Do We Really Need God, or Can We Live Without Him? (Part 4)

by Creflo Dollar | 13 Jan 2019


There is a massive failure affecting the spiritual walk of a large number of people, causing them to declare that they do not need God—the failure of preachers to correctly teach about God’s true nature. Statistics show an increasing percentage of atheists who were formerly Christians, but walked away from God. This is due to a widespread misconception about who He is, and what He is really like. To truly know God’s nature, we must correctly interpret the Scriptures pertaining to the old covenant agreement versus the new covenant agreement. Most churches still teach the Law of Moses, which focuses on God’s punishment; this gives us a wrong picture of Him. God has not changed, but the covenant under which He deals with us has. When we realize that He is our heavenly Father who deeply loves us and wants a personal relationship with us, we can position ourselves to receive the good things He wants to give us.

  1. When God gave the law, the people thought they could keep it though their own efforts.
      1. When the people touched the mountain, three thousand of them died. However, previously God had delivered then out of Egypt, and no one died. He delivered them not because of anything they did, but because of His goodness.
      2. God led the people through the wilderness, fed them, and gave them water, by His mercy and grace. What angered Him was their refusal to acknowledge that they needed Him. Just like the children of Israel, we need God.
      3. “We will do” indicated that the people thought they could keep all the law without God’s grace. They believed they could succeed by their own merits.
      1. The Ten Commandments, plus all the accompanying laws, were given to show the people they needed a Savior.
      2. Because of man’s evil nature that resulted from Adam and Eve’s sin, the law was designed to keep the people in check until Jesus came. The law was never God’s original plan.
  1. The law was perfect, and impossible to keep. God gave it to the people to increase sin.
      1. God gave the laws knowing that the people were unable to keep them. He told the people to keep all the commandments; only Jesus was able to do that.
      2. Breaking even one law brought guilt and condemnation.
      4. The law was a conditional agreement based on man’s performance. There were no blessings unless all of the law was kept.
      1. Our impression of God determines how we receive from Him.
      2. This re-affirms how unique God is. Nothing compares to Him.
      3. The future is actually God’s Word coming to pass. He causes things to happen simply by declaring them.
  1. We must have the correct impression of God’s nature. He is our loving heavenly Father.
    1. Jesus is the perfect expression of God’s nature. If we try to define His nature by the old covenant, before Christ came, we will have an incomplete picture of God.
      1. In the Old Testament, God was the God who rained fire down from heaven. The disciples still perceived God in this context.
      3. This was not Jesus’ nature. God is not angry anymore; He is not intent on punishing us.
      5. To find true peace, we do not need to be inundated with intellectual Christian principles; we simply need a relationship with the Father.
      6. …But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits (Daniel 11:32).
    2. We must know Jesus, not simply know about Him.
      1. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death (Philippians 3:10).
  1. God only wants the best for us; however, He lets us choose which path in life to take.
      1. We should not blame God for bad things that happen; He made us all free moral agents. He will never take away our freedom of choice by choosing for us.
      1. We must not choose the path that seems right to us based on what we see; we must choose the correct path based on God’s Word.
    3. There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell (Proverbs 14:12, MSG).
      1. God gave us free wills; we can choose for ourselves which path in life to take. Thankfully, if we find ourselves on the wrong path, we can make a U-turn.
      2. God is always talking to us and trying to warn us away from the wrong path. However, if we are not on the same frequency as He is, we will not hear Him.
  1. Previously, God judged and punished. Now, He shows us grace and compassion.
      1. God’s order to kill the man was given under the old covenant agreement, which God could not break. If this is our impression of God, it is outdated.
      1. This gives us a completely different impression of God’s nature. Jesus was the perfect expression of God’s love and grace.
    3. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord (2 Peter 1:1, 2).
      1. God’s true nature is love, mercy, and grace; however, if we do not get in the Word, we will never know His nature.
      2. Grace and peace do not come simply by knowing about God, but by knowing Him through a personal relationship.