God Reveals His Nature Through His Names
What is the purpose for my existence? What am I supposed to do with my life? Who am I? I’m not alone in asking these questions, they have been pondered by human beings for millennia. The irony is that the path to spiritual health and well-being requires a paradigm shift from self-centered obsession to God-centered perspective. “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”[1] Self-talk needs to become God-talk. Allow the Spirit of the Living God to speak to your heart, soul and mind directly from His Promises. Those covenants are solid; you can build your life on them without any need to fear or be ashamed.[2] Jesus and His Word the Bible form the bedrock of our faith and following Him will propel us forward into our destiny as children of the Most High God.
Who is this God? Why should we love and serve Him? He is the Great I AM, the same yesterday, today and forever. He is from everlasting to everlasting, the Alpha and the Omega[3], He has no beginning and He has no end. There is no limit to His power, there is no place outside of Hell that you can go that He isn’t right there with you, and He knows everything about everyone and everything past, present and future. God exists whether you choose to trust in Him or not, but should you dare to believe, a life of abundant and eternal blessings awaits you. We will explore God’s character as revealed through His Names. The first name we will study is Elohim.
God is revealed to us in Scriptures as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit; three in one in perfect unity, eternally co-existent and of the same essence. His nature is beyond human ability to fully understand. We can know Him, but we cannot comprehend everything about Him. I am not God, He is. From the very beginning we see the triune God, three in one, at work in creation. “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”[4]
The Hebrew name for God used here is Elohim, which is both plural and singular.[5] Elohim also reveals through the creation story that His nature encompasses both masculine and feminine qualities. This means there is no need for us to believe in a god and a goddess. The limitations of language and our finite minds make these concepts even more difficult for us. We refer to God as “He” even though both genders are created in His image, but He isn’t a them or an it. In God we behold beauty and strength, nurture and protection, mercy and justice all simultaneously. John 4:24 reveals that, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Humans are created in His spiritual image rather than His physical image. Each human being is an image-bearer of the Almighty and deserves to be loved and treated with dignity. This realization has dramatic implications for how we ought to treat one another on all levels of society.[6]
Near the meridian of time, at the beginning of the earthly ministry of Jesus, He was baptized by His cousin John the Baptist. 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 alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”[7] Here we see God the Son in the waters of the River Jordan, God the Holy Spirit descending like a dove upon Him, and the voice of God the Father resounds the scene from Heaven. One God in three Persons. We also see the triune God in the futuristic visions of Revelation. In Chapter 22 we see the throne of God (the Father) and of the Lamb (the Son) and, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”[8]
John 1:1-5 says, “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 nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcomeit.” Jesus is God and was present and active in the creation of the heavens and the Earth. Also remember that when the Earth was formless and void, the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the deep. Therefore we see the Trinity at the very beginning of the Bible.
The Apostle Paul was inspired in his Letter to the Colossians 1:15-20 to delve more deeply into the nature of God the Son when he wrote, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers 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. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” When we are adopted into the eternal family of God, we are connected to Him forever through the unity of the Spirit dwelling within us. This peace and harmony with God the Father is made possible through the shed blood of God the Son applied to our lives through God the Holy Spirit.
Elohim is the triune God and He has created you to glorify Him and enjoy His presence forever. For every passage we see God revealed as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we must also balance our understanding with the scriptures that reveal Him as One. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” We do not serve three gods, we serve one God. Why is it important to learn more about the nature of God? Because it is natural to want to know more about someone who loves you and who you love. Contemplating the Trinity leads to more questions than answers but that’s okay because if we were able to answer everything about God, He wouldn’t be God. I am able to know Elohim, but I am not able to comprehend all there is to know about Him. That’s as it should be. I can trust Him to be God and therefore He can be depended upon for love, salvation, provision, healing, empowerment, hope, wisdom, knowledge, and everything else necessary for life in our present reality and in the reality to come.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very natureof a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
–Philippians 2:5-11
[1] Psalm 42:11
[2] Romans 1:16
[3] Revelation 22:13
[4] Genesis 1:26-27
[5] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Elohim
[6] Matthew 7:12
[7] Matthew 3:16-17
[8] Revelation 22:17
Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God 
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