Attributes of God

Throughout history, people have believed there is a reality in the universe greater than themselves. They have called this reality by the name of God. They worship God as the Supreme Being, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, and as knowing, all powerful, infinite and ever present. The concept of this Supreme Being is common to all Ghanaian societies who gave Him their local names. The Akan call him ‘Nyame’, the Ewe call him ‘Mawu’ the Ga call him ‘Nyonmo’, etc. The immediacy of God in African affairs is also demonstrated through the God related names we bear. Theophanous names like Nyamekye (gift of God) and Dardom (depend on God) are examples from Akan names.  The African view of the world is nourished by a cosmology that is founded on a Source Being, the Supreme God, and other divine beings that are associated with God. As God is the foundation of life, so nothing happens without God. God lives, He does not die, and so indeed humans do not die. Even when we do not occupy a touchable body, we still live on. The way we experience God is portrayed in the language we use about God, especially the names by which God is known.  What needs to be said is that these names are still current and that more names descriptive of people’s experience of God are available in proverbs, songs, and prayers. When words fail, symbols take over. For the Akan of Ghana the Adinkra symbols. The star in Adinkra is a symbol that says, “Like the star, I depend on God and not on myself”. The symbol of hope says, “God, there is something in the heavens, let it reach my hands”. People believe that all the good and well-being they enjoy come from God, and that if one is not yet enjoying well-being it is because ones time has not yet come.  

The attribute of God which describes his ability to do whatever He wills. The omnipotence of God refers to him being all powerful.

 God's will is limited by His nature, and He therefore cannot do anything contrary to His nature as God, such as to ignore sin, to sin, or to do something absurd or self-contradictory. God is not controlled by His power, but has complete control over it; otherwise He would not be a free being. To a certain extent, He has voluntarily limited Himself by the free will of His rational creatures. This means that if God says something will happen.   He has the power to make sure that it will happen.  Therefore, when He promises eternal life to those who believe in Christ, He has the power to grant it.   Just as He cannot sin, He has the power to forgive those who do. There is nothing that God cannot do except that which goes against His nature. God alone has the power to conquer sin and death. He even created Satan who disobeyed and fell, therefore, He has power over him. He promised to give us the power to overcome he that is in the world. The well known “Gye Nyame” in Akan expression shows that without God nothing holds together, and is variously interpreted as (except God or unless God).

The omnipresence of God refers to him being present everywhere. The attribute of God by which He fills the universe in all its parts and is present everywhere at once. Not a part, but the whole of God is present in every place. This is true of all three members of the Trinity. They are so closely related that where one is the others can be said to be, also. Therefore, when man is sinning God is there. If a child is doing something a parent has told him not to do, God is there. There is no place man can go to hide from God. There is no place to go where God is not already there. The concept of the Supreme Being is central in the life of the traditional Ghanaian. He is associated to everyone. All that one needs to do, if one desires to speak to him is to speak to the winds. Onyame ehuwo (God has seen you) is normally used to inform people who misbehave with the mind that no one is seeing them. Nothing can be hidden from God, He sees everything in the dark.

The omniscience of God refers to him being all knowing. The attribute of God by which God perfectly and eternally knows all things which can be known, past, present, and future. God knows how best to attain His desired ends. This, like omnipresence, demonstrates that man cannot hide from God because God knows all things. He knows the number of hairs on each head, He knows the heart and thoughts of every man. Just because no man is around to see us do wrong doesn't mean nobody saw it happen - God did. The proverbial tree falling in the forest that doesn't make a sound because no man was there to see it or know about it falling at that time, God sees and knows. Our intentions in the things we do are known to God. We need to be sure that our attitudes are congruent with our actions because God knows when we are doing things for the wrong reasons or motives. God knows everything that has happened and everything that will happen. He knows when we do things for the wrong reasons and when we do things for the right reasons. All things we do should be to serve Him and bring glory to Him.

All human relations are affected by the belief that we all belong together in God. Onyame nti (because of God, or for the sake of God), we act or refrain from acting. God is experienced as the sole creator and sustainer of all things, who expects human beings to be to God as children and to each other as siblings, and to respect the earth and other natural phenomena. When it comes to libation prayer the name of God is mentioned before any other name, this shows his supremacy. Ghanaians fear and praise God in many ways, through inscriptions on Lorries with the believe that one will be fortunate enough to have Gods omnipotence on his or her side. Example of such inscription is “Wonderful Jesus”. The belief in a supreme being is in fact basic to the Ghanaians traditional way of life.