FACE TO FACE
Exodus 33:11
Exodus 33:11
11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.
(NIV)
Numbers 12:5-8
5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward,
6 he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD.
(NIV)
Deuteronomy 34:10
10 Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,
(NIV)
DADDY’S EMPTY CHAIR
A man’s daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father. When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows.
An empty chair sat beside his bed. The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.
"I guess you were expecting me,” he said.
’No, who are you?" said the father.
The minister told him his name and then remarked, "I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up."
"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man. "Would you mind closing the door?" Puzzled, the minister shut the door.
"I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man. "But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me, "Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest. Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It’s not spooky because he promised, ’I will be with you always’. Then just speak to him in the same way
you’re doing with me right now."
"So, I tried it and I’ve liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I’m careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."
The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the church.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon. “Did he die in peace?" he asked.
“Yes, when I left the house about two o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later,
I found him. But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?"
The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, "I wish we could all go like that."
The University of N. Iowa once offered an art course that included an unusual exercise. The teacher brought to class a shopping bag filled with lemons and gave a lemon to each class member. The assignment was for the student to keep his lemon with him day and night, smelling, handling, and examining it. Next time the class met, without warning, students were told to put their lemons back in the bag. Then, each person was asked to find his lemon. Surprisingly, most of the students did so without difficulty.
When you pray do you seek His Face or His Hand?
In most of our praying we are not seeking God’s Face, but rather seeking His hand, looking for God to provide something for us. While Jesus instructed us to pray,
“Give us today our daily bread.”
(Matt 6:11 NIV)
I believe He intended our prayers to become something more than a presentation of our “shopping list” of needs and wants. If that’s all we pray about, it is no wonder that we become disappointed with God and disinterested in prayer because God does not always give us what we ask for.
When you pray, do you seek His Face or His Arm?
In some of our prayers, if we are honest to God, we will find that rather than seeking His Face we are simply seeking His Arm. We pray because we find ourselves in a position where we need His Strength. We believe that
“…nothing is impossible with God.”
(Luke 1:37 NIV)
and
“Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea-- the LORD on high is mighty.”
(Psalm 93:4 NIV)
"Prayer, at its root, is a willingness to let God be God."
Dr. Sam Bruce
To pray is to commune with God. To speak with Him face to face. God is tired of having long-distance relationships with His people. He was tired of it thousands of years ago in Moses’ day and He is tired of it today. He really wants to have intimate, encounters with you and me. He wants to invade our homes with His abiding presence in a way that will make every visitor begin to weep with wonder and worship the moment they enter.
Jim Cymbala, in his book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire (Zondervan, 1997), states it well:
“If our churches don’t pray, and if people don’t have an appetite for God, what does it matter how many are attending the services? How would that impress God? Can you imagine the angels saying, "Oh, your pews! We can’t believe how beautiful they are! Up here in heaven, we’ve been talking about them for years. Your sanctuary lighting—it’s so clever. The way you have the steps coming up to the pulpit—it’s wonderful. . . ." I don’t think so.
If we don’t want to experience God’s closeness here on earth, why would we want to go to heaven anyway?
He is the center of everything there. If we don’t enjoy being in his presence here and now, then heaven would not be heaven for us. Why would he send anyone there who doesn’t long for him passionately here on earth?” (pp. 58–59)
Not long before his death, Henri Nouwen wrote a book called Sabbatical Journeys. He writes about some friends of his who were trapeze artists, called the Flying Roudellas.
They told Nouwen there’s a special relationship between flyer and catcher on the trapeze. The flyer is the one that lets go, and the catcher is the one that catches. As the flyer swings high above the crowd on the trapeze, the moment comes when he must let go. He arcs out into the air. His job is to remain as still as possible and wait for the strong hands of the catcher to pluck him from the air.
One of the Flying Roudellas told Nouwen, "The flyer must never try to catch the catcher." The flyer must wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him, but he must wait.
While Moses waited on God, he was seeking His Face.
What does that mean? God told Moses that He was ready for them to proceed to the Land of Promise. The people had committed a great sin by worshipping a golden calf idol while Moses was up on the mountain meeting with God for forty days and nights.
While Moses was waiting, he worshipped. The people grew tried of the waiting and whined to Aaron to make them an idol to worship. You see, we were designed to worship and you will worship something. And
We will become like what we worship.
Psalm 115:3-8
3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands.
5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see;
6 They have ears, but they cannot hear; they have noses, but they cannot smell;
7 They have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat.
8 Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them.
(NAS)
Moses met with God and begged God to forgive the people, even if it meant that God would have to use Moses as payment for the people’s sin!
Exodus 33:7-11
7 Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting." Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.
8 And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.
9 As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses.
10 Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent.
11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.
(NIV)
My daughter, Jessica, posted in her status update on Facebook the words to a song written Ally Rodgers and Jenny Simmons:
"I made You promises a thousand times,
I tried to hear from Heaven but I talked the whole time,
I think I made You too small, I never feared You at all.
What do I know of You? What do I know of Holy?"
This is the essence of meeting with God face to face!
A.W Tozer put it this way: “While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves – blessed riddance! The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the Perfect One!”
Psalm 27:8
8 My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek.
(NIV)
Psalm 105:4
4 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.
(NIV)
What He wants us to do is just look at Him. He has set before you an open door, His Word, but you have to “Face” Him. We need more "Face-book" time, keeping that daily appointment with Him. You cannot back your way into the door of eternity; you have to walk into it.
You can’t seek His face and save yours!
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
(NIV)
