The True Knowledge Of God

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By
The Man Who Saw God Face To Face
Raphael Okechukwu Nweze


The Characteristics Of God
         The following are facts of life:
  1. The characteristics of God are the forms and expressions of His being, some of which which He has revealed to man.
  2. And God spoke to Moses and said to him: "I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them. Exodus 6:2-4
  3. The characteristics are classified into natural and moral attributes.
  4. The natural characteristics of God are is Self-Existence, Will Power, Eternity, Freedom, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, Wisdom, Visibility and Invisibility.
  5. The moral characteristics of God are Truth, Righteousness, Holiness, as well as Goodness, Love, Mercy, Grace and Justice.
  6. He is infinite, filling all space in the entire universe, embracing all worlds. Yet, He makes Himself finite, by appearing as a being, a man or a spirit which has definite size.
Self-Existence
         God created all things. He also created Himself. This alone is a wonder. His ways are wonderful, and He is the wonder of all wonders.

Will Power
         All His actions are performed by the exercise of His will power, volition or choice.

Eternity
         God exist from everlasting to everlasting. He has no beginning and no end. Eternity simply means Eternal Now – Now that has no beginning and no end. Now that is always is. What humanity calls past, present and future simply refer to the sequence of events in life.

Freedom – Free Will And Free Choice
         God, being an individual, has free will and free choice.

41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will , but Yours, be done." Luke 22:41-43

30 I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. John 5:30

Omnipotence
         He is omnipotent; i.e., infinite in power; shown by the variety of His creations from the infinitely great to the infinitely small, as seen by humanity in the universality, variety and numerousity of His works. By omnipotence, God is the Creator or Upholder (Sustainer and Nourisher and Preserver), the Enabler and Governor of All Things. Everything depends on Him. Yet, He is independent of all things. God is independent of all His creatures, because He can exist without them.

Omnipresence
         God is also omnipresent, all things being open and naked before His eyes. That is why He is also omniscient.

Omniscience
         God is infinite in knowledge and wisdom. We can tell Him nothing which He does not know. His intelligence and intuition comprehends all things, whether past, present or future. His intelligence is perfect and absolute, comprehensive. Man analyzes things to find out, to know their nature. But, God knows the entire nature without the analysis. The foreknowledge of God is also absolute.

Wisdom
         No higher or better wisdom than God’s wisdom in the creation has ever been seen or known, as well as in the plan for human redemption.

Visibility and Invisibility
         God is the Manifest but Hidden Truth. He is manifest to those who are worthy, because they live a pure and holy life. At the same time, God is hidden to others, because they are sinful and unholy.

Truth
         God is Truth. Truth is that thing that exists and is life. Hence, He says, “I am that I am”. "What is knowledge of the truth?" it is to know God as He is, as He has revealed Himself to man. This is knowledge of the highest order, for God Himself is Truth. Whatever is out of harmony with the Truth, the same is a lie. Jesus declared: "I am the way, the truth and the life." All things taught or believed which are out of harmony with God’s revelations are both false and misleading.

Righteousness
         Righteousness is the character of God, as expressed in His thoughts, word and actions. The same righteousness was given to man as Holy Scriptures, to guide humanity.

Holiness
         Holiness is the state of being pure, holy and untainted – incorruptible state. Every being on earth may be holy now and then, pure today and defiled tomorrow. But, God is always holy. That is why He insists that His children must be holy, so that they can commune and fellowship with Him.

Goodness
         The perfect goodness of God is seen in the benevolence with which He loves humanity and provides for their welfare. His merciful dealings with mankind, since the time of fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, declare His goodness. The same is also seen in His grace, which is unmerited favour given to mankind. His love and goodness are manifest as His plan, actions and means for the salvation of all. Indeed, He has made abundant provisions for man’s present and eternal happiness. Even in punishment and in rebuke, whatever God does is for the good of humanity; He does so out of love. For a while, sin does exist, and God permits it for reasons best known to Him, and which reasons are for the good of mankind. A little mistake, a little error, teaches man to be very careful and wise. That is why experience is the best teacher. At times, the best way to teach people that something is bad is to allow them encounter the worst form of it.

Love
         Love is God’s will that none should perish, come to some harm or be separated from Him.

Mercy
         A help or kindness rendered to another person, which help may be paid back.

Grace
         A help or kindness rendered to a person, and which shall not be paid back.

Justice
         This is ensuring that no one is cheated by any means.

Infiniteness
         God is infinitely wise. He always knows what is best, and always adopts means which will best accomplish His purposes. That is wisdom, for wisdom is the art of making the best use of knowledge. The same infinite God can make Himself finite by appearing as a man, a dove or a lamb.

Trinity
         The same eternal God is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Son of God was and always is God. He is the express image, a complete manifestation, of the Father, an original copy of God Almighty. He is the same as God, and yet obedient to God the Father. The one Triune God, neither confounds the three persons, nor divides the substances of the same. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit; but the same God Almighty manifesting as of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Just as the same water becomes solid, liquid and gas – ice block, liquid water and water vapour.

         Jesus is the word of God from eternity. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God. While on earth, we always hold Him to be divine and worship Him as God; and in heaven, He is recognized and acknowledged by all, both Saints and Angels, to be God and equal to the Father. All the Hosts of Heaven worship Him. He is invisible God manifest in the visible form. The Holy Spirit is the omnipresent form of God’s brightness, just as the sunshine is the pervading presence of the sun. The same brightness of God is also God. It changes into the omnipresent light, and can also change into a definite form as Dove or God in the form of man. The Holy Spirit was present at creation, for when God said, “let there be light,” and there was light. The light was from God and the light was God, just as the light of the torch comes from the torch and as sunshine comes from the sun. The same Holy Spirit is the comforter, guide, teacher and sanctifier of humanity, especially of those who believe in God. The three personalities of God are equal in eternity, power and glory, because God Almighty made it so. None is either superior or inferior to the other two. One God.

God Has Necessary Limitations
         God is omnipotent. Yet, He is limited only by His moral perfections. Therefore, God cannot lie nor do any bad act, although He has the power. When God says that He will punish with evil, He uses what people call evil for them to understand Him very well.

The New Birth
         The new birth of which Jesus spoke about is that mighty change, a permanent transformation, performed by God in the soul of man, when He imparts to man eternal life and renews man in His own image and likeness. This change is the work of the Holy Spirit produced in man, convincing man of sin, leading him to repentance and faith, and excluding man from all forms of sinfulness, whereby he is born again from above with eternal life, glory and holiness of God, as a free gift from God.

Faith
         True faith in God believes God as He is, and accepts all that God has said, commanded, promised or threatened. It is dependent upon theoretical knowledge and practical application of the Truth. That is life in spirit and in truth, valuable to us as the truth itself. Hence, faith without work is dead and useless.

Repentance, Atonement And Justification
         Man was made upright by God. He was made an intellectual, moral, pure and holy being. At creation, even now, man is both material and spiritual. He possesses divine nature because he was made in the image and likeness of God, a son of God. Man is able to commune and fellowship God. But, he fails to do so because he focuses his attention on earthly things.

         Out of ignorance, he seeks for power outside himself. Himself is power because God crowned him with glory, honor and dominion over the works of God in the earth. He is a companion of his Father and Creator, capable of admiring, adoring and enjoying God. Today, man neglects this very important duty and opportunity, because he foolishly lives the life of a prodigal son.

         Man exists within a network of spiritual laws, which are perfect, universal and impartial. Yet, man deceives himself, from day to day, by claiming that the laws are no longer relevant. The result has always being the same. Mankind destroys themselves in their prosperity. The end points of their series of periods of civilizations, after so many years of labour, have always been worldwide disasters and calamities, all because humanity continue to neglect God and the natural laws of life, which are God’s will in creation and which are clearly stated in the Old Testament scriptures.

         When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they fell from glory to grass. But, thanks be to God, who out of His infinite mercies, sent His only first son, Himself as Jesus Christ, to redeem mankind. Today, the gates of heaven, which were once closed to man, are wide open to humanity. But, many are not making efforts to enter therein. Even those who claim to be religious or born-again are either doing the wrong sets of things or are doing the right things in the wrong way. That is spiritual blindness and ignorance, the very reasons why everybody should study Spiritual Science.