Journal Your Journey: Lesson V - GOD AND HIS ATTRIBUTES

Knowing GOD

It is impossible to know GOD by our natural abilities alone. We know GOD because HE has revealed HIMSELF to us through:

HIS WORD, the Bible.
HIS SON JESUS – Heb. 1:1-2; and
Created Things – Rom. 1:19-20

GOD Reveals Himself – Exo. 3 and 4

GOD is holy – Exo. 3:5
GOD is a personal GOD – Exo. 3:6
GOD is our SAVIOR – Exo. 3:7-8
GOD saves trough HIS co-workers – Exo. 3:10
GOD goes with us – Exo. 3:12
GOD is eternally present – Exo. 4:2-9
GOD gives proof – Exo. 4:2-9

GOD confirms the WORD spoken by HIS witnesses with signs and wonders.

GOD is our CREATOR – Exo. 4:11-12

GOD reveals HIMSELF to us so that we will know HIM, love HIM and have a personal relationship with HIM.

For your further studies, we suggest that you meditate more on God’s attributes and His nature.

NATURE OF GOD:

a) Spirit - John 4:24; 1 Timothy 1:17

b) Life - 1 John 1:2

c) Light - 1 John 1:5

d) Love - 1 John 4:8

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

Found in the Psalms and New Testament)

a) Eternal - Ps. 90:2; John 1:1; Rev. 22:!3

b) Unchanging - Ps. 102:27; Heb. 13:8

c) Perfect - Ps. 18:30; 1 Peter 2:22

d) All-Knowing - Ps. 139:1-6; 1 Cor. 4:5

e) All-Present - Ps. 139:7-12; Heb. 7:25

f) All-Powerful - Ps. 115:3; Heb. 1:3

g) Holy - Ps. 99:9; Heb. 7:26-27

h) Righteous & Just - Ps. 89:14; John 2:1

i) Good and Merciful - Ps. 86:5; Rom. 2:4

j) Loving & Faithful - Ps. 92:2; Rev. 1:5

Lesson-5

God and His Attributes

KNOWING GOD:

We have learned that every Christian is called by the Lord Jesus Christ to be a worker mainly to do three works: 1) to go; 2) to bear fruit and 3) to see that his fruit remains. As a worker, the Christian will be faced wit many difficulties that may oftentimes discourage him. he will suffer many things in the service of God. So the worker must be able to say:

“For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” 2 Timothy 1:12

DO YOU KNOW THE GOD WHOM YOU SERVED?

It is impossible to know God by our natural abilities alone. We know God only because He has revealed Himself to us through His Word, the Bible, through His Son Jesus and through created things.

Let us look at how God revealed Himself to Moses in Exodus 3 & 4. Please read these two chapters before you go on reading this manual.

GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US:

In verses 1-4 chapter 3 of Exodus, we notice the following:

God made the initial move to reveal Himself to Moses in the form of a burning bush. He got the attention of Moses and He spoke to Moses from the midst of the burning bush. He even called Moses by name.

God is like this to everyone. He calls our attention and speaks to us from the things that happen to us.

Notice verse 4: “So when the Lord saw that He turned aside to look, God called him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ It was only when Moses turned aside from what he was doing that God spoke to him. God made the first move by appearing in the burning bush. But Moses had to respond to God’s calling his attention by leaving what occupied him at the moment and concentrating upon God. When he did, God revealed more of Himself to him.

Is there anything that occupies your attention right now and because of this, that God cannot reveal Himself to you? Be willing to turn aside from whatever occupies you at the moment and concentrate on God. Then God will be able to reveal more of Himself to you. God’s call is personal, because He said, “Moses, Moses.” God is calling us individually. Each person is very important to God. God has a plan for each one.

Moses responded, “Here am I.” and so God revealed more of Himself to Moses. Let us look at this revelation of God.

GOD IS HOLY

The first revelation of God to Moses was the He is holy. He said to Moses. “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” (verse 5) The holiness of God cannot tolerate anything unclean in us. God is holy. This means that there is noting evil in Him. To come to God we must turn away from sin. We can trust God because He is holy. The only true goodness is in God, and His goodness will never change.

GOD IS A PERSONAL GOD

The second revelation of God to Moses is found in verse 6.

“Moreover He said, ‘I AM the God of your father the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.”

This means that God is a personal God, He values relationship with every person and He is always true and unchanging in His relationship with the individual. He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. This means that He is the unchanging and faithful God in His individual relationship with every individual person.

GOD IS OUR SAVIOUR

God reveals Himself as our Savior. He said, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people” (v. 7). And “so I have come down to deliver them” (v. 8). God loves the entire world and He can see our pitiful condition and He came down from heaven and became like one of us, and suffered and died on the cross that we may be saved. God is truly our Savior.

GOD SAVES THRU HIS CO-WORKERS

Another revelation of God is found in verse 10. He says “Come now, therefore, and I will send you” (v. 10). This means that God is making every Christian His co-worker in the salvation of people. God sent Moses to the Israelites. God is sending you (the Christian) to go and bear fruit in the very places where you live. You are God’s co-worker (1 Corinthians 3:9).

GOD GOES WITH US.

God Himself goes with His worker. He reveals this in verse 12, “I will certainly be with you.” God’s presence is with “every worker.” He confirms this when He says, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

GOD IS ETERNALLY PRESENT

God is the great I AM. He reveals this in verse 14 when He says “I AM WHO I AM.” This means that God has no beginning, no ending and is always present. All things, whether past, present or future, God beholds as always present before Him because He is the great I AM. This name means that God is always the I AM of whatever we many need. In other words, God is: “I AM…” whatever you need (salvation, healing, eternal life, resurrection, etc).

GOD GIVES PROOF

God confirms the Word of His witness with signs and wonders, we find this revelation in Exodus 4:1-9. Moses asked God: Suppose the people will not believe that You, Lord, appeared unto me? (Exodus 4:1) What is the proof that God is sending Moses to the people. These proofs are as follows:

The Rod of Moses became a serpent when he threw the same on the ground. Then God told Moses to catch the serpent by its tail. (Exodus 4:2-5) When Moses obeyed the Lord, his rod became a serpent. Then he handled the serpent by its tail and it became a rod in his hand. This miracle proved the power of Moses over the serpent. The same power given by the Lord Jesus to every believer. Luke 10:19 says, “Behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Every believer, therefore, is to trample on the serpents and scorpions. The Christians has power over all the power of the enemy who is sometimes called the serpent.
The Lord asked Moses to put his hand in his bosom. When he took it out it became leprous. Then the Lord told him to put again his hand in his bosom and when he drew it out, it was healed (Exodus 4:6-8).

This miracle gives Moses power over sicknesses and sin. This power will confirm to the people that Moses is a messenger from God.

The same power over sicknesses is given to the believers in Mark 16:17-18. The same power over sin given to Moses is also given to the believer. In Romans 1:16 when the believer preaches the Gospel, the same Gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone believes. Hallelujah!

The third miracle given to Moses was the power to take water from the river, pour it on the land and the water became blood. Water is a picture of the Word of God (see: Ephesians 5:26). The blood is a picture of the blood of Jesus that would shed on Calvary. This miracle would refer to the power of the believer to use the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus as weapons against the enemy. We will learn more of this in our subject on Spiritual Warfare.

GOD IS OUR CREATOR

God continued to reveal to Moses that He is the Creator of even the smallest part of our body like the mouth and the ears (Exodus 4:11-12). This means that God will give us words to say and the ability to speak His Words. Therefore, we should not be afraid even if we are ignorant, or not eloquent and slow of speech and the slow of tongue, which were the objections of Moses (Exodus 4:10). God will teach us what to say and how to say it.

Despite all the above assurances by God to Moses, he was reluctant to obey the call of God. “So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses” (Exodus 5:14). This means that God is angry with those who disobey Him, those who refuse to respond to His calls.

What is your response to the call of God to be His co-worker?

Moses finally obeyed God. He became God’s co-worker. He became a friend of God. Moses saw God face to face.

From the foregoing study of characteristics of God, we are encouraged to entrust ourselves completely in God’s hand and be His workers.

For your further studies, we suggest that you meditate more on God’s attributes and His nature. You may use the following for your further studies.