the knowledge of the Holy.

This is kind of a long quote, but I really encourage you to read it in its entirety. It is from the book "The Knowledge of the Holy" by AW Tozer. Really powerful words about the self-existence of God and the ways that we sinful beings try to steal His throne.

"A more positive assertion of selfhood could not be imagined than those words of God to Moses: I AM THAT I AM. Everything God is, everything that is God, is set forth in that unqualified declaration of independent being...

"The natural man is a sinner because and only because he challenges God's selfhood in relation to his own. In all else he may willingly accept the sovereignty of God; in his own life he rejects it. For him, God's dominion ends where his begins. For him, self becomes Self, and in this he unconsciously imitates Lucifer, that fallen son of the morning who said in his heart, 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.... I will be like the most High.'

"A moral being, created to worship before the throne of God, sits on the throne of his own selfhood and from that elevated position declares 'I AM'. That is sin in its concentrated essence; yet because it is natural it appears to be good... It is only when the gospel of the SOUL is brought before the face of the Most Holy One without the protective shield of ignorance that the frightful moral incongruity is brought to the conscience.

"Peter preached the great first Christian sermon. 'Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the disciples, Men and brethren, what shall we do?' This 'what shall we do' is the deep heart cry of every man who suddenly realizes that he is a usurper and sits on a stolen throne. However painful, it is precisely this acute moral consternation that produces true repentance and makes a robust Christian after the penitent has been dethroned and has found forgiveness and peace through the gospel."