Nature & Character of God

This week a Fijian speaker called Tanbaleto came and preached on the nature and character of God. One of first day, he felt led to speak about forgiveness. He said that forgiveness shouldn’t be an issue for us because it isn’t an issue for God. If God can forgive then so can we. If we don’t forgive others then it will hinder our spiritual walk. As human beings we will hurt one another because at the end of the day we were born sinners (Romans 3:23) it’s in our nature. He rounded off by saying whether we need to call, text, email or send a letter to the people we forgive that’s what we should do and close the chapter once and for all. And if God has laid it on our hearts to seek forgiveness from others. we should do so also.  Brace yourselves, below is what I have been learning this past week. 

DESIRING GOD

Did you know that there is a connection between loving God and knowing God? Because if we don’t know God, we can’t love Him. The greatest commandment is that we love God with all our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37). The foundation of our Christian walk is for us to know God first. Sadly many Christians love for God turns cold partly because their desire to know Him ceases.

In Matthew 5:3 Jesus said blessed are the poor in Spirit for there’s the kingdom of God.  What does this mean you wonder?  Well, the poor in Spirit are those who acknowledge they are spiritually poor and weak, they are desperate to know more and more of God and are never satisfied. And in verse 6 the scriptures say blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled. My question to you is how thirsty are you for God? What is satisfying you? If we are not hungry and thirsty for Him, then He will not fill us. Our hearts desire should be set on knowing God and this is not a one-time encounter at the moment you give your life to Christ but from that point until we meet with Him in heaven. King David had everything, he had the money, fame, status, women you name it yet his soul was thirsty for God.  Earthly things meant nothing to him. He even asked where he could go and worship in God’s presence, how amazing is that?!

NATURE OF GOD

The next topic we studied was the nature of God. As humans we can never be like God in nature but we can become like Him in character. God is a triune God, the Father (John 6:27), Son (John 1:1) & Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16) are all God and were all present before the foundations of the earth (Genesis 1:26).

When we pray Jesus says we are to pray to the Father. Too often many Christians and churches focus on the Father and Son yet neglect the Holy Spirit. They fail to realise that the Holy Spirit is just as important and is a person that we can fellowship with. Have you asked the Holy Spirit to come into your life, because we can’t be Christians yet have nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. It is He who gives us the power to deal with things we struggle with. He is our helper and will guide us in all truth. Before things happen the Holy Spirit will reveal what is yet to come (John 8:13). The revelation of who God is is revealed through the Holy Spirit.

God is eternal and was uncreated- He has no beginning and no end (Deuteronomy 33:27). Every other false god was created by man but God was not created and nowhere in the Bible does it say when God was created!

God is omniscient- He is an all-knowing God. He knows absolutely everything about you. Psalm 139 declares that He knows everything about you, He knows your thoughts even before you think it. He knows all the answers to every situation and every problem. He is the best economist, doctor, you name it, He knows all!

God is omnipotent-He has unlimited power. Psalm 115:3 declares that God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases.  God is more powerful than satan, He can’t be compared to satan because satan was created but God wasn’t ( mind blowing isn’t it?!)

God is omnipresent- He is always present, He is not confined to just a church building. There is no place we can go to escape His presence (Psalm 139:7-10)

God is infinite- God is not limited by time or space (Isaiah 40:12-30)

God is immutable-He is unchanging (Malachi 3:6) , He will always be caring, merciful, loving etc.

God is a spiritual being- John 4:24 says that God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Jesus is also a spiritual being. After He resurrected, He went and visited the disciples. The door was locked yet Jesus was able to walk through the door!

God is a personal-He is all powerful, personal God and a spiritual being. We can call on Him at any time and He will be with us (Revelation 3:20)

CHARACTER OF GOD

He is our Father-1 John 5:1 states that whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.  We must live in the reality that we have not received the spirit og bondage again to fear but have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)

God is love- His loving kindness endures forever (Psalm 107:1). You can’t do anything for God to love you more or less. You are loved by God FULL STOP! He will only give you the best when the time is right, He knows what will destroy you. Take a moment to thank God for many unanswered prayers.  The same love the Father has for Jesus, Jesus has given to each and every one of us ( John 15:9).

Definition of love- giving/thinking/doing/believing the highest good for the other person. The best gift we can give to someone else is the Gospel. Share Jesus with those around you, He is the highest gift. Because at the end of the day we all need Jesus in our lives.

LORDSHIP OF CHRIST, THE COST OF BEING A DISCIPLE

This is the topic area that challenged me the most!!!Like damnnn, this challenged my thoughts and ideas and cause me to reflect and make some decisions. At the end of the lecture, the speaker said we must make a decision as to whether or not we really want to follow Christ.

When Jesus shows up, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, this is regardless of whether you are atheist, agnostic, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jew you name it. Jesus is already Lord, we make the decision as to whether we want to bring ourselves under the Lordship of Christ. Jesus didn’t just come to take away our sins, He came to be Lord of all.

If anyone wants to follow Christ they must take up their cross, deny themselves and follow Him (Mark 8:34-37). Us living our lives for God means there’s no plan b. God is looking for disciples, personal follower of Christ. However in this day and age many churches are full of Christians not disciples.  I was doing some research and found that the word disciple is mentioned 259 times in the Bible but the word Christian is in the Bible only 3. That’s says a lot doesn’t it?! God is looking for disciples and not for people who profess with their mouth that they are Christians

How many of us are willing to give up our career, family, job, home and follow Jesus? Being a disciple means loving Jesus more than everything and everyone else. God has given us the free will to choose. What do you follow and obey? If you want to save your life, you will lose it.

Making Jesus Lord of our lives means;

We lose the right to have a house “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21)

We lose the right to having own way of doing things and our preferences-Are we ready to deny ourselves? Genesis 12 tells the story of Abraham, the first missionary. He was told to leave his family, people, culture and go to a land that God would show him. 

We lose the right to having a reputation. We lose the right to marriage-This was a challenging one for me, I think I made some sound effects when the speaker mentioned this lol. Making Jesus Lord means we don't have a right to have sex, kiss or even marry. We belong to God and He comes first. Marriage is a gift from God and it's God's plan for you to get married then He shall bring it to pass. Marriage shouldn't be our main focus in life, Christ should be. 

We lose the right to protection-In Acts 7:55-56 Stephen was stoned. When we give our life to Christ, we will face persecution for preaching the Gospel. The question is, will you continue to preach the Gospel even if it could cost you your life?