We can know God as He is revealed in nature and His commandments. However, we should never venture to attempt to define God as an essence. Reference: E.G. White, "The Upward Look," p. 347.

Full text of the devotional: “God is not Nature, but Nature’s God,” November 29

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 4:11.

The heart is the place for the truth to begin its work. Truth is to be a power in the life and character. If received and cherished in the heart, it will work as the leaven of a life-giving principle, changing the whole being.

Truth has power to make the sayings of Christ spirit and life. If cherished and respected, it will cause the man to turn from his evil ways. Truth and error cannot abide in the same heart. “He that is not with me is against me,” Christ declares, “and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad” (Matthew 12:30).

Wisdom, intellect, power—these are not God. But God is the Author of all wisdom, all grace, all power. God gave Lucifer his power and wisdom, yet this intelligence was not God Himself. We are to know God as He is revealed in His marvelous works. Who by searching can find out God? This is not part of our work... God’s character is expressed in the Ten Commandments. To know God as He is—this is the science of all goodness and truth and righteousness. We must obey every expression of His character as revealed in His law.

God requires obedience, not for the purpose of showing His authority, but that we may become one with Him in character. We will find in God the attributes of character needed to form characters after His likeness. We are to form characters that are in harmony with the Deity. Thus our natures become spiritualized in every faculty.

We cannot present any correct representation in words of God’s glory and majesty. It is beyond expression. But we can enjoy the contemplation of God, and the sense of His presence. We can know of Him all that human beings can bear. We can talk with Him in prayer.

At times, when our faith goes out to Him completely, we converse with Him, and by faith endure the seeing of the Invisible. Faith revealed Him and we contemplate all that we can endure. When in times of trouble and perplexity we trust Him fully, we have a living sense of His cheering, all-pervading presence and power. We realize that the Lord is indeed our strength and our portion forever. We can be one with Christ in God. But let us never undertake to define God as an essence. Never, never venture one step into the way of putting God in the place of the things of His creation.—Manuscript 126, November 29, 1905, “A Warning Against Present Dangers.”