Who Do You Think You Are?

Nathan Roberts

Description

Who is God? Does he really want to know me? Am I important? The difference in knowing about God and Truly Knowing God!

Do you want to know God but aren’t sure how?

Nathan Roberts, an ordained minister who has spent his lifetime praising the Lord, traces the steps he had to take to not only know God but to truly know God in this scholarly book steeped in Scripture..

By clearly laying out what is said in the Bible, he answers questions such as:

• Is it possible to know God and not know Him?

• Is there a process you can follow to truly know the God you worship?

• How can you begin to understand who you are in God?

• Why is it so important to hear and obey the voice of God?

Like Moses, there has to be something inside you that draws you up the mountain, a longing that pushes you into the great unknown.

Not everyone will take this journey, but if you are really hungry, the author invites you to join him and move forward in Jesus’s name.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Spiritual Growth
• Christian Living
• Philosophie et théologie
• Jesús de Nazaret
• Secret place
• Knowing God
• God
• Jesus
• Good news
• Blessing
• Salvation
• Salut (religion)
• Petra
• Gospel
• Jésus de Nazareth

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 28 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664297432
• Langue: English

Extrait

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
 
 
NATHAN ROBERTS
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright © 2023 Nathan Roberts.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
All Scriptures are taken from King James version of the Bible, public domain.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9741-8 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9742-5 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9743-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023906449
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 06/27/2023
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1   Known Of God
Chapter 2   Iniquity Is the Problem
Chapter 3   The Love of God
Chapter 4   The Importance of How We See God
Chapter 5   Our Dwelling place in God
Chapter 6   The Importance of Seeing God
Chapter 7   Who Is God?
Chapter 8   Jesus and the Church
Chapter 9   The Door
Chapter 10   What Keeps Us from Seeking God?
Chapter 11   The Treasure and the Vessel
Chapter 12   Who Do You Think You Are?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would have never been possible without the help of several people, who I would like to acknowledge. The first would be my father, Reverend C.E. Roberts. He was one of the best mentors I have ever known.
The second would be Bishop C. M. Wright of Annapolis, Maryland. This book is filled with what I experienced through his teaching and impartation.
The third is my wife and two children. My wife has kept me steady through all the tests. My daughter, Shannon, has given an incredible example of how you can have a personal relationship with God. My son, Ezra, has great insight and understanding. He is one of the smartest people I know.
And finally, to Pastor Daniel Autrey, who encouraged me to write this book, my first. Thank you all for such a wonderful experience.
INTRODUCTION
Dear Reader,
Are you hungry for God? Does something inside you cry for more of Jesus? Then you are in the right place.
As we sit here together and get to know each other, let me assure you, I have been right where you are now. Like Moses, there has to be something inside us that draws us up the mountain, a longing that drives us, that helps us push beyond ourselves, into the great unknown.
Not everyone will take this journey. In fact, I don’t expect everyone to agree with this teaching. I don’t have to make you believe; that must be your choice. But to those of us who are really hungry, we will go forward in Jesus’s name.
Listen, it is possible to know about God and not know him. This book is about the process of truly knowing the God we worship.
We of the apostolic faith believe in one God. We believe God himself came as a man to die for our sins, but we cannot stop there. God in Christ is very important to understand. But when reading the prayer of Jesus in John 17, we soon realize there is another dimension in this relationship we somehow missed.
How to get there is what this book is about. We have all heard countless sermons on who God is, but when was the last sermon we heard about who we are in God?
Have you ever heard a sermon on God’s opinion of you? Why is this so important to know? Let’s look and see.
BEING KNOWN OF GOD
Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
—Matthew 7:21–23
(All scriptures are KJV)
Wow, what a powerful scripture. Jesus is talking here about people in the church. He says that not everyone who calls him Lord will enter the kingdom. Not everyone will come in the correct way. To call him Lord is to tell him he is in control. That means he is talking about people who think they are in the church. Notice their conversation. These people prophesied in Jesus’s name; they cast out devils in Jesus’s name. You cannot do this without knowing a little about who God is.
But Jesus said in verse 23, And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you.
Since God is aware of everyone, we can assume here that when he said, I never knew you , it did not mean he was not aware of us. The word used here for, to know, is the same word used by the Jews for a husband and wife coming together.
What it means here is that there was no love relationship between them and God.
That is why the church is called the bride of Christ. God longs to have a close relationship with us.
Jesus states here these people on the outside of the door are workers of iniquity.
When you look at what these people were doing, you notice some things. They were ministering before the Lord. We know this because they were casting out devils and prophesying in Jesus’s name. Since they were active in ministry, we can assume they attended church regularly and paid their tithes. This is not what got them in trouble. The thing that God was upset with was not what they did but what they did not do. In all the things they did right, Jesus told them they did not obey the will of the Father. It was not what they did; it was how they did it. They did it without having a true relationship with Jesus. You see, it does not matter that you go to church, dress right, act right; if you are not obeying what God has instructed you to do, you are a worker of iniquity.
Jesus says in verse 21, “But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
How do you obey the Father?
By hearing and doing the words of the Father, according to James 1:22: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own se lves.
You see, the problem is much bigger than that. I have done some traveling in my life and have come to realize, we do not know how to hear the voice of God, much less obey that voice.
I have heard pastors preach that it’s not important to hear the voice of God. I have even had some close to me say it’s not normal to hear the voice of God.
Please show me that in scripture, if you believe that nonsense.
Anyone with at least a casual reading of the scriptures would see that it is not only normal, it is essential to making heaven our home.
Jesus said in John 10, My sheep know my voice.
My question to you today is, whose sheep, are you?
Verse 24 of Matthew 7 starts out with the conjunction therefore, meaning, that being the case or because of this , and then talks about building your house on the rock.
So what Jesus is saying is, in order to build your house on the rock, you need to be doing the will of the Father.
It is all about whose will you are following. You cannot follow your own will and the Father’s will at the same time. That is impossible.
Paul calls this out plainly in Colossians 2:23: Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honor to the satisfying of the f lesh .
This is not something to seek after.
He is talking here about people who put tradition ahead of the Word, about people who give glory to self and spirits, but don’t give the Head the glory he deserves. They say, do not touch this. Do not taste that. Or do not handle the other , without any scripture to back them up. All according to ordinances, which are nothing else than false teachings that keep us from the truth.
It is called will worship.
Whose will do you worship?
How do we know whose will we are following?
You shall know them by their fruit -Matthew 7:16 KJV
I have a question to ask you. Has your life been bearing fruit lately? Are you tired of going around in a circle?
I have got good news for you: You have time to make a change. Repent, let God have control, and seek him with all your heart.
Let us make this more personal. We’ve all got to make this choice ourselves. Knowing God and who he is, that is important. But him having an intimate relationship with me is more important.
The people in Matthew 7 knew the name of Jesus, because they cast out devils in Jesus’s name. But they did not have a relationship with the God of the name.
Let us look a little closer at what the Bible says about God knowing us.
 
CHAPTER 1
KNOWN OF GOD
We open this dialogue in Exodus 33 with God telling Moses to go to the Promised Land. In the prior chapters, Moses had just returned from the mountaintop, where he had talked to the Lord for forty days. Somewhere on this mountain, his servant Joshua stayed behind. God gave Moses instructions in how to construct and administrate the Law.
At the end of this time, God wrote on stone tablets the Ten Commandments, which would become the foundation of his teaching.
God sent Moses back dow