God Himself, the Unique I

God’s Authority (I) Part Four

The Creator’s Authority Is Not Constrained by Time, Space, or Geography, and the Creator’s Authority Is Inestimable

Let us look at Genesis 22:17-18. This is another passage spoken by Jehovah God, in which He said to Abraham, “That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.”
Jehovah God blessed Abraham many times that his offspring would multiply—and multiply to what extent? To the extent spoken of in Scripture: “as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea shore.” Which is to say that God wished to bestow upon Abraham a progeny as numerous as the stars of heaven, and as plentiful as the sand on the sea shore. God spoke using imagery, and from this imagery it is not hard to see that God would not merely bestow one, two, or even thousands of descendants upon Abraham, but an uncountable number, enough that they would become a multitude of nations, for God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. And was that number decided by man, or was it decided by God? Can man control how many descendants he has? Is it up to him? It is not even up to man whether or not he has several, let alone as many as “the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea shore.” Who doesn’t wish for their offspring to be as numerous as the stars? Unfortunately, things don’t always turn out the way you want. Regardless of how skillful or capable man is, it is not up to him; none can stand outside of that which is ordained by God. However much He allows you, that is how much you shall have: If God gives you a little, then you shall never have a lot, and if God gives you a lot, it is no use you resent how much you have. Is this not the case? All of this is up to God, not man! Man is ruled by God, and no one is exempt!

When God said “I will multiply your seed,” this was a covenant that God established with Abraham, and like the rainbow covenant, it would be accomplished for eternity, and was also a promise made by God to Abraham. Only God is qualified and capable to make this promise come true. Regardless of whether or not man believes it, regardless of whether or not man accepts it, and regardless of how man views it, and how he regards it, all of this shall be fulfilled, to the letter, according to the words spoken by God. The words of God will not be altered because of changes in the will or conceptions of man, and will not be altered by changes in any person, thing or object. All things may disappear, but the words of God will remain forever. On the contrary, the day that all things disappear is exactly the day upon which the words of God are completely fulfilled, for He is the Creator, and He possesses the authority of the Creator, and the power of the Creator, and He controls all things and all life force; He is able to cause something to come from nothing, or something to become nothing, and He controls the transformation of all things from living to dead, and so for God, nothing could be simpler than multiplying someone’s seed. This sounds fantastical to man, like a fairytale, but to God, that which He decides to do, and promises to do, is not fantastical, nor a fairytale. Instead it is a fact that God has already seen, and which shall surely be accomplished. Do you appreciate this? Do the facts prove that the descendants of Abraham were numerous? And just how numerous? As numerous as “the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea shore” spoken of by God? Did they spread across all nations and regions, to every place in the world? And what accomplished this fact? Was it accomplished by the authority of God’s words? For several hundreds or thousands of years after the words of God were spoken, God’s words continued to be fulfilled, and were constantly becoming facts; this is the might of God’s words, and proof of the authority of God. When God created all things in the beginning, God said let there be light, and there was light. This happened very quickly, was fulfilled in a very short time, and there was no delay for its accomplishment and fulfillment; the effects of God’s words were immediate. Both were a display of God’s authority, but when God blessed Abraham, He allowed man to see another side of the substance of God’s authority, and allowed man to see the inestimability of the Creator’s authority, and moreover, allowed man to see a more real, more exquisite side of the Creator’s authority.

Once the words of God are uttered, the authority of God takes command of this work, and the fact promised by the mouth of God gradually begins to become a reality. Amongst all things, changes begin to occur in everything as a result, much like how, at the arrival of spring, the grass turns green, the flowers bloom, buds sprout from the trees, the birds begin to sing, the geese return, and the fields teem with people…. With the arrival of spring all things are rejuvenated, and this is the miraculous deed of the Creator. When God accomplishes His promises, all things in heaven and on earth renew and change in accordance with the thoughts of God—and none is exempt. When a commitment or promise is uttered from the mouth of God, all things serve its fulfillment, and are maneuvered for the sake of its fulfillment, and all creatures are orchestrated and arranged under the dominion of the Creator, and play their respective role, and serve their respective function. This is the manifestation of the Creator’s authority. What do you see in this? How do you know the authority of God? Is there a range to God’s authority? Is there a time limit? Can it be said to be a certain height, or a certain length? Can it be said to be a certain size or strength? Can it be measured by the dimensions of man? The authority of God does not flicker on and off, does not come and go, and there is no one who can measure just how great His authority is. Regardless of how much time passes, when God blesses a person, this blessing will continue forth, and its continuation will bear testament to the inestimable authority of God, and will allow mankind to behold the reappearance of the inextinguishable life force of the Creator, time and time again. Each display of His authority is the perfect demonstration of the words from His mouth, and it is demonstrated to all things, and to mankind. What’s more, everything accomplished by His authority is exquisite beyond compare, and utterly flawless. It can be said that His thoughts, His words, His authority, and all the work that He accomplishes are all an incomparably beautiful picture, and for the creatures, the language of mankind is incapable of articulating its significance and value. When God makes a promise to a person, whether it be where they live, or what they do, their background before or after they receive the promise, or how great have been the upheavals in their living environment—all this is as familiar to God as the back of His hand. No matter how much time elapses after God’s words have been spoken, for Him, it is as if they have just been uttered. Which is to say that God has the power, and has such authority, that He can keep track of, control, and realize every promise He makes to mankind, and regardless of what the promise is, regardless of how long it takes to be completely fulfilled, and, moreover, regardless of how broad the scope that its accomplishment touches upon—for example, time, geography, race, and so on—this promise will be accomplished, and realized, and, furthermore, its accomplishment and realization will not require Him the slightest effort. And what does this prove? That the breadth of God’s authority and power is enough to control the whole of the universe, and the whole of mankind. God made light, but that does not mean God only manages light, or that He only manages water because He created water, and that everything else is unrelated to God. Is this not a misunderstanding? Although God’s blessing of Abraham had gradually faded from the memory of man after several hundred years, for God, this promise still remained the same. It was still in the process of accomplishment, and had never stopped. Man never knew or heard how God exerted His authority, how all things were orchestrated and arranged, and how many wonderful stories occurred among all things of God’s creation during this time, but every wonderful piece of the display of God’s authority and the revelation of His deeds were passed on and exalted among all things, all things showed forth and spoke of the miraculous deeds of the Creator, and each much-told story of the Creator’s sovereignty over all things shall be proclaimed by all things forever more. The authority by which God rules all things, and the power of God, show all things that God is present everywhere and at all times. When you have witnessed the ubiquity of the authority and power of God, you will see that God is present everywhere and at all times. The authority and power of God are unconstrained by time, geography, space, or any person, matter or thing. The breadth of God’s authority and power surpasses the imagination of man; it is unfathomable to man, unimaginable to man, and shall never be completely known by man.

Some people like to infer and imagine, but how far can man’s imagination reach? Can it go beyond this world? Is man capable of inferring and imagining the authenticity and accuracy of God’s authority? Are the inference and imagination of man capable of allowing him to achieve a knowledge of God’s authority? Can they make man truly appreciate and submit to the authority of God? Facts prove that the inference and imagination of man are only a product of man’s intellect, and provide not the slightest help or benefit to man’s knowledge of God’s authority. After reading science fictions, some are able to imagine the moon, and what the stars are like. Yet this does not mean that man has any understanding of the authority of God. Man’s imagination is just that: imagination. Of the facts of these things, which is to say, of their connection to God’s authority, he has absolutely no grasp. So what if you have been to the moon? Does this show that you have a multidimensional understanding of God’s authority? Does it show that you are able to imagine the breadth of God’s authority and power? Since the inference and imagination of man are incapable of allowing him to know the authority of God, what should man do? The wisest option would be to not infer or imagine, which is to say that man must never rely on imagination and depend on inference when it comes to knowing the authority of God. What is it I wish to say to you here? Knowledge of God’s authority, God’s power, God’s own identity, and God’s substance cannot be achieved by relying on your imagination. Since you cannot rely on imagination to know the authority of God, then in what way can you achieve a true knowledge of God’s authority? Through eating and drinking the words of God, through fellowship, and through experiencing the words of God, you will have a gradual experience and verification of God’s authority and thus you will gain a gradual understanding and incremental knowledge of it. This is the only way to achieve the knowledge of God’s authority; there are no shortcuts. Asking you not to imagine is not the same as making you sit passively to await destruction, or stopping you from doing anything. Not using your brain to think and imagine means not using logic to infer, not using knowledge to analyze, not using science as the basis, but instead appreciating, verifying, and confirming that the God you believe in has authority, confirming that He holds sovereignty over your fate, and that His power at all times proves Him to be the true God Himself, through the words of God, through the truth, through everything that you encounter in life. This is the only way that anyone can achieve an understanding of God. Some say that they wish to find a simple way of achieving this aim, but can you think of such a way? I tell you, there’s no need to think: There are no other ways! The only way is to conscientiously and steadfastly know and verify what God has and is through every word that He expresses and everything that He does. This is the only way to know God. For what God has and is, and everything of God, is not hollow and empty—but real.

The Fact of the Creator’s Control and Dominion Over All Things and Living Beings Speaks of the True Existence of the Creator’s Authority

Similarly, Jehovah’s blessing of Job is recorded in the Book of Job. What did God bestow upon Job? “So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses” (Job 42:12). From man’s perspective, what were these things given to Job? Were they man’s assets? With these assets, would Job have been very wealthy during that age? And how did he acquire such assets? What caused his wealth? It goes without saying that it was thanks to the blessing of God that Job came to possess them. How Job viewed these assets, and how he regarded the blessings of God, is not something we’ll go into here. When it comes to the blessings of God, all people yearn, day and night, to be blessed by God, yet man has no control over how many assets he can gain during his lifetime, or whether he can receive blessings from God—and this is an indisputable fact! God has authority, and has power to bestow any assets upon man, to allow man to obtain any benediction, yet there is a principle to God’s blessings. What kind of people does God bless? The people that He likes, of course! Abraham and Job were both blessed by God, yet the blessings which they received were not the same. God blessed Abraham with descendants as numerous as the sand and the stars. When God blessed Abraham, He caused one man’s descendants, one nation, to become powerful and prosperous. In this, the authority of God ruled mankind, who breathed the breath of God among all things and living beings. Under the sovereignty of God’s authority, this mankind proliferated and existed at the speed, and within the scope, decided by God. Specifically, this nation’s viability, rate of expansion, and life expectancy were all part of God’s arrangements, and the principle of all of this was wholly based on the promise that God made to Abraham. Which is to say that, regardless of the circumstances, God’s promises would proceed without hindrance and be realized under the providence of God’s authority. In the promise that God made to Abraham, regardless of the world’s upheavals, regardless of the age, regardless of the catastrophes endured by mankind, the descendants of Abraham would not face the risk of annihilation, and their nation would not die out. God’s blessing of Job, however, made him extremely wealthy. What God gave him was an array of living, breathing creatures, the particulars of which—their number, their speed of propagation, survival rates, the amount of fat on them, and so on—were also controlled by God. Though these living beings did not possess the ability to speak, they too were part of the Creator’s arrangements, and the principle of God’s arrangements was according to the blessing that God promised to Job. In the blessings that God gave to Abraham and Job, though what was promised was different, the authority with which the Creator ruled all things and living beings was the same. Every detail of God’s authority and power is expressed in His different promises and blessings to Abraham and Job, and once again shows mankind that the authority of God is far beyond man’s imagination. These details tell mankind once more that if he wishes to know God’s authority, then this can only be achieved through God’s words and through experiencing God’s work.

God’s authority of sovereignty over all things allows man to see a fact: God’s authority is not only embodied in the words “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light, and, Let there be firmament, and there was firmament, and, Let there be land, and there was land,” but, moreover, in how He made the light continue, prevented the firmament from disappearing, and kept the land forever separate from the water, as well as in the details of how He ruled over and managed the creatures: light, firmament, and land. What else do you see in God’s blessing of mankind? Clearly, after God blessed Abraham and Job, God’s footsteps did not cease, for He had only just begun to exert His authority, and He intended to make every one of His words a reality, and to make every one of the details of which He spoke come true, and so, in the years to come, He continued doing everything that He intended. Because God has authority, perhaps it seems to man that God only speaks, and does not need to lift a finger for all matters and things to be accomplished. To imagine thus is somewhat ridiculous! If you only take the one-sided view of God’s establishment of the covenant with man using words, and of God’s accomplishment of everything using words, and you are incapable of seeing the various signs and facts that the authority of God holds dominion over the existence of all things, then your understanding of God’s authority is too hollow and ridiculous! If man imagines God to be thus, then, it must be said, man’s knowledge of God has been driven to the last ditch, and has reached a dead end, for the God that man imagines is but a machine that issues orders, and not the God who is possessed of authority. What have you seen through the examples of Abraham and Job? Have you seen the real side of God’s authority and power? After God blessed Abraham and Job, God did not stay where He was, nor did He put His messengers to work while waiting to see what the outcome would be. On the contrary, as soon as God uttered His words, under the guidance of God’s authority, all things began to comply with the work that God intended to do, and there were prepared the people, things, and objects that God required. Which is to say that, as soon as the words were uttered from the mouth of God, God’s authority began to be exerted across the whole land, and He set a course in order to accomplish and fulfill the promises that He made to Abraham and Job, while also making all the proper plans and preparations for all that was required for every step and each key stage He planned to carry out. During this time, God not only maneuvered His messengers, but also all things that had been created by Him. Which is to say that the scope within which God’s authority was exerted not only included the messengers, but, moreover, all things, which were maneuvered in order to comply with the work that He intended to accomplish; these were the specific manners in which the authority of God was exerted. In your imaginings, some may have the following understanding of God’s authority: God has authority, and God has power, and so God need only remain in the third heaven, or need only remain in a fixed place, and need not do any particular work, and the entirety of God’s work is completed within His thoughts. Some may also believe that, although God blessed Abraham, God did not need to do anything, and it was enough for Him to merely speak His words. Is this what really happened? Clearly not! Although God is possessed of authority and power, His authority is true and real, not empty. The authenticity and reality of God’s authority and power are gradually revealed and embodied in His creation of all things, and control over all things, and in the process by which He leads and manages mankind. Every method, every perspective, and every detail of God’s sovereignty over mankind and all things, and all the work that He has accomplished, as well as His understanding of all things—they all literally prove that the authority and power of God are not empty words. His authority and power are shown forth and revealed constantly, and in all things. These manifestations and revelations speak of the real existence of God’s authority, for He is using His authority and power to continue His work, and to command all things, and to rule all things at every moment, and His power and authority cannot be replaced by the angels, or the messengers of God. God decided what blessings He would bestow upon Abraham and Job—it was up to God. Even though the messengers of God personally visited Abraham and Job, their actions were according to the commandments of God, and under the authority of God, and they were also under the sovereignty of God. Although man sees the messengers of God visit Abraham, and does not witness Jehovah God personally do anything in the records of the Bible, in fact, the only One who truly exerts power and authority is God Himself, and this brooks no doubt from any man! Although you have seen that the angels and the messengers possess great power, and have performed miracles, or they have done some things commissioned by God, their actions are merely for the sake of completing God’s commission, and are by no means a display of the authority of God—for no man or object has, or possesses, the authority of the Creator to create all things and rule all things. And so no man or object can exert or show forth the authority of the Creator.

The Authority of the Creator Is Immutable and Unoffendable

What have you seen in these three parts of scripture? Have you seen that there is a principle by which God exerts His authority? For example, God used a rainbow to establish a covenant with man, in which He placed a rainbow in the clouds in order to tell man that He would never again use a flood to destroy the world. Is the rainbow people see today still the same one that was spoken from the mouth of God? Has its nature and meaning changed? Without a doubt, it has not. God used His authority to carry out this action, and the covenant that He established with man has continued until today, and the time at which this covenant is altered is, of course, up to God. After God said “set my bow in the cloud,” God always abided by this covenant, right up until today. What do you see in this? Although God is possessed of authority and power, He is very rigorous and principled in His actions, and stays true to His word. His rigorousness, and the principles of His actions, show the unoffendableness of the Creator and the insuperability of the Creator’s authority. Though He is possessed of supreme authority, and all things are under His dominion, and although He has the power to rule all things, God has never damaged or disrupted His own plan, and each time He exerts His authority, it is in strict accordance with His own principles, and precisely follows that which was spoken from His mouth, and follows the steps and objectives of His plan. Needless to say, all things ruled by God also obey the principles by which God’s authority is exerted, and no man or thing is exempt from the arrangements of His authority, nor can they alter the principles by which His authority is exerted. In God’s eyes, those who are blessed receive the good fortune brought about by His authority, and those who are cursed receive their punishment because of God’s authority. Under the sovereignty of God’s authority, no man or thing is exempt from the exertion of His authority, nor can they alter the principles by which His authority is exerted. The authority of the Creator is not altered by changes in any factor, and, similarly, the principles by which His authority is exerted do not alter for any reason. Heaven and earth may undergo great upheavals, but the authority of the Creator will not change; all things may vanish, but the authority of the Creator will never disappear. This is the substance of the Creator’s immutable and unoffendable authority, and this is the very uniqueness of the Creator!

from Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh

Recommended:The Church of Almighty God was born of people of Christianity, Catholicism, and other sects and denominations who accepted the name of Almighty God.