January 19, 2025 • 31 mins
The Life of Moses- Episode #29 🎁 What does it mean to truly encounter the presence of God? On this episode of "Whispers of Grace," we journey through the compelling narrative of Exodus 33, examining Moses' profound interactions with God. After the Israelites' devastating golden calf incident, Moses emerges as a beacon of divine pursuit, setting up his tent away from the camp to prioritize his relationship with God. His intentionality not only underscores the necessity of cultivating a direct and vibrant connection with the divine but also serves as a powerful model for leadership and spiritual intimacy that inspires future leaders like Joshua, who chose to dwell continually in God's presence.
This episode invites you to reflect on the depth of your personal relationship with God, encouraging an introspective look at whether you seek the Giver more than His gifts. We delve into the transformative power of God's indwelling presence via the Holy Spirit, offering practical steps to nurture this intimacy. By drawing inspiration from Brother Lawrence's practice of God's presence, we explore ways to integrate a continual awareness of the divine into your daily life, amidst both blessings and distractions. Our conversation emphasizes the importance of active engagement with God through worship, nature, and the embrace of silence and stillness.
In a world brimming with distractions, finding moments of silence and stillness becomes essential for deepening your spiritual awareness. Through personal anecdotes, such as moments of stillness found in unexpected places, we highlight the importance of creating mental space to connect more profoundly with God. Embracing this quietude allows for a richer experience of God's enduring presence and love, as reflected in the timeless verses of Psalm 90. Join us as we encourage a lifestyle that fosters spiritual intimacy, guiding you to experience the fruits of the spirit more fully and enriching your unique spiritual journey.
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Episode Transcript
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Julie (00:19):
Kia ora, and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a place for
women to be encouraged by God'sholy word.
I'm your host, julie Colbeth,and I am overjoyed to dig into
the Bible with you today.
Kia ora, friends, today we aregoing to be back in the life of
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Moses, picking up in Exodus,chapter 33.
Cs Lewis once wrote we mayignore, but we can nowhere evade
the presence of God.
The world is crowded with him.
He walks everywhere incognito,and the incognito is not always
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hard to penetrate.
The real labor is to attend, infact to come awake and still
more to remain awake.
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Are we awake to the presence ofGod?
He is with us, he is in us andaround us every minute of every
day.
And how does this truthactually penetrate our realities
?
This episode is going to startdiving deeply into the presence
of God as Moses encounters himin one of the most revealing
passages in the Old Testament.
We will see how therelationship between Israel and
God is mended after theunfaithfulness of the golden
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calf incident, and we're goingto unpack God's own definition
of himself in this two partseries.
So buckle up, my friends.
Good things to come and lotsand lots of good heart work to
be done.
So we are jumping into Exodus33, right after many people were
punished for the golden calfidolatry, and this is where the
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text picks up.
Then the Lord said to Mosesdepart and go up from here, you
and the people whom you havebrought out of the land of Egypt
, to the land which I swore toAbraham, isaac and Jacob, saying
to your descendants I will giveit and I will send my angel
before you and I will drive outthe Canaanite and the Amorite
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and the Hittite and thePerizzite and the Hivite and the
Jebusite.
Go up to a land flowing withmilk and honey, for I will not
go up in your midst lest Iconsume you on the way, for you
are a stiff-necked people.
And when the people heard thisbad news, they mourned and no
one put on his ornaments, forthe Lord had said to Moses Say
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to the children of Israel youare a stiff-necked people, I
could come into your midst inone moment and consume you.
Now, therefore, take off yourornaments that I may know what
to do to you.
So the children of Israelstripped themselves of their
ornaments by Mount Horeb.
So we see in this text thatIsrael and Moses, they needed to
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know what would happen now thatthey had broken God's law,
because this was the first timethat Israel was experiencing the
punishment of God.
They were breaking new groundin dealing with sin and they
needed to be told what to donext.
Would God destroy them orabandon them?
Did their disobedience changehis promises or the plans that
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he had for them?
Would they still have hisprotection and provision?
And we read that God, of course, kept his promises, solely
based on his grace and hisfaithfulness, and not on the
faithfulness of Israel.
The covenant with Abraham,isaac and Jacob was kept by God,
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through God and for God's glory.
But things didn't just continueon as though nothing had
happened.
Instead of Israel being led byGod, now we read that an angel
is sent to go before them.
God tells them that he couldn'tdwell with such a sinful people
, and Israel mourns thisincredible loss of God's
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presence, something that theyhad and now was being taken from
them.
Verse five says God wanted Mosesto tell the children of Israel
you are a stiff-necked people.
I could come up into your midstin one moment and consume you.
Now, therefore, take off yourornaments that I may know what
to do to you.
God wanted Israel to know thathe knew them better than they
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knew themselves.
They were stiff-necked, whichmeans prideful and unwilling to
yield their wills to theirdeliverer.
They were crooked and corruptand they hated reformation.
And God knew their very mindsand their unwilling hearts and
it caused him to retract fromthem.
So they would retain hispromises, but they lost the
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presence of God because he couldnot abide their stubborn hearts
.
David Guzik says this about Goddenying his presence to Israel.
This was a challenge to Mosesand the nation as a whole.
God told them that they couldhave the promised land still,
but he would not remain withthem in a close and personal way
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If they were satisfied withthat arrangement.
It would prove that they onlyloved God's blessings and not
God himself.
If they challenged God, pleadedwith him for his presence and
not only his blessings, it wouldshow a genuine heart for God
himself.
This was the first step towardsspiritual restoration and
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revival in Israel.
Israel had the gifts of God,but without the intimacy of the
giver.
As I was reading through this, Irealized that I actually
experienced something verysimilar to this in my own life.
So about nine years ago, 10years ago now, we first moved to
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New Zealand and lived inRotorua.
But God actually called us outquite quickly after only 18
months, back to the States, andwe really really struggled with
this because we thought we weregoing to make our home
permanently in New Zealand.
We felt so called to this placebut yet God was pulling us out
back into the States forsomething that we were very
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excited about.
But it was a really, reallyhard ask because our hearts fell
in love with this country andwe loved the ministry that we
were doing, we loved the placewe lived, we loved the people we
were serving with and we justdidn't want to leave.
And as I struggled through this,I woke up really early one
morning when the sun was risingand I walked all the way to the
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top of this hill and I justwatched the sunrise and was kind
of sorting through all of thiswith the Lord and I felt like he
spoke to me so clearly on thathilltop Like yes, I've given you
this beautiful place to live in.
You live in Narnia, you live inLord of the Rings.
You know you live in thisbeautiful, beautiful place with
this amazing culture and thesepeople.
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But what is Narnia withoutAslan?
And it just struck me, so manythings in our life seemed to be
going exactly as we wanted andthe Lord had given us so many
blessings, but without hispresence, without following it,
I realized that I would never besatisfied.
I would never be satisfied withstories about God or the tales
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that other people would tell ofthe faithfulness of him in their
own lives.
Even if I had everything that Iprayed for and dreamt for, it
was hollow and empty without him.
It was like one of those cheapchocolate Easter bunnies that's
shiny on the outside butcompletely empty on the inside.
God was so good and kind tospeak this to my heart in a way
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that hit me deeply and helped meto understand, and it's so
similar for us Friends.
I know that I speak for so manyof us when I say that we want
to live in his light every day,touching him, talking with him
and walking through life hand inhand.
A storybook Jesus just isn'tenough for us.
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We need the fresh wind and firethe fresh filling, and we don't
want to go forward without him.
And fire the fresh filling andwe don't want to go forward
without him.
And Israel, in our text here,realizes her loss and they
mourned for it.
It says that they took offtheir jewelry and their finery
because they realized that itwas not the time to draw
attention to the external, butit was time to bring humble
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hearts before God and realizewhat their sin had cost them.
Hearts before God and realizewhat their sin had cost them
they had lost the presence ofGod amongst them.
So let's continue reading inExodus, chapter 33, verses 7
through 11, to see what happens.
It says Moses took his tent andpitched it outside the camp,
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far from the camp, and called itthe tabernacle of meeting.
And it came to pass thateveryone who sought the Lord
went out to the tabernacle ofmeeting, which was outside the
camp.
So it was whenever Moses wentout to the tabernacle that all
the people rose and each manstood at his tent door and
watched Moses until he had goneinto the tabernacle.
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And it came to pass, when Mosesentered the tabernacle, that
the pillar of cloud woulddescend and stood at the door of
the tabernacle and the Lordtalked with Moses.
All the people saw the pillarof cloud standing at the
tabernacle door and all thepeople rose and worshipped, each
man in his tent door.
So the Lord spoke to Moses faceto face, as a man speaks to his
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friend and he would return tothe camp.
But his servant, joshua, theson of Nun, a young man, did not
depart the tabernacle.
When Moses was on Mount Sinai,god had given him detailed
instructions for building thetabernacle, but the work hadn't
happened yet.
There was no proper tabernaclefor worship.
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But this didn't stop Moses fromseeking God.
So his response to the loss ofthe presence of God among Israel
is to pitch his own tentoutside the camp so he could be
with God.
If God's presence couldn'tdwell in the camp, then neither
would Moses.
And this separation.
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It meant that anyone who wantedto seek God would need to be
intentional.
They would need to leave thecamp to be with God.
And when Moses went to worshipand spend time with God, the
whole nation also worshiped fromtheir tents.
His obedience flowed right intothe nation.
And what a beautiful examplefor us to pitch our tent exactly
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where God's presence is.
And when we choose to worshipGod and seek him in a real way,
it affects the people around us.
When we are drawn into worshipof God, it can help others to
worship him also.
And God confirmed his presencewith Moses with that pillar of
cloud which would descend atthese moments and it says that
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the Lord came and spoke to Mosesface to face, just like a man
speaks with his friend.
So Bible scholars aren'tpositive what this means.
When the text says that Mosesspoke to God face to face, we
know from John chapter 1 that noone has seen God in his
fullness because we would justbe undone, it would be too much
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for our mortal bodies.
But God did appear and speak toAbraham back in Genesis 18, and
he revealed pieces of himselfto Moses.
So most likely this phrase faceto face speaks of an open
fellowship and a simple language.
Similarly, remember when Jesuswas walking on the earth and he
spoke to the crowds.
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It was usually in a parable,but when he spoke to his
disciples it was much more plainand he would explain the things
that he meant.
I'm sure that this specialrelationship kept Moses sane and
steady as he took on themomentous task of leading these
stubborn people throughenemy-infested desert into a
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land that was promised to them.
Moses's relationship with Godalso deeply affected Joshua, who
would be Israel's next leader,because we read in the text that
it says Joshua never left thisplace of meeting.
He stayed at Moses's tentcontinually and he didn't return
back to the camp.
Joshua saw the glory of theLord descend on the tent of
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Moses and he chose to stay inhis presence.
He chose not to leave the placethat God was.
He was satisfied and content toremain in the place that God
appeared.
Now I think this is probablythe best leadership training
that we could ever hope for orreceive to stay close to the
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presence of God, to hear hisvoice and to remain with him.
I'm going to continue on.
In verse 12.
It says See, you say to me,bring up this people, but you
haven't let me know whom youwill send with me.
Yet you have said I know you byname and you have also found
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grace in my sight.
Now, therefore, I pray if Ihave found grace in your sight,
show me now your way that I mayknow you and that I may find
grace in your sight and considerthat this nation is your people
.
And he said my presence will gowith you and I will give you
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rest.
Then Moses said to him if yourpresence does not go with us, do
not bring us up from here, forhow then will it be known that
your people and I have foundgrace in your sight, except if
you go with us.
So we shall be separate, yourpeople and I, from all the
people who are on the face ofthis earth.
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So the Lord said to Moses I willalso do this thing that you
have spoken for.
You have found grace in my sightand I know you by name.
And he said Please show me yourglory name.
And he said Please show me yourglory.
And then God said I will makeall of my goodness pass before
you and I will proclaim the nameof the Lord before you.
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I will be gracious to whom Iwill be gracious and I will have
compassion on whom I will havecompassion.
But he said you cannot see myface, for no man shall see me
and live.
And the Lord said here is aplace by me that you shall stand
on the rock.
So it shall be, while my glorypasses by, that I will put you
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in the cleft of the rock andwill cover you with my hand
while I pass by.
Then I will take away my handand you shall see my back, but
you shall not see my face.
Take away my hand and you shallsee my back, but you shall not
see my face.
So this incredible interactionbetween Moses and God.
We see Moses approaching Godwith a heart that leads to
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revival and it restores Israel'sbroken relationship with God,
because Moses is not content tojust have an angel to lead them
into the promised land.
He will only be satisfied withGod himself.
And it's incredible to realizethat Moses, the man who is
talking to God face to face, isnot satisfied with this level of
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intimacy.
He asks for more.
He wants more of God.
He wants more direction andmore knowledge and more
understanding.
Moses is asking for a deeperexperience and knowledge of god.
Even though he gets to meetwith god, it's not enough.
Moses had been intimatelycommunicating with God, like one
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friend to another, and he isnot satisfied.
God is so good, so grand andintricate that Moses pleads for
more.
He is like the deer that ispanting for the water.
His soul is thirsty for theunfathomable depths of
fellowship with God.
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It's important to note thatMoses doesn't plead for this
deeper revelation of God basedon his own incredible obedience,
which is pretty astounding atthis point, or his past deeds,
which is also incredible.
Moses pleads for more of Godbased on God's grace, his
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unmerited favor, the riches thathave been extended to him,
simply because Jehovah is good.
He pleads for more because Godis gracious in giving good gifts
and the best gift of all ishimself.
Moses knew that he neededequipping and steadying and
encouragement and clarity, andall these things are found in
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the presence of God.
In verse 14, god responds toMoses' request by saying my
presence will go with you and Iwill give you rest.
God gifts Moses with all thathe needs to continue to lead the
stubborn people through thedesert his presence and his rest
.
Now, this rest is unlike anyregular human rest that Moses
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could obtain.
The rest that Moses is promisedcomes with a deep knowledge
that God is present, god is goodand God will act on behalf of
his people.
Moses knew that even if hetried his hardest and gave his
best effort, it wouldn't beenough.
He needed to rest in thepresence of God and quietly
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remain there to be empowered andequipped and encouraged for
this massive task that God setbefore him.
Moses understood how dependenthe was and how fragile the
nation was.
So he tells God in verse 15 and16, if your presence does not
go with us, do not bring us upfrom here, for how then will it
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be known that your people and Ihave found grace in your sight,
except you go with us.
Moses didn't just want theblessings of the promised land
or the protection and provisionof God.
He knew that only the verypresence of God would set Israel
apart as a nation and satisfytheir hearts.
God's presence among them wouldseparate them as a unique and
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holy nation as nothing elsecould.
In the book of Philippians, paulrecords a very similar heart
when he wrote Yet, indeed, Ialso count all things loss for
the excellence of the knowledgeof Christ Jesus, my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss ofall things and count them as
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rubbish, that I may gain Christand be found in him, not having
my own righteousness, which isfrom the law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, therighteousness which is from God,
by faith that I may know himand the power of his
resurrection and the fellowshipof his sufferings being
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conformed to his death.
Paul understood that nothingcompared with knowing Christ,
nothing could compare withremaining in his presence and
being conformed into his image.
Now, this is one of my favoriteGreek words.
The word translated no here inGreek is the word ginosko, which
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actually means an experientialknowledge, a firsthand,
relational acquaintance, and itcarries with it the idea that
says I don't want to just hearabout God in his word or from
pastors and friends, but I wanta deep personal relationship, a
face-to-face relationship thatconstantly draws me deeper.
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This word means intimacy andexperience, and this is just
what Moses is pleading for.
He doesn't want to move unlessthe Lord moves with them.
He doesn't want the othernations simply to hear about the
amazing things that God haddone, but he wanted them to
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physically see the fire and thecloud, to see the tangible
presence of God remainingamongst his chosen ones.
Now, in verse 17, the boldintercession of Moses restores
Israel's relationship with God.
Not only are they forgiven, butthey are restored to an
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intimate relationship with God.
The Lord said to Moses I willdo this thing that you've spoken
for.
You have found grace in mysight and I know you by name.
Moses hears this from God andthen he becomes emboldened to
ask to see the Lord's glory.
The word glory here isinteresting.
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It means weight or heaviness,the glory of God, and it's
usually translated glory orhonor.
But the implication is thatMoses was asking to understand
the depth of God, his splendor,his honor and dignity, to see
his weight and mass.
Moses boldly asks to understandthe depths of God.
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And in part two of this message, I'm going to delve into the
depths of this experience asdescribed in chapter 34.
Because here in 33, god tellsMoses what he's going to do, and
then we read about the actualexperience in chapter 34.
So in the next part of theseries we'll dive into that, but
for now I want to focus on whathas already been laid out
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before us in this passage,because there are so many good
and beautiful things for us toeat.
Moses was not after the giftsand blessings of God.
He was after deep fellowshipand intimacy with God himself.
In fact, he rejected the giftsof God without the personal
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relationship.
This is a fantastic thing forus to consider.
Do we more commonly seek thegifts of God or do we seek the
giver himself?
Do we choose to pitch our tentin the world?
Do we choose to pitch our tentin the world or do we choose to
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pitch our tent in the presenceof God?
Now, this presence, it's not alocation, because God is not
just found in his word, althoughthis is the primary way that he
speaks to us.
His presence is not restrainedto his word.
His presence is not just thatchurch or a small group or a
Bible study.
The presence of God is notsomething that you have to leave
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at the doors of your religiousactivities.
The presence of God issomething that we need to learn
to cultivate in our own hearts.
Now don't get me wrong.
He is always present and aliveand active.
In Psalm 139, david aptly writeswhen can I go from your spirit,
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where can I flee from yourpresence?
If I ascend into heaven, youare there.
If I make my bed in the depths,you are there.
If I take the wings of themorning and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea, eventhere your hand will guide me
and your right hand shall holdme fast.
There, your hand will guide meand your right hand shall hold
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me fast.
So God's presence is somethingthat we can't escape and
something beautiful to thinkabout is.
As New Testament believers, wehave access to God.
Like Moses only dreamed of,jesus made himself a sacrifice
to heal our relationship withGod through his death and
resurrection.
And now, if you've receivedsalvation, we literally have God
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indwelling us every moment ofevery day, every breath, every
heartbeat.
He is with us.
The Holy Spirit comes to abidewith us, to remain, to remain.
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But the question is are youpresent with him?
Are you listening and waitingand enjoying him?
Are we tasting and feeling thereality of God more
authentically, more intimatelyand more satisfyingly?
Is our awareness of the realityof God's presence heightened?
Is our awareness of the realityof God's presence heightened?
Are we paying attention?
James 4.8 tells us that if wedraw near to God, he will draw
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near to us.
That's a promise.
Psalm 145.18 says the Lord isnear to all who call on him.
He is here, my friends.
He's present in this verymoment.
Whatever you're doing, he iswith you.
Are we entering into thesweetness of his reality?
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Are we cultivating ourawareness of God's presence?
Because it takes practice andintentionality.
A monk from the 1600s calledBrother Lawrence wrote a book
called the Practice of thePresence of God.
If you haven't read it, I wouldsuggest.
It is an easy, short read.
But it's so encouraging to readhis personal letters that he
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wrote to friends that describehis life, and in it he talks
about his honed, minute byminute, sensitivity to the
nearness of God.
He was just a simple servantthat cooked in the kitchens and
he looked after the shoes of themonks in the monastery, but he
is remembered today for hisintimacy with God.
He's remembered as a cheerfuland genuine man that learned the
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value of remaining connectedwith God while he was going
about his daily activities, andthis practice needs to be
intentionally cultivated.
So a good way to begin might beto take some time to ask
yourself a few questions.
Think about what helps you tohear God and what hinders you
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from acknowledging his presence.
Now, this is a fantastic timefor those of you that make lists
, because you can easily havetwo columns here the things that
help to draw me into thepresence of God and the things
that hinder this.
I think just writing this listwill be an incredible way to
start, but there are many, manyways to cultivate this practice.
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Singing praise is a good way toremind ourselves of the truth
and nearness of God.
Being outside in nature is afantastic way to connect with
God, but God has made us eachdifferently.
He speaks to us throughdifferent things because we're
different, and he is such a good, loving God.
It's kind of like as a parent.
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You don't discipline each ofyour kids the same.
You don't help them with theirhomework the same.
They're different.
They learn differently.
They have different strengthsand weaknesses.
Now God knows this and he wantsto work with you Now.
This year for me has been a goodone of asking this question
what helps me to hear God andwhat hinders me from
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acknowledging his presence?
For me, I've realized that,especially since we moved to New
Zealand and live on theopposite side of the world to
many of our family and friends,I can easily be distracted by
social media because it's easyto just flick it open when I
have a free moment and see whatmy friends and family are up to,
which is harmless enough,there's nothing wrong with that
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but it doesn't leave me withlots of open moments for silence
and contemplation.
So I've had seasons of deletingmy social media apps and taking
rests, and I really try tolimit my exposure when I'm using
them, simply because it takesup space in my mind and the
overcrowding it makes it hardfor me to hear from God.
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It's funny because I reallycame to a very strong awareness
of this when I was sitting InNew Zealand.
Sometimes they'll shut down thewhole road when there's
construction.
I literally sat for 45 minutesguys sitting waiting to go
forward and it was like did theyforget about me, that I'm
sitting waiting to go forward,and it was like, did they forget
about me?
That I'm still sitting herewaiting to move?
But as I was sitting in thatmoment, the Lord spoke so
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clearly to me that this 45minutes of being still and
waiting was the most I had hadin quite a while, and I realized
how much mental space I wasletting so many trivial things
take up.
And this is why I'm alwaysencouraging my listeners to get
alone in nature, undisturbed andundistracted.
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Hopefully it's not sitting intraffic, because stuff starts to
happen inside of you when we'requiet.
And for me, often when I spendquiet time out in the bush or
near a river or whatever, I'mkind of flooded with a whole
bunch of emotions and I recountevents of my day or
conversations that have affectedme, and I need time to process
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through all of those things withthe Lord.
I need to get cleansed of allof my thoughts and experiences,
and then I can always betterhear from God.
Now, of course, he speaks to usin our chaos.
He is a good and kind God, butto be more present we need to be
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more empty.
So this is something that we canbe working on as we roll into
the new year here, or anytime onas we roll into the new year
here or anytime, cultivating anunderstanding that God really is
there, he really is enough, hereally does love you with a
never stopping, never giving up,forever kind of love.
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And that kind of love can groundyou and give you joy and peace
and patience and kindness, andall the beautiful fruits of the
spirit can pour out of you whenyou learn to abide in that
presence, just like Moses andjust like Joshua, who was not
willing to leave the presence ofGod.
I want to leave you with thefirst line of Psalm 90, which
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was penned by Moses.
He says this Lord, you havebeen our dwelling place
throughout all generations,before the mountains were
brought forth or ever.
You had formed the earth andthe world, even from everlasting
to everlasting.
You are God.
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You are God now.
I pray that the truth of thatwould burrow deep down into your
soul, that you would know Godas your dwelling place, the
place that you remain.
Thank you.
Kia ora, and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a place for
women to be encouraged by God'sholy word.
I'm your host, julie Colbeth,and I am overjoyed to dig into
the Bible with you today.
Kia ora, friends, today we aregoing to be back in the life of
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Moses, picking up in Exodus,chapter 33.
Cs Lewis once wrote we mayignore, but we can nowhere evade
the presence of God.
The world is crowded with him.
He walks everywhere incognito,and the incognito is not always
(01:01):
hard to penetrate.
The real labor is to attend, infact to come awake and still
more to remain awake.
(01:22):
Are we awake to the presence ofGod?
He is with us, he is in us andaround us every minute of every
day.
And how does this truthactually penetrate our realities
?
This episode is going to startdiving deeply into the presence
of God as Moses encounters himin one of the most revealing
passages in the Old Testament.
We will see how therelationship between Israel and
God is mended after theunfaithfulness of the golden
(01:44):
calf incident, and we're goingto unpack God's own definition
of himself in this two partseries.
So buckle up, my friends.
Good things to come and lotsand lots of good heart work to
be done.
So we are jumping into Exodus33, right after many people were
punished for the golden calfidolatry, and this is where the
(02:05):
text picks up.
Then the Lord said to Mosesdepart and go up from here, you
and the people whom you havebrought out of the land of Egypt
, to the land which I swore toAbraham, isaac and Jacob, saying
to your descendants I will giveit and I will send my angel
before you and I will drive outthe Canaanite and the Amorite
(02:28):
and the Hittite and thePerizzite and the Hivite and the
Jebusite.
Go up to a land flowing withmilk and honey, for I will not
go up in your midst lest Iconsume you on the way, for you
are a stiff-necked people.
And when the people heard thisbad news, they mourned and no
one put on his ornaments, forthe Lord had said to Moses Say
(02:50):
to the children of Israel youare a stiff-necked people, I
could come into your midst inone moment and consume you.
Now, therefore, take off yourornaments that I may know what
to do to you.
So the children of Israelstripped themselves of their
ornaments by Mount Horeb.
So we see in this text thatIsrael and Moses, they needed to
(03:12):
know what would happen now thatthey had broken God's law,
because this was the first timethat Israel was experiencing the
punishment of God.
They were breaking new groundin dealing with sin and they
needed to be told what to donext.
Would God destroy them orabandon them?
Did their disobedience changehis promises or the plans that
(03:33):
he had for them?
Would they still have hisprotection and provision?
And we read that God, of course, kept his promises, solely
based on his grace and hisfaithfulness, and not on the
faithfulness of Israel.
The covenant with Abraham,isaac and Jacob was kept by God,
(03:53):
through God and for God's glory.
But things didn't just continueon as though nothing had
happened.
Instead of Israel being led byGod, now we read that an angel
is sent to go before them.
God tells them that he couldn'tdwell with such a sinful people
, and Israel mourns thisincredible loss of God's
(04:17):
presence, something that theyhad and now was being taken from
them.
Verse five says God wanted Mosesto tell the children of Israel
you are a stiff-necked people.
I could come up into your midstin one moment and consume you.
Now, therefore, take off yourornaments that I may know what
to do to you.
God wanted Israel to know thathe knew them better than they
(04:39):
knew themselves.
They were stiff-necked, whichmeans prideful and unwilling to
yield their wills to theirdeliverer.
They were crooked and corruptand they hated reformation.
And God knew their very mindsand their unwilling hearts and
it caused him to retract fromthem.
So they would retain hispromises, but they lost the
(05:03):
presence of God because he couldnot abide their stubborn hearts
.
David Guzik says this about Goddenying his presence to Israel.
This was a challenge to Mosesand the nation as a whole.
God told them that they couldhave the promised land still,
but he would not remain withthem in a close and personal way
(05:25):
If they were satisfied withthat arrangement.
It would prove that they onlyloved God's blessings and not
God himself.
If they challenged God, pleadedwith him for his presence and
not only his blessings, it wouldshow a genuine heart for God
himself.
This was the first step towardsspiritual restoration and
(05:46):
revival in Israel.
Israel had the gifts of God,but without the intimacy of the
giver.
As I was reading through this, Irealized that I actually
experienced something verysimilar to this in my own life.
So about nine years ago, 10years ago now, we first moved to
(06:07):
New Zealand and lived inRotorua.
But God actually called us outquite quickly after only 18
months, back to the States, andwe really really struggled with
this because we thought we weregoing to make our home
permanently in New Zealand.
We felt so called to this placebut yet God was pulling us out
back into the States forsomething that we were very
(06:28):
excited about.
But it was a really, reallyhard ask because our hearts fell
in love with this country andwe loved the ministry that we
were doing, we loved the placewe lived, we loved the people we
were serving with and we justdidn't want to leave.
And as I struggled through this,I woke up really early one
morning when the sun was risingand I walked all the way to the
(06:49):
top of this hill and I justwatched the sunrise and was kind
of sorting through all of thiswith the Lord and I felt like he
spoke to me so clearly on thathilltop Like yes, I've given you
this beautiful place to live in.
You live in Narnia, you live inLord of the Rings.
You know you live in thisbeautiful, beautiful place with
this amazing culture and thesepeople.
(07:10):
But what is Narnia withoutAslan?
And it just struck me, so manythings in our life seemed to be
going exactly as we wanted andthe Lord had given us so many
blessings, but without hispresence, without following it,
I realized that I would never besatisfied.
I would never be satisfied withstories about God or the tales
(07:33):
that other people would tell ofthe faithfulness of him in their
own lives.
Even if I had everything that Iprayed for and dreamt for, it
was hollow and empty without him.
It was like one of those cheapchocolate Easter bunnies that's
shiny on the outside butcompletely empty on the inside.
God was so good and kind tospeak this to my heart in a way
(07:56):
that hit me deeply and helped meto understand, and it's so
similar for us Friends.
I know that I speak for so manyof us when I say that we want
to live in his light every day,touching him, talking with him
and walking through life hand inhand.
A storybook Jesus just isn'tenough for us.
(08:18):
We need the fresh wind and firethe fresh filling, and we don't
want to go forward without him.
And fire the fresh filling andwe don't want to go forward
without him.
And Israel, in our text here,realizes her loss and they
mourned for it.
It says that they took offtheir jewelry and their finery
because they realized that itwas not the time to draw
attention to the external, butit was time to bring humble
(08:40):
hearts before God and realizewhat their sin had cost them.
Hearts before God and realizewhat their sin had cost them
they had lost the presence ofGod amongst them.
So let's continue reading inExodus, chapter 33, verses 7
through 11, to see what happens.
It says Moses took his tent andpitched it outside the camp,
(09:02):
far from the camp, and called itthe tabernacle of meeting.
And it came to pass thateveryone who sought the Lord
went out to the tabernacle ofmeeting, which was outside the
camp.
So it was whenever Moses wentout to the tabernacle that all
the people rose and each manstood at his tent door and
watched Moses until he had goneinto the tabernacle.
(09:23):
And it came to pass, when Mosesentered the tabernacle, that
the pillar of cloud woulddescend and stood at the door of
the tabernacle and the Lordtalked with Moses.
All the people saw the pillarof cloud standing at the
tabernacle door and all thepeople rose and worshipped, each
man in his tent door.
So the Lord spoke to Moses faceto face, as a man speaks to his
(09:47):
friend and he would return tothe camp.
But his servant, joshua, theson of Nun, a young man, did not
depart the tabernacle.
When Moses was on Mount Sinai,god had given him detailed
instructions for building thetabernacle, but the work hadn't
happened yet.
There was no proper tabernaclefor worship.
(10:09):
But this didn't stop Moses fromseeking God.
So his response to the loss ofthe presence of God among Israel
is to pitch his own tentoutside the camp so he could be
with God.
If God's presence couldn'tdwell in the camp, then neither
would Moses.
And this separation.
(10:30):
It meant that anyone who wantedto seek God would need to be
intentional.
They would need to leave thecamp to be with God.
And when Moses went to worshipand spend time with God, the
whole nation also worshiped fromtheir tents.
His obedience flowed right intothe nation.
And what a beautiful examplefor us to pitch our tent exactly
(10:55):
where God's presence is.
And when we choose to worshipGod and seek him in a real way,
it affects the people around us.
When we are drawn into worshipof God, it can help others to
worship him also.
And God confirmed his presencewith Moses with that pillar of
cloud which would descend atthese moments and it says that
(11:17):
the Lord came and spoke to Mosesface to face, just like a man
speaks with his friend.
So Bible scholars aren'tpositive what this means.
When the text says that Mosesspoke to God face to face, we
know from John chapter 1 that noone has seen God in his
fullness because we would justbe undone, it would be too much
(11:37):
for our mortal bodies.
But God did appear and speak toAbraham back in Genesis 18, and
he revealed pieces of himselfto Moses.
So most likely this phrase faceto face speaks of an open
fellowship and a simple language.
Similarly, remember when Jesuswas walking on the earth and he
spoke to the crowds.
(11:57):
It was usually in a parable,but when he spoke to his
disciples it was much more plainand he would explain the things
that he meant.
I'm sure that this specialrelationship kept Moses sane and
steady as he took on themomentous task of leading these
stubborn people throughenemy-infested desert into a
(12:19):
land that was promised to them.
Moses's relationship with Godalso deeply affected Joshua, who
would be Israel's next leader,because we read in the text that
it says Joshua never left thisplace of meeting.
He stayed at Moses's tentcontinually and he didn't return
back to the camp.
Joshua saw the glory of theLord descend on the tent of
(12:43):
Moses and he chose to stay inhis presence.
He chose not to leave the placethat God was.
He was satisfied and content toremain in the place that God
appeared.
Now I think this is probablythe best leadership training
that we could ever hope for orreceive to stay close to the
(13:04):
presence of God, to hear hisvoice and to remain with him.
I'm going to continue on.
In verse 12.
It says See, you say to me,bring up this people, but you
haven't let me know whom youwill send with me.
Yet you have said I know you byname and you have also found
(13:27):
grace in my sight.
Now, therefore, I pray if Ihave found grace in your sight,
show me now your way that I mayknow you and that I may find
grace in your sight and considerthat this nation is your people
.
And he said my presence will gowith you and I will give you
(13:48):
rest.
Then Moses said to him if yourpresence does not go with us, do
not bring us up from here, forhow then will it be known that
your people and I have foundgrace in your sight, except if
you go with us.
So we shall be separate, yourpeople and I, from all the
people who are on the face ofthis earth.
(14:09):
So the Lord said to Moses I willalso do this thing that you
have spoken for.
You have found grace in my sightand I know you by name.
And he said Please show me yourglory name.
And he said Please show me yourglory.
And then God said I will makeall of my goodness pass before
you and I will proclaim the nameof the Lord before you.
(14:29):
I will be gracious to whom Iwill be gracious and I will have
compassion on whom I will havecompassion.
But he said you cannot see myface, for no man shall see me
and live.
And the Lord said here is aplace by me that you shall stand
on the rock.
So it shall be, while my glorypasses by, that I will put you
(14:51):
in the cleft of the rock andwill cover you with my hand
while I pass by.
Then I will take away my handand you shall see my back, but
you shall not see my face.
Take away my hand and you shallsee my back, but you shall not
see my face.
So this incredible interactionbetween Moses and God.
We see Moses approaching Godwith a heart that leads to
(15:13):
revival and it restores Israel'sbroken relationship with God,
because Moses is not content tojust have an angel to lead them
into the promised land.
He will only be satisfied withGod himself.
And it's incredible to realizethat Moses, the man who is
talking to God face to face, isnot satisfied with this level of
(15:36):
intimacy.
He asks for more.
He wants more of God.
He wants more direction andmore knowledge and more
understanding.
Moses is asking for a deeperexperience and knowledge of god.
Even though he gets to meetwith god, it's not enough.
Moses had been intimatelycommunicating with God, like one
(15:58):
friend to another, and he isnot satisfied.
God is so good, so grand andintricate that Moses pleads for
more.
He is like the deer that ispanting for the water.
His soul is thirsty for theunfathomable depths of
fellowship with God.
(16:19):
It's important to note thatMoses doesn't plead for this
deeper revelation of God basedon his own incredible obedience,
which is pretty astounding atthis point, or his past deeds,
which is also incredible.
Moses pleads for more of Godbased on God's grace, his
(16:40):
unmerited favor, the riches thathave been extended to him,
simply because Jehovah is good.
He pleads for more because Godis gracious in giving good gifts
and the best gift of all ishimself.
Moses knew that he neededequipping and steadying and
encouragement and clarity, andall these things are found in
(17:06):
the presence of God.
In verse 14, god responds toMoses' request by saying my
presence will go with you and Iwill give you rest.
God gifts Moses with all thathe needs to continue to lead the
stubborn people through thedesert his presence and his rest
.
Now, this rest is unlike anyregular human rest that Moses
(17:28):
could obtain.
The rest that Moses is promisedcomes with a deep knowledge
that God is present, god is goodand God will act on behalf of
his people.
Moses knew that even if hetried his hardest and gave his
best effort, it wouldn't beenough.
He needed to rest in thepresence of God and quietly
(17:49):
remain there to be empowered andequipped and encouraged for
this massive task that God setbefore him.
Moses understood how dependenthe was and how fragile the
nation was.
So he tells God in verse 15 and16, if your presence does not
go with us, do not bring us upfrom here, for how then will it
(18:13):
be known that your people and Ihave found grace in your sight,
except you go with us.
Moses didn't just want theblessings of the promised land
or the protection and provisionof God.
He knew that only the verypresence of God would set Israel
apart as a nation and satisfytheir hearts.
God's presence among them wouldseparate them as a unique and
(18:37):
holy nation as nothing elsecould.
In the book of Philippians, paulrecords a very similar heart
when he wrote Yet, indeed, Ialso count all things loss for
the excellence of the knowledgeof Christ Jesus, my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss ofall things and count them as
(18:57):
rubbish, that I may gain Christand be found in him, not having
my own righteousness, which isfrom the law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, therighteousness which is from God,
by faith that I may know himand the power of his
resurrection and the fellowshipof his sufferings being
(19:18):
conformed to his death.
Paul understood that nothingcompared with knowing Christ,
nothing could compare withremaining in his presence and
being conformed into his image.
Now, this is one of my favoriteGreek words.
The word translated no here inGreek is the word ginosko, which
(19:41):
actually means an experientialknowledge, a firsthand,
relational acquaintance, and itcarries with it the idea that
says I don't want to just hearabout God in his word or from
pastors and friends, but I wanta deep personal relationship, a
face-to-face relationship thatconstantly draws me deeper.
(20:03):
This word means intimacy andexperience, and this is just
what Moses is pleading for.
He doesn't want to move unlessthe Lord moves with them.
He doesn't want the othernations simply to hear about the
amazing things that God haddone, but he wanted them to
(20:23):
physically see the fire and thecloud, to see the tangible
presence of God remainingamongst his chosen ones.
Now, in verse 17, the boldintercession of Moses restores
Israel's relationship with God.
Not only are they forgiven, butthey are restored to an
(20:43):
intimate relationship with God.
The Lord said to Moses I willdo this thing that you've spoken
for.
You have found grace in mysight and I know you by name.
Moses hears this from God andthen he becomes emboldened to
ask to see the Lord's glory.
The word glory here isinteresting.
(21:04):
It means weight or heaviness,the glory of God, and it's
usually translated glory orhonor.
But the implication is thatMoses was asking to understand
the depth of God, his splendor,his honor and dignity, to see
his weight and mass.
Moses boldly asks to understandthe depths of God.
(21:28):
And in part two of this message, I'm going to delve into the
depths of this experience asdescribed in chapter 34.
Because here in 33, god tellsMoses what he's going to do, and
then we read about the actualexperience in chapter 34.
So in the next part of theseries we'll dive into that, but
for now I want to focus on whathas already been laid out
(21:49):
before us in this passage,because there are so many good
and beautiful things for us toeat.
Moses was not after the giftsand blessings of God.
He was after deep fellowshipand intimacy with God himself.
In fact, he rejected the giftsof God without the personal
(22:11):
relationship.
This is a fantastic thing forus to consider.
Do we more commonly seek thegifts of God or do we seek the
giver himself?
Do we choose to pitch our tentin the world?
Do we choose to pitch our tentin the world or do we choose to
(22:31):
pitch our tent in the presenceof God?
Now, this presence, it's not alocation, because God is not
just found in his word, althoughthis is the primary way that he
speaks to us.
His presence is not restrainedto his word.
His presence is not just thatchurch or a small group or a
Bible study.
The presence of God is notsomething that you have to leave
(22:53):
at the doors of your religiousactivities.
The presence of God issomething that we need to learn
to cultivate in our own hearts.
Now don't get me wrong.
He is always present and aliveand active.
In Psalm 139, david aptly writeswhen can I go from your spirit,
(23:14):
where can I flee from yourpresence?
If I ascend into heaven, youare there.
If I make my bed in the depths,you are there.
If I take the wings of themorning and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea, eventhere your hand will guide me
and your right hand shall holdme fast.
There, your hand will guide meand your right hand shall hold
(23:34):
me fast.
So God's presence is somethingthat we can't escape and
something beautiful to thinkabout is.
As New Testament believers, wehave access to God.
Like Moses only dreamed of,jesus made himself a sacrifice
to heal our relationship withGod through his death and
resurrection.
And now, if you've receivedsalvation, we literally have God
(23:55):
indwelling us every moment ofevery day, every breath, every
heartbeat.
He is with us.
The Holy Spirit comes to abidewith us, to remain, to remain.
(24:15):
But the question is are youpresent with him?
Are you listening and waitingand enjoying him?
Are we tasting and feeling thereality of God more
authentically, more intimatelyand more satisfyingly?
Is our awareness of the realityof God's presence heightened?
Is our awareness of the realityof God's presence heightened?
Are we paying attention?
James 4.8 tells us that if wedraw near to God, he will draw
(24:38):
near to us.
That's a promise.
Psalm 145.18 says the Lord isnear to all who call on him.
He is here, my friends.
He's present in this verymoment.
Whatever you're doing, he iswith you.
Are we entering into thesweetness of his reality?
(24:59):
Are we cultivating ourawareness of God's presence?
Because it takes practice andintentionality.
A monk from the 1600s calledBrother Lawrence wrote a book
called the Practice of thePresence of God.
If you haven't read it, I wouldsuggest.
It is an easy, short read.
But it's so encouraging to readhis personal letters that he
(25:22):
wrote to friends that describehis life, and in it he talks
about his honed, minute byminute, sensitivity to the
nearness of God.
He was just a simple servantthat cooked in the kitchens and
he looked after the shoes of themonks in the monastery, but he
is remembered today for hisintimacy with God.
He's remembered as a cheerfuland genuine man that learned the
(25:47):
value of remaining connectedwith God while he was going
about his daily activities, andthis practice needs to be
intentionally cultivated.
So a good way to begin might beto take some time to ask
yourself a few questions.
Think about what helps you tohear God and what hinders you
(26:09):
from acknowledging his presence.
Now, this is a fantastic timefor those of you that make lists
, because you can easily havetwo columns here the things that
help to draw me into thepresence of God and the things
that hinder this.
I think just writing this listwill be an incredible way to
start, but there are many, manyways to cultivate this practice.
(26:30):
Singing praise is a good way toremind ourselves of the truth
and nearness of God.
Being outside in nature is afantastic way to connect with
God, but God has made us eachdifferently.
He speaks to us throughdifferent things because we're
different, and he is such a good, loving God.
It's kind of like as a parent.
(26:50):
You don't discipline each ofyour kids the same.
You don't help them with theirhomework the same.
They're different.
They learn differently.
They have different strengthsand weaknesses.
Now God knows this and he wantsto work with you Now.
This year for me has been a goodone of asking this question
what helps me to hear God andwhat hinders me from
(27:12):
acknowledging his presence?
For me, I've realized that,especially since we moved to New
Zealand and live on theopposite side of the world to
many of our family and friends,I can easily be distracted by
social media because it's easyto just flick it open when I
have a free moment and see whatmy friends and family are up to,
which is harmless enough,there's nothing wrong with that
(27:33):
but it doesn't leave me withlots of open moments for silence
and contemplation.
So I've had seasons of deletingmy social media apps and taking
rests, and I really try tolimit my exposure when I'm using
them, simply because it takesup space in my mind and the
overcrowding it makes it hardfor me to hear from God.
(27:55):
It's funny because I reallycame to a very strong awareness
of this when I was sitting InNew Zealand.
Sometimes they'll shut down thewhole road when there's
construction.
I literally sat for 45 minutesguys sitting waiting to go
forward and it was like did theyforget about me, that I'm
sitting waiting to go forward,and it was like, did they forget
about me?
That I'm still sitting herewaiting to move?
But as I was sitting in thatmoment, the Lord spoke so
(28:19):
clearly to me that this 45minutes of being still and
waiting was the most I had hadin quite a while, and I realized
how much mental space I wasletting so many trivial things
take up.
And this is why I'm alwaysencouraging my listeners to get
alone in nature, undisturbed andundistracted.
(28:39):
Hopefully it's not sitting intraffic, because stuff starts to
happen inside of you when we'requiet.
And for me, often when I spendquiet time out in the bush or
near a river or whatever, I'mkind of flooded with a whole
bunch of emotions and I recountevents of my day or
conversations that have affectedme, and I need time to process
(29:01):
through all of those things withthe Lord.
I need to get cleansed of allof my thoughts and experiences,
and then I can always betterhear from God.
Now, of course, he speaks to usin our chaos.
He is a good and kind God, butto be more present we need to be
(29:21):
more empty.
So this is something that we canbe working on as we roll into
the new year here, or anytime onas we roll into the new year
here or anytime, cultivating anunderstanding that God really is
there, he really is enough, hereally does love you with a
never stopping, never giving up,forever kind of love.
(29:43):
And that kind of love can groundyou and give you joy and peace
and patience and kindness, andall the beautiful fruits of the
spirit can pour out of you whenyou learn to abide in that
presence, just like Moses andjust like Joshua, who was not
willing to leave the presence ofGod.
I want to leave you with thefirst line of Psalm 90, which
(30:08):
was penned by Moses.
He says this Lord, you havebeen our dwelling place
throughout all generations,before the mountains were
brought forth or ever.
You had formed the earth andthe world, even from everlasting
to everlasting.
You are God.
(30:28):
You are God now.
I pray that the truth of thatwould burrow deep down into your
soul, that you would know Godas your dwelling place, the
place that you remain.
Thank you.
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