Time For Digging Deep! Discover the Most Studding and Informative Revelation You Probably Havent Figured About Our God. Alright, now it’s time to get our feet back on the ground. Who is God? How did He reveal Himself in His Word? Did anybody ever get to see God? Surprisingly, yes. Sometimes I hear some Christians say that nobody has seen God. Is that so? No! Scripture occasionally informed us of people who met with God face to face. Moses was one, Abraham was another, Samuel was among, and so was Isaac and Jacob/Israel. Adam was in fact the first. Hence When Scripture says nobody can see God and live, we have to verify, “In what sense is God talking about?” Which version of Him can’t we survive its visual? Does He manifest Himself only in one mode, or is it more than one? We must provide answers to those questions if we wish to have a more foundational knowledge of the Almighty. Now, when Scripture interprets Scripture, we can be sure we’re on safe, solid ground. So let’s consult a few texts in order to establish the truth. While Moses had spent substantial amount of time with God—in His presence—at some point he became curious and wanted to get a visual of this God who had affected him in many awesome ways. Moses asked God, “And he said, Please, show me Your glory.” Exodus 33:18 (NKJV) This was the man to whom God had revealed Himself. He and the elders of Israel had met with God, and they ate together on Mount Sinai (cf. Exodus 24:9-11). How come He’s saying something different to God here? First, notice that despite the fact that Moses had seen God, there was a part of Him that was still a secret to him. The man asked God, “Show me Your glory.” That is to say, the version of God that had been visually apparent to him was the version devoid of God’s glory. God is Spirit, remember. Hence if He wishes to appear to man, He has to do so in a mode that we can visualize Him. Put another way, He doesn’t have to remain a Spirit. He has to put on flesh. That is to say, the version of God that embodies His glory is His spiritual manifestation. Whenever He clothes Himself with flesh and manifests Himself to mankind, His glory is laid aside. As if to back up my point for me, Paul said in I Timothy 6:14-16, “That you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christs appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” 1 Tim 6:14-16 (NKJV) I thought men had seen Jesus during His first century advent. Why is Paul making such a statement here, “…whom no man has seen or can see…?” Not to stretch the exposition here too long though, Paul said He dwells in unapproachable light, and that no man has seen Him while clothed in this great light. Why? Because that is His glory. Do you catch any similarity here between the Almighty and the Messiah? Do you think they’re different personalities, or the same individual manifesting Himself separately according to the demands of His ministerial or assignment requirements? Without controversy, Paul had equated Yahowah and Jesus to be one and the same here. But when Moses had asked God to show him His glory, God replied, “Then He said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of Yahowah before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But He said, You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” Ex 33:19-20 (NKJV) Notice that God replied him differently. Moses asked God to show him His glory. God said you cannot see my face. He had thus equated His actual glory with His face. In other words, His true face is the one resplendent with His glory…the unapproachable light. That’s to say this glorious light is by far beyond our human comprehension. Our brains aren’t yet equipped with the capability to withstand its awesomeness. Now comes the question. If God had manifested Himself to men in times past, in what mode does He reveal and make Himself tangible? The answer is fairly simple. The Word of God—the same Word that spoke the Universe into existence. In other words, the same Word that became tangible and visible to our human experience in first century AD—the Messiah. It’s only through His medium that Yahowah can manifest Himself to us and we would survive the experience. Are you still in doubt? Let’s consult Samuel. While the young lad was still in the temple attending to his temple chores, God appeared physically to him. See how Scripture put it: “Then Yahowah appeared again in Shiloh. For Yahowah revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of Yahowah.” 1 Sam 3:21 (NKJV) I know you couldn’t have believed it, but yes, the Word of God does transform itself into matter—flesh and blood. That’s how Samuel could get a visual of the Almighty. Still in doubt of that claim? Let’s see… In Genesis, when God accounted the events of the fall of man, and how God met with the experience, Chapter 3:8 said, “And they heard the sound of Yahowah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahowah God among the trees of the garden.” Gen 3:8 (NKJV) They heard the “sound” of God? I thought God is Spirit? And I thought that spirits have no flesh and bones (according to Jesus; Luke 24:39), and therefore cannot make a physical sound? Oh yes. That’s right. But these outlaws clearly heard God’s footsteps walking in the midst of the Garden. If they weren’t so sure, they would have said, “Honey, those footsteps coming, it’s gotta be the Chimp that normally walks around this side of the Garden, what do you think?” But they must have been so familiar with God’s footsteps that made them to recognize Him approaching, even when they hadn’t seen His face! That’s relationship. And none of us knows the actual amount of time that made such relationship familiarity to be possible, but it sure wasn’t one day. I clearly remember (when I was a kid) the first time I saw a spirit—physically. It was around 2 AM, and because there was no light, I had to take rest at the corridor. Suddenly, as if something tapped me to wake up, I awoke. Looking straight inside the middle of my former compound, just right beside the mango tree standing in the middle, I saw a shady figure walking reluctantly beside the tree—looking like a stream of glass but in human shape. I recognized it was a female ghost. But it was so transparent that if I threw a stone at it, it wouldn’t hit it but project across to the other side. Nothing physical could harm it, and it never made a single sound! It continued walking down until it varnished out of sight. I, for one, remained so still like rock, but wide awake anyway. Being quiet, it never noticed anybody was watching. I could hardly sleep for the rest of the morning. I had to bring up this story in order to shed some badly needed light in the point we’re trying to make. Now, if Adam and Eve saw and communicated with God, that is to say God came to them in human flesh! Now the question is, which version is the human manifestation of Yahowah? Jesus of Nazareth! That’s why John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with [actually the Greek word pros, means in, within] God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1, 14 (NKJV) That’s the same Word by which God manifested Himself to Samuel, as well as to the rest of those who saw Him, among whom are Abraham (Genesis 12:7—the word translated “appeared” is the Hebrew ra’ah, which means “to see, literally or figuratively, appear, behold, have experience, gaze, to look…”) Isaac (Genesis 26:24) and Jacob (Genesis 32:24-30). Jacob made a confession after his encounter with the Man he wrestled with. Consider what he said, “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Gen 32:30 (NKJV) I thought nobody who ever saw God survived the experience? Obviously, as you should know by now, the version of Him Jacob saw was the version that later manifested in first century—Jesus of Nazareth. He is Yahowah in the flesh—divested of God’s glory, His magnificent light. Abraham had an awesome conversation with God when He appeared physically to Him under the Terebinth tree (see Gen 18:1-15). God came down with two angels, and appeared physically to Abe. The angels apparently took on flesh themselves, which made it possible for Abe to have a natural visual of them. Notice that Abe asked to serve them meal, and they all agreed and gave him the go ahead order. In plain words, they were putting on flesh. That’s why they could eat Abe’s food. Spirits don’t eat physical food, in case you never knew. Before they can do that, they must find a body to inhabit. Notice that as the passage clearly specifies, God Himself ate Abe’s meal with the angels. And when the angels were done, they arose to journey down to Sodom (verse 16). God chose to act in a very friendly way by determining that it was unfair to keep what He was about to do a secret to Abraham. Having let the cat out of the bag, Abe confronted Him right there and then, which halted Yahowah’s initial motive to journey down to Sodom with the angels. Genesis 19:2 clearly stated that it was two angels that arrived Sodom, which left God to engage in a bit of questioning conversation with Abe—having to answer all his mind-boggling questions. God apparently wanted to appear as fair as possible to the man. I believe by now we know that when God is clothed with flesh, eating physical food becomes possible—just like it was for Him in first century. Now it’s clear to us that there were in fact men of renown who met with the Almighty face to face. But that leaves us with an important question, “If the Messiah is Yahowah Himself, how come Scripture occasionally pictured them as two separate beings?” Good question. And to answer that, we have a few scriptures to address too. Scripture said in Numbers 23:19 that “God is not a man…nor a son of man…” In another place, God said His glory He will not share with any man. But when the Messiah came, He was identified in two clearly distinct profiles. One is that of a humble and meek Man who had the simple goal of working temporarily during His lifetime, at the end of which He would sacrifice Himself in order to reconcile mankind with God—a concept that started out from the Garden of Eden. God specifically told the serpent that the Seed of the woman (Eve—Genesis 3:15) would bruise his head, while he gets the chance to bruise His heel (i.e. the crucifixion). Note what God said: the Seed of the woman. But when the Messiah appeared, there was another profile of Him speaking volume of divine attributes—God in the flesh. That is apparently a picture of two virtually distinct beings incorporated in One Person. As if he already knew I wasn’t bluffing, Thomas nailed it. Just moments after his doubts were cleared about the reality of the risen Messiah, observing His punctured hands, feet and side, the man yelled out, “My Lord and my God!” John 20:28 (NKJV) The man apparently identified Him here in two distinct identities, in case you didn’t notice. “My Lord” refers to the promised Messiah, the Son of David and Heir apparent to the throne. He carried David’s royal blood, which qualified Him for the prophetic profiles of King of Israel. “My God” speaks of the Divine Person who fashioned the cosmos, the same Personality Scripture informed us is only one Person, not two, and certainly not three—Yahowah (see Deut. 6:4; cf. Zech. 14:9). Revelation would later inform us that Israel (symbolically represented as the woman clothed with the Sun) delivered a Child, who after His birth was caught up to God and His throne (Rev 12). The Child was caught up to God? And we get to figure this Child was actually the Messiah, the same Person Isaiah identified as Everlasting Father (Yahowah), Prince of Peace (Jesus of Nazareth—Isaiah 9:6-7). Two profiles, One Person. Strange, isn’t it? Hard to figure out, isn’t it? No wonder Christians who study Scripture—especially about the Messianic prophecies as well as the Gospels—quickly jump to conclusion at first glance, “Jesus must be literally a separate individual from God the Father.” They were wrong, as you may have noticed. If God depicted the Messiah to be different from Him in some places, He did so for a very good reason. One, the Messiah’s human manifestation was literally different from God’s previous tangible manifestations. God actually had to take on flesh in order to be visualized by mankind, to be sure. But none of those His previous manifestations passed through mortal birth. Put another way, He was clothed with a body that was although physical and tangible, it wasn’t totally natural, and thus can’t be rightly said to be human flesh and blood. It was more like the body Jesus resurrected with. It could no longer die. It could no longer be starved as well. It could pass through locked doors. That’s amazing, isn’t it? Not to ignore the topic though, but God promised to clothe His redeemed with exactly the same kind of body—at the rapture of the Church. Hence if God said He is not a man, nor the son of man, He has every rightful obligation to make a difference between His apparently intentional human manifestation and His divine existence. That’s why He started out as way back as the Garden of Eden to inform us that He would refer to the Messiah as the Seed of the woman (Eve), meaning He is literally mortal, and thus would have to be distinguished from His divine existence—the God of all creation. He did that so we wouldn’t misinterpret Him. But did He stop there? No. He told us He wouldn’t share His glory with any man. But more often than not, while depicting prophecies tied with the mission of the Messiah, He would adore His manifestation as much as He does Himself. Why? Because He is incorporated within this human force—He had to use this human implement to accomplish a divine objective. But because God is no man, His human manifestation, having passed through the process of physical birth, through the line of David (Judah’s tribe), had to be humanly and naturally identified with the biological origin of His human advent: David’s Heir apparent (Jesus, Son of David). Having being chosen to rule the earth in Yahowah’s stead, He had to be represented in the most honorary way: God’s Son, who represents Him in His actual physical absence. Is it beginning to make sense to you now? Well, maybe, or maybe not. But it soon will. Jesus apparently had a short argument with one of His disciples who never saw through this truth. While addressing His disciples about some vital issues concerning His advent and subsequent suffering, Philip got confused at some point and demanded that Jesus show them the Father, and it will suffice. But Jesus found it offensive that Philip had not actually correctly identified with the Man they had stayed with for so long a time (John 14). In verse 8, when Philip asked Him to show them the Father, Jesus replied, Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? John 14:9-10 (NKJV) I think that settles it, sort of. But most people who read the passage simply fold their hands and yawn, He must be speaking metaphorically. No, He isn’t. He is the Father (Isaiah 9:6-7) who diminished Himself, who extracted from His divine existence a part of His existence that could easily translate to mortal existence—the Word—and who, having fashioned His very Word to exist temporarily as a separate and unique mortal individual, also had to incorporate His divine essence within this Man, thus justifying the two profiles we had observed before equated into one human existence. Now that is one of the most stunning, amazing, enigmatic, and fairly difficult scriptural concepts one has to meddle with. No wonder we all misunderstand it. When Jesus said (in John 12:45) that he who sees Him also sees Him who sent Him, He was affirming this truth. Look at Jesus of Nazareth and you would have seen a virtual depiction of Yahowah in severely reduced descent. A version of Yahowah that man can meet and talk to and still remain unharmed. That’s Grace in full provision. Now consider few out of hundreds of prophetic passages that clearly depict Yahowah as the same Person as Jesus. In Zechariah 14, we have one of the most mind blowing revelation of Yahowah and His acts. The prophet just started the passage by reminding us that the day of Yahowah is approaching. Yahowah then said specifically that He will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem (verse 2). Having said in verse 3 how He will proceed and fight against all those nations that foolishly agreed to come and fight Jerusalem (please note: this prophecy is still in our future. There’s no historical or archeological evidence to demonstrate it has happened. It has been arranged by God in His timeline to happen just immediately after the Tribulation), He said in verse 4 that Yahowah’s feet will be literally planted upon the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, the mountain now facing a terrible earthquake because of Yahowah’s feet upon it. Mind you, there’s no evidence yet that such a thing has happened in Jerusalem. If Yahowah, who is Spirit, is said to stand physically on top of the mount, how does He intend to achieve that? Scripture provides us the answer. Just moments after Jesus ascension from the same Mount of Olives, two angels appeared and informed the disciples who were still there gazing curiously into the skies, “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath days journey.” Acts 1:10-13 (NKJV) Did you catch the connection? He would return to exactly the very Mount from where He departed. Sound familiar? In Revelation when God was describing His measure of wrath upon the unrepentant earth’s populace who were around for the Tribulation, 16:17-20 said, “Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done! And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.” Rev 16:17-20 (NKJV) Remember when Zechariah described exactly this same phenomenon? He specified that the great earthquake we see happening here was in fact touched off by the feet of God being planted on the Mount top. The same earthquake was hinted in chapter 6:12. That particular passage, by the way, connects the phenomena that was happening (great earthquake, sun turning black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon turning red blood) with the actual return of the Messiah (see Matthew 24:29). Note that He returned just at the moment the last angel of the bowl trumpets of Revelation poured out his vial, meaning that would be the final phase of God’s wrath. That’s the moment of the battle of Armageddon—the phenomena Scripture was describing in those enigmatic passages. Another question, why was every island running away? Because they have seen the Almighty. In the Psalms, David was picturing this same scene, detailing how the mountains will melt like wax, and the islands fleeing at the presence of the God of Israel (Psalm 114:3-8). As if Yahowah wasn’t done with His revelations, Zechariah 14:5-6 sheds more light, “Thus Yahowah my God will come, And all the saints with You. It shall come to pass in that day, That there will be no light; The lights will diminish.” Zech 14:5-6 (NKJV) Now I ask, is God making this stuff up as He goes along? You can bear me witness that He isn’t. Who, actually, was the prophet depicting would come with His saints? Yahowah. Now, who would actually later come with His saints? Scripture answers the question: “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.” Rev 19:11-14 (NKJV) Without any ambiguity, John told us the One He saw was called “The Word of God” (John 1:1, 14). And His sacrifice was also depicted here (robe dipped in blood). Now do you need a bible scholar to tell you the difference, as well as the similarity? You should know better by now. When John started this Revelation that Jesus showed him, chapter 1:8 clearly stated, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Rev 1:8 (NKJV) Now who bears the title “the Almighty?” Yahowah. And there are several Old Testament passages where Yahowah addressed Himself plainly as “the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End…” (Isaiah 48:12) If Jesus wasn’t the same Person with God the Father, then this Scripture would be a lie. And it was Jesus who was informing John about His divine profile. Hence if He were different from the Father, Yahowah would have found such statement offensive and untrue. But He was speaking literal truth. Jesus is Yahowah! In another prophetic passage depicting the events of the return of the Messiah to the earth—to the people of Israel, we have this tidbit. “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.” Zech 12:10-11 (NKJV) Are you seeing what I am seeing here? God said they (i.e. the people of Israel) will look physically upon Him. They will see Him (Yahowah) whom they had pierced. That is to say when they crucified Jesus of Nazareth, it was Yahowah whom they pierced! Then, in the same breath, He quickly shifted the imagery to that of a Man who was actually seen as Son—the only begotten—depicted here as being seemingly different from Yah. Remember the idea that God is not a man, nor the son of man? Hence when God refers to the Messiah as Son, He is simply referring to the Son of David, who actually became God’s Son because He was begotten. Shortly before this, the prophet had started the passage this way, “The burden of the word of Yahowah against Israel. Thus says Yahowah, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him…” Zech 12:1 (NKJV) Now this is the Father speaking. But notice that after He had addressed Himself as the One the Jews had pierced, He immediately presented an idea that clearly refers to Someone seemingly different from Him. That is, no longer “Me” but “Him” they would mourn for. He had thus presented the need for us to consider the aspect of this human manifestation—His unique role to serve us as God’s perfect Passover Lamb. Note: It was this same revelational conjecture that God invariably used to either connect or make a distinction between His existence and His Messianic manifestation—profiles that clearly speak of nothing more than role, and not personality. Much later in revelation when the glory of the Almighty was brought in view, what we see actually was only “a throne” set in heaven. Notice that John didn’t say they were two, or three. As John proceeded to describe the scenes he had been shown, he referred to a Lamb (Jesus) that was sharing God’s throne: “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” Rev 5:6 (NKJV) Who else would actually have the audacity to move into Yahowah’s throne? Only God can. He is standing in the midst of the throne, not beside, and surely not behind. He must have an inextricable link with the One who inhabits the throne. If Yahowah and Jesus were two divinely distinct persons, then all these passages would be meaningless. But they were revealed in order that we might have a good grasp of the characteristics of the One who chose to redeem us. In various places, Yahowah specifically informed the Hebrews that He is their Redeemer, their Savior. But we have only one Savior, who is Jesus. How come Yah is equating Himself with Him? Because they aren’t two distinct individuals—aside His humanity that He clearly depicted to be somewhat different from His divine identity, for very good reasons. That is what God wants us to understand. But virtually everyone who reads Scripture will first see the first profile, and simply conclude: God must be three persons in one. They never ponder the additional profiles that clearly shed more light on the true identity of the Messiah. In another end time prophetic passage, Isaiah assures us that Yahowah is one and the same as Jesus. Picturing a scene that would transpire the moment Jesus sets His feet on planet earth, the battle of Armageddon, the prophet wrote: “Who is this who comes from Edom, With dyed garments from Bozrah, This One who is glorious in His apparel, Traveling in the greatness of His strength?--I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me. I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, Made them drunk in My fury, And brought down their strength to the earth.” Isaiah 63:1-6 (NKJV) Now the passage started out with Yahowah’s voice. “I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save…” We just met John describing the Figure he had seen coming out of heaven to be clothed with a robe dipped in blood. Here, Isaiah is more specific, telling us that His robe being soaked in blood was as a result of His battle with the nations that had come to battle against Jerusalem. God made it abundantly clear that this battle is His alone—He requires no help, not even from the saints who came down with Him. We’re to just sit back and watch Yahowah achieve permanent redemption of Israel. Revelation will later inform us that His weapon was simply the word proceeding from His mouth! He is depicted here to be traveling in “the greatness of His strength.” John said He was to appear seated on a white horse. And He started His massacre right from Edom, the city God swore He would turn into a pile of rubble—not to be inhabited anymore, because of their poisonous animosity toward the people of Israel (see Isaiah 34:1-17). I could go on and on to present hundreds of prophetic passages that clearly unite the identity of Jesus and Yahowah to be one and the same. But I think the point has already been made—for those who would be willing to excuse skepticism. Oh yes, sometimes we get so dogmatic about some doctrines and concepts in scripture which we have no concrete grasp on it is ridiculous. When God said in Genesis 1:26, “Come let Us make man…” He was apparently referring to the separated manifestations of Himself, and not to the angels, not to any other creature. And that wasn’t the only place God spoke in such tone. We’re not usually worried about the underlying message being conveyed—once we’ve scratched the texts on the surface, we beat out chests that we have learned everything that needs to be learned. But we’re invariably wrong. Now when John said that there are three that bear witness in heaven, and that these three are one, he is being specific about it. Most of us invariably concentrate on the “three” that was specified in the passage. Almost nobody considers the meaning and significance of the “one” the writer equated all three to be. But when God split Himself, He made sure we’re informed about the representations of His set-apart manifestations, and the reasons behind such measures. He is no man, and we need to understand. Hence if we need to understand Him properly, we have to excuse our frail, poor human reasoning—we have to “free out thinking.” That way, we would gain a higher realm into His revelations. My advice: don’t ever go on a scriptural tour without the company of God’s Spirit. He alone can reveal the deep things of God to you. There’s always an explanation for every bible text we encounter, including the ones we have understood and the ones that remain vague to us. Let’s stop trusting on men’s words and start trusting exactly what Yahowah said Himself. (By the way, you may have been worried that I refer to God with Yahowah—a name you’re probably not so familiar with. Please understand that I do so because that’s actually His Self-Revealed name. See my timeline for a post titled “What happened to God’s name” for a satisfactory explanation about this subject.) If we have brushed over sufficient bible texts in order to establish the fact that Jesus and God the Father are in reality one and the same, what about the identity of the Holy Spirit? Timely question. And to answer that, permit me to consult Isaiah. Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord Yahowah and His Spirit Have [actually the text should read “has sent Me”. The Hebrew verb is singular, not plural. See footnote of the NKJV reading of that passage] sent Me. Isaiah 48:16 (NKJV) Notice that it was the voice of the Messiah speaking, insisting that Yahowah and His Spirit has sent Him. Also note that God had apparently equated this Spirit to be His own Spirit, not some distinct personality from Himself. In other words, this Spirit resides within Him just as a man’s spirit inhabits him. But unlike man, God can and does separate His Spirit from Himself when the need arises—to accomplish a specific role in the human race experience. Almost every time God relates the idea of the Holy Spirit being sent to accomplish some goals, He never ceases to inform us that this is “His Spirit.” He never referred to the Holy Spirit as co-Spirit or co-laborer, but rather “My Spirit.” As a case in point, to further illustrate this concept, the name by which God’s Spirit is identified is actually Ruwach Qodesh. It simply means Holy Spirit. It’s actually a combination of two separate Hebrew words, ruwach and qodesh. Ruwach means spirit in the ordinary sense. But it also means “life, breath, wind” in its extended application. Qodesh actually means “holy”. It literally means to be “separate, to be set apart.” As the words clearly implies, God’s Spirit had to be separated, to be set apart from Himself. The “Holy Spirit” isn’t actually a proper, personal name (unlike Yahowah which is a personal, proper name, meaning “I Am, or I Exist”). You may have noticed how we uncovered the original derivatives of both words. Why is it so? Because it would be unreasonable for God to insist that He is One and still give a personal, proper name to His Spirit. That would clearly identify Him as a separate individual. But that’s not the case, as we see how all the profiles and descriptions God offered still brought us back to one singular point: God is One. (The same truth applies to the Messiah. His name in Hebrew is called Yahowshuwa‘. It is a combination of Yahowah and the word for salvation, yawhuwa. It literally means Yahowah Saves, or Yahowah is Salvation. In other words, His name is His job description. It’s Yahowah who saves us, our Redeemer.) When we see the Spirit of God doing some job among us, we need to understand that it’s still Yahowah working, and not someone biologically different from Him. Sometimes when we hear God say in Scripture that “He alone is God, there is none beside Him,” we never take Him seriously (as we should). But those are literal—not metaphoric—statements. They all bring us to one single truth. That truth we have endeavored to uncover. I’ll try to bring this truth home with a graphic metaphor—a symbology of God’s nature and His modes of operation. I’ll take us right straight to the Atlantic Ocean. This very large body of water has a particular route through which it travels. Now it harbors Nigeria from other foreign countries. Imagine that Nigeria has been hit by very deadly insects or beasts. Assuming the Ocean could actually make a conscious and deliberate decision, and had thus noted the plight of Nigerians and the harm such intrusion would do to their race. If the Atlantic wishes to come and rescue the nation from this deadly infestation, it should consider a couple of factors. First, if it would choose to come all by itself and its strength, it might wipe off the nations while trying to rescue them. What would it do, then? It would think of possible ways to achieve its intention without destroying anything or hurting anyone. Now it has about two modes by which a substance from the ocean could still be freed to operate among Nigerians. One is that the ocean would have to find a cast that could embody human shape, fill it with water, and keep it frozen (the Messiah becoming tangible to us). In its frozen state, it could work temporarily among Nigerians and try to eliminate the deadly insects or whatever the disease might be, employing every possible tool it could use. While it stays and works, Nigerians could feel it, touch it, and even get to take of the ice. They have the liberty to enjoy all its tangible essence. When its job is done, time would enable it to melt and return back to the ocean. The other picture would be that of the ocean using the Sun’s energy to evaporate itself and try to kill off the infesting insects with its heat—the vapor. It would remain unseen, but would keep doing its job. We could feel its presence, we could feel its heat when the weather is humid enough to allow it. When its time is up, when the atmosphere changes from warm to cold, it would easily liquefy and return back to the Ocean—its source. Notice that none of the states is meant to last forever. They only use the temporal time they have to accomplish whatever objective they wish to achieve. Once their time is up and their job is done, they return back to the Source and synchronize with it. You can never tell the difference after that happens. And no matter the names they were called while in their liberated states, they would all be called the Atlantic Ocean once they have made their way back. Now try to replace the Atlantic with God Himself. The human ice cast would be the Messiah—Jesus. And the Holy Spirit would be represented with the vapor state. I know that symbology doesn’t fit one hundred percent to the truth I’m trying to uncover, but it has helped us to elucidate sufficiently what is going on. Hence when we see God referring to the Messiah and the Holy Spirit with clearly different terms, we should understand His reasons for doing so. It’s exactly what H’s supposed to do. He isn’t trying to confuse us or show us He can put up riddles we can hardly untwine. He is stating the facts as they are. And the truth remains, He is still One and the same Person doing all these operations among us. Now at this point you may be wondering, why did I have to go to the trouble of uncovering these mysteries? The answer is fairly simple: to keep you in the light, out of the dark. You may have been serving God, attending church and hearing sermons from several teachers of the Word. You may have even been well-established in you Christian walk with God—doing His bidding and studying Scripture religiously. But you may never have come to recognize the true identity of the God you worship. That’s understandable, because God actually didn’t prepare His Word having only one class of audience in mind—like kids for instance. He wanted everyone to have a taste of what His revelations spell out. And people’s perceptions differ. You’d agree with me that the way you saw things when you were still a child isn’t the same way you view the world now that you’ve grown up. As you progress through life’s tough times and rough edges, your understanding is being shaped. Most often, it takes a balance. In some places, some things that might happen to you (as well as how you interpret them) might distort your view and understanding. The same thing happens in studying God’s Word. And I suppose God wouldn’t reveal much to us until He has examined our hearts and intentions, until we have spent considerable amount of time in His presence—with sincerity—searching for His truths. That way, He would easily bring us to some alarming revelations we may not have embraced or figured out before—thereby keeping us off limit from the vast majority. If you had known this, perhaps you wouldn’t be so quick to rush through some bible passages and jump to impatient conclusions. You wouldn’t just conclude over the truth of a particular scriptural text by just reading one verse and stopping there. You would want to validate your conclusion and belief by looking for matching scriptures, parallel passages, and a couple of complementing texts in order to be accurate about your conclusions. I have noticed that most Christians are usually one sided in their analysis and judgment over some bible concepts and doctrines. If they had prayed earnestly and waited patiently for answers from God, maybe things would’ve been different. Perhaps this should prime them up for such approach. Sometime last week, I posted on facebook that Jesus and Yahowah aren’t different persons, but one and the same. I got a couple dozen comments trying to discredit my claim. Some offered some scriptural texts in order to prove me wrong. Despite all that, I had to post another article titled Why is Jesus the Son of God? To some, that was satisfactory enough. To others, I was only bluffing. They were looking for words to qualify the kind of approach I had used to discuss the subject. But it doesn’t matter anymore. I am now using this medium to invite all those that participated to come up and verify this exegesis. If I am wrong (as I suspect some of them might still insist), then they should discuss concretely, with clear scriptural evidence, why they think so. But if they read and figure I wasn’t making up all of these, perhaps this should’ve ended the argument. I never planned to argue God’s Word. It’s undisputable. But sometimes when you’re battling with the understanding of your fellow brethren, you have to struggle (meaning arguing sometimes) in order to help them come to the light—if only they see it that way. And yes, I have to note: I am responsible for what I say, but I am not responsible for your interpretation or understanding of it. It’s not my fault if you didn’t get the actual message as you should—if you misinterpreted it. But my aim—and joy—is to see you know the truth. If it sets you free, then I must have done my job well. But I take no credit for doing that. I only served as a tool through which God had worked to bring His truth to you. I’m just an implement, nothing more. May God bless us and reveal His truth more to us. Amen.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 15:38:52 +0000
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