God has revealed Himself as “I AM”. As early as Genesis 15 God told Abraham “I AM thy Shield”, “I AM Thy Abundant Reward”, and “I AM The Lord That Called You”. When God identifies Himself as “I AM”, He is clearly claiming to be the fulfillment of everything that is needed. Let’s break this down a bit.
The words “I AM thy Shield” can mean only one thing or at least one group of things. What is a shield, and how does this become a reality?
A shield is usually designed for no other reason than to protect a specific thing or person. In other words, a soldier would have used a shield in the old times to stand behind and fight. This could resemble a sort of portable fort which would protect if used properly. There is yet another use for the word shield which also denotes a protection. This type of shield is similar to the first but can be used to protect in other circumstances than battle. Sometimes we may shield our eyes with our hands to protect our eyes from the bright sunlight. When God calls Himself your shield, He is clearly saying “I will protect you, stand behind Me”!
Bringing to bear the second “I AM” that God gave to Abraham is “I AM Thy Abundant Reward”. God was claiming to be the fulfillment of all blessings that were given to Abraham. Normally we think of a reward as being something we have coming for doing something else, but truly there is nothing we can do to merit the reward/blessing of God in our life. The thought came to me that God might reward you for being righteous, but in reality our righteousness is as filthy rags and not worth being rewarded. True Righteousness will come only from God and not from within yourself, so that too is a blessing/reward. “Every good and perfect gift comes from above” James 1:17
We have yet one more “I AM” that God gave to Abraham at which to look. This one in particular gives the reader a sense of ownership. The words “I AM The Lord That Called You” indicate a person being called out of something. God is asking to be obeyed, followed, and trusted. God calls Abraham to follow Him which means to be set apart from the wicked culture of his family and nation. It is here that God become Abraham’s God, and Abraham starts toward becoming a friend (not a foe) of God. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have toward you”. God calls you, because He has something He has in mind for you!
The Israelites received yet another “I AM” statement from God. Now that God has established that He speaks to mankind, God introduces Himself as “I AM the God of thy Fathers”. The meaning of this means several things, first of all that their/our fathers are not dead but live forever, that the promises given to the fathers are reinstated to the person hearing the voice of God. Abraham’s descendants seemed to have trouble truly believing God’s promises to Abraham about them, but God offered them the same covenant that He had to Abraham as a personal covenant.. The situation often had resembled hopelessness as they strove to serve the Egyptians,and they were constantly reminded of the pain they felt. The Israelites, Even though God was working on their behalf through diverse miracles, kept choosing their own way. They, like us, have this twisted nature inherited at birth that does not want to bow to a superior being such as God. We tend to go to great lengths to ignore, trying to wipe out traces of our Creator and His influence on our lives.
God has also declared Himself as “I AM the First and the Last”. When something is the first we think of the author, foundation, and the beginning; while when something is last it is the ending, and the fulfillment. God is the author of life, faith, freedom, happiness, etc… It is His overshadowing of our lives that we have our life, faith, and freedom… When God says “I AM the First and the Last” He is literally saying, “I AM Everything”. God is the purpose for which we exist. Have you allowed him to be everything in your life?
“I am the Door.” The door is a security for those for whom it is designed. It closes out the enemy keeping us free from its clutches. The door denotes ownership. We are owned by the Master. The door will keep out everything that is not supposed to be inside. If everything that passes into our lives actually would pass through the door of Jesus Christ, we would have no evil entering our soul. If no evil would enter our soul, then no evil would exude from our being. The way we live...by receiving and doing must all pass through the door of Jesus Christ.
We are just like sheep, with seemingly no homing instincts. We tend to wander from one thing to another feeding on whatever there is to feed. This would result in many of us becoming lost with no hope of finding our way back to the shepherd. Jesus says, “I am The Good Shepherd” which means He has our good in mind. He willingly will go into the desert places where the hobgoblins, satyrs, and the demons add to the darkness, for no other reason than to find us. The evening comes and our shepherd leads us into the sheepfold ~a place of rest~, laying himself across the opening as the Door, separating his sheep from the howling wolves. The “Good Shepherd” will mean nothing to us unless he is willing to lay down his life for His sheep. When Jesus willingly laid Himself down as a sacrifice, He was putting Himself between Satan (the lion) and His sheep as the door.
Our culture today, has this infatuation with the undead or the dead made alive, but what they do not realize is that this idea is one that is taken from God’s character and promise that He is the Resurrection and the Life and twisted to some sort of perverted half dead monsters that run around chasing people. There is a time when all must pass through the valley of death which seems so final, but God, who is rich in life and mercy has provided us with His strength to live again. God incarnate, spoke to a family grieving the loss of their brother, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life”. The dead can and will live again, either in Life everlasting or in eternal death. As Christians we have no business making the “Undead” or “Zombies” a part of our life either in play, or otherwise. The Bible says to rise up and walk in Newness of Life and stop living in death.
“I AM the True Vine” is another declaration by our Almighty God. We have often seen vines that have sent out little shoots away from the actual vine and then it may become confusing which was the real vine. Take into that scenario being grafted into the vine a branch that was taken from a wild vine such as we all were. If that branch gets grafted into the shoot, which may have some semblance of life but not true life; the shoot will get drained and any life the branch had would get depleted. If that same branch were to be grafted into the true vine, there is enough strength in that vine to sustain itself and the branch and both would grow to new proportions.
“I AM The Way, The Truth, and The Life”. There are many different religions in this world, but one in particular seem to stand out. Every last religion with the exception of Christianity have a push toward being good enough for its god, whereas in Christianity, Jesus says “Take my Righteousness on yourself since you cannot be good enough”. Some people have said, there are so many religions and they can’t all be right, so none of them are. That is faulty reasoning because since all roads do not go to the same place doesn’t mean that none of them are right.
Jesus has claimed to be the Way, the Truth and the Life. Is He right?
For starters He has done what no other religious leader has done. He went through death and came out again (resurrected), all for the atonement of your/my sin and so we would have the power to live above it. Jesus said “No one comes to the Father but by Me”. Who is better to bring someone to the Father but the Son? Who is better to restore the relationship to the Father, that was lost, than the Son? Is it so hard to believe that the Son would go on a mission strictly to restore relationships with the Father? Jesus said “I am come that they (people) might have Life and that they might have it more abundantly”. He also said “I am come to seek and to save that which was lost”.
Was Jesus speaking the Truth? He has claimed to be the Truth which means that Truth emanates from His very being. Can we trust Him? What evidence are we looking for or should we look for?
First of all most of the religious leaders other than Jesus sought to kill those who did not agree with them. That is a message of death. We really don’t need more of the curse of death in this world...It already lays pretty heavy on us.
Jesus sought to give Life to those who did not agree with Him (His enemies). I recommend reading the Life of Jesus, His personal teachings and then the teachings of His followers and look for the evidence of the message of Life. Jesus claims were backed up by supernatural episodes which are commonly referred to as miracles. These miracles were/are present both through the Life of Jesus and the Lives of His followers. One of the biggest of these miracles is the birth by the Spirit of God. When we are born of the Spirit of God it means, God has imparted Himself, His character to us. Being born of the Spirit of God can be felt by the individual and then seen by others. This is evident when the actions of the person no longer are their own, but are an outworking of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
The only scenario you will find that Jesus does not bless a person with life is when they refuse His Life within them. This is not to be confused with physical death, but that may be included. Physical death to the person who refused Jesus is an extension of his dying life brought on by sin and life in a fallen world, but physical death for a person who has accepted the Life of Jesus within themselves is an avenue to escape the sin-cursed earth for the glories of Heaven.
God wants us to recognize us for who He is. God says “I AM”, and when He say that He means He is everything. “I AM” is an all-inclusive name that describes all of God’s attributes.
- Exodus 34:5-7 God proclaims who He is!
Moses as a God ordained leader of the children of Israel got a message from God that described God to him that was to be relayed to the rest of the Israelite and future followers of God. God told Moses “I Am Merciful, I Am Gracious, I Am Longsuffering, I Am Full of Goodness, I Am Full of Truth, and I Am the Forgiver of Unrighteousness”.
God wanted the Israelites and us to remember Him by these traits. The Gospel Message comes straight out of these characteristics of God, therefore to forget these characters of God is to forget the character that moved God’s heart to save us. Although Jesus has indeed fulfilled the Old Testament, the true New Testament Church will not hold the Old Testament with disregard by saying it is irelavent to its existence. In order for the New Testament to mean anything to an individual or church they must first understand the purpose and text of the Old Testament.
The presentation of God being Truth sets the standard for living in general. Living by Truth means that we recognize that God knows and has revealed the best lifestyle for our safety. Anything that occurs outside of Truth comes across as unrighteousness or crookedness to which God because of His Goodness then responds with Mercy by offering us His Grace in a Longsuffering manner; thus because of our acceptance of who He is, He becomes the Forgiver of our unrighteousness, and we because we have then aligned ourselves with the Truth of God begin to live a straight life.
The various ways that God has proclaimed Himself do not completely define Him independently of each other. God has so many facets that can be revealed to us about Him that we really couldn’t handle the magnificence, the glory, the power; through our puny ever reasoning mind so He chooses to reveal parts of Himself and what might be revealed to someone else may not be revealed to you. God reveals enough of Himself to us as individuals to help us carry on with our lives.
God has created this world for His pleasure and Glory, but since that time the world has become a sin-cursed planet where men, women and children by nature choose a life of rebellion to their Creator and giver of life. It is because of this rebellion which amounts to unrighteousness, that God being the merciful God that He is; chooses to become a Savior.
- Isaiah 9:6
>Wonderful< Acts 4:12
>Counsellor - Guide< Luke 12:11,12
>The Mighty God (El Shaddai)<
>The Everlasting Father - Jehovah<
>The Prince of Peace - Melchizedek< Genesis 14:18-30, Hebrews 4:14-5:10
>Savior< Matthew 1:21
>Emmanuel -God with us< Matthew 1:23
>Deity< John 1:1-51
>Light< John 1:7-9
>Sacrifice< John 19:1-42 -Genesis 15:1-21
God entered into the corridor called time, and walked down the streets of the cities as a man to bring men the message of peace and hope.
Mankind had been told for years that a Savior, a Messiah would be coming to liberate them from the curse of sin they were under; and though when He did come, He was misunderstood by the very people who should have understood who He is! Jesus as our Savior became “Wonderful” as His name is truly the only name that will save us.
It was prophesied that Jesus would be called Counsellor. If we take a look at John 1, John describes Jesus as the Word of God which by any interpretation will also mean Jesus is God’s Word revealed. There are many times we admit our need of God’s Wisdom and after having asked God for His Wisdom in our lives, He willingly gives us a deeper dimension of His Wisdom through the Word of God.
Jesus as God in the flesh destroys/negates the effects of our most powerful enemy. Satan though stronger and shrewder than we are is no match for Jesus. Jesus is the Creator of everything other than God which would make Satan a created being. This automatically puts Jesus as head over all.
Jesus is our Forever Father. First of all it is Jesus that gives us as fathers a true picture as to how an earthly father should live. Our humanity coupled with a severe dose of selfishness will destroy this image by creating anxiety within the children we are meant to father. Our Heavenly Father cares about you/us enough to lower Himself to take our punishment of death for our sin. We need to get a grip on how much God cares for us in order to exemplify His Love to those around us.
Melchizedek as king of Salem (Peace) met with Abraham after a great battle against the 5 kings who took his nephew and family captive. The Book of Hebrews describes Melchizedek as though he were actually a pre-incarnate Christ. Jesus, as his blood was shed for mankind, paved the way for fallen man to regain a peaceful relationship with Himself; rooting out the wickedness in our hearts through a sanctification process.
When God became our Savior, it became evident that though we were His creation and had turned our back on Him, He was not willing that any would die the imminent eternal death.
It is not just enough for God to have chosen to be physically with us during a period over 2,000 years ago, but He has promised His continued presence in our lives. The presence of God though not physically seen, but is often felt by His people who have accepted His purchase of their souls. God is a Spiritual being mean the He doesn’t really carry a bodily form but can take one.
The Deity of Jesus has been disputed for years by those who either want to work out their own salvation or those who simply don’t care. The entire Book of John is devoted to helping the reader see the divine nature of Jesus. By the time the Book of John ends, there was no question in the minds of those who were His followers and a Roman officer who declared that publicly. They all had to admit or ignore the facts, which they all did. We could look at the unfolding events after that and see just how big of an impact Jesus had on those who saw His works. It was supernatural.
Light has been long looked at as something that dispels darkness. God is light (1 John 1:5). Light is the reflection of the Glory of God and though it appears to proceed from the sun, moon and stars; its origin was the presence of God. The creation story shows that light was before the sun existed but got placed into the sun. Genesis 1, Revelation 21:23
There is an established law that says sin/rebellion against God calls for the death of mankind. God is Love and one way that can be shown is through giving up of yourself for one who has turned against you. Our only hope of escape for this impending death is through this avenue of Jesus giving up of Himself for us. Jesus came to the earth for no other reason than to be a sacrifice for the sin of the world. This reconciling of us as enemies to God through Jesus sacrifice, makes us no longer enemies but friends, and heirs to the kingdom of God.
The Sovereignty of God cannot be understood by a human who is fallen from the presence of God. At best, even those who have been restored to fellowship with God struggle with the meaning of it. God’s Sovereign nature allows Him to choose certain paths that seem destructive to His created people to bring about a desired end in their life. God is not willing that any should die in their sins and will go to great lengths to patiently call them to His side.
When looking at who God is, we realize that we are nothing in comparison to God. The All-Powerful nature of God aligned with His Sovereignty and His Holiness help us to realize that we need something beyond what we can do to fellowship with Him. How does the Revelation of God affect you?
