For more information and to purchase the full version of this book by Colin Urquhart visit the Kingdom Faith Resource Centre: http://www.kingdomfaith.com/ResourceCentre
TRUE
God
C o l i n Ur q u h a r t
Kingdom Faith Resources Ltd. Roffey Place, Old Crawley Road, HORSHAM West Sussex, RH12 4RU Tel: 01293 851543 Fax: 01293 854610 E-mail: resources@kingdomfaith.com www.kingdomfaith.com First published in Great Britain in March 2003 by Kingdom Faith Kingdom Faith Church is a registered charity (no.278746) Copyright © 2003 Colin Urquhart All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher. Short extracts may be used for review purposes. Unless otherwise stated, Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW KING JAMES VERSION Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission of Nelson Word, 9 Holdom Avenue Bletchley, Milton Keynes. MK1 1 AG
ISBN 1-900409-43-7
CONTENTS
PART 1 – GOD’S ESSENTIAL NATURE Creator Eternal Unchanging His Name Almighty He is Love Holy Saviour Healer Provider Our Victory Our Peace The Good Shepherd LORD Our Righteousness Our King The Lord who is Present Father
11 12 14 15 17 19 21 22 23 25 27 29 30 32 34 36 37 39
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PART 2 – JESUS The Word Son of Man The Truth The Resurrection and the Life Lamb of God Bread of Life The Light of the World The True Vine God with us
41 42 43 45 47 48 49 50 51 53
PART 3 – THE HOLY SPIRIT God’s gift The Paraclete Fruit of the Spirit Gifts of Power Wisdom and Revelation Spirit of Faith
55 56 57 58 60 61 62
PART 4 – THE ONE WHO IS TO COME
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PART
1 GOD’S ESSENTIAL NATURE The Bible reveals to us who God is, what He has done for us through His Son and how He wants to work in us by His Holy Spirit. Immediately we are faced with a number of important truths. First, God can only be known by revelation. It is impossible for people to think their way into an understanding of God through their own intellect. Nobody can work their way into a relationship with Him. He is so much greater than we are, that He can only be known because He has chosen to reveal Himself, to make Himself known. Second, God is not simply a spiritual force; He has personality, character. We refer to God as “He,” not “it”. Because He has character it is possible to know Him in a personal way, to have a true relationship with Him! However, for this to happen He has to reveal Himself! Third, although there is only One true God, He is three Persons, not one! The simplest way to understand this is to realise that He has chosen to reveal Himself in three distinct ways – as Father, His
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Son, Jesus Christ who became man and now reigns in heaven, and the Holy Spirit, the divine power of God who now lives within Christians who have received this precious gift from God. We call these three persons the Trinity. There is no adequate way to explain this mystery, that there is only One God who is yet three Persons. It may help you to imagine a book that you view from various angles. Each gives you a very different view of the book; yet it is the same book seen from different perspectives. These three Persons have the same characteristics, as we shall see. Whether we encounter God as Father, Jesus Christ, or as the Holy Spirit we meet with the same God. For example the Father is eternal, the Son is eternal and the Holy Spirit is eternal. God is love, the Son gave Himself in love, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love. The plural nature of God is seen in the Old Testament in one of the Hebrew names given Him: Elohim. In the New Testament, we read of how God sent His Son into the world – to bring His people the good news of His Kingdom; to die on a cross so that people could receive forgiveness of their sins that had separated them from God, and so be reconciled to Him. We also read how the Holy Spirit sent by the Lord on those who accepted Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. There is total consistency in the Old and New Testaments about God’s nature. Because He can only be known through revelation, there is a progressive unfolding of who He is throughout the Bible.
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CREATOR From the very beginning of the Old Testament He is revealed as the Creator. By His almighty power He brought all creation into being. This means that He existed before creation. There is no way we can understand with limited human thinking how God could exist before creation. We cannot imagine existence of any kind before creation as we know it. The Bible begins with the opening words of Genesis: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1: 1) He has such power and authority, He literally spoke things into being. For example God said, “‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good;” (Genesis 1: 3)
HE HAS SUCH POWER AND AUTHORITY, HE LITERALLY SPOKE THINGS INTO BEING.
He decided what to create, spoke it into being, and then declared that it was good. Jesus was the Word that went forth from His mouth. And in Genesis we read “the Spirit of God was hovering,” waiting for the word of command. So the whole Trinity of God was involved in creation. Man was the pinnacle of that creation, made in God’s own image, to be like Him: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;” (Genesis 1: 26) When man sinned that image was marred making it necessary for God to send His Son to undo the consequences of this
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AS THE PINNACLE OF GOD’S CREATION MAN
disobedience and make it possible for that likeness to be restored.
WAS CREATED FOR HIM
So by Jesus, the Word of God, “… all things AS WELL AS BY HIM. were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible…All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1: 16) The last part of that statement is of crucial importance. As the pinnacle of God’s creation man was created for Him as well as by Him. We were created for His purposes! ETERNAL God is eternal; He exists outside of the limitations of time. Yet He is able to reveal Himself to us who live within these limitations. He could even enter into time and the world as we know it in the person of Jesus, and has now sent His Spirit to live within believers who live in this world where time exists. Because He is eternal, God has no beginning and no end. He is. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11: 6) Because He is eternal He is known as the Everlasting God. He describes Himself as “the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 1: 8). Both the beginning of the creation of time and space and its ending are in His hands completely. Although He is Eternal, living in heaven, outside of the limitations of time and space, He is
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intimately involved in history. To us there is a past, a present and a future. And so He can describe Himself as the One “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8). With our limited intellect and understanding, we cannot imagine eternity. God is able to see what is to us the past, the present and the future. For this reason He could speak to the prophets in Old Testament times, telling them what would unfold in future history because He could already see these events as facts. He could give Isaiah and others vivid descriptions of the cross and its significance, even though in historical terms, He was speaking hundreds of years before the event. From His eternal perspective He could already see what HE CAN ALREADY would take place, even down to minute details, SEE WHAT SHALL BE AS IF such as the soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ clothes.
IT ALREADY IS!
In similar fashion, God was able to give the apostle, John, a vision of heaven, as recorded in the book of Revelation. Part of this vision includes information about the devil’s final destiny and what will happen when Jesus comes again. God can reveal this because from His eternal perspective He can already see it. He knows what was, what is and what is to come.
This is a wonderful truth to grasp, for we can then understand that when God speaks in His Word or by His Spirit of things concerning the future, they shall be exactly as He said, not only because He can already see what shall be as if it already is!
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Other titles in this series include: TRUE AUTHORITY TRUE CHURCH TRUE COVENANT TRUE DISCIPLES TRUE FAITH TRUE GRACE TRUE LIFE TRUE LOVE TRUE SALVATION TRUE SPIRIT TRUE WORSHIP
All these books by Colin Urquhart and a catalogue of other titles and teaching materials can be obtained from: Kingdom Faith Resources, Roffey Place, Old Crawley Road Faygate, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 4RU. Telephone 01293 854 600 email: resources@kingdomfaith.com
For more information and to purchase the full version of this book by Colin Urquhart visit the Kingdom Faith Resource Centre: http://www.kingdomfaith.com/ResourceCentre