By Dennis Pollock
In this study, I will share a simple and yet profound insight into what it means to be a child of God and indwelt by God. We’re going back to the days of Moses and the mysterious “Mount Sinai,” where Moses would go and experience God in a very tangible way, a way that no one has ever experienced Him, apart from the Lord Jesus Himself. It was here on the top of Mount Sinai that Moses received the Ten Commandments that summed up God’s moral expectations for His people.
In this particular case, we will consider a time when Moses did not go to this mountain alone, or merely with His assistant Joshua. This time, Moses went up with a group of the Israelites. The Bible says:
Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. (Exodus 24:9-10)
This group would have numbered 74 people, about the size of a small church. So here we have a significant group of men all going up with Moses to the mountain to meet with God. And we are told “they saw the God of Israel.” This is a little perplexing because elsewhere God had declared that nobody could see His face and live (Exodus 3:20) and Jesus would later say: “No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” (John 1:18). This is a bit mysterious, but apparently this group with Moses was given a vision of God’s glory, to such a degree that it was said of them “they saw the God of Israel.”
Presence of God
It must have been amazing! Most Christians who give themselves to prayer, have occasional deep times of prayer when God’s presence is especially strong. I have experienced this a few times, and when it happens, it’s overwhelming. Sometimes I cry. Once it was so beautiful I slipped to the floor and lay prostrate, just soaking in the presence and beauty of God. This experience on the mountain was the presence of God on a whole different level. I would have loved to be there.
We could wish for a few more details, but we are allowed only one insight as to what they saw. The Bible says: “And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity.” (Exodus 24:10). I think the only word to describe what they were seeing, and no doubt feeling, was “awesome.” Most of us overuse that word, but in this case, it applied, exponentially multiplied.
What makes this experience especially unusual is what is said after this. The Bible tells us: “So they saw God, and they ate and drank.” (Exodus 24:11). I find this incredible. I would have supposed that being in that place and experiencing that amazing vision and the presence of the God who made the universe would have been so overwhelming that eating and drinking would have been the last thing on their minds. Just imagine the deepest experience and interaction you have ever had with God’s presence. Now multiply that by a hundred times. Can you imagine seeing God’s glory this way and immediately afterwards saying, “Pass the potatoes, please?”
Sometimes we erroneously suppose that the closer men and women get to God, the more of their humanity they lose. We assume that a God-filled person is hardly human. He has reached that “holy, holy, holy” level, and all the human rules and ways no longer apply. He is so lost in the Spirit that his humanity has somehow disappeared. The reality is, knowing God through His Son Jesus Christ, and experiencing Him at a deep level, does not mean that you lose your humanity. You still eat, you still drink, you still sweat, and you still must go to the bathroom. You are just as human as you ever were, but now God is in your life and is living in you. Christ has not come into your heart to make you non-human, but to make you fully human in a way you could never be without Him.
We Don’t Lose Our Humanity
I think Christians need to see this. Sometimes we suppose, “If I could ever get really, really spiritual, I would hardly have to eat. I would stop making love to my spouse. I would never have constipation or have to fight the urge to be grumpy or angry.” But this is not true. As wonderful as it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as beautiful as it is to spend consistent time in the word of God, and as powerful as it is to have a deep prayer life, you will never, on this side of heaven, stop being human, feeling human, and behaving like a human.
The ultimate experience with God is to be born again through faith in Jesus Christ. You do, in fact, dramatically change. The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We receive the very nature of Christ living on the inside of us. Attitudes, values, and desires change, and we begin moving in the opposite direction from where we were before.
But many things do not change. First, we are still human. Second, our basic personality doesn’t change. If we were introverted, analytical people before coming to Jesus, we would still be that way once Christ has come to live within us. If we were loud, outgoing people who were the life of the party before salvation, we would be the same afterwards. Christ will clean our jokes and modify our language, but we will not be much different in personality after conversion than we were before.
We will not become so “other-worldly” that we never watch television, never attend football and baseball games, never joke with our friends, and go through every day chanting holy, holy, holy under our breath. Jesus has not come into your life to dehumanize you, but to restore you to the humanity that you should have been all along. Dennis will not stop being “Dennis,” but he will become a better “Dennis” than he could ever have been without Jesus. All our positive traits will be multiplied, and our negative traits will be significantly diminished, although this can be a gradual process.
And beyond all of this, you will be given the gift of eternal life. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, you will live forever in a place where there are no suffering or tears. You will still be you, but it will be an incredibly enhanced and perfect you!
