What if church goers could actually see and feel the glory and presence of God in the sanctuary?  

What we know of anyone who has seen or felt His Glory in real time reveals to us a sense of a greater intensity of emotion than the modern user friendly church goer currently is ready to accept. 
 

Historical encounters of men meeting God, whether angelic, or booming voices, or direct theosophic encounters on the order of Abram's tent meeting announcing the birth of Isaac, and especially of Moses at the Rock of God's appearing found in Ex. 34, all reveal that a man in the presence of the True Maker of Heaven and earth are prostrate before Him, face down in the dirt of His making. Even wanting to die rather than look up at the blazing glory of God.

Men just can't stop themselves from falling down and worshiping the glory of what human eyes see and human hearts feel. When any historical God-encounter happens to any man or woman made of the dust, a unique, never to be forgotten event occurs in the life of that man or woman. Take for example the visitation of the angels of heaven announcing the birth of Our Messiah. 
 
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

Luke 2:9

While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” 6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. 7 But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” 8 When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Mt. 17:5-8

 

As in the days of Solomon, a mere mortal man made from the same stuff as we are made, while spreading his trembling hands before His earthly Throne in the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, this was at the time when Solomon dedicated the Temple of Lord, God Himself condescended and came down and shook the earth around that holy ground, and misty cloud of Glory filled the house Solomon built. 

When the Ark arrived, glory of Yahweh's presence shook all of Israel, the spirit-filled men who built the Temple were face down in worship. Men like us, built with the same hands we use in our worship, fell down before Him. The ark which was built to simply accommodate the condescension of His Glorious Presence with His People, revealing His uniqueness and to show His people a small portion of powerful and intense and holy presence (1 Kings 8:11).

Solomon and Israel's Shekinah experience was indeed part of a sincere process of preparation that included attention to every detail being properly lined up to insure that every jot or tittle of His Torah was obeyed.

The circumspection of young king Solomon must have gleaned from the historical account of Uzzah’s death in the days of his father, the event of Uzzah peril reveals a sad account that broke his dad’s heart, for when his friend Uzzah touched that which he was not commissioned to touch, he died, for only the ones selected and called for that service were to carry the Ark and carry it into the holy of Holies.

For thunderous Power, amazing Love, immense Grace, unspeakable Knowledge, intense Passion, indiscernible yet very real Beauty, inscrutable insight, and a keen sense and perception are but the mere edges of His glorious presence.

Come & See must point to a deeper and more committed Way of being and path of life where Christ is all in all. He must have all the Glory in the Church (Eph. 3:14-21) in which an invisible spiritual and very holy transaction takes place that changes our callous worldly heart and transforms this dead thing into a throbbing life giving source of energy. Introducing a new capacity to go into the depths of agony and dig out, through of real sins, to Really Holy Judge, to see perfection exalted, and to tremble before the All knowing and seeing King of the earth. 

The poor, broken, oppressed begin a new life and journey as they let His Glory overwhelm their being to begin a new life of complete surrender to Him, and at the same time gain a brand new sight that enables their dead heart to live and to see far far away into the realms of unlimited Glory.
 

The edges of His ways are not known until a great loss human pride is realized, deep down in the depths of a man’s heart, where this pernicious evil we call "pride of man" dies along with our native sense of self-reliance. Chained to Christ’s strong pull that reaches past all this negativity carry the sinner into the faraway places where He now sits enthroned at the right hand of the Father. Where we now dwell and are seated by faith.

His Way is not known for us until the Journey gets harder, seemingly without an end. In the lower unknown parts of our humanity, His Spirit probes and uncovers areas of violation and unbelief and nonconformity to His Holy Law, for the simple purpose of saving us from ourselves, to redeem us to step into an eternal life of erfect Union with Him forever.

Come & See is a reality for a truly born again sinner. This experience is an undeniable exposure of collective and individual responsibility to get in line with Him and His revealed Word, A written but spoken Word, written and spoken by His prophets since the days of Adam.

A critical component to Come & See has to do with our faces going straight down to the dust from which we were made to find our rightful place. On our faces, clinging to the dust, here we begin the process of being prepared for sonship. We begin the transforming relationship of Spirit to Spirit, where Christ through His Holy Spirit recreates us in His Holy image. Ultimately we are brought to perfection in son-ship, glorified in oneness with His resurrected Body.

One Day all of us will participate in our rightful place in Zion, part of this guaranteed and very Glorious Union with Him forever. Today, Our Lord’s desire is to remake us here on earth to prepare us for this Grand moment in the future, the revelation of the sons of God. 

The Way He made for us here, where He modeled righteousness, where He (Jesus) revealed perfect obedience to the Father, even submitting to the aweful embarrassment of being crucified on a tree. At this moment, Yahshua transferred to those who believe in His righteousness, those who repent of their sins, and those who fully surrender their lives to Him, all of these are made perfect by virtue of His Righteous Blood. An atonement which has purchased conformity to His Way, Person, and Life, which imparts an insight to see, that enables perseverance to press on to land one day in the far reaches of Glory and Oneness with the Father.

The Garden of His Love is to be acquired today. Known in the here and now and which extends to the farthest reaches of knowledge of His love and favor. This powerful work extends into eternity and goes on forever and forever far beyond the constraints of time and circumstance. It is in this place that we find perfect peace and rest...so shall we Come & See the Rest of God today?

We must remember that the same God we seek today is the same God who parted the RED SEA and saved His people but He also judged His enemies in that same SEA.

---

As we enter His rest today, we remember that Our God is still a consuming fire (Heb. 12:28,29), that human trepidation is a normal part of any Come & See experience as we pursue Him and His glory.

In the trembling parts of our quest to find God, we know we have stumbled upon Him and found the pearl of great price, so when fear and awe overcome us we are on the right track.

At stake in the Come & See encounter is our very life, our deliverance from death, accomplished by the strong arms of God that reach us from the bliss and perfection of heaven and pull us personally out of the fiery destruction that is coming upon the world and delivers us in our weakness into the holy courts of heaven.

So shall we go up to the holy city with a sensitive heart that has been prepared to see His Glory in the Land of promises, so we shall One Day Come & See the Glory of the Lord in the Land of the Living.

"Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for Your name’s sake 42 (for they will hear of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this temple, 43 hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name. 

I Kings 8:41-44
 

In His Boundless & Eternal Love,

 

Jonathan