In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the Seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory (Isa 6:1-3).
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness (Psalm 17:15).
The apostle Paul, speaking by the Holy Ghost in the epistles to the Corinthians, uttered these words: “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD, are being metamorphosed into the same IMAGE from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Cor 3:18 ).
As we gaze into His Holiness and fix our eyes on His glory, we are being transformed into the image of Christ. Remember Moses when he came down from the Mount of God in Exodus 34:35; having been in the presence of Jehovah for 40 days, he came down transformed with the glory of His presence.
The children of Israel saw the face of Moses, as the skin of his face shone from the metamorphosis he went through while he was on the Mount of God. If this great transformation took place under the Old Covenant, which was destined to pass away, how much more will God perform in a greater and ever enduring work for this new creation?
If the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather (more) glorious (2 Cor 3:7-8 KJV).
There is a greater glory reserved for us than what Moses had. This is the glory of God in Christ Jesus.
The glory of God into which we are being transformed as we fellowship with the Father is that same glory that is in the face of JESUS CHRIST. In contrast to the glory on the face of Moses, which is completely external and faded away, the glory of the New Covenant starts from within, in the spirit man, and grows brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. As we fellowship with God who is the Spirit and the Father of lights, we are transformed into the same image, and the Light of His Shekinah glory begins to grow from within us until we are consumed.
For God, who commanded the Light to Shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to GIVE THE LIGHT of the knowledge of the GLORY OF GOD in the FACE of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6 KJV).
No wonder, God our Father constantly bids us to come into His presence and abide there, beholding the face of Jesus Christ. For in doing this we are empowered to go out and shine for Him. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Today as you draw nigh unto God, this treasure in the earthen vessel will continue to take shape; it will continue to undergo metamorphosis until finally Christ is formed in you. The apostle John summarized it for us in his epistle saying:
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM; for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face-to-face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known (1 Cor 13:12).
Stay in His presence, behold His beauty and listen to Him speak with a still small voice as He spoke to Elijah, and you’ll be transformed to His image.
In these last days there is an ever-increasing multitude of voices clamoring for our attention. The airwaves are crowded with the voices of men and demons, of senseless doctrines and dogmas of men. If we attempt to listen to all these voices that are shouting to get our attention, we will certainly miss the great plan of God.
There is a divine Voice speaking softly and full of heavenly wisdom and counsel of the eternal ages that deserves our ultimate attention and dedication. But that Voice is seldom heard because we are so busy listening to the words of men that we never make ourselves available to the Voice of the Almighty.
We must recognize the infinite importance of becoming personally acquainted with the Voice of God. We must do everything possible to get ourselves to a spiritual plane where we can recognize His voice. Those precious saints who would know the voice of the Lord must learn to make themselves available to God. These ones must set time apart when they sanctify themselves to wait upon Him and Him only.
Men that know God are not made by continual association with religious people, neither are they made out of casual fellowship with God; they are made by continual communion with their heavenly Father. These ones make themselves available to Him. They listen to His voice, study and meditate upon His word, and enquire of Him.
One thing I have asked from Jehovah, it I will seek: my dwelling in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the delight of Jehovah, and to inquire in His temple (Psalm 27:4 Literal Translation).
What the Holy Ghost is teaching us here is this: That as we behold His face in reference, wait upon Him in worship, and listen attentively with our whole heart, He will speak. He will speak, and His words will enlighten, convict, rebuke, correct, strengthen, transform, and renew us. He will instruct us on what He wants and tell us what He wants us to do for Him and co-labor with Him. As you behold His face and hear Him speak His mind to us, all your needs and inabilities will begin to fade in the Light of His glorious Presence as you discover that all those needs are met even before asking in the Presence of the El-Shaddai One. You will discover that they are met before you ask because you have put Him first; you have made seeking Him your principal desire and have decided to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness. You are now operating a higher law than the law of asking and receiving.
David said: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after.” What was he asking of the Lord? What was David seeking after? Was he seeking for wealth? Was he seeking for fame? Was he seeking after some other greatness in the world? Were any of these his principal desire? No. David said: “that I may dwell in the presence of the Lord, all the days of my life.” What is your principal desire? The Lord is not telling us that having wealth, or fame, or being great in this world is bad, but that we should seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness. Seeking God should be our first and principal desire; anything different is idolatry.
Jesus draw me closer to Thee
Let the world and all her alluring fade away
In the light of Your Presence
I desire to worship and adore You
I desire to stay in Your Presence
I long to be in Your Presence
My heart pants for You as the deer for the water brook
The time has come, Dear Ones, that the Saints of God, the members of the Royal Priesthood must draw nigh unto God and wait in silence in His presence until He speaks to them from between the Cherubim of glory upon the Mercy Seat. The hour has come when we must fix our eyes on Him while He divulges His mind to us. “The LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him” (Hab 2:20).
In the opening passage of Scriptures of this chapter, we read the word of Isaiah the prophet. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord. He saw Him seated on the Throne and the train of His kingly robe filled the Temple with glory; and the earth was filled with His glory. Then, Isaiah heard the Seraphim saying with a loud voice: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts.”
Immediately Isaiah, while in His Presence and beholding God’s glory, realized his uncleanliness and unworthiness. Then he said: “Woe is me for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.”
As we draw nigh unto God and behold His face, our frailties, inadequacies, and imperfections will be exposed by the Light of His holy Presence. All we need to do is to acknowledge our faults and uncleanliness before Him, for He has already made provision for it all.
Then flew one of the Seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged” (Isa 6:6-7).
As we abide in His Presence and behold His Face, we are being transformed to be like Him. As we keep our eyes on Jesus, we become conformed into the image of the Son of God. This is what prayer is all about. It is about abiding in the Presence of God, beholding His Face, and listening to Him reveal His will to us so we can then demand that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Prayer becomes seeking His will and desire and avenging all disobedience when our obedience is fulfilled. Prayer becomes an avenue where we ourselves becomes the will of God and therefore are able to impose His will on our world. Prayer and communion are not when we storm into God’s presence and present our list of demands to Him and then rush out. Communion is waiting in His presence, to minister to Him as His priests, and listen to the still, small voice; sitting at the feet of the King and waiting to know what His desire is. We are there to serve Him and find out what He really wants.
It is time for us to re-educate ourselves on how to present ourselves before the Most High as mature children. This is the hour in which the true worshipers will worship Him in reference, in spirit and in truth. This is the hour when His children will abide in His presence in reverence, beholding the beauty of the Lord. This is the generation that will abide in His presence and inquire of His ways.
There is no doubt about the fact that we do quite a bit of praying today, but for what do we pray? We spend most of our time in prayer making all our wants and wishes known to Him. We come prepared with a list of demands which He must fulfill, most of which almost always arise from our carnal mind. We have no sense to seek His will concerning anything; we just want what we want and demand that He fulfill His promise. After all, He said whatsoever we desire when we pray, we should believe that we receive it and we shall have them. We therefore have become like little brats, the type you see running loose in the supermarket begging their rich mother for practically everything they lay their childish eyes upon and whining when they are denied.
Dearly Beloved, we must grow up; we must learn to come into the Presence of the Almighty to inquire of Him. We must learn to come in reference and adoration before the King of kings to ask Him what He really wants. We have been taught wrongly. We seem to have been made to understand that the Almighty exists to make us happy. What a preposterous idea!
God made us for His glory. He made the earth, the reaches of space, the heavens, and the heaven of heavens for His praise and glory. Therefore, “thou worm” that is called man should come to understand that God made him for His glory. We are made to make Him happy and not the other way around. We must grow up and learn to seek His mind, His thoughts, and His will, just like our Elder Brother, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
