God promises us an unconditional path to being renewed, revived, refreshed, and rejuvenated in His presence. I love being in the presence of the Lord. I’m not talking about His omnipresence – He is everywhere at all times – I’m talking about His manifest presence. The moments when there’s a tangible sense of a superior being in the room. It can’t be explained with words. It can’t be described in words. It can only be described as an experience and its evidence is most readily seen in the fruit it produces in the believer’s life.
I love being in the presence of the Lord…The moments when there’s a tangible sense of a superior being in the room.
Moses had such a moment. He sought the Lord and asked to see His face. He was enamored by this mighty God who had done great and mighty things. He was amazed by such a great God who had worked through this mortal man to deliver a whole nation from the clutches of Pharaoh. He was mostly enamored by the fact that he had believed in and followed a God he had never seen. (Exodus 33:12-33)
Moses sought to see Him face to face. Now that’s an epic pursuit. Remember, Moses had believed a God he had never seen, followed a voice of someone he couldn’t see, and obeyed Him at every turn. Jesus later says, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.” (John 20:29). He essentially is saying there’s no need of faith in believing what you see, who you see.
The faith of Moses led him to a deep desire to see Him, not so he could believe, but so he could fellowship with Him – face to face.
The faith of Moses led him to a deep desire to see Him, not so he could believe, but so he could fellowship with Him – face to face. Moses was seeking a renewal, a refreshing, a powerful refreshing that could only come from the God he had not seen yet seen at work in so many ways. It’s like looking at a building and marveling at the mastery of its workmanship then asking to meet its architect. What questions would you ask them? What would you expect them to say?
God is the masterful architect of the universe and all its inhabitants. Most importantly, He is the architect of our own lives, to the very hairs on our heads. He’s so intimately connected to us that He notices when a hair falls off our heads. Seeing Him would mean everything. I mean EVERYTHING! His majesty and glory cannot be measured and His presence alone causes us to fall to our faces as dead men. Seeing His face would mean so much more.
We know that we shall behold Him face to face in the end but we seek to see the aspects of Him we can see while still alive. Paul says “In Him we live and move and have our being” – Acts 17:28. This is what we live for. It is greater than the freshest air we can breathe, the best drug we can take, the best vacation on earth. It is refreshing, rejuvenating, reinvigorating, and reigniting, all in one.
Seek Him while He may be found (Isaiah 55:6) and let Him renew and refresh you. I can only imagine how Moses felt after God’s goodness passed before him. I wonder how refreshed, renewed, and rejuvenated he felt. I wonder how much he spoke of that moment. I wonder how deeply it transformed him. I seek Him day and night that I, like Moses, will see His nature pass before me. I want to be awestruck by Him on this side of eternity before I see the fullness of His face on the other side, don’t you?
And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
– Exodus 33:19-20
Nelson Masinde 