It is an overwhelming experience to fall into the hands of the living God, to be invaded to the depths of one’s being by his presence, to be without warning wholly uprooted from all earth-born securities and assurances, and to be blown by a tempest of unbelievable power which leaves one’s old proud self utterly, utterly defenseless.
~Thomas R. Kelly (1893-1941)
And He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” … And the LORD said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me Your glory.” And He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you My Name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” He said, “you cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live.” And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me where you shall stand on the rock, and while My glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”
~ from Exodus 33
Oh beloved, it is true. The world is absolutely crowded with Him. And for those who know Him, the crowding is not pressing in on us – it pours through us. It surrounds us. It overcomes us. It is the very Presence of G_d in us and through us. And no, it is not a vapor. And yes, it is more real than the “us” through which His Presence flows.
There is this fleeing of fear as He shows us who He is. And in the vacuum created by the absence of the vitriolic mix of lack-of-faith, and belief only in the material, comes a Light we only dreamed possible. Words do fail here, even for one who smiths them for a living. But, those who have seen this light are never (read not ever) the same again.
There is a warmth and color that is comprehended in the rainbow, but the full spectrum of color is but a shadow of the reality we see in our spirits. This is His glory. And even this light is but a shadow of Who He Is. But in this light we see a picture of His immense goodness towards us. We sense His Love. We begin to comprehend His mind.
And suddenly we understand.
He is Love. He is utterly joyful. He is completely good. He is simply, totally, completely Whole and Real and Holy.
And this One Loves us with Everything He Is.
He is so full that the concept that He needs us is laughable. But He is also so full that it is incomprehensible that He would do anything other than track us down across eternity – and throughout eternity – that He might begin to show us the beginnings of this Love.
And then the fear is gone. It is no longer fleeing. It simply cannot exist in a place where both He and i commune as one. And in this place grows the fruit of Love: Joy. In us, grows this strength to live that is represented in the natural, by the strength and hardness of diamonds.
And suddenly we realize that we have indeed seen His face. For the old man we were is dead. Nothing of the old can survive full exposure to His Presence. All we can remember is the sense of full reality as He showed us His glory and passed His hand through our heart and turned it from stone into real flesh.
And nothing is ever the same again. We, like Moses, live a veiled existence now on this plane. We no longer believe. We simply know what life is about. The questions of meaning flying around us do not even distract; their silliness now apparent to our most casual observations. He is Life. He is Truth. He is The Way.
And suddenly, instead of becoming some irrelevant desert mystic, we become able to simply live and move and have or being in Him as we move – now – with purpose into a world which so desperately needs help and love and healing.
Friend, this experience of Who He Is, is not some e-ticket ride for the “special believer.” No, it is for any one who will simply seek Him with their whole mind, body, and strength. The only question for each of us is this: are we willing to let go of everything, and let His Presence invade our lives? This writer guarantees you will not regret the decision.
