I’m so happy that you have made the choice to join me here.

Significant Encounters is a place for you if you have experienced drama and trauma in your life.

A place of encouragement for you.

A place where you know that someone is in your corner.

A soft place to land.

In this session, I’d like to talk about who God is.

If we begin with understanding who he is, then we can understand how He wants to help us.

First, on the list, God is I’m omniscient. That’s a big word, a Latin one actually. What it means is that he is all-knowing. He knows absolutely everything, from beginning to end. There is not one thing that can surprise Him.

Then comes omnipresent. It’s another big word, meaning that he is all-encompassing. This means that God has created a circle around all of His creation. All of it, everyone, everything, everywhere.

Then the word omnipotent, meaning He is unlimited authority and power.

Omnibenevolence. In Latin, this word means all-good-willing. God is always good, and always willing to answer us when we call to Him.

Each of us has likely heard the creation story. It tells us that God is our creator and that He created the heavens and the earth. He created everything. He created it with His voice. He said “Be” and it was. This is what He said about you “Be”. And there you were! And you know what? It was good. You were good. It reminds me of a bumper sticker back in the ’70s that said, “God Doesn’t Make Junk”.  

God is sovereign, which means that He has supreme power and authority. God is eternal, holy, and true. He is love, and full of grace. He is just and full of wisdom.

He is immutable, that’s another big word. It means He doesn’t change. He never changes. Above all, He is faithful. He can be depended on no matter what. He will always do what He says He will do.

Now, if these concepts don’t mean anything to you, then our time together will help you to learn them. Our time together will help you to see who He is. You will learn that He loves you, and you will want to know Him more. You will learn about His character, and why He loves you. You will get to know him, and understand why you can trust Him.

When you know who He is, you will begin to see the expansive possibilities that He has created for your life.

Us knowing Him, Him knowing us, Us knowing Him, Him knowing us, is the perfect cycle. It’s a cycle that we want to have repeated in our lives.

Knowing how He knows us. Knowing how He loves us. Knowing how He created us the way we are. Knowing that He never makes mistakes. Knowing that He has a plan for us, our lives, and for our good, will make the things we’ll be hearing here in the next few weeks much easier to know and understand.

In my growing-up life, I never knew any of this. This just isn’t what I was taught. I felt alone most of the time, and it really did not make a difference to me.

I did have some real issues with believing in a heavenly father.

You see, growing up, I had two fathers. One was biological, and the other adopted me when was small. The bio-dad, I didn’t even know until I was an adolescent. My adopt-a-dad married my mother and adopted me so that I would have the same last name as him. Because in those days it didn’t bode well for a daughter and a dad to have different names. At any rate. Both of these men were abusive in very different ways. Those stories are for another day.

Suffice it to say that when I found that God wanted to be my loving father, I didn’t have a chip for that.

I had a hard time with that because I’d blown through two dads already.  Neither one of those did what they were supposed to do for me. Things like loving and protecting.

The whole concept of a loving father was difficult. Because hey, what if I was just defective? Or even unlovable?

Now, as an adult, I know that that struggle was real, but I also know that was worth the fight.

God is my father, and He has overwhelmingly shown me His love. He loves me so much. You know, He loves you too.  So much more than you know right now. You’re not a mistake.

You were not unknown to Him. He created you in the secret place of your mother’s womb. And He delights in you. He delights in you. Did you hear what I said? He delights in you.

His character never changes, and neither does His love for you. He is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-encompassing. All the things that we talked about earlier. He is those things. Creator, unchanging, faithful. He welcomes us. He is honest with us. He is kind to us. He loves us, and He forgives us. He is a capable father. And you know what? He is knowable. He actually wants us to know him. And when we know Him, we know we can trust him.

The things that we grew up with that sent us into hiding. The things that caused us shame and guilt, humiliation, and anger, He will use those things as steppingstones for our success in life. In those places He can replace our weakness with His strength. Those things? He is capable of managing them. He can take care of them if we let Him.

Today’s message may or may not be what you thought it would be. But my encouragement to you is to hang on. Keep coming back. Together we can find out, and actually learn to know God the way He planned for us too. We can live a life of peace. The one He’s called us to.

I hope this helps, and I want you to come back next time. We’ve learned about who He is now.

Next, we’ll begin to learn about who he says WE ARE.

In the times to follow, we’ll go on to some other specific things. But first, I really feel like it’s important that we know who He is and who He thinks we are. When we’re armed with those two things, we cannot help but prevail. We can’t help but succeed. It’s important if we want to win.

This is essential stuff. I encourage you to grab your coffee, and join me back here next time, on Significant Encounters.

Psalm 145:17-19 ESV 17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. 18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.