Could it be that the efforts used to present God are flawed? We try to explain God as though he is a science subject or some university research project.
Albert Einstein was once asked about his concept of God; his response: He uses a child-in-a-library as a metaphor to explain human understanding of God.
“The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. “
Neil deGrasse Tyson- the most renowned astrophysicist today – self professed atheist, believes that the earth is too complex and expansive for the human mind to grasp. It is true, we as human are incapable of grasping the magnificence of the universe, and in the same way, we are deficient in explaining the omnipotence of God – he is simply too big. Therefore, in order for one to engage the knowledge of God, he must be experienced or revealed; not proved. Those of us who are spiritual we come to know a being such as God either through experience or revelation.
There are reasons that might impede our explanations of God:
1. The biblical God is not always logical in the way human process rationale (as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isa. 55). Therefore, trying to compress God into human language is like a child trying to give birth to his mother, it is not logical.
Common sense is not enough to explain God, intellectual acumen is inadequate – study of theology falls short – because he uses the most basic levels of his knowledge to amaze the most academically learned individual – the foolish thing of nature to confound the wise.
2. God is a spirit, they that worship him must do it in spirit (spiritual things can only be discerned by the spiritual). You can’t prove your interaction with a spirit to another person. Ye that is born of spirit is spirit; ye that is born of flesh is flesh. Things conveyed to you in spiritual mode cannot be proven to those in temporal mode. For one to discern the spiritual, he too, must be spiritual; and only the Holy Spirit can give birth to the spiritual.
John 3:6, Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. God is revealed through spiritual and personal relationships.
3. Personal testimony: To have confidence in a being, you must first have experience with that force before you come to believe in it. We cannot convince other people unless they meet him for themselves – that’s the Holy Spirit’s duty. Your heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask him, (Luke 11:13)?
So, if you can’t prove or explain God, how is he made known? Through revelation!
Ways in which God is revealed to people:
1. Creation:
Job 12:7-10 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
There is too much in nature to reveal the work of a master creator behind the scenes.
I spent two years studying computer programming, and one thing I learnt is that there is no computer programme without a computer programmer. Essentially, there is human instruction behind every computer function, we call those algorithms. In the same way, everything in nature has an algorithm. An atom is programed to do what an atom does; a cell is programed to do what a cell does, a molecule is programed to do what a molecule does, and a seed is programed to do what a seed does. A tree comes from a seed, and bears seeds that will produce the same type of tree. It does so because it is programed to do that. The question is, who is the programmer?
Einstein: “I believe in Spinoza’s God “who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.” Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe – a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which, we with our modest powers, must feel humble.
Einstein did not have to declare that because David stated thousands of years ago “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1).
2. Humans are the most relevant conduit for the revelation of God.
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.” (2 Corinthian 4:6-7). Let your light shine Matt 5:16 In the same way, let (allow) your light to shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. God has placed the spirit of God in us which is light that we are to share. Our duty is to try to get people to see Him, not prove him. He has enough systems in place that can reveal him – lets make ourselves a conduit for the revelation of God’s light in 2024. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which ye have of God…. “(1 Cor. 6:19)?
Final question: How do we project or reveal the spirit that resides inside of us in 2024?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness and self-control. Gal. 5:22-23.
So, we will love, not just our family and friends, but our enemies too.
We will seek peace, not compromise, with the most wayward members of the family.
We will show kindness not only to those who repay kindness.
We will be faithful or loyal, even to those who do not deserve It.
If we listen for the spirit, you will hear him; is speaking to you right now – Jesus said, “behold I stand at the door and knock.” If you let him in, he will give a spirit that’s kind, loving, patient and peaceful that you can share in 2024.