Knowing and Experiencing Elohim

Knowing and Experiencing Elohim

The primary ways we get to know Elohim (God) is by discovering His nature, names, and attributes in the Bible, as well as by interacting with Him through prayer, praise, blessing His name, and thanksgiving. Along with offering ourselves as living sacrifices to Him, these things are sacrifices that are pleasing to Him.

Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Psalm 106:1 Praise YHVH (the LORD)! Oh give thanks to YHVH (the LORD), for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! (The LORD in all capitals is usually the name of Elohim/God in Hebrew – Yahweh/Yehovah/YHVH. However, sometime Lord [with lower case] is Adonai, which means My Lord or Master).

 

Elohim’s Nature

Elohim’s nature is stated in Deuteronomy 6:4: Hear, O Israel: YHVH our Elohim, YHVH is one (echad). He is often described as a trinity: three persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – within one being, essence, or substance.

John 1:1 describes Yeshua (Jesus) as being Elohim: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim.

Acts 16:31, 34b And they said, “Believe in the Lord Yeshua, and you will be saved, you and your household. ^34b …And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in Elohim.

John 10:30 I (Yeshua) and the Father are one.

 

Elohim’s Unity

People describe Elohim’s unity in various ways:

• It is like when a man and woman are joined in sexual union with one another – they are “one (echad) flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)
• Others have described it as being like an egg: The primary solid white area (depicted inside the oval) is the Father, the yolk being Yeshua (at the right hand of the Father), and the thin white fringe area being the Holy Spirit.
• The church father, Tertullian, in Apology, Chapter 21, said: We have been taught that He (the Word) proceeds forth from God, and in that procession He is generated; so that He is the Son of God, and is called God from unity of substance with God. For God, too, is a Spirit. Even when the ray is shot from the sun, it is still part of the parent mass; the sun will still be in the ray, because it is a ray of the sun there is no division of substance, but merely an extension. Thus Christ is Spirit of Spirit, and God of God, as light of light is kindled.
• Elohim’s unity is also like “the triple point.” In thermodynamics, the triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which the three phases of that substance (gas, liquid, and solid) coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium.

 

The Names and Attributes of Elohim

Some of the many names of Elohim in the Old Testament describe His attributes; these include but are not limited to: I Am Who I Am (I Will Be Who I Will Be), YHVH our Maker, YHVH our Provider, YHVH our Banner, YHVH our Healer, YHVH our Righteousness, YHVH who Sanctifies You, our Help, our Shield, and our Strong Tower, etc. Elohim is essentially whoever we need Him to be.

Some of the attributes of Yeshua include: our Savior; our Rock; our Redeemer; the Branch; the YHVH is our Righteousness; the Root of Jesse; the Lion of the tribe of Judah; the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world; the Door; the Bread of Life; the Light of the World; the Good Shepherd; the Resurrection and the Life; the True Vine; and the Way, Truth, and the Life.

One of the biggest ways we need to know Elohim is as our Heavenly Father. Unfortunately, many people have had earthly fathers who were nothing like our Heavenly Father. Many earthly fathers have been abusive and demanding, condemning and unforgiving, impatient or insensitive to our needs, too busy to give us the attention all children deserve, and/or controlling or manipulative, etc. Instead of being a loving, patient, and godly example of our Father in heaven, their examples have hindered our relationship with our Heavenly Father and/or driven us away from Him altogether. This reality has put us in spiritual bondage; it requires us to forgive our earthly fathers for the way they treated us. Afterall, they didn’t fully know or care what they were doing to us. Freedom in Christ Ministries by Neil Anderson has a great handout called OurFatherGod. I couldn’t find their link, but you can get it here (Our Father God). Please take time to look over it and renounce the lies of Satan regarding our Heavenly Father and embrace the truth to set you free.

When we come into the courts of YHVH, we should daily be able to praise and thank Him for His many attributes, as well as experience these attributes in our lives!

Experiencing Elohim

The following seven realities of experiencing Elohim is from the workbook called Experiencing God by Henry and Richard Blackaby, and Claude King, published by Lifeway Church Resources, copyright January 1990. Over the years, I have personally found this to be a great description of how we can experience Elohim in our own lives.

Once we begin to know Elohim through His names and attributes, and as our Heavenly Father, we can begin to experience Him more intimately. Here are the seven realities of experiencing Elohim.

1. Elohim is always working around us. (John 5:17, 19-20)
2. Elohim seeks an ongoing, real, personal, and loving relationship with us (John 14:21; 2 Chron. 15:2).
3. Elohim invites us to be involved in what He is doing (Philip. 2:13; John 15:4-5).
4. Elohim’s Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways (1 Cor. 2:9-15; John 10:4, 14:16-17; Philip. 2:13).
   • I also agree with Joyce Meyers, who in How to Hear From God, tells us that Elohim still speaks to some people in dreams and visions, and also through our conscience, conviction, natural things, internal peace, a knowing, and supernatural revelation.
   • I have also found that Elohim can speak through a song, written messages displayed in various ways, as well as directly to our minds in a way like mental telepathy. Whatever Elohim says through these ways must not conflict with Scripture.
   • Please understand, Elohim does not limit the way He talks with individual people, so don’t expect Him to only use a single method with you.
   • Remember, whatever Elohim says through these ways must not conflict with Scripture.
5. Elohim’s invitation for us to work with Him always leads us to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action (Hebrews 11; Matt. 17:19-21; Mark 10:27).
6. We must make major adjustments in our lives to join Elohim in what He is doing (Gen. 12:1-8; 1 Sam. 16:1-13; Matt. 4:18-22, 9:9; Acts 9:1-19; 1 John 2:15-16).
7. We come to know Elohim experientially as we obey Him, and He accomplishes His work through us (Ex. 3:1-22; 1 John 2:3-6; Ps 119:33-35; John 15:14; Eph. 4:11-13; 1 Cor. 12:13-31).

Conclusion

It is my hope and prayer that you can know and experience Elohim as “He will be who He will be” – basically, anything you need Him to be. I pray you will cultivate a deep and abiding relationship with Him in which you can learn to see and hear how the Holy Spirit is drawing you into a loving, obedient relationship that causes you to share Him in a variety of ways with the world around you. You can do this as you offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to Him.