Is the Creator a CLOUD-LIKE BEING or Does God Have a Form?
Published: 11th December 2024
Heaven is the spiritual realm. It’s more real than the physical realm since it already existed from eternity and it was from there that the LORD spoke into being the physical realm (Hebrews 11:3 & Colossians 1:16).
Whilst Christ said “God is spirit” (John 4:24), this doesn’t mean the Almighty doesn’t have a form in the spiritual realm, just that God is not a physical being like you & me, that is, until the Son was incarnated (Isaiah 7:14 & Matthew 1:23). For anyone not in the know, ‘Immanuel‘ means “God [is] with us.”
You could say that Heaven itself is the LORD’s throne (Isaiah 66:1-2), but there’s an actual throne room in Heaven, the holy spiritual universe (2 Chronicles 18:18, Psalm 11:4 & Revelation 1:4, 3:21). This passage offers perhaps the most descriptive account of it:
1After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. 4Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits a of God. 6Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.
In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
9Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
11“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
Revelation 4:1-11
This shows that God has a central presence in Heaven. While the LORD is omnipresent — and therefore knows what’s going on everywhere at the same time and is even present everywhere in this sense — God’s obviously not a cloud creature or mist being. Consider Ezekiel’s vision of the LORD’s appearance:
…the hand of the Sovereign LORD came on me there. 2I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man. From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal. 3He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood.
Ezekiel 8:1-3
Here’s a picture of the LORD in one of Daniel’s visions:
9“As I looked,
“thrones were set in place,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
His clothing was as white as snow;
the hair of his head was white like wool.
His throne was flaming with fire,
and its wheels were all ablaze.
10A river of fire was flowing,
coming out from before him.
Thousands upon thousands attended him;
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The court was seated,
and the books were opened.
Daniel 7:9-10
The LORD is referred to here as “the Ancient of Days, which accentuates eternal existence (Isaiah 43:13). Meanwhile the white hair is figurative of purity and wisdom, not necessarily age. As for the flaming throne and the river of fire flowing before him, this points to the Almighty’s position as a powerful judge; the supreme judge, in fact.
I don’t think words can do justice to God’s appearance to flesh & blood readers currently stuck in this fallen physical universe, but the LORD is at least giving us an idea of how to regard his personal being with verses like these.
For more insights, peruse through the articles below…
Related Topics:
Created in the IMAGE OF GOD — What Does It Mean?
What Is GLORY in the Sense of God’s (Shekinah) GLORY?