It’s a wonder that many who claim to know God relate to God as God.
…Stay with me.
The person who birthed you is your mother but is mother her name? It’s nice for her to be called mother but that is not her identity. The position of mother or father or boss or sister or aunt are solely that: positions and not the identity of the person being called.
This is no different with God. Yes He is God but the ‘Concept’ of God is an office. A god is anything that takes the highest place of authority in a place or in an individual’s life.
What makes the office of God different from that of mother, father, boss, king, aunt or brother is that this is a position He solely occupies.
My mother is not the only mother in the world. There are many other mothers and some mothers may even be replaced with the replacement being a better version of the original but there is only one God and any other replacement is counterfeit. It is sand compared to Rock.
In more familiar terms, anything that takes the office of god that is not God is an idol which the dictionary defines as a *representation* of a god used as an object of worship.
“Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “THERE IS NO GOD BUT ONE”” (1 Corinthians 8:4).
As long as we continue to relate to God as God and that alone, He remains high and unattainable and we fail to explore the depths of joyful intimacy a personal relationship with Him brings.
Again, what makes His office unique is that there is NO OTHER in that position of God despite what the world tells us and especially that smelling god of the world called money!
He confirmed this here:
“…understand that I alone am God. There is no other God— there never has been, and there never will be”
(Isaiah 43:10)
He verifies His exclusivity and authenticity by the things He does. The prophets of Baal had their god but it was only the God of Elijah who could call down fire from heaven.
The sorcerer and magicians of Pharaoh could match up Moses’ acts when they thought it was fun and games of frogs and locusts but when it came to dividing the Red Sea in two, god knew God.
“First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world. No foreign god has ever done this. You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the LORD”
(Isaiah 43:12)
The tragedy is not everyone will understand or comprehend this fact. Actually, in the verse above, God was speaking to the Israelites that they are the ones who have been chosen in the earth to understand that He alone is God.
Thank God for Jesus Christ who has made it possible for we Gentiles to be adopted into the commonwealth of Israel, however, some will still remain unelected, unchosen!
If you ask who God is, you are then asking the right questions and it is in the presence of this type of genuine questioning that He begins to reveal Himself.
Just like any mother or anyone occupying any office has a name, God has a Name. Oh He has Names.
His Name is YHWH. His Name is I am. His Name is Jehovah. His Name is El Shaddai. His Name is The Lord and The Lord is God. Alone.
“I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I showed them that I am God Almighty. But I did not let them know me by my special name, the Lord” (Exodus 6:3).
“For who is God save the Lord? Or who is a rock save our God?”
(Psalm 18:31)
Some instances of God introducing Himself:
-When Moses asked who He should tell the Israelites had sent him to them,
“God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’”
(Exodus 3:13)
-“I, yes I, am THE LORD”, and there is no other Savior.”
Isaiah 43:11
Yes, we may call Him God but there is a beauty of surrender in the word, ‘Lord’ and a beauty of intimacy in the word, ‘Father’.
These are His official names, we can all call Him Lord, we can all pray to Him as Father.
But taking intimacy to another level, just as you call your mother, ‘mum’ or ‘mother’, someone else, say her husband, may call her not just ‘mother’ but names like ‘my angel’, ‘my heartbeat’, ‘my world’ ‘my sugar’ etc. which are all terms of endearment to capture the depths of intimacy and love.
With God, if we stay at calling Him just Lord and Father, we are also relating with Him still at a distance. If we have no personal Names for God, no ‘pet Names’ for Him, we still have ground to cover.
Compare the friends who constantly call you just by your name and those who have special names for you. In my case, in those relationships where we have pet names for each other, despite the time lapse between our communication periods, a message from them beginning with those names raises a special kind of affection towards them and communication goes on as though no time had passed.
So with God, The Lord and our Heavenly Father, who is He to YOU!?
Take this from the man after God’s heart:
“The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold”
(Psalm 18:2)
Oh I had come across this verse many times but the day I SAW it, ‘wow!’ was the reaction. Eight names! EIGHT names in just one verse.
Can you say 8 Names of who God is personally to you?
To this writer, Lord, in 8 Names, You are My Love, my Succour, my Strength , my Employer, my Enjoyment, my Peace , my Comfort, my Ishi.
You know You are my Confidence, my Vindication, my Rest, my Consolation, my Desire, my Past, my Present and my Future.
Ugh we cheat ourselves, we so cheat ourselves when this God is still just God to us.
These expressions take us into deeper realms of worship. Into true, personal and heartfelt worship and not the lip-service congregational charade which is so detestable to God, yet prevalent amongst Christians.
Some of the other Names by which we call God, Jehovah: Jireh, Nissi Shalom, Rapha; El-Roi etc. all came from people’s individual expressions of God from experience and not God actually calling Himself that.
Until we have our personal Names for God, we live and relate with God in the shadow of someone else’s experience or at best, the official level at which He has revealed Himself but a time comes when God must evolve to us:
“The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation”
(Psalm 118:14)
Who has The Lord become to you?
After all is said and done, everyone has the decision of who their God (the One/ thing occupying highest authority and affection in their lives) will be but in the pursuit of happiness, fulfilment and peace, only One is guaranteed:
“…Happy is that people, whose God is The LORD”
(Psalm 144:15)
Who is your God?