Moses must have been like a "dry sponge." Why else would he climb up Mount Sinai and spent forty days and forty nights there in the presence of God? When he finally came off that mountain, he had a ten-point message on tablets of stone that he was going to give to his congregation of about three million people. This is a pastor’s dream.
But as Moses walked down off that mountain, he heard dancing and music. Then he saw the people worshipping a golden calf, and he lost his sanctification! Although he had just come from the glory and presence of God, Moses had a little temper fit and broke the tablets of stone (Ex. 32:19). I know none of us have ever done this
Then in Exodus 33:12-13, he told God, he couldn’t do this himself, he needed help, he needed to know that God would do this; he needed God to show him the way.
After forty days and forty nights, Moses was still not satisfied. He was still seeking that everlasting, ever-living presence of Almighty God!
Then in Exodus 33:18, he cried out to the Lord again, saying, "Lord, show me your glory!"
In other words, Moses was saying, "I know I just spent forty days with You, Lord. But when I came back down here to this mess, I had a temper fit and broke the tablets of stone. Now what am I going to do?" What do you do when things get rough?
Do you know what God said to Moses? "Come up again" (Ex. 34:2). Moses needed another dose of God's presence! How many times have we missed that invitation?
Often Christians think, I'm going to yield to God. I'll get over in His presence once or twice, and that will be enough to change what needs to be changed in me. But it doesn't work that way.
The first forty days Moses was up on Mount Sinai, he received some temporary help. But then he went back up on the mountain for forty more days - a total of eighty days. That's almost three months of being in the manifest presence of God!
When Moses came down off the mountain the second time, he had to use a veil to hide the brilliance of God's glory on his face! (Ex. 34:29,33). Moses finally returned to his people a changed man. And they could see it!
Why is that? Because the glory of God will change you if you will just stay in His presence long enough. Most of us are too busy to do what we need the most.
Of course, Moses was a great man of God. But a holy hunger like Moses
should be even more evident in us, God's chosen, blood-bought, redeemed, new covenant people. Jesus paid the price with His own blood for us so we could continually hunger after Him and be satisfied every time we did.
A Family Transformed by God's Presence
I heard a testimony concerning the power of staying in God's presence. A woman got up in church one morning to give a testimony about God's work in her family. Sixteen family members also stood up with her as she told their story.
This woman and her sixteen family members all lived close to each other. Even though they were all Christians, these relatives had always been embroiled in terrible strife and division, fighting continually among themselves. Then this woman started attending revival services at a particular church. Soon her daughter started coming with her. Then slowly over the next eighteen months, all sixteen family members began to attend the services.
"We continually came to church so we could be saturated with God's presence," the woman said. "We knew it was going to take more than one dose to change us!"
The woman continued, "Yesterday, for the first time in our lives, we all spent Christmas together in a spirit of love. I want to give glory to the presence of God!"
Staying in that glory will change you. Praise God for a pastor and church that was willing to go with revival long enough to saturate the church and this family! Most churches and pastors won’t or can’t go the distance! But when you do it will change entire families!
Your breakthrough can touch others
Be a sponge like Moses and soak up God’s presence, where ever you can find it! I remember one afternoon when I was in a hospital; I had spent many weeks helping a great general in God’s army cross over to the other side. I was with his wife and we were all were worn out from the “battle” he was fighting.
We had the TV on and were watching a program on the Daystar TV network. A preacher was ministering the word under a great anointing and we just entered in to God’s presence that was flowing from that meeting somewhere else in this country! We began to worship softly and cry tears of adoration to our wonderful Lord as the sweet precious presence of God filled that hospital room. Oh how we needed that precious experience that day.
And now for the rest of the story. The room was a double and the man in the next bed had never spoke a word to us. But he had constantly yelled to the staff if they would leave the door open, he wanted it closed all the time. He wanted the lights off all the time and the curtains shut! He was a very angry old man. He always kept his curtain drawn around his bed. He was even curt with his family when they visited him.
The next morning as the wife was going out of the room the man stopped her and told her that he heard us the day before, and that he was a backslidden Christian. He told her the sweet presence of God filled that room and touched his heart as we worshiped, and soaked up the sweet precious presence of God!
He rededicated his life to the Lord right there and then. He was a totally new man when he left that hospital!
We didn’t let the fact that he was in the room stop us from entering into that divine refreshing presence.
We were not loud in our worship at all, but kept very quiet for it was the way the Spirit was moving on us. Many times when you take the time and allow, even seek that soaking time you can change your life and the life of those around you just like Moses did.
Sit and soak in God’s presence, don’t be content to just be filled but let is overflow and spread out to all those around you. Don’t take a quick dose, but sit and soak. Some times when our boys would come in from playing dirt from head to toe, the only thing to do was to let them sit and soak in a bubble bath to get them clean. You need that same soaking in the presence of God.
Don’t get out till you look like a prune!
PRAYER QUOTES
“I have been driven many times to my knees by overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go”. -Abraham Lincoln
“Prayer is not a monologue, but a dialogue; God’s voice in response to mine is it’s most essential part. Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine”. –Andrew Murray
“Work as if you will live 100 years; Pray as if you were going to die tomorrow. –Benjamin Franklin
“I have often learned more in one prayer than I have been able to glean from much reading and refelction”. –Martin Luther
