Picture God in your mind…

If you’re like most of the people I’ve asked, you probably thought of some combination of a man in a gray beard floating on a throne in the clouds or a scowling judge glaring down from his judgment bench.  Both are totally wrong.  God has a presence in the world today, and how we see Him will determines how we see ourselves and how we see others.

Before we can establish how to see God today we need to explore how he was seen in the past.  Bible accounts paint a picture of a God who made himself visibly present; initially for His benefit an eventually for ours.

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day….”   (Gen 3:8 NIV).  I love to imagine what it was like in the garden of God when He physically walked among and enjoyed the beauty of his creation.   To think about enjoying the presence of my creator in the unsurpassed beauty of his newly created earth is overwhelming to me.

In the garden that day Adam and Eve could not be found because they were hiding from God.  They knew they had disobeyed and were ashamed of themselves and their appearance.   This was the moment that separated us from God, but also set into motion a plan to redeem his creation and reestablish the perfection of His dwelling place. From that moment on God manifested Himself in various forms.It’s important to note that God is omnipresent and does not need to manifest Himself, but WE need to see him.  He appeared as a pillar of fire and cloud to the Israelites not for Himself, but so they would know He was present.  When the Spirit of God descended into the Temple built by King Solomon the power was so great the priests couldn’t perform their ceremony (I Kings 8).  There was no doubt that God was present and the temple would be the dwelling place for God among His people.  In those days the temple was the center of the Israelites life and worship.  Their lives revolved around the presence of God in the Most Holy Place.  Then…

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (NIV)

Jesus is the Son of God, is God, and was His physical presence on this earth.  Jesus said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32 NIV).  He became the center of life and worship drawing everyone to Him.  When He was crucified He forever changed how the nations would see God.  From the moment after Christ’s death when the curtain separating God in the Most Holy Place was torn in two (Mark15:38) everything changed.  God is no longer contained in one building for one group of people.

Here is the change:  God is once again present in His temple, the center of life and worship.  Huh?  Read the following verses and it should become clearer:

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NIV)

“…For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16 (NIV)

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;” 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NIV)

Believers are God’s temple.  We are His dwelling place through His Spirit.  We are the physical manifestation of God on this earth, used to represent Him among all nations.

Stop and picture God again….

Do you see yourself?  Do you see your Christian brothers and sister?  I contend that if we see God clearly it will change how we see ourselves and how we see others.

1.  When we see God dwelling in ourselves it focuses our worship, actions and lives.

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 1 John 3:9-10

2.  When we see God in fellow Christians we are able to unconditionally love each other deeply (1 Peter 1:22, 4:8)

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18 NIV)

3.  When Christians love each other deeply we can join in unity (Ephesians 4:12-13) and the body of Christ is lifted up to “draw all men to [Himself].”

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Ephesians 2:18-22

4. When Christians are built together as the temple of God we become God’s workers in His plan of redemption.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:6-10

When you visualize God I pray that you will expand your view.  God isn’t some cartoon floating in the clouds.  He is not a mean judge scowling down on criminals.  God is someone who loves us and wants to dwell among us again in a new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21).

How we see God determines how we see ourselves and others.  How we see ourselves and others determines how, through the unity of the Spirit, the work of God is accomplished.

We have work to do…