Face to Face

Moses is exhausted. He is the only person diligently seeking God in the entire, nomadic nation of Israel. He finally cries out to God, "I can't carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy! If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me the misery!" (Numbers 11.14-15 NLT).

I smile when I read this because Moses' humility is so apparent. Many times pride steals our willingness to seek help. But not Moses -- he was overwhelmed, and he let it be known. He was the single intercessor between God and the Chosen People, and he knew he had reached the end of his capability.

God does something amazing for Moses that demonstrates His divine grace. He takes some of His Spirit that He has placed on Moses and puts it on 70 Elders of Israel. It is obvious that these leaders didn't receive this Spirit by their own efforts. Two of the men who hadn't bother to show up to the anointing meeting received the Spirit as well. They disobeyed direct orders, yet God gave them His Spirit.

Moses' apprentice, Joshua, is at the anointing meeting, and he has never seen anybody but Moses prophesy (speak God's will) in the Spirit. He becomes very upset, and he pleads with his teacher, "Moses, my master, make them stop!" Joshua has been learning from Moses for a while, and I'm sure he feels jilted. How could these men receive for free what he has been working for all of his life? Joshua experiences first hand the beauty of grace: a gift not based on the receiver, but on the Giver.

Moses' humility is displayed yet again when he looks at his young assistant and says, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all!" (Numbers 11.29 NLT) (emphasis added)

Moses is a shadow of Jesus. Jesus is our intercessor, and God gives us His Spirit because of His love for us and the sacrifice that Jesus made for our mistakes. Jesus wants His sacrifice to spill God's anointing on every person. I'm sure Jesus repeats Moses' words, "I wish all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all!"

A prophet is a person who hears from God, who sits with God, who sees God face to face and who communicates God's will. Yes, the gifting of prophecy can manifests in other ways, but the visions, dreams and riddles are merely outward signs of an inward discipline -- seeking God. All Christians are called to sit with God, seek His will and tell others about His glory. At salvation we were gifted with spiritual ears that hear God's voice. But are we using them?

Are we filling our lives with the world or with Him? If we want the fullness of God's Spirit moving in our lives, we have to make room for Him. If we want to discern His voice, we have to listen to and recognize it. If we want to tell the world about Christ, we have to seek Him every day and read His Word. We are honored with the power to communicate with God at any time. He waiting for us. We just need to sit and talk with Him -- face to face!

Question: What can you sacrifice or submit to this year to make room for God? What have you heard from God today?

And the Lord said to them, “Now listen to what I say:
“If there were prophets among you,
I, the Lord, would reveal myself in visions.
I would speak to them in dreams.
But not with my servant Moses.
Of all my house, he is the one I trust.
I speak to him face to face,
clearly, and not in riddles!
He sees the Lord as he is.
So why were you not afraid
to criticize my servant Moses?”

- Numbers 12.6-8 NLT (emphasis added)