How Personal Is God?

[HKHaugan]

The God of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, the Judges, all the Kings the Prophets and the Apostles is the same God and the very same One who called us to Himself in the right here and now. When He told Moses to tell Pharaoh that “I AM” sent him it is the same “I AM” that called us to Him in Jesus the Christ to let us know we were made in His image and likeness. He is the centerpiece in the fabric of existence holding everything together by His grace and love.

What is all this saying? Seven things to realize:

First, God is always. He has been, is and will be the same One God, a Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 3 Persons in perfect relationship in His Kingdom, Heaven. This is the spiritual reality out of which all Creation has come and we, as His images and likenesses, were by Him created.

Second, Creation is both seen and unseen, physical and spiritual. This two dimensional existence is in us and all around us. Each of us is a demonstration of both. Each of us is unique in how we were made to relate in them. Each of us is a copy of this unique One God in His three person relationship being a conscious “I am” with a mind, heart and spirit.

Third, the spiritual dimension is split in two. There is the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness with a ruler called the devil, the tempter, the evil one. He caused man to lose His footing in God's Creation. The balance of mind, heart and spirit were infected with his sin, the spiritual disease which causes separation from God. Every person born since Adam has that birth mark producing self-centeredness, pride and fear. That nature has not changed. Each person has retained their uniqueness and each person is still born brand new, an image and likeness of God but separated from Him. So everyone has to learn from birth how to be restored to Him. There is no inheriting past knowledge or experience nor is there anyone not born in sin. Sin is in every person since Adam. John wrote bluntly, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1John 1:8).

Fourth, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. No matter who it is, where, how and why, spirituality is the ultimate theme that makes physical and emotional reality work.

Fifth, since God is unique we are each unique. This is the clincher. We have been made in His image and likeness to be uniquely human, uniquely individual and uniquely related to Him eternally.

Sixth, Scripture is the one and only source to develop our uniqueness. We are made for relationship and there is no other means to bridge the gap either between us and God or us and one another. Scripture has the diagnosis and the solution. The devil and the world are trying to keep us from developing our uniqueness in God. Their aim is to isolate and 'same' us by getting us to concentrate on outward appearance and behavior through self-centeredness. Fads, trends and conformity are driven by pride and fear, the guts of sin. The Lord God has entrusted us with unique individuality and creativity.

Seventh, the Lord God has given us the Bible to develop our uniqueness in the context of a spiritual family of brothers and sisters working to change the world from 'sameness' to uniqueness. In a relationship with Jesus by faith we are immediately reconciled to God and provided with everything necessary to be restored to Him and one another. That makes the Bible our story. All the events and people in the Bible point to some aspect of our own spiritual journey as human beings. Adam and Eve become our personal story. It is the story of one man and one woman created to live out their spiritual nature together in physical bodies in a physical universe. Again, we are not physical beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Until we reconcile that in our minds and hearts life will be one conflict after another, one flurry of needs trapped in the net of unfulfillment and a resignation to fear of circumstance. This leads to desperation thus the need to be in control and blaming others for our inner turmoil.

The most concise description of how personal God is with us can be found in Psalm 139. As you read it place yourself in the middle of it and see Jesus as the One who is orchestrating His relationship with you, directing your self-conscious to consciousness of Him and to His companionship with you from one moment to the next.

1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Talk about a unique personal relationship in Jesus, there it is. “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ (1st.Cor.3:11).”