SEEING GOD….AN EVENT OR A PROGRESSIVE EXPERIENCE?

God’s ways are mysterious. However, the word “mystery” when used with reference with God refers to knowledge of God that is yet to be unfolded to us. God may have unfolded that knowledge to His prophets and apostles, and the revelations may already be written in His Word. Yet, it may be a mystery to us, if it has yet to be revealed to us.

However, we are to pursue God, not pursue mystery. As we pursue God, He reveals things to us that we have not encountered before. And as He does that, we are to obey the revealed, not pursue the concealed.

Our righteousness, therefore, is the state we are in when we are in obedience to the Lord, and the blood of His Son purifies us from all sins:

“This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”
(1John 1:5-7)

In this sanctified state, we are able to enter into His presence and enjoy heart-to-heart communion with Him:

“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
(Rev 3:18-20)

And so, we are able to “see” Him, spirit to Spirit:

“But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
(2 Corinthians 3:16-17)

So, yes, seeing God is a spiritual event.

However, seeing God more and more clearly is also a progressive experience. As the apostle John tells us:

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
(1 John 3:1-3)

As children of God, our journey with Him is called “relationship.” It is all a matter of growing in greater intimacy with God. Yes, God can be our Master, and we can be His slave. This is one kind of relationship. (The slaves of the Old Testament are loyal and committed to their masters….but this is another story which we can explore later, perhaps). Then there is the relationship of Master and servant, which is somewhat better, because of the greater degree of freedom in the relationship than compared to that of a slave’s. Then, there is the relationship of Father and child; and better still, Father and son. Coming from service into sonship is a great transition—it is crossing the River Jordan and coming into the Promised Land. Sonship is not only a position, it is taking on the Father’s image. It is also having the character of the Son. It is Christlikeness.

Attaining Christlikeness is, as such, both an event as well as a journey. It is an event because when Jesus died on the Cross for us, He had paid for our sins, and when we accept His gift of righteousness and accept God as our Father, we are legally make a son of God. This is what being “born again” means.

“…to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”
(John 12-13)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
(2 Corinthians 5:17)

But once we are born again, and have attained the new life in the Lord, we are also to grow in righteousness. In this sense, Christlikeness is a progressive experience. It is a journey of putting off… and putting on…. We put off our carnal, worldly, or old sinful nature, and put on godliness:

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
(Ephesians 4:22-24)

However, do be warned, dear saints (sanctified ones), this journey is not one we determine the pace of. It is not a journey we can lead ourselves or other on. It is a journey in which we need to wait on the Holy Spirit to lead us on.

In the Old Testament, this journey is played out for us as the wandering in the wilderness. During the desert wanderings, whenever the cloud of the presence of God rested, the people rested.

“On the day the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony, was set up, the cloud covered it. From evening till morning the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire. That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire. Whenever the cloud lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. At the LORD's command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the LORD's order and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the LORD's command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. At the LORD's command they encamped, and at the LORD's command they set out. They obeyed the LORD's order, in accordance with his command through Moses.”
(Numbers 9: 15-23)

This picture above is the pattern set for us. It is the Lord who determines the direction and the timing, as we journey with Him. All we have to do is to be sensitive to Him to His leading so that we learn how to move with Him. We learn to remain in His glory cloud, and be watchful. When He says move, we have to be ready. We have to travel light.

The Israelites had not yet reached the Promised Land. If they had gone ahead of God, and had stopped watching the cloud…if they had started to plant and build or dig for gold, they would not have been able to move with Him.

During this journey, the Israelites could both see the cloud of God’s presence, and journey with Him.

Happy journeying…

One piece of advice for a smoother journey—make sure you travel light, walk in step with Holy Spirit, and enquire of Him constantly:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
(James 1:5)