DEEP WATERS

 

DEEP WATERS

I would like to wade into some very deep theological waters with you, regarding the Nature and Being or Existence of God. Please.

Reading from GotQuestions.Org we can find that God is,

(1).  HOLY. The most important element of God’s nature is His holiness. Holy means “set apart,” and God is clearly separate from His creation based on His nature and attributes. Holiness is the foundation of all other aspects of God’s character. Revelation 15:4 says of God, “You alone are holy.” Revelation 4:8 describes the four living creatures who sing to God day and night, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” It is God’s holiness that makes Him the “consuming fire” that will judge all sin (Hebrews 12:29). Beautiful doxologies exalting God’s holiness are found throughout Scripture, including Psalm 99:9; Psalm 33:21; Psalm 77:13; Psalm 89:18; Psalm 105:3; and others.

(2).  ETERNAL. It is also important to understand that God is an eternal spirit (John 4:24). He is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4) who has always existed as three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He does not have a physical body (although the Son became incarnate). A doctrine is false if it denies the Trinity, views God the Father as a man, or denies the humanity and deity of Christ (see 2 John 1:7).

(3).  SOVEREIGN. God is also, by nature, sovereign. He is judged by no one and has absolute authority over the entire universe and everything in it. His sovereignty is expressed in many ways, including His omnipotence. All of His ways are right (Psalm 145:17), and whether mankind believes God’s ways to be “fair” is irrelevant. The Lord God is not constrained by time or place. He has a plan, He has had it from eternity past, and His purpose will be accomplished (Daniel 4:37; Psalm 115:3).

(4).  IMMUTABLE. Another key aspect of God’s nature is His immutability. He does not change, being the same “yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He states outright in Malachi 3:6, “I the LORD do not change.” Because of His unchanging nature, we can depend on His blessings: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).

(5).  OMNIPOTENT. The Almighty’s sovereignty speaks to His right to do whatever He wishes, and His omnipotence speaks to His ability to do so. He also knows everything, from eternity past to eternity future, everything we think, do, and say. He has personal knowledge of every person who has ever lived or will live, knowing them intimately in every way. It is encouraging to hear God’s words in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”

(6).  RIGHTEOUS. We must not overlook God’s wrath, which flows from His holiness. He has a righteous anger against sin (Psalm 7:11), and, because of God’s impending judgment, mankind needs the gospel message of grace and salvation.

(7).  LOVE. It is also God’s nature to love (1 John 4:16), and in His love for the world, He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us (John 3:16). Nothing less than a perfect sacrifice would do. Love is more than an attribute of God; He is literally the essence of love. This is stated clearly in 1 John 4:8, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” God’s love is eternal. Because He is immutable, His love never changes. His love is perfect and holy.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39).

Biblestudytools.com tells us that God is

(1). INFINITE. Self-existing, without origin. Jehovah or Yahweh is the most intensely sacred name to Jewish scribes and many will not even pronounce the name. When possible, they use another name.”

(2). IMMUTABLE. He never changes.

(3). SELF-SUFFICIENT. He has no needs.

(4). OMNIPOTENT. He is all powerful.

(5). OMNISCIENT. God is all knowing.

(6). OMNIPRESENT. He is everywhere, all the time.

(7). WISE. He is full of perfect, unchanging wisdom.

(8). FAITHFUL. God is infinitely unchanging and true.

(9). GOOD. God is good all the time.

(10). JUST. Infinitely right, fair and perfect.

(11). MERCIFUL. Infinitely compassionate and kind.

(12). GRACIOUS. Inclined to spare the guilty.

(13). LOVING. Always and forever, He loves us.

(14). HOLY. God is perfect.

(15). GLORIOUS.

Here are some Biblical descriptions that Biblestudytools.com and GotQuestions.org left out:

God is invisible. Romans 1:20.

God is with you in all that you do. Genesis 21:22.

God is not a man, that He would lie, Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Numbers 23:19.

The LORD your God is the One fighting for you. Deuteronomy 3:22.

God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:24.

God is within you. Luke 17:21.

God is near. Luke 21:31.

God is True. John 3:33.

God is Spirit. John 4:24.

God is revealed. Romans 1:17

God is evident. Romans 1:19.

God is for us. Romans 8:31.

God is holy. 1 Corinthians 3:17.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:3.

God is faithful. 2 Corinthians 1:18.

God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12.

God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29.

God is one. James 2:19.

God is light. 1 John 1:5.

DEEPER WATERS

God, Himself, put it most simply and succinctly  when He said, “I AM THAT I AM.” (see Exodus 3:14).

But, What and Who is God, exactly? It is hard to answer that question because, as John 1:18 explains to us, “No one has seen God at any time; God the only Son, who is in the arms of the Father, He has explained Him.” (New American Standard Version).

It is clear that God is undefinable, and we can know Who He is, and that He is describable, but even this is from our weak and finite perspective.

So, I ask again, beyond knowing the attributes and nature of God, is it possible to know What God is? Can we know His Essence? (This is such a revered matter, a holy matter that to the Hebrew Jew, it is impermissible to even utter His Name, as it would be blasphemous to them).

I would like to put forward an idea. And it is just an idea. But it can be considered to be based on what we can and do know about God – but this may be a little ‘out there’, if you will:

Holy Scriptures, the Word and Breath of God tell us “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He proves to be One who rewards those who seek Him.”

So, in seeking God, it begins with faith. Furthermore, Scriptures tell us that it is faith that produces belief, and it is through our belief that we can know God exists. A good start, yes?

Furthermore, He tells us that He rewards those who seek Him. So, let’s seek Him.

GOD SAID

 The idea that God has spoken or that God has a voice is mentioned scores of times throughout Scriptures.

Genesis 1:3 says, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

The Hebrew word for ‘said’ when associated with God, is ‘amar’, which translates “to utter, say”. This word is found 45 times in the King James Version of the Bible.

Deuteronomy 4:33 says, “Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?”

DEEPER WATERS YET

The Hebrew word for voice when associated with God is ‘qol’, wich translates as “sound, or voice”. This is found two times in the Bible.

In the Abrahamic religions, the voice of God is a communication from God to human beings through sound with no known physical source. In rabbinic Judaism, such a voice was known as a “bat kol”, and was a “heavenly or divine voice which proclaims God’s will or judgment”. It differed from prophecy in that God had a close relationship with the prophet, while the “bat kol” could be heard by any individual or group regardless of their level of connection to God.

According to Pastor Chuck Swindoll, you can’t always tell from Scripture whether God’s voice is audible or “heard” by some other means. When Saul (later Paul) was on the road to Damascus, he heard the voice of the resurrected Jesus talking to him in a vision, and the sound could be heard by his entourage. It was audible. In Genesis 6, God spoke to Noah and gave him specific instructions. We might assume that the voice was audible, that is, he heard spoken words with his ears, but the Lord may have “spoken” to him mind to mind. We don’t know for sure. God’s voice to Daniel sounded like thunder, but centuries earlier to Elijah, He spoke with “a noiseless sound.” In Samuel’s case, God spoke in such a way that Samuel literally heard His voice. He spoke with the voice of a normal Hebrew man so that the boy thought it was Eli calling to him from the other room.

Regardless, when God spoke we do know people heard His voice. At times, God’s voice created an audible sound. And, explained is the very simplest form, it is known through physics, that a voice produces sound, and sound is carried along and measured as sound waves. Sound waves have frequencies of vibration; these frequencies are known as harmonics.

DEEPEST WATERS

When God spoke, audibly or not, He created the cosmos, the worlds, the earth and life! The very elements of the cosmos were created by the creative force of His Voice.

I posit that science is in the process of discovering God and all that God has created. (The great majority of them just do not want to recognize Him or His existence. They want the glory.

However, science recognizes, through disciplines of physics, that a voice produces sound, and that sound is carried along and measured as sound waves. Sound waves have frequencies of vibration; these frequencies are known as harmonics.

In fact, in the 6th century BC, Pythagoras developed the science of harmonics. Legend has it that he was inspired by the sounds emanating from a blacksmith’s shop; producing experimental music with hammers and anvils, Pythagoras realized that the relationship between different musical notes can be expressed in the form of simple mathematical ratios. Pythagoras saw in this a fundamental theory of the universe, and redefined the world, from the motion of celestial bodies to the emotional fluctuations in a human body, as iterations of a kind of cosmic music. More than a millennium later, Johannes Kepler interpreted this musica universalis as proof of Divine splendor, and devoted his career to a description of the geometric and harmonic order of our solar system.

Efforts to chart this celestial harmony can produce strikingly aesthetic images. Kepler’s sketches proved as much in his publications – as does this work by software developer Howard Arrington. Arrington used his own Ensign software to visualize the relationship between pairs of planets, producing a series of intriguing geometric mosaics. Better yet, he shares the program with which he created his images, so that you, too, can capture the music of the cosmos.

Let me be clear that harmonics do not explain or define God. God created all things and harmonics came into being.

God is always speaking. God speaks by the Holy Spirit, through the Bible, through prayer, circumstances and through the Church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His way. This is the nature of God’s voice.

God and His Voice are inseparable. He and His Voice are eternal, omniscient, immutable, and omnipresent. The heavens, (the universe, the cosmos), are speaking and are declaring His Glory.

The heavens were filled with, are filled and shall continue to be filled with the Voice of God. This is the harmonics and the music of the cosmos. This has been the will of God from the beginning.

All things have come into existence by the Will and the Breath and the Word of God.  And, the Bible tells us repeatedly that as Christians we are to know this and do the will of God. This is the key to everything from hearing God’s voice, to following Him, resting in Him finding His protection over our lives, receiving His promises, living in His presence, living and walking in the Spirit of God, to answered prayer.

We must hear and obey His Voice (the harmonics of God) and find live in His Will, which is walking in agreement, as in a symphony, with God!

As James says in Acts 15:14-15, Simeon has described how God first concerned Himself about taking a people for His name from among the Gentiles. The words of the Prophets agree, (‘sumphóneó’ from the Greek, meaning to agree, to be in harmony, to be of one mind, i.e., I agree with, harmonize with, agree together),  with this, just as it is written.”

Please click this link symphony, and review and study this commentary on this word ‘agree’, as in symphony, from Biblehub.com.

GETTING TO THE BOTTOM

 We are living in the presence of an invisible God. We cannot see Him, and in fact, no has ever seen God. But God sent His Son, as His exact representation so we could know Him.

His presence reaches from before time into infinity. His power is indescribable and undefinable. The sun, moon, the stars in all the cosmos are diminished by His glorious radiance. Yet we are His. He cares for us. He keeps us. God is both within us, and He encompasses us. We are continuously bathed in and by His radiance.

Nonetheless, we can resist Him. We can rebel against Him. We can deny that He is and that He exists, even as we rest and glory in His presence, because He has permitted us the freedom and power of choice. We can choose to acknowledge and submit to Him and be made safe, or we can deny Him and lay claim to our complete annihilation. This is true because He is eternal, and without Him there is nothing. If you are without God, you will have nothing after this life except an eternity alone in a vast darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.

With all of this in mind, the only real and true benefit from knowing these things about God is to apply what you now know. Choose. Choose to know Him. Choose to become His son or daughter. Choose to stand in His radiance and bathe yourself in His glory. Let His voice, the sound of His voice, the vibrations of His voice and the harmonics of His voice penetrate your mind, soul, spirit and body. Do this purposely. Do this often. Do this continually. Practice the presence of God in your daily life.

KNOW AND DO THE WILL OF GOD – PRACTICE HIS PRESENCE

The Breath and Words of God shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to observe and to do according to all that is spoken; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have insight and achieve success. Has He not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified nor dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. (See Joshua 1:8-9).

He has spoken and says you are to consume His Words, absorb His voice as if they are the flesh of the Son of Man and drink in His presence, His nature, His being and His existence as if it is His blood, and you have life in yourselves.

The one who consumes His Words and Breath as if they are eating His flesh and drinks in His presence as if it is His blood, has eternal life; and He will raise you up on the last day.

For His flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. The one who eats His ‘flesh’ and drinks His ‘blood’ dwells in and remains in Him, and He in you.

Just as God the Father sent Jesus, and He lives because of the Father, if you consume Jesus and all that HE IS, you also will live because of Him.

Jesus is the bread that came down out of heaven, but not the same bread as the Jewish fathers ate and died; if you eat This Bread, you will live forever. (See John 6:53-58).

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

PS:  Psalm 1:2 – But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, And on His Law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 4:4 – Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah

Psalm 27:4 – One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord And to meditate in His temple.

Psalm 63:6 – When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches,

Psalm 77:6 – I will remember my song in the night; I will meditate with my heart, And my spirit ponders:

Psalm 77:12 – I will meditate on all Your work, And on Your deeds with thanksgiving.

Psalm 119:15 – I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways.

Psalm 119:23 – Even though rulers sit and speak against me, Your servant meditates on Your statutes.

Psalm 119:27 – Make me understand the way of Your precepts, And I will meditate on Your wonders.

Psalm 119:48 – And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, Which I love; And I will meditate on Your statutes.

Psalm 119:78 – May the arrogant be put to shame, because they lead me astray with a lie; But I shall meditate on Your precepts.

Psalm 119:148 – My eyes anticipate the night watches, So that I may meditate on Your word.

Psalm 143:5 – I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your accomplishments; I reflect on the work of Your hands.

Psalm 145:5 – On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.

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