Where Are You God? -- “I AM”

Sixty years ago, the era of television arrived in our home.  This magic box introduced us to larger-than-life personalities like Wyatt Earp, Matt Dillon, Walter Cronkite, and Fulton J. Sheen.  I was especially impacted by “Deacon Earp” whose deadly aim wounded the bad guys but didn’t kill them.  If that were not enough, Earp’s choice of beverage was milk.

Our TV antenna was supported on a metal tower anchored to our chimney.  When our TV produced a snowy picture, we knew the problem was in our reception, not the broadcast signal from Cleveland.  The problem usually cleared up when we rotated the antenna in the right direction or adjusted the TV.

Broadcast and receiver must work together, hand-in-glove.  The same is true of communication between our modern TV’s.  Each has an internal receiver that is responsive to an accompanying “remote.”  Therefore, both the TV broadcast station and the remote send out signals to the TV, but unless the TV receiver detects these signals, there will be no response.

The relationship between a broadcast signal and a receiver illustrates the relationship between our Creator God and us as His creatures.  Why is it that some men and women, or boys and girls, have a relationship with God, and seek to please Him according to His Word given in the Bible; whereas, others are not responsive to God?  According to the Scriptures, a person can only have a living, dynamic relationship with their Creator if their spirit is attuned to God’s Spirit.  When we yield our will to God through faith in Christ, God’s Spirit assumes residence in our lives and gives us the ability to respond to the “broadcast signal” from God’s Word or from other people.  Also, through God’s Spirit, we can commune with God though prayer and with others of like faith.

In Genesis (meaning “origin”), the first book of the Bible, we have the account of God’s creation of Adam, and the intimate relationship that God established with Adam:

Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground.  He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person (NLT). – Genesis 2: 7

The Bible gives no record of the first conversation between God and the human He created according to His own image (Genesis 1: 26).  Instead, we learn that God breathed His very own “breath of life” into Adam’s nostrils.  The man’s first “life breath” through his nostrils was through an inspiration—that is, an entry of air into Adam’s lungs--“God-breathed” air from the very breath of God—“and the man became a living person(Genesis 2: 7).”  Although many generations separate us from our father Adam, we should be in awe of the fact God gives us every breath.  In so doing, God sustains each minute of our very lives. 

Can you imagine? God’s Spirit is as near to you as your next breath.  You and I are unique from all other air-breathing animals.  Only humans as God’s image-bearers received the very life-breath of God when He created them.  Imagine that for awhile.  Indeed, the ability to imagine and perform other kinds of abstract thinking and creativity are all expressions of the fact that we bear God’s image.

Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers considers God’s creative work as recorded in Genesis, Chapter 2 as an expression of His wisdom and love:  Here [God] forms, and builds, and plants, and breathes into His work, and [He] is the companion and friend of the creature He has made. It thus sets before us the love and tenderness of Jehovah, who provides for man a home, fashions for him a wife to be his partner and helpmate, rejoices in…[the] intellect [of man, His image-bearer, and then shows honor and respect to Adam’s intellect by bringing]…the lower world to him to see what he will call them….

Adam was given richly and abundantly all that he would need to live and flourish. On top of that, he was commanded to exercise dominion over creation by caring for creation as a steward of all God created and possessed as Owner.

Because we cannot see God, we wonder at times if He is really REAL. To Adam and Eve, there was no doubt.  Genesis 3: 8 records that Adam and Eve were familiar with the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.  They evidently enjoyed regular opportunities to “walk with God” in the Garden of Eden.  We have no record of their conversation before Eve was tempted by Satan.  However, I would like to suggest one early conversation that Adam might have had with God (in some language other than English):

ADAM: “God, what is Your Name?”
GOD:  “I AM”
ADAM: “I know you exist, but what is Your Name?”
GOD:   “I AM WHO I AM”
ADAM: “I am Adam.”
GOD:   “Indeed, you are.  And notice, you used a similar action word (a verb), “I am” with your name.  Adam, you live and you exist; but, unlike Me, you need a point of reference.  I AM that reference.   When you say “I am Adam,” it means you exist only because I AM created you.”
ADAM: “Do you mean that ‘I am’ because of You, the ultimate ‘I AM?’”
GOD:   “Yes, it is as you say.  You exist because of Me—only in reference to Me.  But, I AM the God Who is.”  I AM Who I AM without any reference to any other--or to time or space.  My Name is an action word (verb) because I AM eternally “being” and “acting” sustaining My creation from the tiniest atom to the expanse of My heavens; allowing your every breath and beat of your heart; and before a word is on your tongue, I know it.”
ADAM: “My soul is warmed within me as I walk with You.  I am filled with Joy when I commune with You.”
GOD:   “That is as it should be.  I love you, Adam, with an everlasting love.  I AM love, joy, and peace.  These are yours when you walk with Me.  And My Spirit communes with the spirit I formed within you.”
ADAM:   “Bless You, I AM!   Bless You, Lord O my soul, and all that is within me, bless Your Holy Name.”

My soul is inspired by composing this conversation as it might have been had I been walking with God.  But, unlike Adam and Eve, I have never walked with God in the garden in the cool of the day.  What’s more, I am a corrupted son of Adam.

According to Genesis 3, Adam and Eve gave in to the temptation of Satan based on the cunning serpent’s distortion of God’s character.  As a son of Adam, …I was born a sinner--yes, from the moment my mother conceived me (Psalm 51: 5 NLT).  But, I am saved through faith in Christ the Great High Priest Who can “sympathize with our weaknesses” because He has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.  Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4: 15-16).

As a sinner, saved by God’s grace, I can now have fellowship with my Heavenly Father through God’s Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised to send to us just before He was betrayed and crucified.  When His disciples were fearful and confused, Jesus spoke these calming words:

These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.  Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. – John 14: 25-27

My access to daily fellowship with God’s Holy Spirit is made possible as I read and meditate upon God’s Word, the Scriptures.  Just as God breathed into Adam the breath of Life, so the Scriptures say that All Scripture is inspired (God-breathed) and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3: 16-17).

So, I must ask myself; and ask you as well.  How receptive am I to the broadcast of God’s love and truth through His Holy Spirit to my “signal receiver”—my spirit.  If you have never surrendered to the claims of Christ and asked Him to forgive you and be your Savior, I refer you to Steps to Peace with God which will explain how you can become a Christ-follower.  Without Christ, you are dead in sin and are facing eternal separation from God.  Romans 8: 6-7 states that without making peace with God, you remain hostile toward God [and your mind is not "tuned" to the Spirit of God].  In fact, according to Romans 8: 7-8, you are not even able to do so...  

Maybe you have received Christ but your spirit (your "receiver" or "antenna") needs to be tuned again to the voice of God's Spirit speaking to you through His Word, or friends, or circumstances.  Just as I used to turn our old antenna to get a TV signal, perhaps you need to turn again to Christ for forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1: 9).  Then, as a Christ-follower, when you open your Bible and read, God’s Spirit will go to work to make your spirit and mind receptive to the Scriptures, and to give you understanding of the truth you are reading.  Then, as you are receptive to that truth, God’s Spirit empowers you to respond to the Scripture for reproof, for correction, [and] for training in righteousness.  

How is your spiritual receiver?  Are you receptive to God’s presence through His Holy Spirit who loves you and wants to commune with you each day along your challenging path of life?  If you have questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you.  Just post a “Comment” below or e-mail me at silviusj@cedarville.edu