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To Be in God’s Presence

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be in God’s presence, and to actually be face to face with God? There is a great song called “I Can Only Imagine,” written by  Bart Millard that addresses that very thought. “I can only imagine what it will be like when I walk by Your side. I can only imagine what my eyes would see when Your face is before me. I can only imagine surrounded by Your glory. What will my heart feel? Will I dance for You Jesus or in awe of  You be still? Will I stand in Your presence or to my knees, will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine.” Have you ever taken time to imagine such things? If not, you should! There were many people who God allowed to have a glimpse into eternity. Moses first encountered God at the burning bush. 

Exodus 3:1-5 says this, “Now Moses was pasturing the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not being consumed. So Moses said,  ‘I must turn aside and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burning up!’ When the Lord  saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”’

Wherever God is, it is holy. No matter if we come before God in our churches, or prayer meetings, or even in our homes, the place where we meet God becomes holy, and we must be holy and all around us becomes holy. To be holy is to be set-apart. God told Moses to remove his sandals because the place where he was standing became holy ground. If the ground that he stood on became holy then we must consider the place where we stand to also be holy. Today, we do not consider the holiness of God. Our worship services do not always reflect God’s holiness. We must come with a reverence, we must come with a pure heart, and when we come we must first examine ourselves to see if there is any impurity of sin in our hearts. We are not taught this. Nothing has changed from the beginning of days in the wilderness except we do not need to continually sacrifice an animal. But the purpose for that sacrifice was for their atonement. Yeshua is not our sacrifice, He is our atonement, but we can not prevail upon the shed blood of Yeshua, without being repentant of our sins. We are always to examine ourselves, because sin still separates us from God.  Moses had another encounter with God and that was at Mt. Sinai.  

Exodus 33:17-23 records this, when Moses asked to see God’s face. “The Lord  said to Moses, ‘I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.’ Then Moses said, ‘Please, show me Your glory!’ And He said, ‘I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord  before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion to whom I will show compassion.’ He further said, ‘You cannot see My face, for mankind shall not see Me and live!’ Then the Lord said, ‘Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”’

When Moses came off the mountain his face had such a glow to it that he had to cover his face. There is another song called “O the Glory of His Presence” written by Steven L. Fry, “Oh the glory of Your Presence, we Your temple give You reverence. So arise to Your rest and be blessed by our praise and as we glory in Your embrace and as Your presence now fills this place.”

This is a reference to God filling His temple in the wilderness when the temple was erected and dedicated. The Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant sat and the presence of God dwelt, is where God rested in their midst.

Every time the people moved, the tent moved. They would take it down and then put it back up and when they did, according to Psalm 132:8, the priests would say, “Let us go to His dwelling place, let us worship at His footstool, saying, ‘Arise, Lord, and come to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might. May Your priests be clothed with Your righteousness; may Your faithful people sing for joy.’”

Exodus 40: 34-38 says, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout their journeys, the cloud of the Lord  was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.” Does God no longer do house calls? Was this only during the time of the wilderness? Does God no longer reveal Himself with clouds of smoke and fire? Can you and I have such an encounter with God as the prophets of old?

Isaiah 6: 1-7 tells us this, “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim were standing above Him, each having six wings: with two each covered his face, and with two each covered his feet, and with two each flew. And one called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies. The whole earth is full of His glory.’ And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, ‘Woe to me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies.’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; and your guilt is taken away and atonement is made for your sin.”’

 Daniel 7:9-10 says, “I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were serving Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; the court convened, and the books were opened.”

And even John in Revelation 1:10-20 says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, ‘Write on a scroll what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.’ Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And after turning I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a Son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and wrapped around the chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been heated to a glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”’

You can’t forget Steven in Acts 7:55-56, when they began stoning him after he gave such a great testimony, said this, “But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Yeshua standing at the right hand of God; and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”’ And let’s look at Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:3-4,  “And I know how such a man whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.”

We could go on and on about people who say such great revelations of God and His heavenly kingdom. So again, what about today? Were the Apostles the last to see such things? God has not changed, but have we? Have we become so laxed that we do not seek God in holiness?  Have we been taught that we can just go boldly into His throne room without even examining ourselves?  Do we go into our prayer closet without any expectation of God meeting us face to face?

When we come to God with reverence and holiness and repentance expecting to not only hear from God, but also seeing him, then we do not come in faith. God is a rewarder of faith, but God does choose in which manner He will reveal Himself to someone. However, even if God does not choose to reveal Himself in a vision or an actual encounter, God will meet with us and allow us to enter into His presence. This is what David wrote in Psalm 51:15-17, “Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare Your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart You, God, will not despise.”

We must be humble and contrite. If we do not examine ourselves and repent from the heart, then God, in all His holiness, can not meet with us. Yes, God hears our prayers, but if we want to come into His presence then we must be living sacrifices. Romans 12: 1-2 tells us, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

We must walk in the footsteps of our Messiah. He was our sacrifice and now we too must be a sacrifice pleasing to God. We can come before God, Yes, but humble and contrite and we must always realize that God is holy and set-apart and we too, must be holy and set-apart. We must not even have the slightest look of the world, for friendship with the world makes us an enemy to God. James 4:4-8 says, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.Or do you think Scripture says without reason that He jealously longs for the Spirit He has caused to dwell in us? But He gives us more grace. John 14:21, “The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.”

You want to meet with God? Then you must come on His terms.