This morning in prayer the Lord showed me a picture of Moses on the mountain. It was moments after he had experienced the Glory and Goodness of the Lord (Exodus 33). He was standing up, leaning against the wall of the mountain, his head resting on his arm, sobbing so hard he was violently shaking, completely undone. He was wrecked emotionally, spiritually and physically, down to his very core. His hair was blown into a matted mess on his head, his face was dripping with dirt and tears, and he was groaning from a depth unknown to most. Can you imagine what he had just experienced?! It wasn’t this nice little picture of God’s hand covering him over as he walked casually by. This was GOD Himself. GOD. His very tangible Presence that has caused many to tremble in terror and fall like dead men. I believe Moses was completely engulfed IN the goodness of God, ait left him utterly destroyed. Eternally altered at the cellular level.
The Lord spoke to me as He was showing me this picture. He said, “Moses’ flesh wasn’t comfortable. His passion for Me was greater than the desire for comfort.”
Not what I wanted to hear, as I sat on my comfy couch. Ha! Lord…. you mean you showed me this glorious sight, wrecked me emotionally at the sight of this man of God just moments after the most Glorious God-Encounter EVER, so you could address my fleshly desire for comfort?!
I sat and forced myself ponder this a while.
Moses was an old man. He walked on this mountain for 40 days (well, actually 80 in all). No food or water that we know of. No soft place to sit. No blanket and pillow to rest on. No bed to climb into at night. No shower, bath or warm coffee. No twinkies. Have you watched man vs. wild? What about those TV shows where someone is lost on a mountain with no food or water for days and nearly dies?
They have nothing on Old Moses.
He had to press through the veil of his flesh. He MUST have had to subdue his screaming human needs.
But His LOVE for the Greatest Lover of all was greater. Oh so much greater.
It drove him.
He wasn’t motivated by the pursuit of spiritual experience. He didn’t know the glory that awaited him. He just loved His God. He needed His God. The voice of God caused an immediate response of utter surrender and obedience. He hungered to know this powerful, mystifying God more than anything else. In the Presence of God his request wasn’t for a pillow, a drink of water or something warm to cover himself in the desert night. After all these days, nights and weeks on the side of a mountain…. his request was “show me your Glory Lord!”
I want to know You. THAT’S what rose up within Moses as his greatest desire. To know HIM.
TO KNOW HIM.
Then God drew him into Himself.
Our Lord and King longs to be known. I believe GODS greatest joy is our hunger to know Him.
What do we press through? What do we overcome?
We don’t strive to conquer our flesh so that we can grow spiritually. That’s selfish ambition. The ‘pressing through’ that causes striving is absolutely counter productive.
We let our spirits come to the front. We surrender to His Love. We will set aside our screaming flesh when our hearts are abandoned. We yeild to His Lordship, and allow our hearts to fall passionately in love with our mysterioius Father, Lover and King.
Lord, let our hunger to know You, to see You, to be fascinated by who you are, rise above all else.