"I AM" a verb (Part 2)

A running theme throughout Exodus would be “The Presence of God.” After Moses’ encounter with God’s presence in the burning bush, he was spoiled for the ordinary. Later on in Exodus, it refers to the Lord speaking to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend. This wasn’t a literal face-to-face encounter, but rather a presence-to-presence encounter. Both were present in the moment of engaging with one another. Because Moses spent time in God’s presence and knew that was where his confidence was derived from, he refused to proceed without it.

Moses had a front row seat when it came to God’s presence. He certainly knew Him to be “I AM.” He was the chosen mediator between God and the people. But because Moses was a human mediator, the people could never get close to God’s presence. In fact, in Exodus 20 after the people witnessed the magnitude of God’s presence they were too afraid to even want to hear God speak to them and told Moses to do it for them. They stood afar off.

Because of God’s desire to make His presence known to anyone who desired Him, He made provision for the perfect mediator to make a way. “I AM” became present with us through Jesus Christ. No longer would we have to stand afar off. As Paul says in II Corinthians 3 (The Message), we have the ability to recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. There is nothing between God and us; our faces can now shine with the brightness of His face.

I wonder if some of us are still standing afar off because we still see our relationship with God as a piece of chiseled stone? In essence, “I AM” is a noun and not a verb. It isn’t that He stopped being a living, personal presence, but He did to us.

One of my spiritual daughters led her brother to Jesus about a year ago. My friend and I were able to quickly get him into a four-week discipleship programme. His sister was excited, we were excited and he was excited. He would return to his sister’s home on the weekend sharing all he was learning. After the programme was finished he would attend follow-up sessions and would return with the same enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the enticements of this world started to vie for his attention and we all lost touch with him. He recently re-surfaced at his sister’s wedding. I was thrilled to see him as I had been praying for him in his absence. I didn’t focus on what had transpired while he was away, but on the fact that he was now present. At one point during our conversation he shared about the story of the prodigal son and how the Father received the son back with open arms. I was so encouraged to hear that this young man’s reassurance was in the fact that he knew he could return to the Father’s presence. Yes, just like the prodigal son, this young man removed himself from God’s living, personal presence. For him, “I AM” had become “I WAS.” But, just like the father in the story, God’s desire for renewed relationship with this young man remained alive.

He does this for all of us. Even if we’re standing afar off from God’s presence, for whatever reason, and our relationship with Him has become a dead noun or principle or method or formula that speaks of rules, it is possible to return to “I AM” who is a verb and is alive and full of grace.