WHO DO MEN SAY “I AM”

By
Bishop Shon Gray

In this New Year, I declare that the just shall live by faith and the revelation of God will be evident in all who believe. I am sensing that there is a lack of belief in the Body of Christ. Evidences surface such as churches closing, segregated churches, weariness in service, lack of conviction, and Christians who operate in backslidden conditions. I have concluded that we cannot act on what we do not believe. An atheist is a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings; In Greek the term atheos which means godless. The way to confute the questions of all atheist is with your own question, which is, Prove that God doesn’t exist?” The Christian is able to better help the atheist come to the realization the he doesn’t either have all the answers. When the nonbeliever poses the question to Christians it sends the Christian looking into an abyss of knowledge in which he can never fully know, which is a safety for the atheist.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is… He who comes to God must believe that He is! This statement is the most basic bottom line thought there is to unlocking the scriptures and is the very starting point of your spiritual journey of faith. “Believe that He is”. Did you know that all other revelation is dependent upon the acceptance of this one little statement being true? Why? Because if a person doesn’t believe that “He is”, the person is truly faithless in the things pertaining to God and he won’t, or can’t believe the rest.

Jesus Himself urged us to have a relationship with the creator, which begins a journey that seems to discourage or overwhelm most. Those of us who refuse to embark on this relational endeavor usually live a complacent life that is unfulfilling. I believe that if we lived for thousands of years one could never understand God and His infinite capabilities, which bring me to say that “just because you don’t believe is not good ground for disbelief”. In this New Year I vow to make even more evident the existence of God.  There is an old proverb that says “When in doubt look at creation”. The bible says in Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, God Existence should be the foundation upon which any Christian stands.

It is better to ask the question, who is God rather what is God. It is because God exist that he made us, loves us, concerned for our being, desires to provide and sent his son to redeem us. All these are attributes and qualities that the creator demonstrates but all do not fully reveal God. Lets reference to God according to the introduction that He Himself gave to Moses. The argument from Exodus gives us a concrete but yet uncertain analysis of who God is. The seen of the burning bush in Exodus grasps implements the view of God’s perception of himself. His understanding being much higher than ours should be the starting point that we should reference in identifying Him. Exodus 3:13-14 13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? 14 And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you. To understand the phrase I Am, one who have to have a Jewish perception or interpretation of scripture. The statement  “I Am” refers more to God being existent whether man can perceive Him or not. It future implies that God is too awesome to portray an accurate description of Him. If this statement were to be viewed with Jewish eyes it would imply that is impossible for us to really know. An agnostic is one who believes it impossible to know anything about God or about the creation of the universe and refrains from commitment to any religious doctrine. V15b God says “this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations”.

Prayer, Mac Arthur says begins and ends not with the needs of man but with the glory of God (John 14:13). It should be concerned primarily with who God is, what He wants, and how He can be glorified. Those who teach otherwise are not preoccupied with the extension of Christ’s kingdom or the glory of God’s name but with the enlargement of their own empire and the fulfillment of their own selfish desires. [1]

Existence, purpose and prayer are all void without God. If we were to say what is God? One might say that He is an infinite and eternal being, the sustainer of all life, that He is a presence that gives the void form and meaning. Gen. 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. He is the source of light and has a spirit with capabilities to shape and form things. The bible teaches us that in all existence and foe all eternity there is, and always will be only one God. God was never created but from Him comes all of creation. John 1:3 all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. His main attribute is holiness and He can have nothing to do with sin. He is perfect being, one God with a triune existence. He is three persons and not three gods. The reason person is used to describe, is because each demonstrates attributes of personhood. Each has a will and each loves and speaks. The existence of the son, which is God Himself gives further clarity of who God is. Yeshua or Jesus tells us that God is our father. It is clarification to his followers of how we should view God, as the father. According to John Mac Arthur, the initial benefit of this prayer is the way it exhibits the believer’s relationship with God. “Our Father” presents the father/child relationship;[2] Father reflects family devotion, which in turn, makes us children of God. The existence of the son was not only crucial to restoring man from his fallen condition but rather establish a relationship with humanity. This act portrays perfectly the existence of God as the sole meaning of love according to John 3:16. The reason it is crucial to understand who God is, is so that we can understand the manner in which we, His children are to live. After all we are made in His likeness.  So according to the bible God is I am, He is our father, and God is love. He demonstrates this love throughout scripture both old and new testament, that His love is so great, it can reach any man regardless of where sin has taken him as He so often times demonstrated with Judah and Israel.