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Greetings,
Knowing God as our friend is not seeing Him as our friend because He always does what we want Him to do. It is knowing that all that He does is because He loves us, and He has our best interest in mind. Sometimes He will do His part so we can do our part. He loves to partner with us in every aspect of our lives. He doesn’t mind when we fail a bit on our part because His willingness to partner with us is not for a purpose of perfection. It is for a purpose of trust, love, and all the aspects found in friendship. God is our friend, and a friend is not defined by their willingness to do things for us. A friend is defined by their willingness to partner with us.
Church tradition has defined God as the Sovereign One, but I believe He is more accurately defined by being our Father and friend. In my book, The Now Covenant, I define who God is. I feel to blog a portion of my book today to help us understand God’s desire to partner with us as a friend and not merely act as the Sovereign One in our lives.
The Now Covenant, Chapter 9, Who Is God? – Page 96-98:
The Greeks had many gods and therefore the Christian God could only be incorporated into their thinking if He out trumped all of the other gods. By this criterion, to be God He must be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
Is God omnipotent? I believe that He can be, but He chooses not to be as often as He can. He said that the traditions of men make His word of no effect (Mk. 7:11-13). Jesus (God in flesh) couldn’t do many miracles in His hometown because of their unbelief (Mt. 13:58). If we draw near to God, He is quick to draw near to us, but He has given us a free will that we might choose Him or reject Him (Jam. 4:8). God doesn’t want puppets or slaves; He desires children with a free will that is impassioned to choose Him in all things. The Father didn’t go chasing the prodigal son but was quick to run to him when he saw him returning (Lk. 15:20). I believe that God can be all-powerful, but He has chosen not to be for the sake of being a loving Father.
Is God omniscient? I believe that He can be, but He has chosen not to be. He says that our sins and our lawless deeds He remembers no more forever (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:12, 10:17). He has chosen not to know them. The first man of faith mentioned in the Bible is a man named Abel. Abel gave God the first and the best, but God never commanded him to do so. God ‘respected’ Abel’s offering. The Hebrew word for ‘respected’ is the Hebrew word hDoDv sûaœ{aœh (HSRN 8159); it means to look with favor, have regard for, pay attention to. It comes from the Hebrew word hDaDv sûaœ}aœh (HSRN 7583) meaning to watch closely, gaze at, to inspect carefully and from the Hebrew word oAtDv sûaœt◊a{ (HSRN 9283) meaning to be dismayed, nonplussed, gob-smacked. God was surprised with Abel’s offering (Gen. 4:4). When Joshua needed more time in the battlefield, he requested that God give it to him and God ‘heeded the voice of a man’ (Josh. 10:14). David’s tent was David’s idea and God liked it. The tabernacle of Moses was God’s command, but David’s idea was God’s true heart. When it says of God that He knows all of the hairs on our heads, it is a term of endearment and care, not of His sovereignty. It is not a phrase concerning knowledge, but a phrase expressing care. Paul told those on the boat that was about to sink to listen to him and trust him and not ‘a hair on their heads’ would be lost (Acts 27:34). I wonder if anyone lost a literal hair in the shipwreck?
God changes His mind, but He never changes His character. If we can appeal to His character of mercy, He will quickly change His mind concerning His actions. Religious people often refuse to change their minds concerning what they say or believe, and they are willing to compromise in their character to prove it. If God works things out for good in our lives, I think it means He has to ‘work some things out’. God is not limited to time or the dimensions of time, as we know it. He is quantum in His abilities. He told Nicodemus that He came from heaven, was going to heaven, and was in heaven right now (Jn. 3:13). Is it God’s providential will for a child to be born when a woman is raped by some wicked, self-seeking man? Is it the will of an uncaring sovereign God or is God a loving Father who goes to the place of human conception and chooses to know them in that place before they were formed in their mother’s womb and into the future. Is it a sovereign God who determines horrific acts of pain, or a loving Father who turns what was not the will of God to a testimony of His amazing grace?
Is God omnipresent? Many quote the psalmist when he said he could not go anywhere where God would not be found.
Psalms 139:7-8 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell (sheol), behold, You are there.
In these verses the psalmist says He would find God in heaven and he would find God in hell. Hell in this verse is Sheol, the realm of the dead. Does God live in the realm of the dead? If God lived there, could it be called the realm of the dead? Does God live everywhere or is He an intimate Father who promises never to leave the psalmist? The psalmist knows that wherever he goes God will be, because God never leaves the psalmist. This is why the grave cannot hold the psalmist.
Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I don’t believe that it is sovereignty that makes God who He is. There is something that is more powerful than His ability to be sovereign. It is His identity as Father. He gives life, breath, and all things to all people. This is an action of intimacy and endearment, not mere strength. I don’t believe that God wants to be God. He is God, but He wants us to know Him as Father. It is through a Father/son, Father/daughter relationship that we can receive His divine guidance for life. It is both specific and providential, but it is intimate and real. He loves His children and delights in their course of life in this earth. Our perception of God influences our ability to hear Him. Sons and daughters of God will hear Him more readily and clearly than mere subjects and slaves.
God as our Father is God as our Friend. He wants to partner with us in our world to reveal who we are together. We are the family of God and God as our friend wants us to partner with Him in our friendship to Him and to our world.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
– The Now Covenant – by Ted J. Hanson on many Amazon networks – Print / Ebook / Audio
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So refreshing Ted, thanks; this the God who was ‘pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel’!