We first experience God in the opening lines of the Bible as an invisible being ­creating and speaking life into everything (Genesis 1–2). God is Spirit, meaning that He’s not confined to a body or made up of parts. He is also divine, holy, and invisible.

Around the world and throughout history, people in different cultures have had many varying ideas about who God is and what He looks like—the sun, various animals, kings or queens, and even carvings made from their own hands. But God has revealed Himself to us as He truly is. He is Spirit, and He has revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus became like us, taking on flesh—a human body—so that He could come and carry out incredible, life-giving acts of love, mercy, hope, and forgiveness and make it possible for us to know Him again.

In John 4:24, Jesus reminds a woman (and us) of a truth we should never forget: “God is Spirit.” And because He is Spirit, He also made us spiritual beings, designed to know and worship Him for how amazing and loving He is. The problem is that we often think only in physical terms, and in fact, according to the Bible, are actually born spiritually blind—unable to know God. That is why we tend to make up a bunch of physical ideas about who God is. But we no longer have to feel our way in the dark to try to find Him. He has appeared to us through His Son, Jesus—God the Spirit in human flesh!