I have been impacted by the life of Moses, particularly him encountering the Lord "face to face". In Exodus 33 Moses is talking with God and he prays "show me Your Ways, that I may know You." As I was just about my normal day, I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit where He spoke to me. I was reflecting on the verses in Isaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." The Holy Spirit crashed in with a new thought, "This is why I had to raise you up and seat you in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) because otherwise you could not know my ways." I have heard many people quote the verse about God's ways not being our ways and that His ways are higher than ours, in attitude of bewilderment of knowing what God is doing. Through our being united in Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension we are now seated "in Christ" in the heavenly places and can see heaven's ways because we have been given access to heaven and invited to know His ways. Knowing how God operates (His Ways) or the journey with Him positions us to know Him intimately and personally. This is the ultimate privilege and destination of the Christian life is to know God but not from a distance but intimately. One of God's ways is to forgive us for our sin through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, not having our sin be a barrier in relationship with Him. As we receive revelation of this "way" of God to forgive, we begin to receive conviction by the Holy Spirit for the sin we still have not forgiven ourselves but also conviction of the sin we are holding against others. Walking out receiving forgiveness for our sins and then forgiving others who have hurt us puts us in a place to walk in His ways thus knowing Him. In the process of forgiving others for how they sinned against us and hurt us, our hearts begin to flow with God's compassion for others. This is the point where we are truly knowing Him intimately because we not only see His ways but are walking in them and experiencing the fruit of the Spirit. It was a time in late Fall where we had gone to Estes Park for a getaway, I was stressed because we did not have enough money in our support account to fund our salary for the next month+. Faced with not having a paycheck, I finally broke down in the Lord's Presence crying out for an answer He led me to a teaching called "The Grace of Giving". I thought, I depend on financial support for our living expenses why am I learning about giving. As I listened to the message that highlighted Generosity from Genesis to 2 Corinthians 9, in my desperation I decided to "try" His way since mine wasn't working. As we began to live a life of generosity, sowing seeds, trusting Him and believing that He would provide by multiplying the seed He gave us to sow our lives began to be transformed. We were getting a revelation of one of His ways and in the process of following His ways, we began to know God on a deeper level. I love that in God's grace, He provides the seed for us and also brings the increase or harvest. It's all based on trusting Him and His grace, not seeking to do things our way. I reminded of the Proverb 14:12 which says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." The emphasis is on "way", which means a path, journey, habit, or direction. So if we are on God's path or road then we will encounter Him through participating in His way of doing life, which will transform us because we will encounter Him and thus know Him. Often times we are on a path where we find difficulty and frustration but don't understand that we are following our own way rather than God's way. Jesus Christ being the firstborn Son walked in God's ways: dependence on the Father, submission, declaring the Kingdom, healing, forgiveness, generosity, blessing, freedom, and love. Then as we have revelation of Christ's ways, choose to walk in them through trusting the Holy Spirit, and finally experiencing the fruit of the Spirit's work in us then we are transformed to walk as sons and daughters of God. Will you hear God's invitation to know His ways, that you may know Him.
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