One of the things that I have learned over my thirty-plus years of serving Jesus is that there is no limit to how much God will reveal Himself to those that hungry after Him. There is no limit to the depth that we can go in God, and the only thing that can hold us back is ourselves and our unwillingness to do what God requires of us to know Him in a deeper way. The Bible tells us that we “have not because we ask not,” which is even more true when it comes to knowing God more deeply.
I see this play out in Exodus 33 in the life of Moses and the people of God. We find that Moses is meeting with God in the tent of meetings, He is in God’s presence, and God is giving him instructions on what needs to be done. In this chapter, we see levels of depth in knowing God, and we see his hunger to go as deep as God will allow. God anoints Moses to lead the people, he is now in the presence of God in the tent, but he longs to see the glory of God.
Anointing is a gifting that God gives to each of us so we can accomplish the purpose of God in our life. We see throughout the Bible that God anointed men and women, and many of them accomplished great things for God, but we also see that not all of them lived a holy life. Saul was anointed so much that David, who was running from Saul, would not kill him when given the opportunity because he would not kill God’s anointed one. We see that Samson was anointed and yet continues to fall for wild women. The anointing comes to us through God and is meant to be used to build the kingdom. But the anointing is not enough and is not near deep enough for what God wants for us.
You see, there is more. There is presence. Moses is anointed, but he also finds himself in the presence of God. He is not just gifted to lead the people, but Moses realizes that he must have the instruction of God to lead the people in the right way. So much so that at one point, Moses declares if you do not go with me (God), then I will not go. Moses realizes that anointing without presence is not effective. When we fail to go into the presence of God, then we are vulnerable to adulterating the anointing given to us by God. We are subject to misuse what God has gifted us with so that it prospers us and not the kingdom of God. Joshua is anointed, but Joshua sits outside the tent and never comes into the presence of God. He is just enough in that he is not out, but enough out that he is not really in. So, he does not have that experience with God as Moses does. We will come back to that. Moses is in the presence of God, and the Bible says in verse 11 that God speaks to Moses face to face as a man speaks to a friend. In other words, God was instructing Moses face-to-face on what he needed to do for the people.
But then Moses says the anointing is great, and I love your presence but what I want is to see your glory. I want to see the kabod, the fulness of your glory. Moses was not satisfied with just a touch, but Moses longed for more of God. Now God says I cannot show you my face because if I do, then you will die. Now think of that because in verse 11, it says that they spoke face to face, but not God is saying I cannot show you my face because it will kill you. How is this possible? The fact it that the presence and the glory are two totally different levels. In the presence of God, there was almost as it was a filter, but now Moses wants the filter removed so that he can see God in fullness. It was a position of intimacy. He does not want to be instructed on how to operate in the anointing of leading the people, but he wants to know who God is and see the glory of God. This hunger so moves God that He brings Moses as close as anyone has come to see the glory of God. Now back to Joshua. Unlike Moses, Joshua never had a glory experience with God. He is just as anointed, and he does come into the presence of God, but we never read where Joshua wanted to see the glory of God. As a result, we see that the generation that was raised by Joshua & the elder never saw the mighty works of God, and they turned away from God. When we fail to seek the glory of God, then we bring forth a generation that never knows the mighty things that God can do. One generation’s complacency becomes the next generation’s captivity.
Another thing that we see is that when Moses comes out of the glory of God, he is glowing with God’s glory. So much so that the Bible says they placed a veil over his face so that the people could look upon him. The glory of God will always bring transformation in the lives of those that come into God’s glory. The anointing will request a change, God’s presence will require change, but God’s glory will enact change. God’s glory will bring transformation to everyone that comes in contact with the kabod. As a church, we must seek the glory of God and go after it as Moses did. We must allow the church and the world to see the demonstrations of the mighty things of God as we enter into His glory. So don’t be satisfied sleeping at the door of the tent but make your way to the cliff of the rock.
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