When Jesus came, He brought the true revelation of the Father to man and He operated in a very different way.

            If Jesus had come to earth in human form in the Old Testament times, He would have rebuked Elijah and Moses.

                     The Bible is clear that it never was God's desire to deal with man so harshly; that never was His real character.

                                    Because we haven't know this, we have a mixed impression of God.

We, Christians, misunderstand and are confused about who God really is and the relationship He wants with us, because we see Him according to the Old Testament.

             In the Old Testament, He had to deal with man and sin in a different way.

Jesus is the walking, living Word, and when we see Him, we see the Father.

              The problem so many of us Christians are facing is that we are seeing God through the Old Testament instead of through Jesus.

Elijah's actions in obedience to God were not the complete representation of the nature of God.

          The Old Testament cannot give us a total revelation of God by itself.

                   We need the New Testament to understand the fullness of God.

God's nature is not judgment; He does judge, and He is just and holy; but the Bible reveals to us in
1 John 4:8 that "God is love."

            Love is God's real nature.
            He doesn't just have love or operate in love.
            He Is Love, it's His true character.

When we don't look at the whole Word of God, by examining the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, we usually get an Old Testament picture of God as a God of wrath, judgment and punishment.

        That is a truth about God, and those who don't accept the love and forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ will one day experience a terrible day of His judgment.

               But wrath and judgment are not the main nature of God.

We have to come to a place where we really know God and have a very close relationship with Him.

       Religious ideas that come from a misunderstanding of the Bible blocks us from entering into a close relationship with Him.

               Many people are really afraid to come to God because they have been taught or have gotten the impression that He is going strike them with something [like sickness, disease, poverty, disasters,  or death etc]; but that's not the relationship God desires or that His Word teaches.

Under the Old Testament some things were done in the Elijah manner, but that is not the whole nature of God.

      It is important to know who we are really dealing with.

              If we don't know God's nature or really understand Him, then we will never walk in His blessings and His power.

Young believers who think they are prophets believe they are God's lightning rod in the earth. The are going to attract all of the judgment and wrath of God and smite people if they get out of line.

           But that's not a full understanding of the ministry of the prophet, and certainly not the nature of God.

There are some who are examples of true prophets who were not hard and cruel.

       But when people think of the typical prophet they think of the ones like Elijah.

Many Christians, wanting to be great men of God, go back and begin to act like those in the Old Testament.

        Any time certain people are prophets or have the anointing of a prophet, they begin to get harsh and even cruel.

               They think they are acting like Elijah and get into the face of others and rebuke them.

God was operating in the way He had to during the times in the Old Testament.

       What God did throughtout the Old Testament wasn't His true and complete nature, neither was it whom He has revealed Himself to be in the New Testament.

                 But still people have the impression that God is a God of wrath who would wipe out anyone who gets in His way.

The Old Testament is only a partial picture of the nature of God.

                It is not a perfect representation of Him.

        Unless we understand the New Testament and able to harmonize it with the Old Testament, we are going to end up misunderstanding His love and complete nature.

John 11:40

In the Old Testament we see a picture of God that is incomplete.

     It isn't incorrect; it's just incomplete.

              Those who create their understanding of the nature of God based only on the Old Testament usually don't end up with an accurate picture of Him. 

The Word of God doesn't contradict itself.

        There is a perfect harmony to it all.

In one scripture, God commands death by stoning for picking up sticks on the Sabbath day in Numbers 15:32-35; and then in another, He forgives and doesn't condemn a woman caught in the very act of adultery in John 8:3-11.

             Examples like these have given people a rather strange impression of who God is.

Because some people do read and study the Bible on a fairly regular basis, a lot the passages appear to give a 'schizophrenic' revelation of God.

        Of course, God is not schizophrenic, but that is the way it appears to some that casually read the Word of God.

Many Christians don't read God's Word on a regular basis.

          They get a little here and a little there, maybe some from a pastor, some on television.

                 But that is not enough to make a real difference in their lives and specifically in their understanding of God and His nature.