How to know who God is, is the most important thing you will ever discover. Just as your nationality defines you, knowing who your God is defines who you are, for you become conformed to the image of the God you worship.

The Defining Factor

A W Tozer wrote, ‘No nation has ever risen above the height of its religion and no religion ever rose any higher than its concept of God. Pagan nations are defined by what they believe about their god.

The physical aspects of life changes over time, but there is always a deep inner force that motivates us. Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, and philosopher, said ‘There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person’.

The Vacuum

Even nature will not tolerate vacuums or empty spaces. We have a thousand and one choices as to how we fill that God-shaped vacuum. A person who denies there is a heavenly God, and creator of the universe, places man in that vacuum. Man becomes the supreme being.

These are often people of enormous spheres of influence, such as Stephen Hawkins, where human logic reigns supreme. He believed that everything could be explained by the laws of nature and there was no God and no one directing the universe. He couldn’t explain who created the laws of nature.

Making Idols

Man has an inbuilt mechanism that creates idols in one form or another. They fill that God-shaped vacuum with possessions, status, or family. It is whatever is central to our well-being and about what, or who we love most.  For the egotist it is all about ‘I’, just as Lucifer’s sin was ‘I’, Isaiah 14:12-14. The most beautiful angel of all had a flaw, called self.

Let’s complete Blaise Pascal’s statement. ‘There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ’.

Need for an Omnipotent God

People have a natural desire to worship something or someone. Although this life is but a fleeting moment in terms of eternity, our lives are filled with an endless cycle of fiery trials and dangers. Because we all have a sin nature we are born to die, for the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23.

However, we all have an inborn sense to reach out to something, or someone who is much stronger and much wiser than we are. Our eternal hope is that we will have a brighter future, through an improved situation. When hope dies, something inside man shrivels up and dies and hopelessness and helplessness envelops him.

We all need and omnipotent, all powerful, omniscient, all knowing and omnipresent, every present God. He alone knows the end from the beginning, Isaiah 46:10. He alone can make us the Power of One.

What Defines Us

The writers of the Bible were clearly defined by their concept of God, as they wrote through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. David was a worshipper of the God who created the universe. A just and holy God with an eternal plan.

Ezekiel walks you right into the awesome throne room of God, Ezekiel 1. His favourite word is ‘like’ for he did not have the words to describe what he saw in the spirit. It is a world that is beyond our human comprehension and something we only get glimpses of.

John starts his gospel with ‘In the beginning’. You instantly discover the eternal awesomeness of who God is. Then you go to Revelation and read John’s description of Christ, the ultimate Judge, Revelation 1:13-16.

Only the Spirit of God can reveal to us who God is, for He is far above and beyond human comprehension. He dwells beyond time, space and matter. All things are from Him, to Him and through Him, Romans 11:36.

Who is Your God

Too often the Christian world has made the God of the universe a weak and impotent God who dwells far away. However, that is not the truth.

Ask yourself ‘Who is my God’? Is He the Almighty, fearsome God who created and rules the universe? Is He the God who loves me so much He sent His Son to die in my place? Does my God really care about every tiny detail of my daily life, so much so that He knows ever hair on my head, Matthew 10:30? Is He a personal God who knows my end from before I was even conceived, Jeremiah 1:5? Or do you have a God who is so distant to you that He barely seems to care what happens to you?

What kind of relationship do you have with the great I Am That I Am, Exodus 3:3? Are you willing to surrender your entire life to Him? God cares more for and about you than you do about yourself. God is able, but you need to be willing to give Him the reins of your life for He expects of us only what He has already provided. Without faith it is impossible to please God, Hebrews 11:6.

How to Know Who God is

How to know who God is, is to stand in a personal relationship with our loving Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This defines who we are, now and for all eternity for what you are on earth is what you will be in heaven. God meets you at your level, that is why He sent His Son as tiny baby, Isaiah 9:6.

God loves us for ourselves and values us as the greatest treasure on earth, for true believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit and God abides in them, John 14:23, 1 Corinthians 6:19. They are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, 1 Peter 2:9. God is not interested in an arm’s-length relationship, but an up close and personal communion.

To know who God is, is to come to Him as trusting as a little child and enter the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 18:3. You can’t command the Almighty, but He does reveal Himself to you a piece at a time, through His Word, through natural law, through His creation, and through the Holy Spirit, John 14:26. You can know who God is if you are willing to seek His face, and know His character and truth and experience His presence.

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Dr. Wendy Stenberg-Tendys is a freelance writer who enjoys researching a topic and sharing words of encouragement from the Word of God.

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