What should we call God?
When you’re communicating with God, how do you refer to God?
Do you call Him Father? God? Lord? Yahweh? Some see God as feminine – so perhaps Mother?
The thing is – many people have some very strong ideas about how we must refer to God to be successful in communicating with God. Some folks go so far as to say that if you call God by any name other than His correct one He won’t hear you. There may even be a few people who believe there is some sort of punishment associated with calling God something other than whatever they perceive His correct name to be.
So what are the names of God? Or perhaps what is THE name of God?
Personally I use “Father”. I don’t view God as masculine or feminine anymore. Spirit is neither and God is spirit. I was raised with that terminology and I’m comfortable with it. In my relationship with God what I call Him isn’t important.
Let’s assume that you’ve never tried to communicate with God before and now for whatever reason the events and experiences of your life are creating a desire within you to connect with God. You’re wondering about names for God.
How should you go about calling out to God?
Well, there are a few things that need to be understood first.
1. God created you. You are in His image.
You could read the story of the father and two sons in Luke 15. That’s a story that Jesus told about a son who spent much of his life away from the father and then returned. Jesus told the story to help you and I understand the great love the Father has for his children.
2. You are one with God.
Your spirit and His spirit are intertwined in such a way that it’s impossible to tell where one starts and the other begins.
Scripture teaches that our spirit returns to God who gave it. Jesus’s final words on the cross “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit”. Spirit is the “real” you. It’s not limited by physical constraints of any kind. It’s that aspect of you that is one with God.
3. Bible characters didn’t seem to stress over what to call God.
I can’t think of a single place in the Bible where there was a question about how to address God. There were different approaches to communicating with God – from prayer to sacrifices to casting lots. If Bible characters didn’t worry about it and Jesus didn’t specifically address it – I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.
There’s another issue that comes into play here as well. The God we read about in the Bible was defined in the Hebrew language. So there’s a language barrier to some extent.
I suppose we could all learn Hebrew, read the scrolls and try to better understand God in that way – but the reality is there are folks doing that and – well…. it doesn’t appear they’re any better off in terms of communicating with God. A relationship with God doesn’t come by studying scripture, Hebrew, Greek or anything else. Hearing God’s voice isn’t reserved for any particular person or group of people.
Let’s imagine for a moment that the language of the Old Testament was English. Let’s imagine that the King James Version of the Bible was the original text. Would it really make any difference? Would you suddenly be connected to God?
What if it was Japanese, Spanish, French or some other language?
Alright I’m getting a little off track here and you get my point.
Let’s remember that we are dealing with Infinite Spirit here. God isn’t a being that becomes upset if you call Him something other than what someone else thinks He should be called.
If you’re God is the sort that does, then I guess you’d better figure out what He wants to be called and stick with that.
My God, however doesn’t care. He just wants to communicate with me, and does. We just don’t sweat the small stuff. Sometimes He calls me Robert and sometimes He just calls me without using my name.
I like it just the way it is.
If you’re still worried about what to call God, try this.
Get still. I mean really still. Still all your ideas and thoughts about God – even the ones about what to call Him. Then ask God what He would like you to call Him.
Whatever comes to you will be your answer. Go with that. That is something between you and God. It may be a personal name just for you to use.
When you get your answer, realize that every other person may be getting the same or different answer. God by any other name still wants a personal relationship with you. It doesn’t matter what your name for God is.
What matters is that you’re communicating with God!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is my first time here and I have enjoyed several of your topics and do stand in agreement with mostly everything you have suggested. However, when reading this particular article I felt that it seemed a bit too misleading to suggest that coming up with any name that comes to our mind would be ok with God and that any name will give us the access we need to connect with communicate with open up to grow in or otherwise commune with the father or any parts of the Godhead for that matter.
Bible characters didn’t seem to stress over what to call God.
YOU WROTE
“I can’t think of a single place in the Bible where there was a question about how to address God. There were different approaches to communicating with God – from prayer to sacrifices to casting lots. If Bible characters didn’t worry about it and Jesus didn’t specifically address it – I don’t think it’s anything to worry about”.
Have we fallen for the eternally fatal deception, “All roads lead to God”? This statement is becoming increasngly more and more popular.
DOES ALL OR ANY NAMES LEAD TO GOD? LET’S DO SOME BIBLICAL RESEARCH!
fOR THOSE WHO CARE AND HAVENT GOTTEN OFF THE LADDER ON TO THE TERRACE..YET….. (smile)
Let’s see what the bible says about names in particular.
Acts 16:30-31, KJV …Sirs, what must I do to be saved? [31] And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
SO……What name was written here in the original Hebrew? Was it yahshua? Believe on ………. where is the language barrier? Is it too hard to search and find out what the orignal language said in each of these scriptures where it says BY NO OTHER NAME? i THINK THATS SPELLED OUT VERY PLAINLY. DONT YOU?
Look at each instance where we read the name Jesus here….Whatever the original text said…..Search it for yourself, but let us read these scriptures so that we may know how dangerous it may be, to just blurt out any pet name for God or his Son. Are we serious here just any ol name? whatever name we desire?
i dont know but it seems to me according to all the scriputres i went ad found that this could get a bit tricky.
Everywhere you see Jesus Christ written IN THE ENGLISH VERSION HOW ABOUT WE REPLACE IT WITH THE ORIGINAL TEXT AND THEN RE-READ EACH SCRIPTURE BELOW BECAUSE THEN THAT WILL BE THE EXACT AND PRECISE NAME, WE NEED TO BELIEVE UPON, IN ORDER TO BE SAVED ACCORDING TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
•• The apostle Paul was asked by the Philippian jail keeper, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul’s immediate response was to exhort the jailer to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” (or Yashua) and he would be saved.
•• Paul did not offer or suggest multiple roads to God. He set forth Jesus Christ as the pathway to salvation.
•• Jesus Himself stated this same truth, as the next Scripture shows.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
•• The way, the truth, the life! Not “a way” Not any way but the way…..there are not various paths and roads to God there is only one way and he is very very sepcific about it and it behooves us to know what the original scriptures said in these verses..
• Not one of many ways to God, but “the way” (singular).
•• ”I [Jesus] am the way … to the Father.” It is thru Jesus or Yashua that we gain access, connection to , awareness about, mature into greater levels of understanding about,…….. the Father
One can dismiss Jesus’ statement, to one’s eternal peril.
• Or one can accept Jesus as declaring an all-important truth — that is, that He and He alone is the pathway for men and women to come to God.
• Jesus did not allow for other avenues to salvation. He plainly said that “no one comes to the Father except through Me.” I dont know about you all our there but i am on a quest to not have a language barrier if I dont find out anything else about the orignal wording I have to need to want to find out what name was mentioned in the scriptures listed here. Acts 16;30-31 Acts 4:10-12 John 14:6
Ok, I know that you were speaking about a way of communication and developing a realtionship but isnt salvation one of our greatest needs or, isnt forgiveness the factor that gives us that sense of acceptance and a great part or benefit in having this relationship with the Lord in the first place?
•• The apostle Peter joined Jesus and the apostle Paul in declaring the one and only way to salvation, as the following verses show.
Acts 4:10, 12 [The apostle Peter said] Then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed…. [12] Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Now listen, I do believe that we must have a realtionship and be able to hear God speak clearly to us beyond the second hand stories of yesterday but if the bible is worth quoting at all as I see you have done wouldnt the abover scripture be one of those that we would never depart from and would read to understand the true meaning and instructiion behind it?
Peter’s words are unequivocally clear: “Salvation is found in no one else [than Jesus Christ, vs. 10].”
• Not in good works, not in good intentions, not in trying hard. Sadly, millions of people have fallen for the error that says our good works will surely earn us a place in heaven. But the Bible clearly indicates that God’s “great salvation” is by the Lord’s grace, not by our good works.
• Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.
• Titus 3:5, KJV Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.
•• Likewise, Peter asserted that no other living being — past, present, or future — could lead us to God and to salvation. He said, “There is no other name [than Jesus’ name, vs. 10] … by which we must be saved.”
John 3:16 is among the bible’s most famous verses. It promises eternal life to those who come in faith to Jesus. But verses 18 and 36 add some important warnings.
Vs. 18 — “Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” To reject Jesus is to incur God’s condemnation.
Vs. 36 — Eternal life is mentioned again as the reward for those who come in faith to Jesus. But we read the dire warning: “Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” It is a fatal decision to reject God’s only provision for salvation, Jesus Christ.
John 6:66-68 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. [67] “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. [68] Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
John 2:23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
John echoes Jesus’ words that He, Jesus, is the only way to God the Father. He declares in no uncertain terms that “no one who denies the Son has the Father”.
IF WE DESIRE A REALTIONSHIP WITH THE FATHER THEN WE SHOULD ACCEPT THE ETERNAL LIFE HE HAS GIVEN US THRU HIS SON
1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [12] He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
It is wonderful to find eternal “life in His Son.”
It is an eternal disaster to look elsewhere for salvation, for “he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
Hebrews 9:27-28 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, [28] so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
This same crucified, risen, exalted and only Savior Jesus Christ “will appear a second time … to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.”
Are you waiting for Him as Savior? Or have you fallen for the eternally fatal deception, “All roads lead to God”?
DOES ALL OR ANY NAMES LEAD TO GOD? BE CAREFUL AND DO MORE RESEARCH!
Sarah,
The God I have come to know just isn’t concerned with names. I know this isn’t the case with every person’s God and that’s ok.
I’m not attempting to define every person’s God or His name.
You’ve probably realized by now that you and I are looking at the same thing from two different perspectives. You’re welcome to your own.
I’ve already expressed mine.
Blessings,
Robert