How do you visualize God?

We know facts about God's character, but we don't have a visual picture of God. So how do you visualize God and His Son to be like when you pray?

I'm interested in the doctrinal and practical aspects to this. After all, Scripture encourages us to fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2). Would be great to hear of your perspectives.

How do you imagine God to be like - what do you 'see' (so to speak) - when you pray?

Jesus said that if we know him, we know the Father. It is not important to visualize Him, but to know Him. In fact it is probably dangerous to try to visualize Him. What do you say?

I just wanted to make it clear that this is not a New Age thread, which definitely has no place on this forum. The concept and even the word 'visualize' preceded New Age practices - I believe there is no need to fear using the term itself.

yuehan,

How do I visualize God And His Son,..?

The Scriptures says, God is Spirit,..invisible,...God is The Word,..He who Speaketh and it is done,...He is Breath.

The Lord,He is God,...The Lord,He is God.
Lord: King / Ruler,..The Holy One.
Above all,....ALMIGHTY

He is The Spirit / Word,....which is The Holy Spirit that comes to Live in us.

And,I see Jesus as The Son of God,as Paul,Peter,and the others referred to Him over and over in the Scripture.
I see Him,as shedding His Precious Blood. And because of His sacrifice,has made an entrance for us to enter in...that,.."as many as received Him,to them gave He power to become the children of God,even to them that believe on His Name." ( Jn.1:12 )

I see His Name,and God' Name,as everything that ,that Name stands for.
( The whole counsel of God,...His Word / The Word.
I see That Name / That Word,..that He gives to us through The Holy Spirit,..if we allow it to do It' work in us,..it makes us one with He and The Father.

elizabeth

John14:9: "Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?"

When I read about Jesus in the Gospels I see a humble person, a servant who speaks with power and authority. In Revelation I see a man who has triumphed over whatever obstacles the devil threw his way - there He is the King of Kings...and the Father is in the background supervising it all.

In my mind I visualize God as being so holy, so holy yet so merciful, so awesoome I am not sure I could stand to look at him very long without bowing my head in reverence at his holiness.

So sacred, so holy, so kind, so merciful, so full of love..this is what I "see in his eyes", how I visualize God.

Sandra

There are Christians that are being taught in some circles to create an image of Jesus in your mind.

I find that this is not only unscriptural but it is dangerous. The enemy is more than ready to accommodate any one that uses Visualization techniques.

The Holy Spirit has come to reveal Jesus Christ to us. When the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us in any of His attributes, then we are seeing God, not an image, but a knowledge.

There are many Christians that have had divine encounters with the Lord and have seen the Lord. Many Muslims are being saved because they are having dreams, visions, and divine encounters with Jesus Christ.

We should be praying the prayer in Ephesians. We should be praying that God would give to us and to the church the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. We should be asking the Lord to open our eyes.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God". (Matthew 5:8).

"But we all looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Cor. 3:18).

We need to spend time in the presence of the Lord every day, and also in fellowship with other believers.

"When you said, "Seek My face", My heart said to you, "Your face Lord, I will seek." (Psalm 27:8). 4

So how do you visualize God and His Son to be like when you pray?

I find no need to visualize God in prayer, for the moment we walk by faith and not by sight and that is enough for me. God has appointed that by faith we endure as seeing Him who is invisible; it's as if we saw God because He has given us the earnest of His Spirit.

In Christ,

Hello yuehan,

Which is the better sight? To see with the eyes or to perceive with the heart?

Blessings,

Hello brother,
For me, and I'm only speaking for me, it's compulsory to imagine/visualize our Father when in prayer and cannot really conceive otherwise. That being said my personal visualizations vary depending on my current disposition which is at best inconsistent. I was taught a prayer model in the beginning of my discipleship training to magnify God, His glory, holiness, beauty, power, love, faithfulness, mercy etc... This requires me to visualize Him in all His manifold wisdom that my tiny but grateful mind can muster! Still while it certainly falls short of His fullness, it nonetheless serves to help build my faith in the One who is capable to save to the uttermost by affirming Him with the eyes of my heart... Faith. It is also a quite humbling practice.
I have noticed times where I have imagined Him on His throne as Ginneyrose stated; so holy so as to be unapproachable in His majesty. Other times He is very accessible, so much so I've found myself in His lap being personally and intimately cared for and this I can assure you is a most comforting experience.
Still other times when I was in a "dry place" I had imagined Him being far away, almost abstract in relation to the experience I was having. These are often followed by times of refreshing, of intimate communion.
Other times while worshipping I imagine Him leaning forward with a pleasant look upon Him, receiving the offering of praise.
While other times I imagine Him weeping over the faithlessness of His people,...over their/our unbelief.
Incidentally when I image my savior, His Son, my King Lord Jesus, I imagine Him as He is presently; at the right hand of the Father and not on the cross as some do. While that's between themselves and the Lord it is my perspective and rendering of scripture that to acknowledge Him as He is,...alive- is to affirm His resurrection and bring glory to God:)
Not sure if this is what you meant but hope this helps as I found your question humble and sincere.
Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

I do believe that those who claim they do not have some image of Jesus in their mind are likely not 100% truthful. I agree that we should not dwell on that image but I do not think it is possible not to have some image in our minds.

Plus- we are given a description of his glorified image in Rev. 1.

I have occasional flashes of visual thought of God and of eternity with Him looks like but they are fleeting thoughts such that it is impossible for me to give any definite description.

I have no known consistent image that I can witness to.

It is one thing for the Holy Spirit to give you a
Dream, vision, or revelation of Jesus Christ.
When we read the living Word, the Holy Spirit
is able to show us Jesus, because our minds
and imagination are flooded with light.

It is quite another thing to conjure up images
and pictures in your mind of God. When this
happens the image is merely a product of
your imagination.

The late brother Keith Green had made a statement his sermon "Devotion or devotions?" Which is,I believe, available here on SermonIndex, that had a profound effect on my prayer life. He had suggested that instead of ritualistically reciting a prayer asking a far off God to bless our food, to visualize Jesus standing right in front of us giving us the food, feeding us out of Himself as He does all of creation everyday! And just say thank you from this place of being humbled by His caring presence. I realized this was communion,... His presence and the provision in it.
I had realized that I had been taking my meals for granted as if they were owed me, but this definitely helped to position my heart in a humble fashion and to renew the spirit of my mind to His presence and care for His sheep.
While he didn't go I into the semantics of His appearance, the admonition was in fact to visualize Jesus in prayer.