Many people struggle mightily with the concept of God. Since God cannot be understood by the finite brain of man, the frustration this creates brings many people to the place of imagination – for what they think is the lack of a full revelation of God.
Most people go so far as to ‘imagine’ what God must be like, and unfortunately He usually winds up looking more like a human being than He does like God.
But that can only happen to people who are not paying attention. To people who have not been paying attention all along.
God has always been interested in being understood. God has always been interested in avoiding being misunderstood. That’s why we have the Word of God. The Word is God’s declaration of Who He is. Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord…In His Word we see He has chosen to reveal Himself to human beings on many occasions. He has stooped so low as to allow man to see His Essence.
The Bible declares that no man can see God and live. I guess it would be something like driving up to within a few miles of the sun and attempting to gaze into it. You would be destroyed by the intense power of the sun – and no less by God, only much moreso! And yet God allowed Moses to see His afterglow, He allowed the nation of Israel to view Him as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, He wrestled with Jacob, and He appeared in a vision to Isaiah, and to Ezekiel.
God desires we see Him, but only in a revelation we may survive. The thing we need to understand is God is much more interested that we ‘see’ Him with our hearts rather than that we see Him with our eyes. We ‘see’ Him in His Word. In His Word is full revelation we may understand. In His presence we cannot stand! We must seek to see Him with Spiritual eyes rather than physical eyes. Believers have the additional advantage of being able to see God with the eyes of the Holy Spirit.
Yet, on occasion, God has consented to some very special presentations which provide a tactile as well as Spiritual understanding – but only to those who already have Spiritual understanding or are seeking it with all their hearts. Mark 9:1 And He said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power." 2 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. 4 And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.
Jesus provides Peter, James and John with as much as they can stand – that we may better understand, (in part,) the Glory of the Lord! We have heard of You – and now we see! Thanks be to God for stooping so low as to be revealed! He has never been concealed to those who see.
- Pastor Bill
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