The God that I serve and in Whom I believe is identified in Genesis 1:1 as Elohiym (the most Supreme God). Beginning in Genesis 2:4, He became known as Jehovah or Yahweh (the Self-existent or eternal God). Given the greatness and vastness of God it is challenging to define Him. But I believe I can adequately share my philosophy of God through describing Him as I see Him.
God is our Creator. Genesis 1 teaches that He created all that is seen in the universe through the power of His word. He is transcendent. He is separate from all creation. He is not bound to natural law. Our very concept of time is based on the system of the earth’s rotation and it’s orbit around the sun. Both of these systems were created by God, which makes it clear that He existed before time began. He is self-sufficient and self-existing. Yet God is immanent; He is with us, near us.
God is Omnipotent. There is no limit to His ability. Ephesians 3:20 states that He is able to do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” I believe as Job stated in Job 42:2, “I know that thou canst do every thing…” He who created all things is greater than all that He created. The angel of the Lord affirmed God’s omnipotence in Luke 1:37 when He said to Mary, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”
God is Omnipresent. He exists in all places at all times doing His good pleasure and revealing Himself to those who seek Him. It has been illuminating to travel to other continents and see God moving just as mightily in foreign places as He is in my own local church. His presence is everywhere. I agree with David in Psalm 139:7-8. “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”
God is omniscient. According to Isaiah 40:28, “There is no searching His understanding.” He knows even the hidden things of the heart and the very thoughts of man. (Psalm 139:2) God is also eternal and timeless. Because human or natural laws do not bind God He is able to exist in all times at once. Therefore He sees the beginning and the end all at the same time. He sees all that has happened and all that will happen. There is nothing hidden from Him.
Yet within all of this, God is personal. He is a person. God is known in theology as the first member or “person” of the Trinity or Godhead. While He is spirit, he possesses all the elements of personality—intellect, feelings and will. He acts according to His own purpose and will. And since we are made in His image and after His likeness and, as Paul E. Little states, “we are persons, God cannot possibly be something less than a person. What is created cannot be of a higher order than its Creator.”
God’s character is beautiful to behold. He is the personification of holiness. In Leviticus 11:45, God declared that He is holy. In Isaiah 6:3 and Revelations 4:8, the angels proclaim that God is holy. Some of the characteristics of holiness are purity, being set apart, and sacredness. Yet I believe 1 John 4:8 sums up God’s greatest characteristic tersely and succinctly. “God is love.” And God’s love is best demonstrated in John 3:16.