"Glory's Price""

"The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain

and stay here, and I will give you the

tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have

written for their instruction."

(Exodus 24:12)

"And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and got him up into the mount:

and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights."

(Exodus 24:18)

Moses waited, alone, on the cliff of a mountain, for forty days and forty nights in order to receive the Ten Commandments.  Waiting for the Holy God to appear is costly to the human being.  We are not accustomed to "waiting" for anything; we have fast food, fast remote controls, fast cars, fast microwaves, fast lines in the grocery store  ...  We are living in a generation which is not in sinc with a "tarrying" God.  We have much to learn about "Glory's Price."

The people of Israel got antsy waiting those forty days down at the base of the mountain, and they reverted to the sinful nature by molding a golden calf, stripping naked, and worshiping the calf, entertaining themselves with all sorts of erotic debauchery, while Moses was in a misty cloud like the Holy of Holies, the presence of God so thick he could barely see, in a realm such as people never enter; a holiness surrounded him and engulfed him so that he could scarcely breathe, so powerful was it that he was awed and fearful at the same time; it was the holy omnipotent angelic-abiding, ethereal climate-changing presence of the Almighty God.

"When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the

 mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who

will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt,

we don't know what has happened to him."

(Exodus 32:1)

"When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger

  burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to

 pieces at the foot of the mountain."

(Exodus 32:19)

Who could blame Moses?  He had spent 40 days and nights on a lonely cold mountain ledge waiting for the presence of God, and then when the God of eternity burst through the mist with a profound unearthly motion of writing upon stone in a whirlwind of flashing electricity, the friction of the Holy finger etching with lightning strokes of power the Ten Commandments ... Moses was struck mute and spellbound; this was a moment when he wondered if he was dreaming, or was he really seeing what he was seeing  ...  It was real, the tablets of the law were left hot, and still sizzling from the burning engravings, in his shaking anxious arms, and they let him know he was wide awake.  He had been in the presence of the Almighty Glory of God.

"So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up

 Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded

him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands."

(Exodus 34:4)

Moses reclimbed that mountain to present the new tablets to a waiting God.  It happens today, that we come out of the presence of God to be suddenly approached with the sins, wars, hatred, evils, and abhorrence of life in earth.  But, "Glory" has a price; it's called going back again, waiting, abiding, climbing, obeying, listening  ... spending time alone on a craggy aerie.  Moses dealt with the children of Israel and their sin, but the price of Glory went up when he broke the tablets.  The Lord commanded him to chisel out two more tablets and bring them to Him with a wooden chest. 

"I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets,

which you broke. Then you are to put them in the chest."

(Deuteronomy 20:2)

This was the Ark of the covenant, the chest, and it is symbolic of our hearts.  We hide the commandments in our hearts that we might not sin against Him.  "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."   (Psalm 119:11)  

"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter."  (Proverbs 25:2)  "Glory" means a state of wondrous  splendor, magnificence, or honor.  God's hidden things dwell in a place high up, a place in the deep.  Huh?  God is high and God is low; we find Him as we bow low to steps one below the other; and we find Him when we climb the mountain and sit alone in the mist of cloudy aura; we see Him in the darkest midnight when His light breaks the ebony hues; we hear Him in the whispers of gentle breezes and in the shout of an oncoming collision; He IS the depth we must search and the height to which we must ascend; He IS.

You say, "What are you talking about?"  I'm talking about the price we must pay to see His glory.  Moses paid it, and He saw it; many today have fasted forty days, but then, just like Moses, we have to reenter earth's atmosphere, and we're affected by earth's sin and evil.  Is it possible to reach a place of "in earth as it is in heaven" that continues on, that flourishes and blooms to a mighty crescendo, that produces miracles, signs, and wonders, that brings us to a revival such as earth has never seen?  If so, it will cost us all something, fasting and prayer; it will take from us, but it will give to us; it's "Glory's Price."

(Visit Promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.)

Pastor Kenneth Phillips

(He pays the price to see the Glory)

PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas

Services Sunday 10:30 am and Wednesday 7:15 pm

~~~~~~~Live Streaming~~~~~~~

Thank you for joining us in worship of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Please send us your prayer requests, and if you would like to 

sow seed into holy ground that prays and SEES Miracles, you

may give online @ promiselandchurch.net.  God bless you, 

and I know that He surely will!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PromiseLand Church!

We're paying the price and the 

Glory is coming down!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{Special thanks to cooltext.com for graphic text}