The fourth P in the The 10 P's of Trusting God to Overcome Fear Devotional.
Sprinkled throughout the old and new testaments are snippets of images of the person of God. In this devotional we will examine certain aspects of the great I Am. Sometimes I will give you the full scripture verse and sometimes I will give you just the reference. My hope is that you will search the scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit to make Him real to you.
The person of God is a mystery that the human mind cannot fathom and yet, we as Christians, believe without doubt that He is with us through every trial, every shortcoming, and every fall from grace.
Believers in the one true God don’t try to figure out how it is possible that our mighty God can be three persons in one. He just is.
David’s Psalm 91:1-2 provides great insights into the Person of God.
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
There are four titles listed in these two verses.
Let’s go back to the beginning and dig deeper. The first verse of the Bible tells us who He is.
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Gen 1:1-2
We see the Hebrew word for God again which is Elohim. It appears more than 2700 times in the Hebrew Bible. It is plural version of El which means supreme one. And one final note… if a person cannot get past this one verse in the Bible, they won’t accept any of the other verses which were inspired by God and written by man.
Side note: Think about when the men of the Bible wrote the books. They were written centuries ago when each village had little or no connection to other villages where these great men of the Bible lived. They wouldn’t have had conversations about what each of them were writing. No, they were completely inspired by God and yet, each book seamlessly dovetails into other books that may have been written at the same time or hundreds of years later.
And yes, God is three persons in one as we saw in the above verse: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [a]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Gen 1:26
In the above verse, we have God or Elohim, then we have Us which reinforces the idea of a triune God. Even Jesus said in John 10:30, “I and My Father are one.” As for the Holy Spirit, Jesus also said in John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
All these verses give us a picture of the person of God from a human perspective because we can only understand God’s complexity at this most basic level. However, God is a self-aware rational being with a personality. We know this because we humans are made in His image. Throughout the Bible, God behaves and interacts with people as a person. He:
Finally, we are able to pray to Him and can hear his voice John 10:27.
As we see in the following verses, God has a mind, a will, and emotions:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 (His mind.)
in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (His will.)
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:15-17 (His will.)
As a father pities his children,
So the Lord pities those who fear Him. Psalm 103:13 (His emotion.)
Likewise, Jesus has the same mind, will, and emotions.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Luke 2:52 (His mind).
saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Luke 22:42 (Jesus’s will was to do the will of the Father.)
Jesus wept. John 11:35 (the shortest verse in the Bible describes what Jesus did when faced with the death of his friend, Lazarus. It speaks to Jesus’ humanity and emotion.)
And finally, the Holy Spirit also has a mind, will, and emotions.
Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:27 (His mind.)
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:5 (His will.)
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30 (His emotion.)
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together to accomplish God’s purposes and plans.
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 9:14
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. 2 Corinthians 13:14
I pray this devotional illuminated the Person of God in a way that makes the Bible come alive for you.
First published in Seralynn Lewis’ Red Hearts Newsletter,Volume 24-10.