By Brother Chikondi, Kamenya Malawi

God, all throughout the Old Testament did not have a body, but appeared to the people in different forms, such as the Burning Bush to Moses, the Cloud by day, and the Pillar of Fire by night, to the children of Israel. Though He sent His angels to many who appeared as men, but no one ever saw God in physical form until Jesus Christ was born. John 1:18 says, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him”.

GOD IS A SPIRIT

The Scripture states that, “God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him, must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:24). In Isaiah 43 and 45, we can read that God the Father said that He alone is God… “And [there is] no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; [there is] none beside Me.”(Isa. 45:21) “Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, [even] I, [am] the LORD; and beside me [there is] No Saviour.” (Isa. 43:10-11)

In these Scriptures, we can clearly see that there is only one God, (not two or three) for in His very First Commandment, Elohim (the self-existing One) solemnly said that “Thou shalt have NO other gods before Me…” (Exodus 20:3)

GOD’S THOUGHTS AND ATTRIBUTES

Way back in eternity, before there ever was a star, a moon, or a galaxy, Elohim has eternal thoughts and attributes that He wanted to express and manifest for His own pleasure and glorification. He hath seen all things from the beginning, for He is infinite and all-knowing. Elohim wanted to be God. The word “God” means “an object of worship”. But there was no one that worships Him at that time and so He then created the angels first, so that He as God is worshipped and is proclaimed as the Almighty.

Elohim also wanted to become a Father. Yet how can He be called a “Father” when He Himself has no children? And so in God’s mind He wanted to create sons and daughters unto Himself so that He could become their Father. Thus, we know that this plan of God was fulfilled and manifested later on. He created Adam and from him He took Eve. It’s a type of the church which was taken from the body of Christ, for the Bible says, “we are flesh of His flesh, and bones of His bones.”

Elohim wanted to become a Saviour. But you see, how can He become a Saviour when there’s no one to be saved in the first place? There has to be a fallen entity first before He could ever display his attributes as a Saviour. We can therefore conclude from this case that God hath foreseen the fall of man and He permitted man to fall from grace in order for God to fulfill His majestic plan of saving them. Man was placed as a “free moral agency” to choose for himself between good and evil. Adam and Eve fell for the wrong choice. But God prepared the solution for sin even before the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8 tells us that the “Lamb was slain “before” the foundation of the world” to act as an atonement for sin. And God wrote our names (God’s elected seed) in the Lamb’s Book of Life even before man could ever commit sin. Christ came to redeem these predestinated seed.

Elohim wanted to be a Healer, too. Yet how can He become a Healer when there’s nobody that’s sick? There has to be a sickness first before He could become a Healer. Which was first, the sickness or the Healer? We can then conclude from here that sicknesses and afflictions are part of God’s permissive will unto men in order to show and manifest to mankind His attributes of being a Healer. Psalms 103:2-3 states, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth ALL thy diseases.” Consider the afflictions of Job, blind Bartimaeous, the woman with the blood issue, and more. Through their affliction, they have declared the glory and healing power of God and served as testimonials of God’s grace through their generations.

God also wanted to manifest Himself as a King, as a Priest, and as a Judge. So there has to be a kingdom set-up, a holy tabernacle set-up, and a judgment bar set up. These are His eternal thoughts and intentions before the foundation of the world, to get glory unto Himself.

GOD’S THOUGHTS EXPRESSED INTO “WORD” (LOGOS)

God, then began to express Himself from eternity, by His spoken Word. Time began when God started speaking. This great Fountain of Spirit which had no beginning or no end, began to express His attributes by the Spoken Word. Out of the existence of the Father went out the “Logos”, which was the Word, which was God’s “Theophany”. It was was a visible body of the great Jehovah God going forth in the beginning. It was called the “Logos”, which in the original Greek, means “something spoken; which includes the thoughts of the Speaker”.

That Logos was God’s “express image”. It was God Himself made into Word. That Logos that went out from the great eternal Spirit was called the “Son” of God. It was the only visible form that this Spirit had. And It was a “theophany”, which means a celestial body, and that body was like a “man”.

Time, then, began when that “Logos” came out of God, as evident in the succeeding scripture. John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made” ..And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.” (John 1:1-3,14).

From that “theophany” is where man was also created by God, after His own image, which was a “spirit-man”:

“And God said, Let US make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”(Genesis 1:26,27).

The “Let US make man in OUR own image” in the above verses refer to God the Father (the great Spirit) talking, speaking to His Theophany Body, which was His begotten Son. We can see here that man was created from that pattern, with both spirit and body realms. We were never created in the image of angels.

Rev. Branham taught us this: “You will never be an Angel. God made Angels, but God made man. And what God does is off of God, which is as eternal as God is. And man’s just as eternal as his Creator, because he was made from eternity. (HEBREWS CHAPTER

5 AND 6, JEFF, IN 57-0908M).

“Brother, I’m telling you; I believe in the resurrection. God will speak one of these days, and we’ll come forth in His image and in His likeness, men and women, not angels, but men and women. God made Angels; we’ll never be Angels. We wasn’t made for Angels. Men are made men. God made man. He intends him to be man. It’s God’s pattern.” (EL SHADDAI.title LA.CA  59-0416)

The “theophany”, which was the Son, is also what’s spoken of in Colossians 1:15-17, which reads: “Who is the IMAGE of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and He is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

That theophany of God was then made FLESH on earth later on in the Person of Jesus Christ through the womb of Mary.

In the following paragraphs, Brother Branham relates to us about the mystery of the Godhead in the Message LAODICEAN CHURCH AGE –  CPT.9, 336-2

“Revelation 3:14 speaks of Jesus as the “Beginning of the Creation of God”. That is Who the Lord Jesus says He is. But those words don’t mean exactly as they sound to us. Just taking them the way they sound has made some people (in fact multitudes of people) get the idea that Jesus was the first creation of God, making Him lower than Godhead. Then this first creation created all the rest of the universe and whatsoever it contains. But that is NOT right. You know that doesn’t line up with the rest of the Bible. The words are, “He is the BEGINNER or AUTHOR of the creation of God.”

Now we know for a surety that Jesus is God, very God. He is the Creator. John 1:3 “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” He is the One of Whom it is said, Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. Also it says in Exodus 20:11, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.” See, there is no doubt that He is the Creator. He was the Creator of a FINISHED PHYSICAL CREATION. Surely we can see what these words mean now. To have any other interpretation would mean that God created God. How could God be created when He, Himself, is the Creator?” (WMB, 336-4 LAODICEAN CHURCH AGE  – CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT.9)