No One Can Fathom

Where is God? What’s our understanding of who He is? How can we reach Him?

Do we imagine an old man with a long white beard sitting on a throne up beyond the clouds? Ezekiel saw this vison; ‘Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him’ (Ezekiel 1:26-28).

Scripture tells us that God’s presence is so vast, ‘even the highest heavens cannot contain Him’ (2 Chronicles 2:6). ‘“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord’ (Jeremiah 23:24). He’s not a physical being who can be measured in space or time. ‘God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit’ (John 4:24). He’s everywhere, and not even restricted by time. ‘Before Abraham was, I am’ (John 8:58).

‘He has set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11). This is too much for my brain to handle. I’m lost within the limitless reaches of His Eternal Spirit. I can’t touch Him. I can’t see Him. How do I find Him?

It’s as if we’re bobbing about like a bucket on the surface of the ocean. He’s all around us. If the bucket fills with water it sinks. Now He’s in the bucket, but the bucket’s still in the ocean. In the same way, when we sink below the surface (as in baptism), we ‘die’ and are submerged into Him. We’re in Him and He’s in us. In His presence we have an intimate relationship with Him, through the Spirit (Ezekiel 36:27). He’s vast beyond measure, but intimate beyond understanding.

Science has lost God in the intricate mechanics of the world. We’re no longer looking for God. We’re looking for answers. We’re so busy trying to put together how it all works we’re missing the Creator Himself. We’re searching for the truth, but finding more and more questions, as we dig deeper into time and space. Jesus said simply, ‘I am the truth’ (John 14:6).

But we can’t find a tangible being. Our senses don’t recognise the spiritual realm. It’s only by our spirit that we become aware of His presence. When we find Him, were hungry for more. To taste is not enough. We want to immerse ourselves into Him, as He longs to fill us with Himself, like the bucket in the ocean.

‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’ (Jeremiah 29:13). When we look for Him and not just for His benefits, strip away all preconceived ideas of what He may be like and pursue Him for Himself, we’ll find Him. ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled’ (Matthew 5:6).

A W Tozer writes: ‘When religion has said its last word, there is little that we need other than God Himself. In Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly longing.

Prayer: Lord, when I look for You I can’t find You. But when I rest in Your presence, You are there. Help me to understand that Your Spirit is within me. I pray that as I look less to myself and my own resources, more of Your presence will fill me, so that I walk more by faith and less by sight, in Jesus’ name. Amen.