1. An ever growing understanding of who God is and belief that His ways are good

Volumes and volumes have been written trying to truly understand who God is. But I think it needs to be stated up front that we can never fully know or understand who God is. That is where faith comes in. The ability to fully trust in what we can not fully know. If we were able to fully understand God, then there would be no need for us to have faith and trust.

The Triune God
Let’s first take a look at the Trinity. This is the name of the doctrine that presents God as one God with three co-equal, co eternal persons. Let’s take a look at a couple of scriptures where we can begin to see this play out.

God is One
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one – Deuteronomy 6:4
This represents a deeply held belief of the Jewish people that they would recite at the beginning and the end of the day. There were commanded to continually remind themselves that God is one.

We can see it in the first of the 10 commandments as well. “‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.’ – Exodus 20:2-3″ God made it very clear that He is the only God that you need to be concerned with.

Next week, I hope to spend more time focusing on the overall attributes of God, with the hope that we can really begin to understand the awesomeness that God is.

God Is Three, Coequal, Co eternal Persons
One of the first places we can begin to see this is in the one of the common names that the Israel used in referencing God. The Hebrew name “Elohim” which is the plural form of “El” meaning God. “Elohim” was the closest word they could come up with to represent this idea of a triune God.

It is this “Elohim” that is mentioned in the first words of Genesis, “In the beginning, God created…” Thereby giving us our first look at what this eternal God is truly like.

Many times in the creation account to we see this reference to the triune God appear. This account brings to our attention, right from the beginning, the perfect community and fellowship that God exists in with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…’[Emphasis Added]”

A Look At The Father, Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit
In order to better understand this triune set up in which God exists, we need to begin to look at the individual parts that make it up.

The Father
Many times throughout both the Old and New Testaments is God the Father referred to.

Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you – Deuteronomy 32:6

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand. – Isaiah 64:8

They will come with weeping;
they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn son. – Jeremiah 31:9

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. – Matthew 11:25

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’- John 20:17

God is not just some stoic father but the kind of father that we can come to crying, “Daddy, I need you.” “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Romans 8:15) God is not at all like the flawed earthly father that you have. He is the perfect daddy you have always needed; full of justice, grace and most importantly mercy and love. He will discipline from time to time, but that is what a good father, who knows what you need better than you do, does. You just need to trust that your heavenly daddy will take care of you.

But on the other side of the coin, He is still the God of the universe who demands reverence and utmost respect. Again it is another paradox that we can not fully understand but need to honor from our humble position as His creation.

The Son (Jesus)
Definitely the most visible of the trinity, Jesus has always existed in fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He has no beginning, He just always has been and will be.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. – Colossians 1:15-20

Jesus, through his own words, tried to let everyone know who He truly was. “‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’”

The Jews of Jesus time fully understood the clam He was making by saying this. “I am” was a reference used by Moses to refer to the God that has always been in existence and in control. Jesus claimed this for Himself and based on the reaction of the Jews, who picked up stones to stone Him, it made some people mad.

Jesus is at God’s right hand in heaven today, “While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. (Luke 24:51)” He is interceding on behalf of all those who have chosen to believe in Him and accept His free gift of grace (More on this in future article). As Jesus followers, we all look forward to His soon coming and promised return.

The Holy Spirit
The third person of the trinity is the one that still is very active in our world today. The Holy Spirit comes upon us at our time of belief in Jesus and acceptance of His free gift of Grace. “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.(Ephesians 1:13-14)”

We first see the Spirit of God in the opening verses of the Bible. This confirming for us the eternal existence of the Holy Spirt. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.(Genesis 1:2)”

We also see confirmation of the Spirit through the words of Jesus in John 16, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.(13-15)”

These words of Jesus also begin to show us the mission of the Holy Spirit in our world. That being to guides us in all truth and being the voice of God in our lives. The Spirit does this thro
ugh taking residence in our lives. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.(I Corinthians 3:16-17)”

The Spirit also takes part in teaching us (John 14:26), helping us to pray(Romans 8:26-27), and empowers us to live out our mission(Acts 1:8). We need to seek out the filling of the spirit daily in our lives. Read this excerpt from a previous blog article:

This process of seeking to be filled with the Spirit needs to become a daily ritual consisting of a time of confession to God followed by asking the Holy Spirit to guide us (handing control over to Him) through that day and finally believing with confidence that it will be done as you have asked.

In summary, God is one God existing in 3 coequal, co eternal persons. Like I said in the beginning it is not something we can get our finite minds around but it is important to understand as much as we can if we are going to begin to build a foundation for following Jesus with all our lives.

More on Understanding God next week, Until Then Blessings…