God's Presence

Exodus 33:7-23 is an interesting stretch of verses to me. They’re simultaneously encouraging and challenging. They give voice to a deep desire in my heart to experience God’s presence in more and more powerful ways everyday.

God’s presence – It’s a recurring promise in the Scripture. For example, God was with Abraham (see Genesis 21:22); God was with Isaac (see Genesis 26:3, 24, 28); God was with Jacob (see Genesis 28:15; 31:3, 42; 46:4); God was with Joseph (see Genesis 48:21); and God was with Moses (see Exodus 3:12; 33:14). Do you see a pattern?

Of course, God was also with Joshua who led Israel into the Promised Land after Moses died (see Joshua 1:1-5). But the promise of God’s presence wasn’t only for the great heroes of the past. It’s for us, too! In fact, Jesus’ name “Immanuel” means, “God with us” (see Matthew 1:23, NIV). And before Jesus is crucified, He gives His disciples a promise that applies to us as well when He says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (see John 14:16-17, NIV). Also, before Jesus ascends to the Father, He says in Matthew 28:20b, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (NIV). Lastly, as the final two chapters of the Bible begin, we see the new heaven and the new earth and the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, come from God, and we hear “a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God’” (Revelation 21:3, NIV).

We might be tempted to ask: Why is the promise of God’s presence so important to be reiterated over and over in Scripture? Simply put: There’s no greater promise than His presence. God couldn’t promise more than Himself because He’s the great I AM, remember? He’s all in all. When you have Him, you have everything you could ever possibly need.

This is why I think Moses responded the way he did in Exodus 3:15, “If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here” (NIV).

I don’t know about you, but I’ve launched out many times without the “presence” of God. And I regretted those decisions and ventures every time without exception. These independent excursions betray my sinful self-confidence, and the arm of my flesh has failed me every time. In fact, every time I lean on my flesh I find it be a rotten reed which snaps and impales me! But when I cast myself completely and joyfully on God’s all-sufficiency, I’ve never been disappointed.

I long for what Moses describes here. I long for God’s presence. Let me just summarize three things I see in Exodus 33:7-23 I yearn for in my life that I might experience with greater intensity and consistency.

• Exodus 33:11a, “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (NIV). I don’t know what else to say except – Wow! Talk about spiritual depth and intimacy with God. This is what I long for.
• Exodus 33:16, “How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth” (NIV)? What does “distinguish” our lives? Is it our personality? Our possessions? Our educational profiles? Our pet projects? Etc. I want God to demonstrate His presence in my life in such a powerful and distinct way that it’s unmistakable. Honestly, do we want people to be impressed with us or with the God who is with us?
• Exodus 33:18b, “Show me your glory” (NIV). I want God to give me the holy courage to ask to see His glory, knowing that the depth of this encounter will always involve a deeper death I must die. It’s interesting to me that when I live for myself, I do just that – live. But if I want to encounter God, it always requires me to die to myself. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 16:24-25, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me will find it” (NIV).

So, getting back to the title of this blog – God’s Presence – this isn’t a sensational request but a sober one. It costs my life. The reality is that one day I will see His face. In the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22:4a simply says, “They will see his face” (NIV). But of course, you understand, I will have shed this “earthy tent” by this time.

Let me close with this thought. I like to think of God’s presence like the ocean. It’s beautiful but incredibly powerful. It’s something everyone wants to see but everyone must respect. The human eye can scan it but never take in all of it. You can go into it, but you cannot remain in it indefinitely without dying. For instance, if you take a lion, the king of the jungle, and drop it in the middle of the ocean, it’ll die. Why? Because it doesn’t have a body conducive to a watery environment. It wasn’t made to live in the ocean. Likewise, if you take a huge, massive whale and drop it in the middle of the jungle, it’ll die. Why? Same reason – It’s doesn’t have a body conducive to the environment of the jungle.

Where am I going with this? Simple – If my eyes caught a glimpse of God’s glory in all of its fullness now and if my lungs took in a full breath of the unmitigated holiness of God, I would die. This is why I need a new body when I go to heaven (see 1 Corinthians 15), and this is why I will one day inherit a body like His glorious body. Paul says in Philippians 3:20-21, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (NIV).

What a glorious thought that isn’t just a “thought” but a quickly approaching reality! Sure, God’s presence is everywhere; this is why we believe God is omnipresent (see my other blog entitled No Such Thing as “Secret Sin”). So when I mention "God's presence" in this blog, I'm not talking about His presence in general. The Scripture says there's no place we can go from His presence in general (see Psalm 139). Rather, I’m talking about encountering a deep level of spiritual intimacy with God’s presence that beckons me to a more intense surrender to His Lordship than I’ve ever known. Let’s long for God’s presence so He might receive all the glory and honor that He's worthy of from our lives now!