Who God Is

109. Disguises of God

Have you ever felt like God is hiding, that you cannot see Him? Do you ever feel like He is disguised?

The word disguise means to change the appearance to prevent recognition. Now we know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so He cannot change or deceive us. So it just appears to us to be a disguise. In other words, the problem is in our seeing, not in His changing.

2 Corinthians 4:4 (Amplified Bible) says, “For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers’ minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God.”

In the Garden of Eden when Adam sinned, God said that his eyes were opened. The word opened means to open the senses and be observant of things you did not see before. Adam discovered the things of the senses and could not see the things of the spirit anymore.

Abraham: God was made real to Abraham without a Bible or any other help. Abraham heard His voice and believed, and it was counted to him as righteousness. He heard God say to follow Him. He was disguised as a voice in the stars, a burning pot in a pool of blood, as a man to whom Abraham served dinner. He was disguised as a ram in the thicket when Abraham took Isaac up to the mountain of sacrifice.

Isaiah: He prophesied that God would come as a man and that nobody would give Him any attention. He said that God would be disguised as a suffering servant, His appearance marred more than any man’s; He would be despised and rejected.

In John 1 Jesus was disguised as the Word.

They did not recognize Him even though He made the world with His Word. But to many who received Him He gave the power to become the sons of God.

John 1. John the Baptist said, “Look, here comes the Lamb of God.”

In John 1 Andrew saw through His disguise and knew He was the Messiah; he ran to get his brother Peter to show him.

John 2. He was disguised as a wedding guest who turned water into wine. John 2:15 says that He was disguised as a mad man turning over all the money merchant tables in the Temple.

John 3. Nicodemus knew He was special and had some sort of disguise; he sought Him out in the safety of the night and said, “Who are You?”

John 4. The sin beaten Samaritan woman thought he was a Jewish traveler who got off the beaten path. She discovered He was the Messiah and she told her entire village about Him.

John 4:47. The Centurion had a sick servant. Jesus disguised Himself as the Word to be trusted. The Centurion saw He was God.

John 5:13. After Jesus healed the invalid He hid Himself in the crowd.

John 5:39. He told the experts in the Scriptures that “Ye search the Scriptures looking for Me, but you give Me no welcome” (John 5:39-41). He was disguised to them as an ordinary man.

John 7:17. He told the crowd that if any man would do His will, he would know who He was. Disguised as the Word to be obeyed.

John 8:58. He told the crowd that He existed before Abraham thousands of years ago; He said, “Before Abraham was, I Am.”

John 9:25. The blind man did not know who He was after He healed him. All he knew is that once he was blind but now he could see.

John 10. Disguised as the Shepherd. The sheep could hear His voice. Disguised to the world but not to His own.

John 11. After Lazarus died, He was disguised as the One who did not care or who did not have sufficient power. But Mary and Martha eventually saw Him as the Resurrection and the Life.

John 12. Mary uncovered His disguise when she poured out her expensive perfume on Him.

John 12:15. He rode into town on a donkey; the Messiah was supposed to come on a white horse in conquering style.

John 12:40 says that He blinded their eyes, yet in spite of this, some could see.

John 14:19. He said, “You will see me after I leave here, but the world will not. I will be disguised as the Holy Spirit.”

John 14:21 says, “Whoever does My Word will see Me, I will make Myself real to him.”

John 15. He was disguised as a vine.

John 16. Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit will reveal Him and they will see Him again.

John 17:6. In His prayer He said, “I have made Myself real to the people You gave to Me.”

John 18-19. He was misjudged as a criminal in disguise, and crucified.

John 20:14. At the resurrection Mary did not recognize Him at first, but when He called her name and said, “Mary,” she said, “Rabboni! Oh, I can see You.”

John 20:20. He uncovered His disguise to His disciples.

John 21. He was disguised as the cook who gave them all they needed in their fishing business.

Matthew 24. He was disguised as the storms of life. But actually the storms of life are just His coming to save us in a sin-racked world. He warned us that the signs of trouble were to be seen as His purposes being accomplished.

Mark 6:48. He was disguised as a ghost walking on the troubled waters of life to help the disciples. Their miracle was disguised as a problem.

Matthew 25:5. He was disguised as the One who would not keep His Word, He seemed late for His appointment. But to the wise, they knew He was faithful. He was disguised as the One who left his goods for His servants. Some thought Him to be a hard taskmaster (Matthew 25:24-25). “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:5).

Matthew 25:44. He was disguised as the poor, the naked, as those in jail. Matthew 25:44 says, “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?”

Romans 13. He is disguised as our authorities in life; our parents, our teachers, our leaders, our police, our bosses.

His best award-winning disguise was at the Cross.

He was the Lamb of God who took away your sin and mine; they did not even recognize Him. But the earthquake did, and so did the huge veil in the Temple which ripped apart. For a moment in time, the Father did not even recognize Him – He had to turn His head away and forsake Him.

All of that took place so that we could be accepted and could know that God would always recognize every hair on our heads, every emotion that went bad, every problem that we would face. God never goes to sleep. He always sees us. God sometimes is disguised to us, but we are never disguised to Him. He has a record of every word we say; He knows every thought before we think it. He knows the mistakes we will make next year, yet, He cares for us.

John 6:66. He disguised Himself as the bread of life. He told His disciples that they needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood if they wanted life. Was He talking about being a cannibal? He was undisguising the blood covenant between man and God. Then He took it a step further. He said that the blood covenant was not in eating each other’s flesh and blood, but that the Life of the covenant was actually transferred by His Words. Is this why the Word of God is so special? Why do people give it so little value? Jesus said that the test of how much you love Him is how much you love His Word.

God is invisible to our five natural senses.

If He were not, He would overwhelm us and we would not be able to choose Him out of love. Instead, it would be out of fear.

When Moses spoke with the Israelites, he forgot to put a veil on his face to keep the light beams hidden. He had been in God’s presence and his face was so bright that it gave off beams that made the people afraid. When Moses wanted to get a point across, he took the veil off until he finished speaking so that they would know he had been with God. This satisfied their need for a sensory look at God.

2 Corinthians 3 says that there is a greater glory now than Moses had on his face. Under the New Covenant, when a person turns in repentance to the Lord, the veil is taken off of that person’s face and he then can see God through the Holy Spirit without anyone else’s help (2 Corinthians 3:16).

When this is done, we see God for ourselves and all of His so-called disguises begin to fall away little by little. We get back to the Tree of Life, the real Word of God and we begin to see like Adam did originally. When that happens, we fall in love with Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit who is in us. This love relationship deepens until we see more and more.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (Amplified Bible) says, “And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.”

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