What is God like?

Chapter Fifty-five:

If you were to ask the average Christian believer what God is like, I am sure you would hear such terms as "loving" and "forgiving".  Some may even add in some big fancy words like "omnipotent" and "omnipresent", but if those people were to be totally honest with you, I believe they would struggle in going much further in describing what God is really like.  They may have an experience to tell you about or have stories to relay that they have heard from others, but for the majority of us, sadly, we have a very limited view of what our Holy God is truly like. 

However, if you were to ask that same person to describe a family member or a good friend, they could probably talk for several minutes, describing the characteristics of the person, their likes, their dislikes, what makes them laugh, what makes them upset. They can describe this person in detail because they have developed an understanding of what he/she is like. They have learned about that person's character, their nature. And the way this has happened is as a result of spending time with that person and developing a relationship with them.

Unfortunately, many have only learned about God's character from hearing a sermon, or listening to a teaching or from what they have read in their Bible, if they own one. And while those are ways that we learn something about God, they are rather limited in their scope as it is human nature to focus only on those characteristics that we find appealing or acceptable. It is quite common for us to view God as we see ourselves or to try to conform Him into some idea, or mold, of what we think He should be like.

However, The Bible teaches that there are many sides to God.  The characteristics of God are many. He is sovereign, holy, just, wise, loving, merciful, faithful, compassionate, and forgiving. But, we also need to remember that He will be the ultimate judge of this world and is absolutely intolerant of sin and any forms of rebellion.  He unquestionably expects obedience, surrender, holiness, self-control, and ongoing transformation to the likeness of His son, Jesus Christ, from His followers. As you can see, there are many aspects to God that we often overlook or do not want to acknowledge.iH

 It is my opinion that the Christ of the average believer today is not the Christ of the Holy Bible.  It is a distorted image that portrays Christ as being soft and timid and discards that side of Him that is angry over the state of this current world, and especially the poor spiritual condition of His Bride, the Church. They have simply modified Him to fit their needs, their view of how the world should be. 

We are not willing to let God be who He declares He is. We want to change, correct or alter Him so that we can make Him more acceptable to those who find His ways rather narrow minded and not in line with modern views of life. We certainly do not want to be called "intolerant" or "narrow minded", so we bend our beliefs just enough to fit into both camps. Some followers have taken all the judgment, justice and hatred for sin out of the very nature of God and we are left with a mushy God who just loves everybody and accepts anything.

If truth be told, many of the difficulties the Church has struggled with over the years have arisen from beliefs about God that were simply untrue, or from over emphasizing one of His characteristics over His others. To focus on any one characteristic to the exclusion of another is like looking at one piece of a picture to the exclusion of the rest.  For instance, some focus solely on God's desire for justice and His intolerance for sin and preach only "fire and brimstone", all the while downplaying the grace and mercy that God offers us.  

There are people who believe God has a very strict set of rules and guidelines we must follow, all the while ignoring the fact that when one is a believer we no longer walk in bondage and slavery, but in freedom and liberty.  

Then there are those who overemphasize His love and compassion to the exclusion of His intolerance and hatred for sin and the fact that He is a Holy and just God, and now we are left with a God who overlooks our sin.  I believe this is why many today have a hard time accepting the fact that God is a God who will judge the just and the unjust...they have focused solely on God being a loving God.  This makes us feel better because we can now believe everything will work out just fine in the end if one simply has good intentions and love for their fellow man.  

All of His characteristics, His nature, must be kept in balance. We tread on very thin ice, indeed, when we ignore any of His characteristics that we do not like, or do not line up with what we think God should be like. I believe it bears repeating because it is so very important...to magnify any one aspect of God and diminish the others is always wrong. 

God is who He is, and we had better learn to accept this because if we remove any one of the characteristics of God we weaken our entire concept of Him.  Sadly, the Church has lost its majestic concept of God.  No longer do we gaze upon Him as the Holy God that He is. We do not sense His divine presence. In our busy world, we have so little time we no longer spend time alone with Him in adoring praise.  We have brought Him down to our level and no longer sing, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty."  No longer do we prostate ourselves before him, as the angels fly around His throne day and night, singing "Worthy is the Lamb". God has simply become "the man upstairs".

 

Many will have a difficult time getting free from their wrong ideas about God.  These wrong ideas put up roadblocks in our walk with Him. They cause fear, uncertainty, unbelief, doubt and mistrust in our lives. We know we are to trust Him, but when difficult times arise, we soon find just how little we really do trust Him. And this is all a result of not really knowing who He is and what He is really like. Many have an incorrect view of what He is like and this must change if one is  going to follow Him and know Him intimately.

Often the difficulties we face are due to our unwillingness to accept God as He is. We insist upon modifying Him to suit our own needs or our own ideas of what He should be like. We have set limitations upon Him, but just think how reassuring it would be to know that we serve a God who has no limitations. For many, the void between knowing about God and really "knowing" God is due to lack of time spent in His presence and reading the Scriptures, with the intense desire to discover more about Him and develop a deeper relationship with Him.  

We tend to pick and choose what Scriptures we will read and in doing so, we do not see the overall character and nature of God come to light. Some will focus on the Old Testament and say, "See, He is a  God of judgment and  cruelty", while others who focus on the New Testament will decide that He is really a God of only love and mercy and He proved that to us when He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to save us from our sins.  The problem we develop when we only look at part of a person's character is that he/she becomes out of balance.  It is critical to our understanding of God that we understand Him in His totality, even if it goes against what we would find more comfortable in our own theology.

I challenge you to ask God to reveal to you what He is truly like. Spend time in the Word and in prayer getting to really know "Him" and not just about Him. You will find that He never changes, He always stands by His Word, and He is very patient.  But you also have to reconcile that with the fact that He is a God of judgment and can have no tolerance for sin, no matter how minor. 

If you cannot reconcile all the different aspects of God, then you will have a difficult time walking with our Holy God.  You will ultimately walk away with a different version in your mind of who God really is and what He is like, and that will be to your detriment. You may feel better compartmentalizing and rationalizing "your" version of God, but that will not change who God really is. God cannot change and He will not change.  It is simply impossible for Him to change who He is or any aspect about Himself. Scripture tells us that "He is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).  And for those who feel that He has to change to keep up with the times, they will sadly find out just how wrong they are. 

As A. W. Tozer said, "What peace it brings to the Christian's heart to realize that our Heavenly Father never differs from Himself. In coming to Him at any time we need not wonder whether we shall find Him in a receptive mood.  He is always receptive to misery and need, as well as to love and faith. He does not keep office hours nor set aside periods when He will see no one.  Neither does He change His mind about anything. God never changes moods or cools off in His affections or loses enthusiasm. God will not compromise and He need not be coaxed.  He cannot be persuaded to alter His Word nor talked into answering selfish prayer. In all our efforts to find God, to please him, to commune with Him, we should remember that all change must be on our part." 

We need to fully understand God's character and nature in order to truly know and trust Him so we can unquestionably obey and follow Him. When times are difficult, you will want to know what kind of God you are following.  You must know what kind of God God is, because during the uncertainty of trials and struggles that may be all  that you have to fall back on.  As Job said in Job 13:15, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face."  He was able to sincerely say that because He intimately knew God's character.

Love not this world...

Chapter Fifty-four:
There is a presence behind the evil in this world and unless we live with this in mind it becomes very easy to become complacent. We are subtly drawn into the ways of this world and before we know it, we are adopting the world's values, their beliefs and eventually we become more like them and less like a child of God. We often fail to remember the day Adam opened the door for evil to enter this world, which was originally created by God for us. Since then the world has been hostile towards anything having to do with God.

Even though we know this world is not our home, many believers are happy to dwell in it and enjoy all it has to offer as long as they feel they have not crossed some line they have set for themselves. We tend to send up this boundary so that we can enjoy the world without feeling guilty.  We seem to forget that the things of this world are corrupt and worthless in the eyes of God.

Many believers have become lukewarm and no longer stand up for the truth. James 4:4 says, "You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity (hostility, resentment, antagonism),  against God?   Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."  We have  become so like the world in order to fill up our buildings that we promote a watered down version of God that makes us indistinguishable from the world.  God's heart must be so grieved when He sees how far we, as a Body, as His bride, have slid from what He considers holy, pure and sanctified living.

Have you ever felt the influence of the world as much as today? Have you ever seen a time when so many believers are becoming apathetic or just plain lazy in their walk with God? The world is no longer at the door of the Church...it is now part of the Church!   First John 2:15 warns us, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them." So we need to ask ourselves, in what ways are we allowing the world to affect our relationship with the Father?

Many a believer is just as guilty as his non-religious friend in being caught up in materialism. While things are in and of themselves neither good nor bad, it is the attitude we have towards them that shows where we stand. While we do need "things" to live in this world, the wisest choice is for us to use them and hold them as though they belonged to God (which they do); that is to say, we must be willing to keep them or part with them at His pleasure. Only then will we be able to have a healthy attitude towards  things we own.  That is one of the ways we are to live detached and separated from the world, and set aside for God's use.

Materialism is not the only way we can be worldly.  First John 2:16 warns us there are other things that can drastically affect us..."For everything in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--comes not from the Father but from the world." The lust of the flesh can be for any pleasure, not just sexual.  Our pleasure-seeking culture would have us believe it is the way to find satisfaction, but what you do not realize is that we can easily become hedonistic, and we focus on serving self and lose all interest in obtaining our satisfaction from serving and following God.  Galatians 5:19-21 says, "The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

The lust of the eyes is where we want to possess what we see or what we find visually attractive. Our homes become filled with stuff.  We covet what others have and wish we had it.  We have even coined a phrase for it: "keeping up with the Jones'".  We have an insatiable desire to accumulate more. When we operate in this mode, we hate to be outdone by another and not get what we want, and we certainly do not go to God to see if He approves of us having it.  Exodus 20:17 addresses this issue of coveting people, possessions or even status when it says, "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Satan uses the lust of the eyes as a way to tempt us and make us dissatisfied with what we have and what God has provided for us.  

The pride of life are the attitudes of pridefulness, arrogance, being wise in our own eyes,  boastful, or having the attitude that we are better than others.  We look down on others in contempt. It is the complete opposite of humility. It's end result is that we exalt ourselves above God and is in direct opposition to Jesus' telling us that whoever would follow Him must have an attitude of servanthood, submission and surrender. First Corinthians 3:19 tells us "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight."

We have got to watch our selves closely to make sure we are not getting into any of these areas.  Our flesh, our carnal nature, enjoys this world and all it has to offer.  Our flesh, in its natural state, is enmity against God and if we do not keep our spirit man strong, our flesh will steer our lives and the course it takes is ultimately in favor of the things of this world that go against God.   Remember, what we feed is what grows. If we feed our carnal nature and its appetites, that will become the strongest aspect of our life. However, if we feed our spirit, then our appetite for the things of God will grow.  

For a believer, it is no longer a question of heaven or hell, but it is one of do we live in this world regrettably or do we enjoy being here? We are to live as a people set apart from this world. Do you have a desire for the eternal things of God? Or do you want to continue to live as the world does? Proverbs 21:2 warns us, "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs (judges) the heart."

When God called you out and delivered you, He delivered you from this world's system. The life you received as God's gift was citizenship in Heaven and we are no longer citizens of this world. Though we must live here, we are never to feel settled here or at home here. While we are here we have a part to play, and we can only do that if we are not lovers of this world. We are to be lights to the world, calling our fellow man to leave behind this world and come into the family of God.

 It is because we possess the spirit of God within us, as a result of accepting our new life from God, that the world will hate us.  The world's hostility is instantly aroused when it senses the divine nature that is within us. The world is antagonistic to the life of Christ in us. So asking yourself how well you are getting along with the world can be a good gauge as to just how much you are still a part of this world.

The prayer of Jesus to His Father in John 17: 14,15 was, "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one."  Every true believer will be a source of irritation to the enemy and one of conviction to the world.  If you are not, then you need to earnestly ask the Lord to show you where you have gone astray and how to get back on solid ground.  There is no standing still when one is a believer...you are either growing forward or are sliding backward.

Are you burdened by the evil that is in the world? First John 5:19 tells us that, "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one."  We cannot escape the snares of this world by hiding away or ignoring them. We can do our best to forsake all sorts of worldly pleasures in the hope of being kept safe. You can become a hermit in a cave, but the world will follow you even there. 

Matthew 5:14 -16 tells us, "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."  Jesus plainly says we are the world's light and it is up to us as to whether we will shine it brightly or hide it.  For us to separate ourselves from the world and deprive it of its only light does not glorify God and negates our usefulness for His Kingdom. 

God can set our feet upon a rock and keep us from slipping.  He can help us keep our focus on the right things. The Bible says we live in a “crooked and perverse” world and that as believers we are to “shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). The closer we move toward the “end of the age” (Matthew 24), the darker and more perverse the world becomes.  When we are faced with alternatives and a choice of ways confronts us, the ultimate question we must ask ourselves is are we helping God's Kingdom or the world. We are being called upon to choose whom we will serve...God and His Holy Word or this world.