How do I know God is beyond my understanding and not just beyond your understanding?

Question

Perhaps if he explained himself I could see if I understand it.

Answer 1

huh... i don't look at God as some person in the sky hiding behind a curtain, like the Wizard of Oz. And certainly I can't understand concepts like God dying for us or salvation or all of the other little counter-intuitive tales that people somehow find so addicting. To believe in "dying for one's sins" you need to believe in sacrifice (ie murder for the sake of appeasing God) and I think that's a twisted, homicidal, and savage remnant of primitive religions that should have been long-rejected by now.

I picture God as a tremendous, all-encompassing force and spirit. If God truly is the creator and source of all, then by definition "He" needs to be something far beyond something you could envision as a person or an organism of any sort, just like a building is far more than just a really big brick. So the way I envision God, there is no place for it to manifest itself in some form to explain who and what it is. Perhaps the real question people should ask...

is who and what are you?

perhaps there is no big plan, and no great quest that we're all here to set out on, besides answering that very question. To me, that is God.

I think entertaining that question will get people much closer to understanding God than any studies in theology would. But it is hard for us to break our primitive views on Gods and Goddesses as these big people in the sky. I've met people from all major religions who understand this, and one thing they have in common is their ability to communicate with one another regardless of religion... because they understand that the similarities FAR outweigh the differences. It is the people who personify and enculturate God who come to blows with one another because they see God as a man, with all of his flaws and vices, and so they will always view the world through the eyes of a man, and they will be stubborn and self-righteous and wrathful.

It is only when we understand that God is above this that we ourselves can rise above it as well. We will learn that, just as God is not flesh and bone, neither are we. And just as God is one, so are we. Then death (and consequentially, life) will be more easy to comprehend.

It is not what you can see that will lead you to understand. Instead of looking out, I think the answer is within where the eyes cannot see.

Answer 2

I like how the people who claim to have all the answers in the universe (the Bible) are suggesting that your beliefs are faulty because you don't claim to have those answers.

What none of these rather short-sighted people realize... is that the book they claim has all the answers, was written by a man/men. There is no proof whatsoever that they were inspired by a God, other than the fact that they SAID they were! I'm amazed at how blindly naive so many people can be. You know, as well as I do, that God didn't use a big godly pen and write the bible. It was written by men. What possible reason, other than the fact that you've been told to all your life... do you have to believe what these ancient con-men wrote?

Use your heads, people. Open your eyes! You've been duped! And the reasons you give to debunk atheists can be turned directly against the originators of your religion. The difference is, they have no proof to back up their claims. We have mountains of it to back up ours!

Answer 3

Perhaps. So how have you gone about trying to know God? Do you pray? Do you read spiritual literature? Do you discuss Him with others? Do you ask what He wants instead of telling Him what you want? Are you at least willing to believe that He might be real? That's the biggest one. If you're waiting for Santa Clause forget it. Santa's a fairy tale. But God is real. Ask Him what He wants from you. Ask repeatedly. And listen - not with the ears, but with the heart. All it takes is a bare willingness to begin and continued practice for it to happen. But you've got to be willing to give yup your preconceptions in order for it to work. Are you willing to do that? Then see what your understanding of God is. He makes Himself available to all. And continue practicing because it is a life-long effort. As times goes we understand a little more, but in the end just an infinitesimal fraction of who He is.

Answer 4

Trust is an essential ingredient to surrender. Surrender is an unpopular word, disliked almost as much as the word submission. It implies losing, and no one wants to be a loser. Surrendering to God is the heart of worship.

Other barrier to total surrender is our pride. We do not want to admit that that we are just creatures and not in charge of everything. It is the oldest temptation: "You will be like God!" We accept our humanity intellectually, but not emotionally. When faced with our own limitations, we react with irritation, anger, and resentment.

Colossians 1:16
For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible....everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him.

It is not about you. You were born by His purpose and for His purpose.You were made by God and for God - until you understand that, life will never make sense.

Because God made you for the reason, He also decided when you would be born and how long you will live. However, this life is not all there is. Life on earth is just a dress rehearsal before the real production.You will spend far more time on the other side death -the eternity - than you will here. Your earhly body is is just a temporary residence for your future body as a "house"

While life on earth offers many choices, eternity offers only two:hell or heaven. Your relationship to God on earth will dterminate your relationship to Him in eternity.If you LEARN to love and trust God's Son, Jesus, you will be invited to spend the rest of eternity with Him. On the other hand, if you reject His love, forgiveness, and salvation, you will spend eternity apart fromGod forever...FOREVER...that sounds like a long time!

When you fully comprehend that there is more to life than just here and now, and you realize that life is just preparation for eternity, you will begin to live differently. The most damaging aspect of contemporary living is short term thinking. Life on the earth is a temporary assignment.

Bringing enjoyment to God, living for His pleasure, is the first purpose of your life. When you fully understand this truth, you will never again have problem with feeling insignificant.

You are formed for God's family. You are called to belong, not just believe. Relationships are always worth of restoring.The truth transforms us.There are no shortcuts to maturity. Give yourself time to understand these things. God loves to use week people.Everyone has weeknesses.

Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.
LIVING ON PURPOSE IS THE ONLY WAY TO REALLY LIVE. EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST EXISTING.

He will explain Himself to you. The Bible is God's life manual for us. Start from the New Testament.

Answer 5

can u create something(create:to make something out of nothing)? can you see the whole world and hear what everyone says at anytime? Can you be more than one person? If not then you know that god is not human but spirit and you are not spirit but human.God knows everything and he gives ways to learn somethings about us, but not everything because you are not God. He doesn't have to explain himself to you. He died for you,. If you look in the bible you will learn somethings about God. But nothing reveals everything about God. The only way you can find out is to go to heaven hen you die. the only way to do that is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he died and rose again for YOU! Then you will be saved, and live eternally with God forever.

Answer 6

i think it must have been beyond the understanding of the people back then, but not now. I think we have understood so much stuff that our understanding pushed god right out of the universe. ooooops

Answer 7

The Apostle Paul told a group of people who did not believe in God to "seek God, if they might grope for him and really find him, although, in fact, he is not far off from each one of us."

God also encourages us at Proverbs 2:1-9 'to search for him like we would for hid treasures'

It takes effort. You have to prove that you want to know him
The Bible also says at James 4:8 "Draw close to God and he will draw close to you."

However, Psalms 10:4 says,"The wicked one according to his superciliousness makes no search;
All his ideas are: “There is no God.”
I'm not calling you wicked, but I am saying, he is right there, you are just choosing not to find him.

Answer 8

Unless you understand and can articulate all the mysteries of the universe I doubt you're even in the ballpark of understanding God.

Answer 9

What an irrelevant question. What is beyond your understanding is all that you haven't stopped to study.

Answer 10

I think this is possibly the most awesome question I have seen here. These people choose not to know or were manipulated into not finding out. I salute you