by Sean Portland

Created on: December 19, 2008   Last Updated: December 27, 2008

A person of faith would say God's essence is in His sovereignty and His loving benignity. Despite (arguable) indications to the contrary, for a believer, this is truth- that's what faith is.
However, objectively speaking; to discover a 'nature', one must look for the indicators, the patterns- this a universal truth not peculiar to God- and the magnitude of the issue of God is so great that it is barely within the realms of human comprehension to sense His patterns- those indications that He is there and what his nature is. Because God is to be considered a force within everything, therefore everything is a potential indicator of Gods nature. With this in mind, there is little wonder why faith is required and practiced in the understanding of God- to decipher Gods nature would be the equivalent task of deciphering all happenings, their source and their consequence- minus our own judgement which can never be wholly objective.

For the sake of that pseudo-circumspect which constitutes the human mind and it's limits, it has been natural to try elucidate some of the larger, more general indicators so that we may approach something like a token representation of His nature. The classical direction in this path of thought is that of good and bad happenings in the world. Interminable debates as to God's plan, His responsibility and such. These are a worn discourse which inevitably leads back to the question of faith. I think a fresh direction would be to look at our own freedoms as an indicator of Gods nature.

What is my role in God's world? What is my free will? Do my choices reflect a discord with God, or are they part of God's plan? At this juncture, let us not forget that there are countless religious interpretations of what God is, not just that of the Christian church. For the benefit of conducting as objective an investigation of this nature can be, I here address a commonality between the vast majority of all religious interpretations of God - that God is sovereign, that he is Creator and Lord.

Let's look at our means of understanding. Our intelligence, our insight, our judgement and our words. Did God grant me these tools so that I may believe in, and follow Him? There is evidence to suggest so. Our historical leap in intelligence as human beings is often attributed to Gods will. Insight is a product of intelligence, insight leads to judgement and these have corresponded in the realm of symbolic meaning to give us language (words). God's plan? Let's suppose so

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