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Experiencing His Presence
Devotions For God Catchers Week 9, Day 5 | In Passionate Pursuit of the Face Place [Job] became God's "poster child for God Chasers" when he proved under extreme hardship that his love was directed to the Giver of blessings, not the blessings of the Giver (The God Catchers, p. 137). Perhaps Moses' secret point of access to the Father is revealed in this one-of-a-kind conversation with God: "So the LORD said to Moses, 'I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.' And he said, 'Please, show me Your glory'" (The God Catchers, p. 139). Two men in the Old Testament seem larger than life to us, even on "this side" of the cross. We look at the lives of Job and Moses today and think, "Who in our day could do the things those men did in theirs?" Within the boundaries of God's purpose for your life, the answer is you could. Job suffered while caught in the middle of a disagreement between the Creator and the fallen angel, Satan. That disagreement is still going on as you read this book, and it will continue until Satan is thrown into the lake of fire. Job lived long before Jesus entered the world in the form of a man, but in God's view, Satan had already been defeated by the Lamb "slain before the foundations of the world." You live under the cloud of the same cosmic disagreement, and you have even greater benefits available to you from God's divine solution to sin. So what did Job do that you can do too? Job was a man who passed the supreme test of adversity and demonstrated his unconditional love for God before the galleries of both heaven and hell. Even though Job cried out in pain and often expressed his frustration and desperation through his ordeal, he never wavered in his unqualified love for God (The God Catchers, p. 137, emphasis mine). How do you bear the pain of adversity or of being misunderstood by your friends? Do you still chase God when the sky seems to fall on your head, or do you shake your fist at heaven in anger and resentment? Is your love for Him truly unconditional? What was so special about Moses? Once again we discover a murderer transformed by a life-changing encounter with the manifest presence of God. Moses, like Saul centuries later, was formally trained for leadership but misused his authority and zeal until God intervened. This should give all of us hope. What was this man's secret ? Moses: God Knew Him By Name The murderer and picture of failure God chose to deliver His people was no stranger to God's anointing and glory. Time and again, we see Moses spending long periods of time in God's smoke-obscured presence receiving the Ten Commandments, the Law, and the detailed instructions for the tabernacle of Moses and the ark of the covenant (The God Catchers, p. 138). How much time to spend alone with God? Would you say that the fruit or end product of your life in God might increase if you increase the amount of time you invest in your relationship and communion with Deity? Perhaps most important of all, Moses was the one man who dared to ask for the impossible in his passion for God. He asked God to show him His face. He had to wait 1,500 years and pass from life to death to see it come to pass, but he was an incurable God Chaser with a passion for God that would not be limited by the less passionate masses around him. As I wrote in The God Chasers, "This burning desire to see God's glory, to see Him face to face, is one of the most important keys to revival, reformation, and the fulfillment of God's purposes on the earth" (The God Catchers, p. 139). Do you have a burning desire in your life? Do you burn to see His face and dwell in His presence, or do you burn for more earthy issues and concerns? How do you feel about passion and the radical pursuit of God? Is it worth living and dying for? | | Erroneous Assumptions, Presumptions and Misaligned Paradigms We also have a dangerous tendency to celebrate the men and women God has blessed more than the God who blessed them. In some cases, the celebration becomes so extravagant that it borders on "the idolatry of the anointed." Perhaps we should remind people in our meetings, "Remember that you didn't come to see me; you came to see Him. You don't need the hand of man laid on your head as much as you need the presence of God to touch your heart" (page 133). A "misaligned paradigm" is a crooked way of thinking, and logic chain disconnected from the truth and waiting to collapse in a harmful way. When we idolize the anointed servants of God rather than give all honor to God, we are like the death row inmate who kisses and praises the prison inmate who delivers the notice of pardon. 1. The inmate had: (a) nothing or (b) everything to do with the pardon. 2. The fellow inmate: (a) authorized the release by his own authority or (b) merely delivered a message from a higher authority outside of and higher than the correctional institution. 3. The only one who deserves the kiss and all of the praise is (a) the inmate carrying the message or (b) the Governor who authorized and signed the decree of pardon.
4. Perhaps ministers of the gospel should say (a) "Thank you, I do the best I can," or (b) "Don't praise or worship me, I'm just delivering the Good News and gifts from the King of glory. Come out of your 'cell' and meet Him face to face. Give Him all of the praise." Answer Key: 1-a, 2-b; 3-b, 4-b.
| | | | Scripture Reading: Exodus 33:11-23; revealing the power of proximity in the relationship between Moses the God Chaser and God the Redeemer of men. 11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
12 Then Moses said to the Lord, "See, You say to me, 'Bring up this people.' But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.'
13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people."
14 And He said, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
15 Then he said to Him, "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth."
17 So the Lord said to Moses, "I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name."
18 And he said, "Please, show me Your glory."
19 Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
20 But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live."
21 And the Lord said, "Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.
22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen."
The New King James Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1982.
| | Prayer | Father, I'm desperate for the face place; the place of divine encounter where my humanity encounters Your divinity and falls down in complete and unconditional surrender and love. Lord, show me Your face. | |
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