Statements of Faith and the Nature of God

All churches have a statement of faith, a belief structure. I have been in churches where it seems that they are constantly preaching and teaching their statement of faith. It's done again and again and again. Obviously preaching and teaching what you believe as a group is a good thing, but there can be things that need to be taught that get overlooked.



We must know what we believe. We need clarity, wisdom and understanding concerning the truths that we hold, and we need a well thought out faith. That is all great! We have to have that and yet we are missing something.


If our group is evangelical we will hear a lot of salvation messages, again that is needed but at the same time we can not grow in maturity only hearing salvation messages. It seems we are constantly rehearsing among ourselves what we believe, where we stand on certain doctrines, and our distinction from others. Now again that in and of itself is not a bad thing, it just cannot be the only thing!

Can you tell me from your experiences with God what He is like?

It seems there are far more who can tell you what is in the Bible than can tell you what God is like, what Jesus is like, and what walking in the Holy Spirit is actually like from experience. At some point, belief must become reality. If truth is anything it is reality. God's truth is reality!

 What is the nature of God, what has He been like for you?

I believe the greatest thing that I am to learn through all of my study of the doctrines of the Bible, is the nature of God. What I mean is when I study about faith what do I learn about the nature of God. When I study about water baptism or the tabernacle in the wilderness what do I learn of the nature of God. When I study about the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11 what do I learn about the nature of God. 


To know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (John 17:3) this is eternal life. The Pharisees of Jesus's day were right about tithing but they were wrong about justice and loving God. (Luke 11:42) They would not come to Jesus for life, they thought they had that through their devotion to Scripture. (John. 5:39-40) How sad for people who devoted themselves to the study of Scripture that they never got to know the God of the Scripture they studied.

It is possible to have a well formulated statement of faith 

and still not know the nature of God that comes through experience with God.