“And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand, and touched the Face of God.” – John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
The greatest experience any created being can have is to see God’s Face. On the sixth day of creation God made a statue of Himself out of dust, blew His Breath into it until it came alive and called it Adam.
Then from Adam’s rib God make a woman, brought her to the man, and called them both Adam (Genesis 5:2).
Point of Fact: God gave humanity the most precious Gift possible: His Face.
Homo sapiens are now so fallen, so corrupt, so depraved, that we find it difficult to wrap our understanding around the idea of moral or spiritual purity (Holiness)–even in the Heart of God. We accuse Deity of being aloof, unfair, unjust, unsympathetic and in possession of ulterior motives.
“But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God Who is Holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.” – Isaiah 5:16 “What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the Faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found True, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, ‘That You may be justified in Your Words, and prevail in Your judging.’” – Romans 3:3, 4 “And they sang the Song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and marvelous are Your Works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and True are Your Ways, King of the saints [nations, eons]!'” – Revelation 15:3 “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness whatsoever.” – 1st John 1:5
The Truth is that God’s Heart is the Very Fountain of Purity (and, dare I say, Innocence) incomprehensible by any created being apart from being directly exposed to His Presence.
And this is what makes our ancestors’ crime so heinous: not simply that Adam and Eve disobeyed God, but that Satan accused God of being impure AND THEY BELIEVED IT!!!
And so here we are, caught in the hell of having God’s Face, but lacking the Purity of His Heart.
So God does the Impossible: He sends us a Man–the first Man since Adam–Who has both God’s Face AND God’s Heart: Jesus Christ!!! And through Christ, by the Agency of The Holy Spirit of Christ, God is able to PURIFY AND IN-DWELL (LIVE INSIDE OF) THE HUMAN HEART, enabling any willing soul to once again enjoy the Fellowship with God that our species had lost.
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and [together] remain with him.” – John 14:23
And so now we come down to the “nitty-gritty.” Through The Gospel Prayer is transformed from a one-way street where God’s Attention has to be accepted by Faith, into a two-way highway in which we are as aware of God’s Presence as He is of ours!
And that’s the whole point here, isn’t it? If you have a heart like God’s, hearing God’s Voice is (as politely as I can put it) academic.
More than this, the whole life eventually becomes a “prayer closet” lived in the Presence of God and shared between God and His Child…a Child that shares His Pure Heart.
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