The Basis Of Our Perception Of God
O God, help me collect my thoughts and focus on them. I am so prone to wander and speculate, but, O Lord, lead me in the way of knowing Thee in such a way as to understand who I am and why I am here. Lead me on into Thy perfection in Jesus’ name. May L be worthy to know Thee in all the fullness of Thy divine revelation. Amen.
Even to talk about God requires a capacity beyond human ability. I know everyone talks about God, but in the context that I have set before us in this chapter, no one can truly talk about God in a way that is worthy of the God we are talking about.
No man can preach about God worthily, no man can write about God worthily unless that man knows God beyond his human ability.
I do not approach the subject as a scholar or a theologian. I believe in theology. I think nothing is more wonderful than theology, which is simply the study of God. All theology begins with God and ends with God, or it is not true biblical theology.
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Much that passes for theology today is simply the educated man trying to explain God through his own logic and reason. I assure you, there is plenty of logic and reason with God, but it does not stop there. If all we had was logic and reason, we would never penetrate that Cloud of Unknowing that keeps most people from truly knowing God.
We make a grave error when we approach such a subject as an expert. The church is full of experts these days, and they have only added to the confusion of our perception of God. The only way to approach the subject is as a worshiper. All the technical aspects of theology fall short of truly penetrating the manifest presence of God.
I am not giving a lecture on what I think about God. What I am doing is giving a witness, a testimony, if you please, of my journey into the heart of God. My witness is not for the head, but for the heart that has a burning passion to know God.
At the risk of repetition, it was Saint Augustine who really understood this and wrote in his confessions, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.” This man of God understood what many do not understand today.
We were created for a purpose, and until that purpose is fulfilled, we are in a restless state. Nothing outside of us can bring the rest and peace we were created for and yearn for.
The pleasures of the world fall far short of this. Not all the exterior aspects of the world can penetrate that sacred barrier of the soul reserved only for God. Our worship today is too emotional and fails to quiet our souls to fully experience the presence of God.
It is my objective in this book to lead the hearts of believers toward God, in whom they will discover their purpose and find their rest.
In years gone by, men were quite unsure of themselves, but that day is far gone. Today we are very sure about ourselves, so sure about everything except the things that we should be sure about. We have majored in the minors and lost our true significance. More people back then had the mindset of Thomas Black- lock, who said, “Come, O my soul, in sacred lays [levels or stra- tums].”
Personally, I think it might be a good idea when we get together on Sunday mornings to make a point to call our souls “in sacred lays.” Of course, today congregations have no idea of what this truly looks like. This is something that needs to be explored today, and we need to follow the Blacklock prayer:
Come, O my soul’ in sacred lays
Attempt thy great creator’s praise:
But oh, what tongue can speak His fame?
What verse can reach the lofty theme?
When we begin to think about God, we are thinking about that which is beyond our ability to fully comprehend and beyond the limit of human intelligence. Very plainly put, if you can conceive it, it is not God.
I want to concentrate on the perfection of God, which includes all of those characteristics of His divine nature. Once you begin probing into the personality of God, there is no end in sight. It goes on and on as He delights to unfold Himself before our worshiping hearts.
The more we know about God and the more we know Him intimately, the more we will begin to understand ourselves and that wondrous and mysterious connection we have with Him. God’s attributes dictate the praise and worship acceptable to Him, and if it is not acceptable to Him in any regard, it is not suitable worship.
We must evaluate our worship in light of the One we are worshiping. No one can do that and do it worthily, for who of us is capable of anything like that? The One we are worshiping dictates our worship.
In “Idylls Of The King: The Passing Of Arthur,” Alfred, Lord Tennyson Put It This Way:
More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.
Wherefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friends?
For so the whole round earth is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.
Quite frankly, I am dealing with the One you must believe in before you can deny Him: the One who is the Word, the One who enables us to speak concerning Him. On our own, we could produce only a caricature and a poor one at that, and certainly not worthy of our worship. I refuse to worship anything of my own making.
I readily admit I am not qualified in myself to present such truths about God. The more I delve into the subject at hand, the more I realize how much I really do not know. Sometimes we can become so arrogant that we think we believe, but we are blinded to certain aspects of the truth.
I certainly want my heart open to everything that God would reveal to me. The thing that must really be understood is that our knowledge of God cannot be acquired simply through academic processes. What we really know about God is what He has faithfully revealed to us.
When Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples, they still could not believe it. Belief is not based upon seeing, because if it were, they would have believed that Jesus had risen from the dead when they saw Him.
It took a spiritual application of revelation that cannot be brought about by reason or logic. When their eyes were opened, which is only done through the work of the Holy Spirit, they were able to believe.
What the Holy Spirit does not reveal to us is not worth knowing.
It is my contention that everything we do in some way reflects our perception of God. It does not take long to understand a person when you begin to understand his or her perception of God. I believe it is critical that our perception of God is worthy of God and that it reflects the truth revealed to us about the God of the Word.
Even those who do not believe in God make a god out of not believing in God. What is it that you really believe and think of when you hear the word God? Your perception of God determines everything about you. For this reason, our perception of God needs to be based on a solid foundation that will not let us down under any circumstance.
We need to really understand the history of man’s progressive degeneration. Some believe man is on his way up. The evidence, however, does not support this idea at all. If man were on his way up, why is he still wrestling with the sins of his forefathers? Why is it that man has not solved his problems, but seems only to add to them?
The story begins in the Garden of Eden. It was there that man began. Adam was created in the image of God, and upon his creation, God said about him, “It is good.” There was no imperfection anywhere to beHound in him. Such was also the case with Eve.
Some seem to say that a man’s environment is what brings him down. A young boy growing up in the ghetto in the middle of the city does not have a chance. The other side of that is a young boy growing up in the suburbs, who has all the advantages of life, will turn out great. Evidence points in a different direction.
Adam and Eve were in the perfect environment. No sin was to be found anywhere in that wonderful garden—no imperfection of any kind, nothing that in any way would cause a man or a woman to turn their back on God. Enter Satan, man’s enemy.
Up until this point, Adam and Eve had a good perception of God. He walked with them in the cool of the day. They had fellowship with Him that can only be imagined and envied from our side of the garden. They knew who God was. Then Satan threw in a seed of doubt, and the history of man took a downward spiral.
Satan cast a bad reflection on God that caused Adam and Eve to question who God was and if He really had their best interests at heart. We all know where the story goes after that.
This progressive degeneration has been the theme of man’s history since that time.
Man’s perception of God began to leave his mind, and he adopted the agenda of Satan: “I will be like the Most High.” Since that time, man has tried to rise above God, only to fall into a downward spiral that eventually ends in the pit of hell.
The consequence of all this is that man lost his confidence in God. As a result, people do not have faith in God. We can look at the great men of faith. One that I like is George Mueller. The question people ask is “Why can’t I have the faith of George Mueller?”
The only way you can have the faith of George Mueller is to have George Mueller’s confidence in God. This is not something that comes from textbooks or lectures or any of the technical aspects of religion that are so prominent today.
This confidence in God can come only when we begin to know God as He really is. It is my contention that only a true worshiper can know God.
Religion can teach you about God. Cold, textual theology can teach you about God. But neither can really bring you into the presence of God, where you begin to know God and have confidence in the God that you know.
I contend that our faith in God comes naturally and automatically as we begin to know Him personally—not just know about God, but have a personal encounter with the living God, an encounter that is not boxed in by reason or logic. A true encounter with God lifts us above everything we can know, and we begin to pierce that Cloud of Unknowing and come into the presence of God.
Faith is not something we struggle to build. Rather, faith is knowing God, believing in God and what He says about himself, resulting in confidence in God and His character. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
If we have to struggle to try to drum up faith, it will be a pseudo-faith and nothing that will enhance our walk with God. Our confidence in God will plummet, and we will begin looking for a replacement. I am so afraid that the Christian church today has found its replacement in entertainment and social activities.
But my task is to give a report on the character of God, or as I like to state it, the perfection of God. I want to tell you what God is like, and when I am telling you what God is like, if you read and listen with an open mind, you will find faith springs up automatically.
It takes the restored knowledge of God to bring forth our faith. I do not believe there was ever a time in the history of the church when we needed this more than we need it today.
Someone once complimented me by telling me they thought I was a good preacher and they got a great deal out of my sermons. When I was younger, I might have agreed, but I have listened to recordings of some of my sermons and they sound awful, to tell you the truth.
I do not claim to be a good preacher. However, I do preach about good things, and that is what makes a vast difference between a good preacher and preaching about something good. I am preaching about something good when I am preaching about God; I am now writing about that which is good and above everything else we could even think about.
This is the core and center and source of all theology and all doctrine and all truth, all life and all matter and all mind, all spirit and all soul. This is the great need of the hour because the situation, as I see it in churches today, is very serious. It is not how well we say it, but rather how well we believe it.
Knowing God is to understand our reason for existence—our purpose in life. Life is so short that many people waste it trying to find themselves—outside of God. This knowledge transcends reason and comes to us only by way of divine revelation and illumination.
Keep in mind, that ideas of God not rooted in revealed truth give way to human speculation and certain untruths about God, and disqualify any worship we might try to give to God.
My prayer for you is that this book will stir up in you a holy passion to know God. The sooner this book is unnecessary, the sooner you will begin to discover your relationship with God, and when that takes place, your soul will begin to sing the song of worship and praise and adoration.
Come, O My Soul, In Sacred Lays
Come, O my soul[ in sacred lays Attempt thy great creators praise:
But oh, what tongue can speak His fame?
What verse can reach the lofty theme?
What verse can reach the lofty theme?
Enthroned amid the radiant spheres,
He glory like a garment wears;
To form a robe of light divine,
Ten thousand suns around Him shine,
Ten thousand suns around Him shine.
In all our Maker’s grand designs,
Almighty power, with wisdom, shines;
His works, through all this wondrous frame,
Declare the glory of His name,
Declare the glory of His name.
Raised on devotion lofty wing,
Do thou, my soul, His glories sing;
And let His praise employ thy tongue
Till listening worlds shall join the song,
Till listening worlds shall join the song. –Thomas Blacklock(1721-1791)