I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear, falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses

And he walks with me

And he talks with me

And he tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known

(In the Garden. Lyrics by: Johnny Cash)

At first, while it is yet early and we are still young in the Lord, God answers our prayers to teach us about his goodness, his abundance, his loving-kindness. Moses said to God, “Show me your glory,” and God granted his request. The glory of God passed before Moses, but God did not show him his face. He did not stop to embrace him. (Exodus 33:17-23)

But Jesus touches the blind, the lame and the unclean. And he’s calling us to an intimate relationship with himself.

It is more important to Jesus that we know him than it is that we get from the world what we want. Before he tells us to ask, seek and knock, he tells us to seek first and above all things the kingdom of God.

Psalm 42:1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God (NIV).

Jesus assures us that God knows what we need, and that he will continue to supply us with the necessities. At first, while we are getting to know him, God answers our childlike prayers. Jesus says in Matthew 7:11, “If you then…know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (ESV). God gives good gifts to his children who ask him.

Would we rather that our children and grandchildren only come to us when they want something; or that they come to us because they love us want to spend time with us? Which approach is better for the development of their character?

God created all things for us to enjoy, but he doesn’t want us to follow after the creation. He wants us to seek an ever-deepening relationship with himself. He will meet all our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19), but our greatest need is not for anything in this world. Our greatest need is Christ Jesus.

Now Beloved, listen! This is where everything changes. This is where God answers our prayers before we can even ask them. This is the economy of the kingdom of heaven.

Ask for more of God. Seek his face. Knock on the door of his heart!

Pursue him! Follow after him! Call out to him! Until your heart says, “I have found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go…” (Song of Songs 3:4b KJV).

When the most intense desire of our hearts is for more of Jesus, when we call out to God for more and more of himself, he who created the universe will also give us all things. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32 NIV).

God wants us to grow and mature in our relationship with him. When we pray and seem to find no answer, it is because God is weaning us from depending on what the world offers and re-directing our hearts to seek more of him, the Giver.

Every good (earthly) gift, and every perfect (spiritual) gift comes from above, from God (James 1:17). He will not refuse to give us what we need, but at a certain point, he asks us to trust him so completely that all we ask for is more of him. When that happens, he knows that he can trust us to be stewards of his bounty, because our priorities are in an alignment with his heart and not his hands.

Jeanette and I, and our Speak Comfort team, send our loving regards to a young reader who asked, "Are God the Father and God the Son the same? Is Jesus God, God's Son, or both?" We are delighted to receive your question, and Jeanette and I will each post an answer in our blogs.

Let's begin at the beginning! Picture what is happening in Genesis 1:1-3,

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light" (NLT).

In scripture God is referred to by many names, and we'll talk more about that one day in another post. In the very first mention of God in the Bible, in the first verse of the book of Genesis, God is called by the Hebrew name, Elohim.  The name Elohim speaks to us about God in his creative power, and it's important to note here that the word Elohim is plural. That doesn't mean that there was more than one god present at creation. It means that God, as the Trinity: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, were all present participants at the creation, as Elohim, God the Creator.

The story of Genesis begins with "In the beginning," and so does the Gospel of John when he describes Jesus as the Word of God:

"In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone" (NLT).

In the beginning of creation, God, Elohim, was fully present in his creative power as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Is there another place in scripture where all three members of the Trinity are present at the same time? Yes!

Luke's gospel describes the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan river by John the Baptist this way:

"One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, 'You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy'" (NLT).

Jesus was present "in the flesh," as both the Son of man (fully human) and the Son of God (fully divine); God the Father was present, speaking from heaven; and the Holy Spirit was present in the form of a dove. God the Father acknowledged Jesus as his Son, in front of witnesses.

In fact, the apostle John recorded in his gospel that John the Baptist testified, "...'I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Chosen One of God" (NLT).

At Jesus' baptism, God spoke from heaven in front of witnesses to affirm that Jesus is his Son. God also spoke privately beforehand to John the Baptist, giving him instructions on how to recognize the Messiah. God sent his Holy Spirit from heaven, as a confirmation of God's Anointing. 

Are you beginning to see the triune nature of God and how the three members of the Trinity work together? There really are a Father, a Son and a Spirit who are in eternal relationship with each other, and all three are equally Elohim. They are all God. 

The most famous Hebrew prayer is in the book of Deuteronomy, and it's called the Shema prayer:

"Listen Israel: Yahweh is our Elohim. Yahweh is the only God. Love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Names of God Bible, Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

and the New International Version translates Deuteronomy 6:4 like this:

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one."

Therefore we can understand scripture as saying, "Hear, O Israel: Elohim (plural) is one (the Trinity)." Or, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are One.

Is there a place in scripture where we see God the Father and God the Son together in heaven, after the Resurrection? Yes, there is!

Luke tells us the story of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in Acts 6:8-15 through Acts 7:1-60.  Stephen was full of faith and power, and he did great wonders in Jesus' name among the people. But the people set up false witnesses against him, and after Stephen presented a defense by witnessing for Christ as he was prophesied in the Old Testament, the people became enraged and stoned Stephen to death.

Here is a description of what Stephen saw while this was happening:

"But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 'Look,' he said, 'I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God'" (NIV).

At that moment, Stephen and the Holy Spirit were witnesses to Jesus' presence at the right hand of our Father in heaven. Stephen saying that he saw Jesus as the Son of Man tells us that he saw Jesus in his ascended, resurrected body. Jesus tells us in John 4:24 that "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (KJV). Because God is a Spirit, his form is different than our earthly bodies. Stephen saw Jesus in his resurrected body, and saw God in his glory. We could say that Stephen saw God in his "glory body," so to speak, because although God's form is different than Jesus' resurrected body, Stephen could still see God's glory; he isn't invisible.

There is a place in scripture where we find God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit together in heaven.

The apostle John describes the Throne of God in Revelation 4:2-11. In chapter 4, we see God the Father seated on the Throne in verses two and three:

"At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne" (NIV).

Like Stephen, John is describing God seated on his throne, in his glory. John describes the Holy Spirit as seven lamps of fire - which is an image of the menorah - representing the seven spirits of God - which are the seven attributes of the Holy Spirit:

"From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God" (NIV).

In Revelation 5:1, we see God the Father holding a book: "Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals" (NIV).

Only Jesus is worthy to open the book with the seven seals, and we see him in Revelation 5:5-9:

"Then one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.'

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. And they sang a new song, saying:

'You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation'" (NIV).

We can see, from the first verses of Genesis through the book of Revelation, that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, are One God - Three in One - and that they work together, each operating from a different position and function within the Trinity, to fulfill a single purpose.

Jesus is God; He is God the Son. He is fully Man, resurrected and ascended; and he is fully God, eternal and full of power.

As Paul wrote to Jewish believers in the book of Hebrews 1:1-4:

"In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs" (NIV).

May God bless you and keep you, in Jesus' holy name.