What is God

What is God?

It is amazing what people will tell you when you ask them the question, "What is God?" They will tell you all that He does. They will tell you all that He has done. They will tell you what they believe He is going to do. They will describe His attributes, such as, He is love, truth, light, faithful, etc.

Most people, including us, have an image of what God is. Most believe that He is a being somewhere sitting upon a throne in the center of some city. And that He is the older of three people and that the Lord Jesus Christ is seated on His right and there is a chair vacant on His left because the Holy Spirit is in the world. And that God is in heaven and He is in control. That God is great and He is the creator. He is the sustainer of all things. God is good. God is love. God has all power. And if anything bad happens, they blame God for it. They will ask, "Why did God allow this to happen?" "Why didn't God answer my prayer?" Most Christians have no concept of what the bible says God is.

In Gen. 1:1 it says, "In the beginning, God…" It does not try to define who or what He is. The word for God there is the Hebrew word, 'elohiym, el-o-heem'; plur. of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but spec. used (in the plur. thus, esp. with the art.) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:--angels, X exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), X (very) great, judges, X mighty. There is only one God, yet this is a plural word. Let me explain this to you this way; I am a grandfather, a father, a son, an uncle, a minister, a pastor, a teacher, etc. And yet, I am one. What then is God?

Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:24,

"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Spirit is energy, force, power. Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:7-8,

"It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

This word 'power' is the Greek word dunamis, doo'-nam-is; from G1410; force (lit. or fig.); spec. miraculous power (usually by impl. a miracle itself):--ability, abundance, meaning, might (-ily, -y, -y deed), Spirit is what keeps you living.

Jesus said in John 6:63,

" The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life."

James said in James 2:26,

"As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

The writer of Hebrews said in Heb. 1:3,

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."

Sustaining or holding together all things by His word which is spirit. Jesus said in John 6:63,

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

It is the spirit that gives live and His words are spirit which is force or power. In other words, He holds all things together by the power of His words which are spirit.

We have learned, so far, that God is Spirit and we know that He rules and has a kingdom. Then where is His Kingdom located? Within each of us! Jesus said in Luke 17:20-21,

"Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

The location of the Kingdom of God, then, is within every individual. And the Kingdom of God is within everything that exists. However, God has made man to be His crowning creation for He says in Gen. 1:26-27,

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

He has given man an expression that is in His image and likeness. No other animal, tree, plant, flower or any of God's creation has this expression of Him. I can speak and my words convey information that others can understand and know what I am talking about. We have been given the ability to create what we think.

Jesus said in Matt. 12:36-37,

"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

We have been given the power to acquit ourselves, or justify ourselves, and the power to condemn ourselves.

Proverbs 18:21 says,

"The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit".

The words that you speak can bring joy and happiness or curses, bitterness and strife. If we will learn to speak God's language, we will find that the words that we speak are spiritual words that are filled with power.

Jesus said in John 6:63,

"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life."

Paul said in 1 Cor 2:13-14,

"This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."

We have learned that God is spirit. Now look at what Paul said in 2 Cor. 3:17-18,

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

The original Greek language says, "Now the Lord the Spirit is, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom." Again the Lord is spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Where is the Spirit of the Lord residing today? In us! We are the temple of the Holy Spirit both individually and corporately. Individually, His Spirit lives or has expression in us. Corporately, when we assemble ourselves together, there is a greater expression of Him.

When we tap into this spiritual power or force, we have tapped into Christ. Christ means anointed. Or anointing, or the anointer. Christ is that ability to express God. You cannot express God apart from Christ and neither could Jesus. Apart from Christ you express yourself. Or who you think you are? Or who you have been told you are? When we express ourselves, we are expressing to others who we think we are and we are expressing a mistaken identity. An image that you have of yourself that has been forming since your birth. However, when one turns to the Lord and learns who he really is, there is an unveiling of the Christ that has always been there. His true identity.