He’s Within Sight Now
As a child 👦, I had one longing more than any other! All kids have their secret wishes. I had mine! The desire would overwhelm me in the darkness 🌙 of the night in my bedroom.
I can relate to the beloved prophet 👳Isaiah when he writes in Isaiah 26:9,
“WITH MY SOUL HAVE I DESIRED THEE IN THE NIGHT SEASON.”
Isaiah, who had more revelation of God and His Son Jesus Christ than any other prophet in Sacred Writ, experiences longing for God in the darkness. A deep longing, a soul longing.
In Isaiah 6:1 He tells that,
“IN THE YEAR THAT KING UZZIAH DIED, I SAW THE LORD SEATED ON HIS THRONE HIGH AND LIFTED UP, AND THE TRAIN OF HIS ROBE FILLED THE TEMPLE.”
Theologians call what Isaiah saw 👀 a THEOPHONY, a revelation of God 🔵 that he saw in His mind, but not with his physical eyes. But an awe inspiring look nonetheless into the throne room of Heaven with God 🔵 reigning over the universe!
All of Isaiah 53 is a breathtaking unfolding of the Suffering Servant as if Isaiah was following Jesus in Jerusalem to the hill called Golgatha where they nailed Him to a cross!
Yet in the “Night Season” his soul is yearning for God in the darkness as if he had seen very little light.
NIGHT SEASON! Strange expression! We speak of NIGHT TIME, but not of NIGHT AS A SEASON. But night can drag on as a season. It is the loneliest, the darkest, the most foreboding, especially for a child. But even the prophet 👳 of God found his soul longing for God in the long night 🌑🌑🌑🌑 season!
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A CHILD’S REASONING
What was it that I longed for? Not just for God! I knew that He was already there! He IS IMMANUEL – GOD 🔵 WITH US! I was thankful for that! I believed that! A simple childlike faith! Except you become like a little child.
But there was no sense in hiding from each other in the dark 🌑! God, come out wherever you are! That was my childhood desire! It was a strong longing! I think brother Isaiah would relate!
I remember being quite forceful about it too! After all, He could 👀 see me, why couldn’t I 👀 see Him? That isn ‘t fair! I wanted too see 👀 God! That was it! I wanted to see 👀 Jesus!
I didn’t thrill much to see the man in the moon, though I could make him out. Small compensation! Anyway, all he does is look out into space with an awkward stare. I wanted to see the God 🔵 of Heaven Who created the moon 🌙! Nothing less would do!
I told the Lord what corner of the room I had designated for His appearance 🔵. “Right over there Lord, it doesn’t have to be long. A brief glimpse 🔘 will do! But please make it clear so I know it is You,”
I would whisper to Him. I didn’t want my parents or my sisters🙎🙎 in the other upstairs bedrooms to hear me.
I would stay awake at night, fully expecting it to happen at any moment! I was convinced on more than one night that “HE IS WITHIN SIGHT NOW 🔵!” The expectation was heart-pounding.
Until finally sleep 💤 overtook me, and the next morning 😣 I would stress over perhaps having missed His face, because I could hold out no longer. This went on during my childhood, and I never gave up hope! I guess I still haven’t!
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I ENVIED THE 👼👼👼ANGELS
This much I knew from my Sunday School and Catechism days, and that was what the Bible says about the 👼 ANGELS in Matthew 18:10,
“THAT THE ANGELS ALWAYS BEHOLD THE FACE OF GOD IN HEAVEN.”
Not just see God 🔵. They BEHOLD GOD! Behold! A verb of wonder. So astounding you can hardly HOLD ON TO WHAT YOU SEE! You have to blink several times to make sure it’s real. That made me jealous 😞! Why did the 👼 ANGELS get all the breaks, and not me?
PLUS not now and then! Not occasionally! Not once and a while! ANGELS ALWAYS 👀BEHOLDING THE FACE OF GOD 🔵 IN HEAVEN! That just didn’t seem fair to me, that they got the full constant view of God, and I didn’t even have a momentary PEEK 👀! Why was everything lopsided in their favor?
Lovers are MOON-STRUCK 🌙! Astronomers are STAR-STRUCK 🌟!
Angels are GOD-STRUCK 🔵! Bob was DUMBSTRUCK!
ALWAYS BEHOLD THE FACE OF GOD! You would think that perhaps their attention would be diverted by a shooting star 🌠, or perhaps by a sun eclipse 🌓 or by a flaming asteroid💥? Those things are elementary compared to what they constantly BEHOLD!
But no, when they are not on a specific mission in the heavenlies or on earth, in Heaven they can’t take their eyes off from the face of God. They are mesmerized with a visual God 🔵 fixation!
We would call it TUNNEL VISION! They look at nothing and no one☝else! Because they can’t! The GLORY of God is so indescribably awesome, that they are TRANSFIXED by God’s 🔵 face! They are not FAR-SIGHTED, they are not NEAR-SIGHTED, they are just flat out GOD-SIGHTED!
I would imagine that the face of 🔵 God is so infinitely beautiful, that everything and everyone else pales in comparison!
A man in my first pastorate died and went to Heaven, and then was sent back to earth 🌎 by an angel. Chuck told me that the glory and light of God in Heaven 🌕 was so incredible, that he was very disappointed to be back on earth 🌎! Everything was so drab down here in comparison! He even told me that I was a big letdown!
We have no idea what the angels perpetually see! Constant luminous rapture!
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FACE TO FACE
The Word of God gives us an intimate and up close picture of God and His saints in Heaven, when we read in I Corinthians 13:12,
“NOW WE SEE THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, BUT THEN WE SHALL SEE 👀 GOD FACE TO FACE!”
The ANGELS ALWAYS BEHOLD GOD’S FACE, but it does not say that they BEHOLD GOD 🔵 FACE TO FACE.
There is nothing casual or vague about Bible expression! While the angels BEHOLD GOD’S 🔵 FACE, HIS CHILDREN SHALL SEE 👀 HIM FACE TO FACE! THAT MEANS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL AND INTIMATE!
FAITH will become SIGHT! A SIGHT TO BEHOLD! We shall not see Him from a distance, or from afar, or even from across 🌌 the throne room! FACE TO FACE! The reward of faith that held on to the unseen. Faith was not easy at times. Believing God and Heaven, person and sight unseen! No longer from faith to faith, but forever from FACE TO FACE!
Revelation 10:4 tells us that the Old Testament Church (12 Elders) and the New Testament Church (12 Elders), the 24 elders, fall down BEFORE GOD’S THRONE!
BEFORE broken down means:
-BE – being, living, state of life.
-FORE – front, ahead, closeness of position.
God’s people shall have front row seats before the Throne of God. There are no cheap seats or nose bleed seats in Heaven for Christians! These are seats reserved for Heaven’s dignitaries! Face to face positioning for Christ and His disciples! FULL FRONTAL CLOSE VISION OF GOD! 🔵
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Paul says in I Corinthians 13:12,
“We are now looking through a DARK GLASS 🔳!”
If you will, through a VERY DARK WINDOW! That is because it is difficult for the PHYSICAL (US) to see 👀 the SPIRITUAL (GOD). Our physical eyes are blind when it comes to seeing the spirit world.
The darkness is on this side. It is all glorious light there. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.The light 🌕 there is always fully on!
John 4:23-24,
“GOD IS SPIRIT, AND THEY THAT WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH! ”
THE PHYSICAL TRYING TO SEE THE SPIRITUAL! That is the dark fog, the dense London fog at night that we have to look through to try and see God!
Now we have physical eyes that even need glasses and contacts just to see 👀 the material realm. We have to continually CLEAN THOSE GLASSES 👓 to be able to see the present 🌎world. Seeing is such a delicate thing.
We won’t need glasses there! No more bifocals, trifocals, or however many focals. We won’t need THREE DIMENTIONAL GLASSES AT CINEMAX. However many dimensions God 🔵 and Heaven are, we shall capture them all.
For in Heaven we shall have PERFECT SPIRIT EYES, and I John 3:2 tells us,
“WE SHALL SEE GOD 🔵 EXACTLY AS HE IS.” (Heavenly 20-20 vision)
FACT:
“WE SHALL SEE FAR MORE CLEARLY WITH OUR SPIRITUAL EYES THAN WE EVER SAW WITH OUR PHYSICAL EYES!”
No more darkness, no more haziness, no more dimness, no more cataracts. Optometrists will forever be out of business! No more!
CLARITY, CLOSENESS, INTIMACY, NEARNESS! OH THE GLORY AND ECSTASY 😮 OF IT ALL! I can feel it, HE IS WITHIN SIGHT NOW!
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EXACTLY AS HE IS 🔵
When John says in I John 3:2,
“WE SHALL SEE 👀GOD EVEN OR EXACTLY AS HE IS.”
He is saying a great big mouthful! He is saying something beyond the spectacular!!!
In our 🌎 earthly life, we have humanly contrived pictures and paintings and Hollywood films of what man pictures Jesus to look like! Mysterious representations of God in clouds ⛅ and on mountains 🌅 and in the wind 💨. All fiction of course because the Bible makes it clear that no one has ever seen the real God.
Moses and the Israelites were given a DENSE CLOUD vision of God 🔵 in Exodus 19:9. God talked with Moses out of the cloud so that all the people could hear it. That way the people would trust Moses as their God – ordained leader because he had an audible interview with God.
CBS would have Moses on 60 MINUTES to share his GOD-CLOUD 🔵 ENCOUNTER. But this would not qualify Moses in court as an EYEWITNESS 👀of God. He could not make a personal identification of God that would pass the 🆔 requirements!
CBS would leave the entire thing in doubt! Which would be their intended purpose in the first place! They would intentionally make Moses look like one of Hillary Clinton’s DECALOGUE ROD CARRYING DEPLORABLES!
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But in Heaven, it goes beyond the FACE OF GOD 🔵! I JOHN 3:2 says,
“WE SHALL SEE GOD 🔵, ALL OF GOD 🔵, EXACTLY AND TOTALLY AS HE IS!”
Not part of Him, not only the FACE OF HIM, NOT A CLOUDED HIM, but ALL OF HIM EXACTLY AND CLEARLY AS HE IS! I can sense it, He is within sight now!
That means we shall see Him in all of His radiance 🍥 as THE TRIUNE GOD! We shall see THE FATHER, the SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT! THE TRINITARIAN GOD! GOD IN TRIPLICATE! THREE 🔵🔵🔵 BUT ONE 🔵! Cinemax, eat your heart out!
1. We shall see 👀the HEAVENLY FATHER 🔵 WHO DESIGNED AND CREATED US ACCORDING TO HIS AFORE-PLANNED BLUEPRINT 📃! He custom designed everyone of us. I am His one-of-a-kind 👤1940 models. I don’t know what my street value is! But I do know that I am worth the blood of God’s beloved Son!
Heavenly family planning! PLANNED PARENTHOOD IN THE HEAVENLY SENSE! Not Planned Parenthood that we have in the hellish sense on earth, which is murderous de-parenting.
We shall see 👀 THE HEAVENLY FATHER WHO PLANNED AND CARRIED OUT HOW EACH OF US WOULD LOOK, PERSONALITY, TALENTS, QUIRKS, NOTHING LEFT TO CHANCE!
There before us will be ABBA FATHER – DADDY FATHER OUR ETERNAL PARENT WHO LOVED 💓 US FROM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE 🌎 WORLD. The God Who loved us so radically that He sent His Son to our hell so we could go to His Heaven!
What an INCREDIBLE, SWEET HOMECOMING THAT WILL BE! I WONDER WHETHER AS IN LUKE 15 IF OUR ETERNAL FATHER WILL FALL ON OUR NECKS AND KISS US when we get home! I can only imagine! I know that would mean a lot of kissing. But if anyone would kiss you, Abba Father would. He is a kissing Father. So was my Dad.
2. There He shall be, totally as He is. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God 🔵. Our co-Creator and our Redeemer! We shall finally see Him actually as He is. The forever begotten One, the One and only Who is God’s Son eternally. The Son of God Who became the Son of Man👤, that the sons of men 👤 could become the sons of God 👥👥👥.
It will be like meeting our OLDEST BROTHER as His adopted brothers and sisters! I never had a brother! I have two wonderful sisters.
When Jesus taught us to pray “OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN,” He was including Himself in the “OUR.” His Father and our Father, which makes us brothers and sisters of Jesus. We shall see our elder brother!
I have no idea what He actually looks like! I know that we shall see His kind and compassionate face. The nail prints shall be visible in His hands and feet, forever reminding us of His precious blood 🔴 shed for our sins. Thomas saw them, and was commanded to put his fingers in the wounds of the Lamb of God 🐑. Will we touch the sacred scars of Golgatha’s cross? I can only imagine.
The Revelation says His eyes are like fire, and His hair as white as snow. Not your ordinary brother. Joseph had a coat of many colors. Jesus shall light up Heaven all by Himself 🌕. You talk about bright and colorful! He will not only be the LIFE of the party, He will be the LIGHT of the party!
The Bible says it is sweet for the eyes to see the sun. How sweet will it be for our eyes to finally see the SON?! I can tell that HE IS WITHIN SIGHT NOW!
3. And there He will be, the wind of God, the fire of God, the healing oil of God – THE HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF EXACTLY AS HE IS! HEAVEN’S DOVE!
The One Who rebirths us, the One Who illumines us, the One Who sanctifies us, the One Who comforts us, the One Who dogged us like the Hound of Heaven 🐕 when we were prone to wander! His bite could be worse than His bark! He nipped me more than once!
He baptized us to be Christ’s witnesses with power. He gave us supernatural gifts for the work of the ministry and missions. He gave me tongues and the gift of the discernment of spirits 👽👾👿💀. Once He gives you a spiritual gift, there is a no return policy! It is your’s for life! THE HEAVENLY GRACIOUS GIFTER WILL BE BEFORE US. THE SPIRIT OF GRACE!
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It is a long time since those childhood days in the dark asking God 🔵 to put in a personal appearance just for me. So many decades have come and gone. The longing has grown.
As an 80 year old, I thrill to the realization that HE IS WITHIN SIGHT NOW!
The wise man says in Ecclesiastes 1:8,
“THE EYE IS NOT SATISFIED WITH SEEING.”
It will never be satisfied in this world. Even the eye senses that it was created for much more than this! It was made to BEHOLD GOD! The eye is the most spectacular and satisfying of all the senses! It will never realize it’s full potential here!
The ANGELS have it right, EYES ONLY FOR HIM! I can hear them saying to us, “YOU GOTTA SEE THIS! JUST A LITTLE FARTHER! HE’S WITHIN SIGHT NOW!” AMEN!
