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“Let him who
boasts boast about this: that he understands and
knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,”
declares the LORD (Jer. 9:24)
Our faith can move
mountains of adversities: Jesus said, “Have faith in God
. . . I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain,
‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in
his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will
be done for him. Therefore . . . whatever you ask for in
prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be
yours” (Mark 11:22—24)
Most of us, who have
made a serious attempt to learn to pray, have studied this
Scripture and tried hard not to doubt that whatever we ask we
shall receive. We attached our faith on our ability to believe
rather than on God’s ability to respond. Consequently, our
mountain remains. It is important to note the verse above,
with so great a promise, begins with “Have faith in God”. This
is how we acquire the necessary faith to receive.
Let’s look at this
principle in light of the Lord’s Model Prayer. It begins, “Our
Father, who art in heaven . . . “Thinking about our Father
puts us in the right perspective since we often enter prayer
discouraged and troubled by adverse circumstances. As we look
to Him and ponder His love and power, He becomes larger than
our mountains. Then, when we submit our petitions, we have
faith, not that the circumstance will change, but rather in
God who can change the circumstance.
Therefore, faith is
simply confidence in God. There is no short cut; there is no
speaking to the mountain or confessions of the mouth that will
instill faith without knowing God personally. Let’s start with
the fundamental characteristics of God’s nature as A. W. Tozer
writes in Pursuit of God
A loving Personality
dominates the Bible, walking among the trees of the garden
and breathing fragrance over every scene. Always a living
Person is present, speaking, pleading, loving, working, and
manifesting Himself whenever and wherever His people have
the receptivity necessary to receive the manifestation.’
I heard that a little
boy had this receptivity. After his mother admonished him by
saying, God is watching you.” He replied, “Yes, I know. He
loves me so much He can’t keep His eyes off of me.” We all
know what it is like to adoringly watch someone we love.
What a contrast when we
see how some people view God. Hannah W. Smith writes in God
of All Comfort
Because we do not know
Him, we ... get all sorts of wrong ideas about Him. We think
He is an angry Judge who is on the watch for our slightest
faults, or a harsh Taskmaster determined to exact from us the
uttermost service, or a self—absorbed Deity demanding His full
measure of honor and glory, or a far-off Sovereign concerned
with His own affairs and indifferent to our welfare.
Our view of God affects
our prayers. We are not likely to pray at all if He is a vague
deity, or if we do not believe He loves us. Whereas, if we
know His love is great and His power unlimited, we will likely
pray with great faith. Let’s build our faith with Scriptures
that reveal God’s nature, character, and power.
Seeing Our
Father in Scripture
• God Reveals His Basic
Nature
God tells us the nature
of His Spirit when His glory passed by Moses on Mt. Sinai, the
Lord said He was “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and
gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving
wickedness, rebellion and sin. . . “ (Exod. 34:6,7)
• God is the Only God
“This is what the LORD
says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the
first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isa.
44:6).
• God is Holy
Holiness is God’s
predominate attribute, the moral essence of His Spirit: “Holy,
holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of
his glory” (Isa. 6:3).
I believe glory is the
radiating manifestation of the purity of God’s holiness
energized by the power of His love. God and His glory are
inseparable; where He is, His glory shines.
• God never changes
God is eternally the
same: “I the LORD does not change” (Mal. 3:6). Worldly people
change their moral values and try to establish what is right
by popular acceptance of their evolving standards.
Nevertheless, disregarding God’s laws of righteousness is only
to their destruction because the axis of life remains on God.
Who He is eternally remains the same.
• God is self-existent
God is life: v the
Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have
life in himself” (John 5:26).
• God has all knowledge
God knows all: “Known
unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world”
(Acts 15:18 KJV)
• God is permanent truth
What God has said is
eternal true: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words
will never pass away” (Matt. 24:35)
• “God is Love” (1 John
4:8)
God’s love is the most
powerful force in the world. Everything He does is ultimately
from this viewpoint.
This is how God
showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into
the world that we might live through him. This is love: not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an
atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:8-10).
• God is Trustworthy
“A man’s word is his
bond” is almost an archaic concept, according to liberal
modern standards. It is not so with God because “Not one word
has failed of all the good promises he gave through his
servant Moses” (1 Kings 8:56). We must also “Know therefore
that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping
his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who
love him and keep his commands” (Deut. 7:9).
• God gives
“Every good and perfect
gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the
heavenly lights. . .“ (James 1:17). God does not limit His
giving: “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD
bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from
those whose walk is blameless” (Ps. 84:11).
• He Cares
“Cast all your
anxiety on him because he cares for
you (I Peter 5:7) . “
• God is always present
God reminds us of His
presence throughout Scripture:
“Am I only a God
nearby ... and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret
places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do not I
fill heaven and earth?” (Jer. 23:23,24).
His promise to always be
with us has special meaning for me. Through intense grief,
God’s abiding presence sustained our family during the months
preceding our son’s death. He comforted Ric too. When doubts
and fears would ordinarily dominate a terminal patient’s
thoughts, Ric said, shortly before he died, “Mother, God has
never left me.” Knowing that God also revealed His presence to
Ric and provided him with supernatural assurance, greatly
comforted us during those dark days. It continues to provide
solace.
• God is Spirit
“No one has ever seen
God” (John 1:18), because “God is Spirit” (John
4:24). Yet, He allows man to see
evidence of His Presence through manifestations of His Spirit.
Primarily, Scripture records these as fire and a cloud, an
intensely brilliant light of glory, a dove, and Jesus in
person.
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God Revealed His Spirit
through Fire and a Cloud. God spoke through a burning bush
when He told Moses to rescue the Israelites from Egyptian
bondage (Exod. 3:2). Later, as Moses led them out of Egypt
“the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide
them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give
them light” (Exod. 13:21). After they arrived at Mt. Sinai
where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, “the glory of the
LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain”
(Exod.24:17)
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God Revealed His Spirit through an intensely brilliant Light
of Glory. The radiance of God’s Glory is blindly brilliant;
He “lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or
can see” (1 Tim. 6:16). On Mt. Sinai, Moses asked God to
show him His glory. God replied, “you cannot see my face,
for no one may see me and live” (Exod. 33:20) (Our mortal
bodies must become immortal in order to withstand the
brilliance of the glory of His Presence.)
Although, on Mt. Sinai,
God did allow Moses a glimpse of His back. “When my glory
passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you
with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my
hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen” (Exod.
33:22,23). When Moses came down from the
mountain, his face had to be veiled because it reflected God’s
Glory.
When Moses finished
building the Holy Tabernacle of Worship, God sent His approval
when “The glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle”
(Exod. 40:34).
In the New Testament,
God’s Glory illuminated Jesus when He, Moses, and Elijah
supernaturally appeared. “There he was transfigured before
them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as
white as the light” (Matt. 17:2).
When God was ready for
His Salvation Message to be spread over the world, His
brilliant glory had a profound effect on Saul of Tarsus; he
fell to the ground blinded, and arose transformed to become
the first evangelist— Paul the Apostle. He was empowered to
blaze a path through spiritually uncharted pagan lands with
the Gospel of Christ. Satan and all his fury could not stop
him. Jeers, deprivation, floggings, shipwreck, serpent bites,
and stonings could not deter him. He charged on, until the
Romans shackled him in the death-row dungeon.
I stood in that cold,
damp, stone dungeon and felt austere isolation. I imagined
Paul feeling moments of terror, knowing his beheading was
imminent. Even so, the power of God’s glory sustained Paul
till the end when he wrote, “The time has come for my
departure.
I have fought the
good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Now there is in store
for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous Judge, will award . .. to all who have longed for
his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:6-8).
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God Revealed His Spirit as a dove. God chose the gentle dove
to convey His Presence when He announced to the world that
Jesus was His Son: “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went
up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and
he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting
on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom
I love; with him I am well pleased’”) Matt. 3:16, 17).
The name Jesus means God
with us. “He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn over all creation” (Ccl. 1:15). “For in Christ all
the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9).
Jesus is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact
representation of his being, sustaining all things by his
powerful word” (Heb. 1:3)
In the beginning God,
His Spirit, His Word were all one. God equates His Word to
Himself. His Word (His Son) took on human form and became
Jesus in the flesh.
In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God He was
with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made;
without him [Word] nothing was made that has been made. In him
was life, and that life was the light of men . . . The Word
because flesh and made his dwelling among us
(John 1:1—4, 14).
We see God’s Spirit
through Jesus’ attitudes and actions. His life exemplified
love, mercy and compassion as He healed the sick, raised the
dead, fed the hungry, delivered those who were bound from
demonic powers, and spoke words of forgiveness, peace and
hope. He told the woman caught in adultery, “Then neither
do I condemn you . . . Go now and leave your life of sin”
(John 8:11).
Jesus read in the
Synagogue from Isaiah about Himself,
The Spirit of the Lord
is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to
the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18,19).
I complimented a
prominent man on his life of benevolent acts. Since we knew
each other only socially, He said, “You do not know me.” For
forty years I had seen his Christian life, therefore, I knew
his heart. We know God’s heart because we have seen Jesus’
life. Jesus said, “If you really knew me, you would know my
Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen
him” (John 14:7).
In trying to understand
the Trinity, we have all heard the example about ice and
steam also being water. We might also consider the likeness
of some sons to their dad. We have heard the expression,
“Like father, like son. . . “ We know this means the two are
so much alike that they think alike, and their decisions
would be the same. The Spirit of the Father is The spirit of
The Son is the energizing, empowering Holy Spirit. The three
are the same, with different ministries.
For in Him all things
were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities; all things have been created through Him and
for Him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold
together (Col. 1:16, 17).
Scripture comes to life
as we meditate upon the wonders of our thriving world.
Visualize the vast oceans, the majestic mountains, and the
dense forests. Hear the trumpeting elephant, the bleating
sheep and purring kitten. See the hummingbird suspended in
air. Touch the velvety rose and smell the fragrance. Watch the
fluttering butterfly, see the flurry of snowflakes, and hold
the newborn baby.
Look through the
microscope and cells multiplying and atoms dividing. Look
through the telescope and scan the heavens. Eons of light
years behind the farthest star are much more. The galaxies are
as the sands of the seashore synchronized to revolve in a
heavenly ballet. The power of God’s Word spoke it into place.
We have all seen God’s awesome power as lighting lashed across
the sky with its loud clashing thunder. In the midst of it all
we have felt God’s reassuring presence reminding us, “Do not
be afraid, for I have created all things, I sustain all
things, and I have promised, “I will never leave you. . .“
(Heb. 13:5)
As we daily contemplate
the beauty and power of God’s creation, our faith increases.
We also fill our minds with treasured memories which may later
sustain us during the bleak times of life—when we must dwell
upon what is good to find peace for our souls.
In Scripture, we see not
only God’s nature, character, and creation but also, His
emotions. The Bible records every situation common to man,
and also God’s feelings about them. Yes, His judgment has
fallen at times throughout man’s history. But, not without
warnings, pleadings, and grief on God’s part.
We see evidence of God’s
sorrow when He said about His chosen people, the Israelites,
“How I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts,
which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which
have lusted after their idols” (Ezek.
6:9). When righteous judgment fell
against Moab and Kirheres for their wicked ways, God mourned
through the weeping prophet, Jeremiah, “Therefore I wail
over Moab, for all Moab I cry out, I moan for the men of Kir
Hareseth” (Jer. 48:31).
We see Jesus’ love and
feel the grief of His rejection as he laments over the wayward
Israelites, “0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets
and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather
your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her
wings, but you were not willing (Matt. 23:37)
God’s love always
reaches out to His children. Even while the Israelites were in
foreign captivity because of their wickedness, God faithfully
promised: “I myself will search for my sheep and look after
them. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I
will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak...”
(Ezek. 34:11, 16). Then, without any merit on the Israelites’
part, God promised them a thousand year Utopia on this earth,
and Paradise forevermore—if-they would only love and follow
Him.
Jesus wept when Lazarus
died (John 11:35). This was more than wiping away a few tears.
Lazarus, Martha and Mary were like family members. When Herod
beheaded His beloved disciple, John, Jesus went off to be
alone in His grief (Matt. 14:13). He loves us with the same
intensity.
The closer we draw to
Him, the clearer we will see Him. The effects of seeing Jesus
sustained Stephen, one of the seven deacons in the first
Jerusalem Church, before he was stoned to death. His spirit
rose beyond the circumstance, and instead of being afraid,
Stephen’s face looked like an angels’ as he “looked up to
heaven and saw the g of God and Jesus standing at the right
hand of God. 1 he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man
standing at the right hand of God’” (Acts 7:55, 56).
Like Stephen, you and I
need to turn our eyes heavenward to seek Jesus’ face, as we
diligently study His word. Even so, study as we may, we will
always long to see Him more clearly. In “Nothing But Christ!”
David Wilkerson writes:
Ever since the Cross,
all spiritual giants have had one thing in common ... they
became lost in the glorious vastness of Christ; and they died
lamenting they still knew so little of Christ, yet wanted so
much more knowledge of Him. So it was with all the disciples
with early church fathers; with Luther, Zwingli, and the
Puritans; with the pious English preachers over the past two
hundred years ... Wesley, Fletcher, Whitefield, Mueller ...
And so it was and is with the pious Americans—Tozer,
Ravenhill, and many others.
Though we cannot know
God as well as we want to, experience His involvement in every
area of our lives. He empowers us to love Him, and our fellow
man. He gives inexpressible joy and peace, even in the midst
of our trials. He blesses, protects, and relieves our pains
more times and in more ways than we will know.
A sweet Christian
friend, whose son had just committed suicide, told me, with
moist eyes and a serene smile, “Jesus has not left me for one
moment. He has given me strength and comfort through these
past few days that I never dreamed possible.”
A loving family member
wrote about God’s unceasing love, “The Lord has blessed us.
When we fall down, He picks us up. When we doubt He gives us
faith. And, when we cry, He wipes our tears. When we falter He
gives us courage. And, most of all, when we fail Him, He
forgives us always. I now know why we love Him more than
anyone else. He is6ur Father, our best friend and counselor
who is within reach at all times. It amazes me how long it
takes for some of us to reach out for Him when His arms are
open at all times. But, once we grab hold, we never want to
let go.”
Now that we know more
about our Father in Heaven, and have reviewed the wonders of
His creation, we feel like joining the vast choir of
Christians throughout the centuries and jubilantly sing, “Oh
Lord our God, How great thou are!”
HOW GREAT THOU ART
-by Carl Boberg
Lord my God! When I in
awesome wonder —
Consider all the worlds
Thy hands have made,
I see the stars; I hear
the rolling thunder,
Thy pow’r throughout the
universe displayed,
Then sings my soul, my
Savior God to Thee;
How great Thou art, how
great Thou art!
Notes to Chapter II
1. A. W. Tozer, Pursuit of God
(Penn.: Christian Publications, n.d.),p. 50.
2. Hannah Whitall Smith, The
God of All Comfort (New Jersey:
The Christian Library, 1984),
p. 10.
3. Catherine Marshall, Beyond
Ourselves (N.Y.: Avon, 1968), pp. 231, 232.
4. David Wilkerson, “Nothing
But Christ!” (Lindale, Texas, World Challenge, Inc., 1985), P.
2.
5. Carl Boberg, 1859—1940
Trans. by Stuart K. Hine, 1899 “How Great Thou Art,” Songs of
Inspiration (Burbank, Calif.: Manna
Music, Inc., 1955), p. 2.
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