1. God is Holy – this to me is his most important trait. Whatever we choose to do, this is the number 1 trait of God we have to keep in mind. God is Holy. He is righteous. He is pure. He cannot stand sin.
Being created in God’s image, our mission is to work on ourselves daily so we can be as closest to his holy nature as possible. Whatever we do on Earth we have to imagine what God thinks looking down on us through his holy eyes. God will always look at us through holy eyes. It is in our best interest to remake ourselves daily to appear pleasing to his holy nature.
For God has not called us for impurity but in holiness. (1 Thessaloniana 4:7)
“For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44)
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2)
2. God is slow to anger – this is my favourite characteristic of God. God is a Father and we are his children. His first instinct is to love us. His love for humanity was so strong that he came in human flesh as Yeshua to undo what was done in the garden of Eden and to give us a clean slate.
It’s easy for us to portray God as a tyrant, ready and waiting to condemn sinners. The opposite is true. The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. (Psalm 145:8)
God has wrath, let’s make that clear. God says he is slow to anger, he doesn’t say he is devoid of anger.
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him (Romans 5:9)
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. (Ephesians 5:8)
God’s anger is often described in the scriptures as wrath. This sounds to me like something humans would want to avoid at all costs. An example of when God unleashed his wrath on the world:
In the days of Noah when the fallen angels took women as wives and had children with them. It was never God’s plan for angels and humans to mix. God is pure and wants his creation to remain pure. This can be seen in the story of the Israelites whom God instructed not to mix their bloodline with other nations. He knew his plan for Yeshua to be born and he wanted him to come from a pure untainted bloodline that dated all the way back to Abraham. When God makes a plan, it’s not for humans to change his plan. This is what brought about his wrath and what led to the flood that was sent to cleanse the earth.
Another example is the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. The entire city of Sodom was wiped out for their sins of homosexuality aka sodomy. This is where the word sodomy comes from. Yes, homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of the creator. There is only one truth, and that is God’s truth. Everything else is humans wanting to live according to the desires of their flesh. I could wake up tomorrow and tell my friends and family I self-identify as a samosa. Me saying I am a samosa does not change the truth that I am in fact not a samosa but a human. It’s absurd. The same goes with the obvious lies modern society is telling.
As a believer in Yeshua, my number one responsibility is to know the truth and spread it regardless of who it offends. The truth is often the hardest pill to swallow but we can’t embrace lies just because it gives us a greater sense of comfort. Let God be true but every man a liar. (Romans 3:4). The only truth we should be following is God’s truth.
The human body is in its fallen state. It has lost its divinity and immortality. In its fallen state, the human flesh only cares about carnal desires. We must only do what God wants us to do not what our flesh tells us to do. God isn’t fallen. He is pure and divine.
3. God is not a respecter of persons – God does not care about your personal beliefs. He does not care about the beliefs that make you feel ‘comfortable’. God is righteous. To him right is right, and wrong is wrong. Righteousness is righteousness and sin is sin. It is clear-cut and simple. You’ll be hurting yourself and risking your salvation if you harden your heart with pride thinking your rebellion will affect God’s Kingdom.
Humans need to wake up from their hypnosis and realize that God doesn’t need us, we need him. He isn’t trying to get you to do right because if you don’t, he will cease to exist. He existed before the creation of the Earth, and he will continue to exist afterwards. He wants us to do right because he understands his own righteous nature. He is bound by his nature to turn away from sin. If we remain in sin he will eventually reject us. He has done it before, he can do it again.
Your lack of belief in his existence won’t change the fact that he does exist. You didn’t create yourself and you definitely didn’t pop up by chance without a purpose.
4. God never changes – it’s funny how humans think they can sway God into submitting to their fleshly desires by continuing in a life of sin. It’s like we think we can force God to change by being stubborn. We think to ourselves, perhaps he will let us have our way if we continue to do the things he has told us not to. He certainly will let you have your way, but at what cost? Ask Noah.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24). Being a spirit, he does not agree with the desires of the flesh. Yeshua advised his followers to die to their flesh daily and be born in the spirit of God. Meaning they should fight their sinful desires daily and focus on acts that build the spirit of God in them. This can be done by studying the word of God, following his commandments, fasting and praying.
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it? (Numbers 23:19). God won’t change his nature to suit man’s desires. Never did, never will. I must reiterate that God doesn’t need us, we need him.
5. God is merciful – this trait of God warms my heart. It’s good to know that God is not without mercy. Especially when we ask for it with a humble and repentant heart. Mercy is one of his well-known characteristics. Do you wonder why some of the vilest people on Earth live long? It’s God giving them ample time to repent so they won’t bring his judgment upon themselves. Sometimes the good ones live shorter lives because when you have a garden of fruits you don’t harvest the rotten ones before the good ones.
“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36)
To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him. (Daniel 9:9)
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrew 4:16)
6. God is forgiving – this goes hand in hand with his merciful nature. Out of his mercy comes forgiveness. What will sinful man do without God’s ability to say, “I forgive you”?
God instructs us to forgive those that hurt us so we can qualify for his forgiveness. If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. (Matthew 6:14)
The bible states that the adversary (satan) accuses humans daily before God. If only humans were aware that satan fights endlessly to get God to condemn his creation. Sometimes he succeeds because he understands God’s principled nature better than humans do. Satan didn’t stop at the garden of Eden. His number one mission is pulling all of God’s creation down with him. Hell wasn’t created for humans. It was a prison for the fallen angels that disobeyed God. Their punishment was so because they knew better. They were in the presence of God, they saw him and knew him. Angels and humans were given free will and the ability to choose to obey or disobey God. Humans unlike angels qualify for God’s forgiveness because we don’t know him as the angels do. We believe in him through faith, which he finds very pleasing. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
Make use of God’s mercy and forgiveness while you are on Earth. On Earth, we can still repent and be forgiven for our sins. Once you have crossed over, who you face is a judge.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9). Forgiveness comes with repentance. You can’t ask God to forgive you for a sin and then go right back into it. That’s not how it works.
7. God is love – Apart from his merciful and forgiving nature, the loving nature of God is humanities closest ally.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (1 John 4:16)
This is my understanding of God. God created man, gave him immortality, put him in a beautiful garden, and loved him like a father does a child. He gives man instructions: you eat the fruit, you die. The fruit is to test man’s loyalty because he wants to know that given a choice man will choose him. God gave his angels and humans choice because he isn’t about forcing his creation to follow him. He expects them to use their intelligence to decide their own fate. If you are a parent you will want your children to be loyal to you not because you forced them to but because they want to. Man failed the loyalty test and was left to his devices for a bit to wander. God had mercy on humanity and sacrificed himself so we can be redeemed back to him.
Before the coming of Yeshua, God instructed the Israelites to slaughter a lamb each year to cover for their sins. To cover the whole world a part of God himself came down as Yeshua to die. Yeshua is often referred to as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Humans fail to understand that God is principled. Can you see how God did not go against his own principles? If he won’t go against his principles to save himself what makes you think he will do it for you? There are humans who won’t make it through the pearly gates just because they fail to understand the nature of God. God is principled and he never changes.
His love for us was shown when he gave his own life. What this did was activate his gracious nature. What it does not do is stop him from passing judgment if we continue to sin and don’t repent.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8)
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9)
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
8. God is a judge – This is the nature he activates when we are done on earth. God being our divine creator is our Father and we are his children, hence his love, mercy, and forgiveness. This does not change the fact that he is also a judge. He is the eternal judge that will judge every soul on earth after death.
We are not to misconstrue the sacrifice Yeshua made as a free pass to live through our sinful nature. We will still have to give an account of our deeds on Earth when we pass on. The worst thing that could happen to a person is to live a tumultuous life as a human just to end up having an even worse afterlife. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)
God is a just God. Believe that when he passes judgment it will be done in a just way.
Our number one priority is making sure we get a thumbs up when we stand before the divine judge. It’s your right to live however you want on Earth. It’s God’s right to judge the life you lived after you die.
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