Who is Jehovah, Part 2
We have just been looking at the nature and character of God in Part One of ‘Who is Jehovah’. We now continue to look at the nature and character of our Creator.
It is amazing but Our Creator wants a Relationship with us!
The title “God of the Universe”, or Jehovah God, is rightfully belongs to God’s; He is the Creator of All. He is also the “Universal King of Creation” as He sustains the universe, orders it and rules over it.
However, God is not a “Universal Father” to all. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of those whom He adopts into His family – but ONLY when we receive His Son into their lives. He has a different relationship with those who accept Jesus’ message about His Fatherhood, than with those who deny Jesus. We are the children of God, only when we are in Christ Jesus.
The world cannot call Him “Father” without Jesus as the Bridge to the Father. People may know ‘God’ but the revelation of Father only comes with Jesus Christ.
1. God lets us work out our own destiny.
God does plan for everyone’s ultimate good. Once God ‘creates’ our spirit and implants us into human form, He lets us work out our own destiny. He gives us freedom, which allows us to exist, to make choices and to experience the cause and effect consequences of life. This is the ultimate power of transforming love —— > choice. He does however, guide us through circumstances, His Word and other ways to bring people to the point of making a choice – one way or the other.
2. God has certain goals for his creation:
a) The restoration of relationship of every human to Himself,
b) Teaching the human race to overcome the decisions and consequences of what Adam and Eve did. In being ‘overcomers’, He will give us a greater place and status than He gave to the first couple (Revelation 2+3),
c) Teaching mankind to counteract the tactics of Satan and, through godly Believers, destroy the works of the Enemy (Revelation 12:11).
d) A restoration of relationship between males and females,
e) Moving toward the fulfilment of His bigger plans for eternity.
He is using the ‘bad things’ that happen to us – the circumstances and trials of life – to expose our heart attitudes. He has promised to bring good from any circumstance – if we let Him. If we allow Him, He will bring good into our lives from the pain that Satan inflicts. (Romans 8:28, 35+)
3. Our Creator God knows each of us by name!
Sometimes we are tempted to think that ‘us’ means ‘en masse’. But not so! His Word declares that He is calling each of us individually by name. In fact, to go further, He has carved each of us on the palm of His hand, Isaiah 49:16.. He cherishes us and is completely captivated by all that we are and all that we are becoming. He is totally for us, totally willing to help, to heal and to be involved with us. The wall between us and Him is torn down!
4. God lives in reality.
God lives in pure revelation light. We, on the other hand, live in a fog. Blind, our thinking has been distorted with the Fall. An example of our perspective, compared to God’s, is like an art class student. She was given a picture to sketch, not knowing it was upside down. Only when she finished drawing it, could she turn her sketch around and see the picture from the intended, real viewpoint. He takes us from glory to Glory, from our distorted reality into His true reality.
5. We must accept the work of Jesus the Christ.
As we have said, there is only ONE Path into His Family:
a) We are born of the Holy Spirit into His family:
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13)
b) We are also adopted by the Holy Spirit into His family:
“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:15-16).
c) We receive a new parental authority. ‘Adoption’ in Roman days was a legal action, where a man took into his family a person (often not a child) that was not his own offspring. The intent was to make the ‘adoptee’ an heir to his inheritance. The new ‘son’ was to forget his own family, as the old life had been completely wiped away legally.
d) We learn a new language of Faith. We ‘see’ His presence with us through the eyes of the Spirit. He reaches out to us, not through our feelings, but through our faith. We need to learn the difference between faith, facts and feelings, and allow faith to grow.
e) We must now deal with our failures His way, by agreeing with His Truth and being sorrowful of our rebellion. This process is called ‘Repentance’. He doesn’t stop loving us when we fail or sin, or even when we turn away from Him.
f) We learn the difference between a loving Father’s discipline – for creating maturity – and the enemy’s crushing bondage of torment.
“And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” (Hebrews 12:5-6).
g) We must accept His protection and learn principles of facing our self-life and inner struggles. Following our own ideas of security, rather than His, will bring problems. Our old ways of dealing with our doubts and fears must now give way to His ways. 1 Peter 5:7 in The Living Bible says:
“Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.”
Let me present a modern day parable of three prayers from a new Christian. When Louise came to the Lord, the angels were so impressed they asked God if He would give her any 3 prayer requests. Upon agreement, Louise thought and thought of what she would ask. The Angel returned for her answers:
“Please do all you can to bring my boyfriend to you, Lord.” Next, “Please bring world peace!’ Her last request: “Please Jesus come back to Earth for us!” She opened her eyes and nothing had changed. Why ????
God is already doing all He could to restore His creation to their potential in Him. The Lord was doing everything He could be bring her boyfriend, world peace and to return as soon as possible. God was already working the very best for everyone and everthing; choice and timing was the issue.
There is meant to be a special relationship between a father and his child. The ‘Abba’ – Daddy God. The image of God has been tainted and scarred by memories of our earthly fathers. For many of us, our view of our natural father may not inspire the trust, hope and assurance of a ‘Loving Father God’. For many people this is a very real issue, one that they must work through to be able to see God’s true nature of love.
5. What does your heart really believe about God?
Jesus paid the price on the cross Cross to show us how much God wants to be there for us. His ‘master plan’ is to bring reconciliation between Himself and us, no matter how hard or what it takes.
Sometimes, we believe the greatest lie – that God is not a God of Love!
If our emotions are dysfunctional, twisted or distorted, our vision of who we think God is will also be distorted. We must demolish one of the most powerful and deepest heart beliefs in order to accept His love in our life: The lie that God is not a God of love. In order to relate to Him effectively, we must have a positive view of Him. God receives a lot of ‘bad press’ because of the imperfect world and the spiritual battlefield we live in.
Following Jesus is not some set of moral and ethical rules, not just another religion. The central core of Jesus’ message is that Jehovah God reached out to mankind and we need to respond to that truth.
In the next part of our Series, we will study mankind’s beginnings by looking at the spiritual dimension where God lives. We will see how God created the angels and the three archangels: Gabriel, Lucifer and Michael. So please continue to join us,
Susanne Fengler, Blog Editor,
www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflife.info
Tags: nature of God, part 2
Filed under: Foundations of our Faith
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