3. God Almighty the Heavenly Father.
What is your concept of God?
What is your concept of God? Can we understand what God is? Do you know God as your Heavenly Father?
I’ll place a bet now that as you grow in your belief your concept of God will change over and over again. Is that because God changes? No, but our understanding of God is constantly changing. God is totally beyond our comprehension. For a start, God is outside of time and matter. God is not constrained by any of the laws of our universe.
Odds on you have been taught that God does not exist and that our universe evolved from a big bang. Humans developed over billions of years through natural selection. Life could have travelled to Earth on a meteorite. Well, that is not what the Bible teaches us.
Before anything ever existed God was. The first verse of the Bible says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1). We will look at creation in section 6. The point I want to get across here is that God existed before our universe. We find that so hard to get our heads around because in our experience we are ruled by time and matter. Our minds find it so hard to relate to something outside our experience.
What is God like?
The Bible teaches us that God has many many facets to His character. God is:
- Eternal, infinite and always existed. (Genesis1:1)
- All powerful with unlimited power (Psalm 33:6)
- Knows all things (Isaiah 46:9-10)
- Everywhere (Psalm 139:7-10)
- Unchanging (Malachi 3:6)
- Self-sufficient, He has no needs (Acts 17:24-25)
- Holy (Revelation 4:8)
- Glorious (Habakkuk 3:4)
- Wise (Romans 16:27)
- Faithful (Psalm 31:5)
- Good (Psalm 34:8)
- Just (Deuteronomy 32:4)
- Merciful (Romans 9:15-16)
- Gracious (Psalm 145:8)
- Loving (1 John 4:8)
For a fuller description of these qualities of God see this web page
What do we call God?
When you start reading the Bible you will soon learn that God is called by many names: Some people have suggested there are over 900 names of God in the Bible! God; the LORD; God Almighty; Yahweh, and Everlasting Father, to name a few. Every name of God teaches us something more about His character.
Moses met God at the burning bush (Exodus 3:2). During that encounter Moses asked God to tell him his name. God said “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). You can learn more about this name here. I personally understand it this way. God supplies my every need. By calling Himself the “I Am” God is declaring that He is all I need. God said:
- I am your protection (Psalm 41:2)
- I am your strength (Exodus 15:2)
- I am your hiding place and your shield (Psalm 119:114)
- I am the bread you need (John 6:35)
- I am the breath you breath (Genesis 2:7)
- I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6)
- I am the light of the World (John 8:12)
- I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)
Again these are just a few examples.
Our Father
One of the amazing things Jesus Christ taught His Jewish audience was that they could have the Lord God as their Father. Jesus taught that when you pray you can address God as your Father (Matthew 6:9). Jesus said: ” I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). At the point when Jesus was praying to His Father in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus addressed God as “Abba” which is a very intimate expression close to our word “daddy” (Mark 14:36). Paul said “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6). How can we call God our Father? Well, Jesus Christ is his Son and as a believer you are now in Christ. As you are in Christ you have the same relationship with God as a child of God, He is your Father.
What is your concept of God? He is hard to understand. But, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to show us who God the Father is. In the next section, we will look at the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.