The Personality of God 

Although God is in many ways beyond our ability to comprehend, there is one aspect of God that we can readily comprehend and embrace, and that is the fact of God’s personality. The Universal Father is the very origin of all personality, and as such, we can identify with him and enjoy his presence, just as we enjoy the presence of any other personality. Even though God is a spirit, he is a personal being, a personal friend, a person who can know and be known within the confines of our own minds and hearts. From one person to another, we can appreciate God as a personality. God is a real spirit and a spiritual reality.

Nathaniel and Thomas engaged in a multi-day discourse with Rodan of Alexandria about the personality of God in September of 29 CE. The discussion centered on whether God could be considered a person, with Rodan initially arguing against this concept based on his understanding of personality as requiring equality and mutual communication. Through a series of logical arguments presented by Nathaniel, Rodan was eventually convinced to accept God as a person, albeit with a qualified understanding that encompassed superhuman and transcendent qualities. As Rodan ultimately surmised, God must be a personality since he is the Creator of all personality and the destiny of all personality.

We cannot hope to understand or grasp the magnitude of God, but we know that he is far beyond any concept that we might entertain; even the concept of God’s personality is far too large for human beings to understand. But even though we know that God is far more than our human concepts of personality can grasp, we can also be assured that God can't be anything less than the concept that we can grasp.

We need only look around us to discover that God made the world for us, his children. We can see him through the things he has made in his creation. Moreover, he has provided a means by which we can progress spiritually, even to eternal life and reunion with him, our Maker. God is a loving, perfect, eternal, and infinite Creator personality who knows and understands us and our needs.

However, personality is not just one aspect of God; personality represents the entirety of God's coordinated infinite nature and unified divine will, which are expressed perfectly in perpetuity and totality. In its highest sense, personality is God's way of revealing himself to the entire universe.

Even though we cannot see God with our material eyes, we can see him – and have seen him – through the personality and revelation of Jesus Christ, our Creator Son, who said more than once that when we see him, we see the Father. And it is true: The Father and his Sons are one. This relationship between the Father and the Son demonstrates the reality of God's personality, as it shows God's ability to communicate fully and equally with other beings. Creator Sons are perfect personalities – the local universe pattern for every being, from Gabriel right down to us lowly human personalities progressing from animal origins to eternal potential.

But without the Universal Father and his central person, there would be no personality because God IS personality. He is the origin and destiny of personality throughout all creationThe concept of God's personality comes primarily from revelation, though reason, wisdom, and religious experience also suggest it. God is able to maintain a personal connection with all of his children throughout the universe of universes; he is a true person who lives intimately with his creatures.A religion's depth and truth depend on how well it understands God as an infinite personality and recognizes God's unity. The idea of a personal God is a key marker of a mature religion once it has first grasped God's unity.Only by seeing God as a personal being can one understand God's unity. If we deny God's personality, we are left with two philosophical choices about God: materialism or pantheism.

Materialism says that only a being with a material body can be a personality; pantheism says that God is not seen as a separate, personal being but as an all-encompassing presence in nature and existence itself. In both instances, since God has no corporeal body, he is not seen as a person.

God is spirit and has no physical form. When thinking about God, the idea of personality must be separated from having a physical body. A material body is not needed for personality, whether for humans or for God. While the body is part of our current experience as humans, personality itself is more than just the physical form. Personality refers to the unique, conscious identity that can include the mind, will, emotions, spirit, and soul, which are not solely dependent on the body.

A higher form of progressing personality operates through a combination of mind and spirit that transcends both materialism and pantheism.

Being eternal, universal, and infinite, God does not gain knowledge or grow in wisdom as humans do. He doesn't experience things in the same way we understand experience, but he does continually expand in self-realization. This is similar to how we mortals gain new experiences.

Without this ongoing self-realization, God's perfection could severely limit him and leave him lonely, but despite God’s pervasive presence throughout his vast creation, he remains a true personality and everlastingly maintains direct and active personal connections with the countless hosts of his creatures scattered throughout the universe of universes.

We can enlarge our capacity to understand and interact with the personality of God by choosing to seek and do his will in our lives and by becoming an active partner with God within us in the co-creation of our lives.

As we strive for spiritual growth, our experiences contribute to God's ever-expanding awareness and continuous self-realization. It is literally true: "In all your afflictions, he is afflicted." "In all your triumphs, he triumphs in and with you." His prepersonal divine spirit, the indwelling spirit of God, is a real part of you.

The Universal Father realizes in the fullness of the divine consciousness all the individual experience of the progressive struggles of the expanding minds and the ascending spirits of every entity, being, and personality of the whole evolutionary creation of time and space. And all this is literally true, for "in Him, we all live and move and have our being."