From New Year Hopes To Holy Hunger: Worship, Discipleship, And Moses’ 1,500-Year Pursuit Of God

We close the year with gratitude, a clear call to deeper worship, and a roadmap from anointing to glory. Mary’s alabaster act and Moses’ long pursuit teach us to lay down ego, choose presence over gifts, and press beyond moments into habitation.

• year-end thanksgiving and testimony of God’s care
• ministry updates and season three plans with video
• discipleship vision for new and growing believers
• Mary’s alabaster box as a model of humility
• dismantling ego to make room for worship
• seeking God’s face rather than His hand
• Moses’ 1,500-year quest for God’s glory
• Transfiguration as a delayed answer to hunger
• daily death to self as the path to intimacy
• revival through humility, repentance, and prayer
• carrying God’s presence into everyday spaces

Follow us on Facebook at the Christian Cafe and send your prayer requests to theChristianCafe2022@gmail.com
If you want the books mentioned, drop me an email and I’ll ship them free of charge

Chapters

• 0:02 Warm Welcome And Year-End Reflections
• 3:21 God’s Faithfulness Through Trials
• 5:21 Season Wrap And Ministry Growth
• 7:04 2026 Plans: Video And Discipleship
• 10:57 Free Resources And How To Reach Us
• 14:42 Mary’s Alabaster Box And True Worship
• 22:14 Dismantle Your Glory: Humility’s Call
• 29:41 Break Interlude
• 31:54 Free Book Offer And Recap
• 33:42 Worship That Arrests Heaven
• 35:01 Moses’ Hunger For God’s Glory
• 41:59 Break Interlude
• 45:00 Presence Over Gifts And Visitation
• 51:40 Habitation, Holiness, And Cost
• 58:12 Transfiguration: Prayer Answered After Centuries
• 1:06:34 Beware Monuments To Partial Glory
• 1:12:09 Die Daily: Path To Intimacy

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Welcome to the Christian Cafe, the place where the bread of life is always served hot and fresh, straight from God's Word. Every episode is designed to nourish your soul, strengthen your faith, and encourage you in your daily walk with Christ. At the Christian Cafe, you'll find practical teaching, encouragement from the scriptures, and spiritual insights that you can apply right where you are. Whether you're at home, at work, or on the go, this is your place to pause, be refreshed, and be reminded of God's goodness. Stay connected by following us on Facebook at the Christian Cafe and send your prayer requests to feChristian Cafe 2022 at gmail.com. Because here at the cafe, we believe in the power of prayer and the fellowship of believers. Check out our webpage, www.hotpage.com The Christian Cafe. So, grab a seat, place your order, and get ready for a serving of God's word that's fresh, hot, and life-changing. This is the Christian Cafe.

SPEAKER_08: 1:21

Man, it's great to have you with us today. Come on in, sit down, and let's have a good time today. Alright, well, let's get back. Welcome to the Christian Cafe. It is another episode. Man, this year has come by so fast. I'll tell you what, I am just so glad to be here with you today. Oh man, just come through the Christmas season, and I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I know I did. It was a wonderful time at the house. All my family got to come up and be with us. Uh my kids. All of them did, but a couple. Well, one of my daughters and her husband was able to because of work and sickness, but they're all doing better now. The other two daughters came up and we had a great time. Opened gifts and ate some food, of course. And I hope you had a great time also. Where has this year gone to? Man, it seemed like we just began this year, and here it is already December. I think it's the 22nd. I believe it is the last Sunday in the month. We soon getting ready to go into New Year's. Let me take that back. It's the 26th, maybe? Well, I know Wednesday's New Year's Eve. I don't know. Without looking at the calendar, I don't know what day it is. It's the 28th. Sunday 28th. I should remember that, but I never do. I can't remember one day from the next anymore. Everything just seems to fly by. And here we are getting ready to celebrate New Year's and going into another year. 2026. Man, can you believe that? But I just want to say welcome to the Christian Cafe. I hope everyone has had a good year. And I know God is going to do some greater things next year. I don't know what you how hard it was for this year. I know in 2025, we me and my wife, we experienced some things that could have set us back, could have hurt us, and but we're still fighting and we're still believing God for miraculous things for 2026. My wife went through back surgery and everything, and she's just now getting worse. Well, she's been doing pretty good here lately. I think she'll finally get released from her doctor next month and be able to travel a little more. We've not been able to do that, and she's not been able to do a lot of things, but she's progressing nicely and seeing God move in her condition and still touching and healing her. But yeah, we it's been a trying 2025. But you know what? God is good, amen. God is good, as the old saying goes, but God. And I'm sure that you know each and every one of you that's listening can say the same thing. God has always provided for you, he's always taking care of you. I I know I hear a lot of people say, Well, I need my job, I need my job. Well, with that mindset, but we never can learn to trust God. I told somebody uh it's been weeks back at work that you know my job is not my supplier. My job is just something God give me to help supply my needs, but in the end, God is my supplier, he takes care of me, he provides for me. As long as I stay faithful to him, I don't have to worry about anything. I don't have to worry about where my next meal is coming from or anything like that. He is my strength. Amen. So glad for that. I'm sure that you can say that also. But yeah, this is the last episode of this year. Actually, it's the last episode of season two. We'll be starting season three next year, and there's some exciting things taking place next year here at the Christian Cafe. We are expanding. Uh most of you don't know this, but we started this podcast two years ago, and it has gone a lot since then. We are now in every state in the United States we're being listening to, we're also in 18 countries. I just give God the glory for that. Amen. I give him glory for all of that because if it wasn't for him, none of this is possible. And we do this our own. We're not supported by anyone. This is a ministry that God give give us to do. And I was called to preach in 2000. I've pastored a church, I've evangelized and done everything you think about inside the church. But this is something God placed in my heart two years ago in order to get the word out about him, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. We have so many avenues now that we can do that with people that's not allowed, not able to come to church. I don't want to say not allowed, but because everyone's allowed to come to the house of God, but not able everybody's able due to work or sickness or something, and this is a way that we can get God's word out. As I said, there's some things coming about in 2026 here at the Christian Cafe. We're gonna be doing a video podcast over on YouTube, and my wife is gonna be joining me, and we will be uh doing a series on discipleship. Now we do this at our local church about once a quarter for new members that new people that's coming to the church that want to be a part of our church, and we go through a series of lessons about about our church and then about the salvation and things like that, what we believe, and then we teach about discipleship and what it means to disciple people. And we had decided that to bring it to other people, to put it out there and let other people learn from now. There's many ministers and people that teach discipleship, and I I'm not saying ours will is any going to be any better than theirs, because teaching discipleship, I just don't believe it's taught enough. It's something that you know we all should know about and learn about, and know what it means to disciple those that's coming into the kingdom of God. Because so in in churches today, most people they just get them saved and that's it, and then expecting to find out on their own. But as a child of God, we are responsible for those that have been born into the kingdom of God. We are responsible for disciples discipling them and teaching them about God because most of them don't know. Some first time they ever heard about Jesus. And so it is our job to make sure that we disciple them because if you do not disciple them, then they're gonna listen to other people, and they're soon gonna be right back to where they started from. And most of the time there's church hurt, there's people that's hurt their feelings, or something has happened to cause them to look back to where they're we're at because they feel like they have been left in the dark. Nobody wants to hurt them, and that's what discipling others is all about. That's what discipleship is. Jesus took the twelve under his wing and taught them about him, taught them about the goodness of God, taught them about healing and and the word and what it was like to love one another and not push them aside. And we're to be like him. And when Jesus left, he told them in the upper room that I've given you power, I've gonna send a comfortable for you that you might be able to go out and do the things that I did, but greater things than these that I do because I go to the Father. So we're commissioned for that, and I don't want to get into that, but that's gonna be something that's coming up next year. So excited about it. We'll also still have our audio, but we'll also be on video also on our YouTube page. And if you're not checked that out, feel free to jump over there on YouTube. There is a couple uh video messages over there. There is also a a video over there on depression that my my wife battled for some time, and she gives her testimony and talks about how to battle depression. And so that's a personal test for testimony of hers, and we've had a lot of views on that. So if you like to see that, just go over to our YouTube page, the Christian Cafe, and leave us a comment, what you think about it, and like it. And as I've always said, if you would like to reach out to us, feel free to do that. Email us at the Christian Cafe 2022 at gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you if you have any prayer requests whatsoever. We'd love to hear from you. Also check out our webpage, the Christian Cafe, jump on there and and browse around. We would just love to hear from you. And it's been great going through this book that we have been going through for this past year, God Chasers. I know it seemed like it's taken us a while, but we're gonna finish it up today. We're gonna finish up where we uh left off last episode, the ending of chapter nine, and we'll go on into chapter ten. But before we start that, we're gonna take a break and come back and and we'll get back into this thing.

SPEAKER_07: 11:35

Jesus! Jesus!

SPEAKER_05: 11:39

Jesus! King of Kings! We're ready for war! I'm ready for war!

SPEAKER_08: 13:33

Welcome back to the Christian country. If you want this book that uh Pastor Keith was talking about Losing Jesus in church, I want you to have it. Uh, it is a powerful book. I've read it once and started back through it again, and it is a one powerful book. Every Christian needs to read this. And if you want it, again, drop me a line, drop me an email, and I'll ship this out to you free of charge. Won't cost you a dime. I just want to get it in your hands. And the same thing that goes about the book that we've been going through. If you want a copy of it, again request it. It is free. And there's not a lot of things free in this world except for salvation. It's free. All we got to do is believe and ask. And Jesus said, confess our mouth, believe in our hearts, and we shall be saved. These books are free. All you need to do is ask for them. Let's get back into our book. I'm just going to just going to recap just a little bit of what we came out of last episode, and so we can tie this in and go into the next to the final chapter. But we were talking about Mary and how that she had came into the house, uh, Peter's house, and she opened up an alabaster box of perfume and began to wash his feet with the perfume and dry his feet with her hair. And we also talked about how the residue of animal dung was on the Lord's feet, and how it really didn't matter to her what was on his feet. But she had humbled herself enough that she took the her expensive perfume, opened her alabaster box, and began to wash his feet. Mary had dismantled her hair because in in that day women would wear their hair in a bun and wear it on top of their head. It wasn't long and flowing, but they wore it up. But she had no towel to dry his feet with or anything like that, so she began to dismantle her hair and she used her glory to wipe Jesus' feet. She took the very thing that was public disrespect of that household away and took it upon herself. She removed every evidence of his public rejection with her beautiful hair and took it on her own. Can you imagine what that did for the heart of God? Jesus gave us insight into his feelings in that moment when he openly rebuked Peter. And I want to read this verse of scripture again, and we'll go right on into where we stopped off, but it's found in Luke 7, 44 through 47. And Jesus said, and it says, and he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seeest thou this woman? I entered into thine house. Thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with her with the hairs on her head. Thou gavest me no kiss. But this woman, since the time I came and hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My hand, excuse me, my head with oil, thou didst not anoint. But this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven. The same loveth little. I can only imagine the heart of God at this moment. When someone that has been following him, one of his disciples, that he'd been teaching all this time, and and getting ready, Jesus getting ready to be crucified. You'd look, you'd think that Peter had learned something through all this, and you know, would openly come in and wash Jesus' feet, but no, he didn't. But this woman come from other students, this sinner, came in and began to wash his feet and anoint his head. And I love what he said to her. He says, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. Amen. Ain't that powerful? You must dismantle your glory to minister to Jesus. God spoke to me and said, Mary dismantled her glory to minister to me. If all the disciples were present, there were at least twelve other people in that room that day, and not one of them attained the intimacy that she obtained that day. The disciples missed it. Even though they were good people like Peter, James, and John. Hear me, friend. You can be busy being a disciple and doing the work but miss the worship. That's powerful. Let me say that again. We can be busy being a disciple and doing the work of God but miss the worship. Do you really think that God needs us to do things for Him? Isn't He the creator who stepped out on the balcony of heaven and scooped out the seven seas with the palms of his hands? Wasn't it God who pinched the earth to make the mountains? Then obviously, he doesn't need you to do anything. What he wants is Your worship. Jesus told the woman at the well, true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. Like countless numbers of pastors, elders, and deacons in the church today, the disciples got nervous when faced with such raw hunger for God and were saying, Somebody stop this woman. But Jesus intervened and said, No, finally, somebody is doing something that's right. Don't you dare stop her. See, the church doesn't make room for Marys with alabaster boxes because they make all the rest of us nervous when they begin to dismantle their glory, their pride, and ego right there in front of everybody. The real problem is that our ego and self-centered glory stands out like a flashing beacon in the place of humility. God is saying to his people, I will bring you close to me if you will dismantle your glory. I keep hearing hearing him say, dismantle your glory. Take your ego apart and lay it aside. I don't care who you are, what you feel, or how important you think you are. I want you, but first you must dismantle your glory. Why? Because the burial of a man's glory is often the birth of God's glory. Did you hear that? The burial of man's glory is often the birth of God's glory. In other words, we've got to die first before God's glory can be revealed. Amen. Mary had to get to the point where her passion made her say, I don't care who sees me do this. You may feel a tugging and drawing in your heart as you read these words. If that is true, then I can almost guarantee that you have learned how to keep a straight face and keep going, even though you felt like falling at the Lord's feet to ask for mercy and forgiveness. You must let your love break past the shell of who you pretend you really are. God wants you to openly and boldly let the world know how much you really love Him, even if you have to dismantle your glory right in front of a room full of disdaining disciples, because a box breaker. Become a box breaker. Break the box of your precious things and finalize it by a public show of private passion. God doesn't need your religious service, He wants your worship, and the only worship he can accept is worship that comes from humility. So if you want to see Him, you will have to dismantle your glory and bathe his feet in your tears. No matter what you may find there, honestly, isn't that about the only thing your glory is good for? Our righteousness is as a filthy rag in his sight. We pedalize people who God has anointed. Whom does God memorialize? Jesus says that what Mary did will be told for a memorial of her. We like the anointed. He likes the anointers. These are people of his face and feet, oil pourers, tear washers, humble lovers of him more than lovers of his things. I believe that Mary actually anointed Jesus twice and was going to anoint him a third time. First, she came as a sinner and anointed his feet, longing to receive forgiveness at any cost in Luke chapter seven. Then she anointed his head at the end of his earthly ministry in Matthew chapter twenty-six and mark chapter fourteen. Jesus Himself said that she did it for my burial in Matthew twenty-six twelve. Just think of it. But what that he smells. What is that he smells? More than the salty smell of blood trickling down his fractured face, stronger than the noise of dice thrown by the soldiers, overpowering the jeers of the Jewish priest. It's the fragrance of past worship. Captured in the locks of his hair, he smells the oil from the alabaster box. The memory of the worship of an anointer strengthens his resolve, and he finishes the task at hand. This same woman who anointed him in his life witnessed the crucifixion and said, I can't leave him unannointed in his death. As she carried yet another compound of precious spices to anoint the Lord's body in the tomb, she found his tomb empty and again felt her heart break with emptiness as she began to bitterly weep and cry. Oh the love of an anointer. They are willing even to pour anointing over dead dreams. Just had just Jesus had just vacated the tomb and was on his way to sprinkle his shed blood on the mercy seat when he heard her familiar cry. This was potentially the most important task that Jesus ever did, because it was the heavenly fulfillment of the most important task that any earthly high priest ever did in his sanctity and cleanliness. The high priest of Israel had to be very careful to avoid becoming ceremonially defiled. So no woman was allowed to touch them at all. Yet, just as Jesus began his ascent on high to sprinkle his blood on the true mercy seat in heaven, he saw the one who had dismantled her glory to clean his feet, the anointer. Perhaps he had one foot on the bottom rung of Jacob's ladder that ascended into heaven when he abruptly stopped and said, She's come to do it again. She has come with her precious fragrance and sacrifices of praise. Only I am not there to receive it. So he stopped on his way to the most important task he would ever do and said, I can't leave her without letting her know. You can literally arrest the purposes and plans of God if you are a worshiper. Jesus stopped what he was doing to go to a person who had broken her most precious alabaster box to anoint him. He stopped when he saw her tears and went to stand behind her. Finally, he said, Mary, Mary, man, that is so powerful. I'm just getting excited. I just the Holy Spirit is filling this room, just reading this to know that Jesus was stopped ascending into heaven just because the anointer had returned to anoint him again in his death. Man, that's powerful. God was arrested by the cries of a prostitute. What made the Son of God do that? Why did the great high priest of heaven stop his advance toward the mercy seat for the cries of a former prostitute? I can tell you this, he only does it for Hall of Famers. At first, Mary didn't even recognize him because he had changed. She said, Where have you put him? Where have you put the familiar appearance I've grown used to seeing? She thought the glorified Christ was just the gardener. Sounds like many of us today who often fall fail to recognize God's glory when it stares us right in the face. Oh my. Finally, Mary stopped her sobbing enough to really hear his voice as he said, Mary. His likeness had been changed from mortal to immortal, and his countenance had been count altered from something of this world to something that was not of this world. He quickly said, Mary, don't touch me. I really don't want to go through all that sacrifices on the cross all over again. So don't touch me. But Mary, I just had to let you know that I am all right. Go tell the disciples. He had to tell her not to touch him. It's as though he knew she would for him to say this. He also had to be near enough for her to touch him if she wished to. It was as if Jesus would have risked being defiled as high priest for the sake of a worshiper. God will whisper his prophetic secrets before they ever come to pass for broken boxed worshipers and fragrant anointers. He will turn aside at the height of his glory for people who will dismantle his own glory and ego just to share his shame as they are as their own. Are you waiting for the whisper of God? Are you waiting for him to whisper your name? Is he that close that you could hear just a whisper of your name? Mary was. In a sense, Jesus was endangering the very purposes of God, the Father for a worshiper who dismantled her glory. That is why he had to be careful to say don't touch me. What a level of trust he had in her. Have you ever wondered how certain people seem to have a certain attachment to God? For some reason, God just seems to be near them all the time. I can tell you that it isn't because they preach so well, or because they are such stellar singers. No, they know how to dismantle their egos and glory. They lay it all aside just to worship at his feet in brokness and humility. And it is for their precious few, these precious few, that God Himself will stop his ascent to heaven just to whisper his secrets into their waiting ear hearts. Did you notice that God didn't break Mary's alabaster box? Mary had to break it. If you want to have that kind of encounter with God, then you have to break yourself. The highest level of worship comes from brokenness. And there are no shortcuts or formulas to help you reach the top. No one can do it for you. That is something only you can do. But if you do, God will stop just to spend time with you. If he hears the cracking, cracking tinkle when you break your alabaster box of personal treasures, if he notices the rustling sound as you bow to dismantle your own glory, you are going to stop him in the middle of whatever he's doing because God cannot pass by a broken and contrite heart. He is going to move heaven and earth just to come visit with you. If you want to know why some churches have revival or why some people have intimacy when multitudes do not, the answer is that these are people of brokenness. The breaking of your heart arrests the ears and eyes of God, and it begins when your love for Him supersedes your fear of what others may think. You can't seek His face and save your face. The end of your glory, the dismantling, if you please, is the beginning of His glory. Did you hear that? The end of your glory, of our glory, the dismantling of it is the beginning of God's glory. Amen. We're gonna take a short break, guys, and we'll come back and we'll finish this book up in chapter ten. Alright, guys, we're gonna finish this book up here. Going in chapter 10. Moses' 1,500-year pursuit of God's glory. You can't seek his face and save your face. That's what we just ended out with. We're gonna close this out with Moses' journey, 1500-year pursuit of God's glory. When God tells us, you can't see my face, most of us are satisfied that we've done our religious duty and we quickly return to life as usual. When we discover that God's best and deepest treasures require death to self, we often don't pursue him any further. That's a true statement. We don't ask the question we need to ask to find out why his presence doesn't come cheaply. Perhaps it's because we think it is impertinent or we are simply afraid of his answer. Moses persisted. He had learned that it isn't impertinent to pursue God for his own sake. It is God's greatest desire and delight. The burning desire to see God's glory, to see him face to face, is one of the most important keys to revival, reformation, and the fulfillment of God's purposes on the earth. We need to look closely at the 1500 year pursuit of God's glory by the ancient patriarch Moses. As we noted earlier in chapter four, when Moses told God, show me your glory, the Lord said, You can't, Moses. Only dead men can see my face. Fortunately, Moses didn't stop there. Unfortunately, the church did. Did you hear that? Moses didn't stop. But the church did. It would have been easy for this man to have been satisfied with God's first answer. But he wasn't. Moses wasn't selfish or presumptuous. He wasn't seeking material things or personal fame. He wasn't even seeking miracles or gifts. And Paul even instructed us to seek after the best gift in his letter to the Corinthians. Moses simply wanted God, and that is the greatest gift and blessing we can ever give him. Yet Moses had to pursue him, and it didn't come easy. And Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass by before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft on the of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by, and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. Exodus thirty three, eighteen through twenty three. By the time Moses had this discuss discussion with God, the Israelites had already turned their backs to run from God when he asked them to draw near on Mount Sinai. It was Moses who had boldly pressed into the cloud of his presence. In fear of trem and trembling, Israel demanded that Moses and the Aaronic priesthood stand between them and the God they feared because of their sin. Moses often walked into the concealing cloud in the tent of meeting, and somehow he dared to desire even more. While we pursue public approval or God, let me rephrase that, will we pursue public approval or God? While Moses pursued God on a mountaintop of the Israel on the Israelites' behalf, his brother Aaron, the high priest, yielded to the per pressure of public opinion and agreed to make the idolatrous golden calf for the Israelites. I know we're not in the wilderness, but can you think of a time that you've done the very same thing for public pressure or pure pressure? When God wanted to do another thing, but you didn't want to do it because you was embarrassed or afraid of what they might think about us. We all have. Then the people pursued their pleasures in the valley while Moses watched the finger of God inscribe the law onto tablets of stone. It was after the ep this episode that God told Moses he would still allow the Israelites to cross over into the promised land, but they would have to make do with an angel, for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff necked people, lest I consume thee in the way. Exodus thirty three and three. This is Moses' answer. See, thou saith unto thee, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt sent with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me how thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Exodus thirty three twelve through fifteen. Moses saw and experienced the miracles and supernatural provision of God along with all the other Israelites. So as the modern church, at least in a small measure, most of us would have leaped at the chance to have the verbal strength and promise of God to go with us wherever we go. But who is to say we even know where we should go? Moses wisely answered, If you don't lead, I'm not going anywhere. He understood that it was good to have God with you, but it was better to go with God. God negotiated with Moses. He said, I will give you rest. I think the New Testament fulfillment of God's rest to the church is found in the supernatural gifts of the Spirit that enabled us to effectively train and minister to the body with minimum of human effort. In Isaiah 28, 11 through 12, the scriptures say, For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to his people, to whom he said, This is the rest. I believe that the gifts of the Spirit, including tongues, are the rest referred to here. God has was saying metaphorically, Moses, I'll give you the gifts, the rest. And Moses was saying, I don't want the gifts, I want you. The church is so in enamored with the gifts of the Spirit that we don't know the giver of the gifts. We're having so much fun playing with God's gifts that we've even forgotten to thank him. The best thing we can do as God's kids is to lay down our gifts long enough to go sit in the Father's lap, seek the giver, not the gifts. Seek his face, not his hands. Moses wanted habitation. Moses didn't want a visitation. The Israelites rarely took time to thank God for his mighty acts because they were too busy complaining or compiling wont list and official complaints connected with their physical and personal desires. The vast majority of us today have done the same thing. Moses, however, wanted something more. He had experienced the miracles. He had heard God's voice and witnesses his delivering power more than other, any other person alive at the time. Moses had even experienced the manifest presence of God in measure in temporary visitation. But everything he saw and experienced in God told him that there was far more just waiting for him beyond the cloud. He longed for more than visitation. His soul longed for habitation. He wanted more than just seeing God's finger or hearing his voice speaking from a cloud or a burning bush. He had gone beyond fear to love, and God's abiding presence had become his consuming desire. That is why he begged God in Exodus 33 and 18. I beseech thee, show me your glory. He wanted to see God's face. God was quick to grant Moses' request for Israel. His presence would still go before the people, but he didn't grant Moses' most urgent request directly. First God said that he would cause all his goodness to pass before Moses and that he knew Moses by name. But when the Lord explained to Moses, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live, that statement appears to be a closed case. But Moses somehow sensed there was a way. The Lord told Moses, Look, you can't see my face, but there is a place by me where you can see me as I disappear off in the distance. Most people would have been more than happy with that answer, but Moses had tasted the unearthly joy of the Lord's presence, and he was acquiring a taste for God that couldn't be satisfied from a safe distance. A hunger had been ignited in his being for that would drive him to risk death in God's presence to achieve satisfaction. The hunger was destined to span fifteen hundred years and death itself to find fulfillment. The Lord told Moses to present himself to him on top of the mountain the next morning, and he would hide him in the cleft of the rock while his glory passed by. Now that is an interesting procedure. God was saying, Now before I get there, before I ever get there, I am going to reach forward in time to cover you with my hand while I pass by you. After I pass by, I'm going to pull my hand away so that you can stick your head out and look in the direction I've gone. Then you will see just a little bit of my back parts as I disappear into the distance. So God came in his glory at the speed of light or faster to proclaim his divine name and pass by his glory. As he passed by, he pulled his hand away from the cleft in the rock so Moses could see the backside of his glory, disappearing in the distance. Even though his brief revelation came as quickly as a flash of lightning, it made such an impact on Moses that he was able to dictate the book of Genesis for later generations, the backside or the history of God, describing his vision of the creation. The problem is that you're still alive. Moses saw where God has been or had been. He saw God's tracks, where he invented and invaded time. Then he was able to retrace history with supernatural insight after that single flash of God's pre receding glory before his eyes. Even after his experience, Moses wanted more. But God's word still remained with him. You're alive, Moses. You can't see my face. Moses knew that there was a greater purpose behind the tabernacle and everything he had received from God. And he felt a driving need to know God and to see his external etern to see his eternal purpose fulfilled. Moses knew the glory way, the only way to do it was to look into the face of God. I've got to see your glory. I've got to see the finished product. The hunger in Moses' heart burrs a prayer and a persistence that defiled, defied the limits of time, space, and eternity. If you ever get so hungry for God that you are in pursuit of Him, He will do things for you and He won't do for any that He won't do for anybody else. The conclusion of this story can't be found in the Old Testament. You have to jump ahead 1,500 years or so to a new era and a new covenant to find the end of the hunger that began in Moses' life in the book of Exodus. Moses had a consuming hunger for God that produced what I call an unforgettable prayer. Moses' prayer that he see God's glory continued to echo in God's ears every day, every week, and every year over the centuries until the day Jesus spoke to the disciples about going to a mountain in Israel, many generations later. That God birthed prayer from Moses' heart was an eternal thing that knew no limits in time. It didn't die the day Moses took his last breath on earth. It continued to echo through the throne room of God until the moment that prayer was granted. That moment came later in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, on a day when he separated three of his most faithful followers to accompany him to the top of a high mountain. Jesus had already begun to weed out his disciples with statements like, For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Matthew 16, 25. That statement still bothers us today because there is death in it. Jesus had been pouring his life into his disciples, but they seemed to have a serious problem understanding what he was doing and why. They liked his teaching, but they rarely seemed to understand it. They loved to see him work miracles, but they were never able to grasp the greater purpose behind them. The disciples just followed him around trying to understand a little of what he was doing. On this day, this one day, Jesus took three disciples with him to the mountain and began to pray. I am convinced that the disciples on the first century weren't any different from the disciples of the twentieth century, because all of them seemed to fall asleep during prayer meetings. And it came to pass about the eighth about an eight eighth day after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and he went up into the mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistening. And behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of his deceased his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. And when they were awake they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here, and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee and one for Moses, and one for Elias, not knowing what he said. While he thus spake there came a cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the cloud. Luke nine, twenty eight through thirty four. There's that cloud again. It's almost like oh if they wake up, they're going to see the glory. Quick, cloud, cover us. Did you notice that it was only after the disciples were asleep that God unzipped the robe of human flesh that cloaked the glory of God in Jesus Christ? Today we refer to that mountain as the Mount of Transfiguration because the Bible says the Lord's garments became white and glistening. The original Greek term for glistening, exastrophato, I can't pronounce that word, but it signifies to flash like lightning, gleam, be radiant. While the disciples were sleeping, Jesus Christ was there alone as his glory was being revealed, bathing the earth with the preexistent light of the glory of God in a lighting like robe. In that moment, it is as if he said, Okay now, Michael, Gabriel, the two archangels, go get Moses. It is time for him to see my glory now. In the halls of heaven, they dusted off Jacob's ladder and extended it to the earth, and Moses walked down to a place where he had never been before. The promised land of his people. In his natural life, Moses was doomed to stand on the wilderness side of the river Jordan and look into the promised land of revival without ever participating in it. He had prayed to see the glory of God, but he could never see it until after he was dead. On this day, 1500 years after his death, after the unforgettable prayer of Moses had echoed in God's ears, unceasingly, day after day, Moses, the dead man walking, saw the glory of God unveiled. You need to understand that even after you die, your prayers live on. For 1500 years the prayer of Moses kept saying, Show me your glory, show me your glory, show me your glory, until it prodded the very consciousness of God. He had to make divine appointment and set a day when eternity would intersect the limited sphere of time and space. Moses, now that you're dead, I guess I'm going to have to answer that prayer. It is for this reason that I get excited when I read about the faithful, persistent prayers of those who weep before us. I am stirred in my spirit when I see saints in our day join their fervent prayers with those of Anne Simphil McPherson and of William Saint Seymour, who often stuck his head in the apple crate at Asusa Street to pray for the glory of God to come down. When the fullness measure of the gathered prayers of God's people finally reached a crescentering echo in God's ears, then it becomes too much for him to wait any longer. He cannot pass by the prayers of the brokenhearted and contrite who seek his face. Finally, the day comes when God says from his throne on high, that's it. That is what happened in Argentina when Dr. Edward Miller and his fifty Bible students begin to besiege the throne with prayers of fervent intercession. As we noted earlier, Argentina was a spiritual wasteland in the 1950s, as far as Dr. Miller knew. He said he only knew of 600 spirit-filled believers in the entire nation at that time. But some Bible students in a tiny Bible school began to intercede. They begin to weep when supernatural, spirit birthed compassion for a nation that didn't even know they existed. God thundered the Argentinian answer. The same thing is happening in places around the globe where revival is breaking out like unquenchable wildfire. We're tired of doing things man's way. We want Father to show up, even if we have to die in brokenness and repentance to see it happen. Moses prayed, Show me thy glory, and it took fifteen hundred years for that prayer to be answered. There were three sleepy disciples who benefited, benefited from Moses' unforgettable prayer, but they fell into the same trap that threatens the sleepy church today. Moses stepped onto that mountain that day and saw the unveiled glory of God. As he was leaving, the disciples finally woke up, just as it was all fading, and Jesus was saying goodbye. Yet the three men were so overcome by the briefest glimpse of that fading glory that they wanted to build three monuments right on the spot and camp there. But God the Father intervened from heaven and said, No, this isn't even what it's all about yet. You haven't seen anything yet. Sometimes we can't we can stop short. Some of us seem to thrive on the monetary revelations of God when we want us to when he wants us to press in for his secret things. He loves to honor the prayer of persistent pursuers like Moses, but he will actually stop our attempt to build monuments to partial and incomplete revelations of his glory, especially ones that we never paid for with our prayers and death on the altar of brokenness. We like things to become quickly, easily, and cheaply. Microwave revival. God knows that such things never produce godly character in us. He says, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew sixteen, twenty-four through twenty-six. I have free freely tried to explain the unexplainable. But all I know is this the more I die, the closer God gets. I don't know how much of God you know or have, but he will reveal more of himself to you if you're willing to die to yourself. Paul the apostle said he knew a man himself, who was caught up in the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12 and 2. This apostle didn't didn't merely know about God, he knew God. How did he gain that intimate knowledge? He said, I die daily. Many modern saints spend a lot of time looking for shortcuts in God's glory. We want to gain, we want the gain without the pain. We want revival in our cities, but we don't want to hear anyone tell us that revival only comes when people are hungry, when vicarious intercessions, is intercessors repent for their sins. They never committed on behalf of people they've never met. Paul said, For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Romans nine and three. You're reading this book by divine appointment. Somewhere, somehow, an unforgettable prayer is being answered today. But it could be that you are avoiding death and you're running from the altar of sacrifice that God has placed before you. Don't worry, it is true of all of us. The greatest blessing doesn't come from God's hand. It comes from his face, an intimate relationship. You find the true source of all power when you finally see him and know him in his glory. The more you die, the closer he can come. Now let me tell you the good news beyond the altar of death and brokenness. While all flesh dies in his glory, all that is of the Spirit lives forever and in his glory. That part of your being that really makes to live can live forever. But something about your flesh has to die. Let me put it this way your flesh holds back the glory of God. The God of Moses is willing to reveal himself to you today, but it is not going to be a cheap blessing. You're going to have to lay down and die. The more you die, the closer he can come. You need to forget about the opinions and expectations of those around you. You need to lay aside every idea of what the normal religious protocol may be. God has only one protocol for the flesh, death. God is out to re redefine the church. He is sending his fire to burn away everything that isn't from him anyway. So you have nothing to lose but your flesh. God isn't looking for religious people. He's looking for people who are hot after his heart. He wants people who want him, who want the blesser more than the blessings. We can seek for his blessing and play with his toy, toys, or we can say, No, Father, we don't just want the blessings. We want you. We want you to become close, touch our eyes, touch our hearts and ears, change us, Lord. We are tired of the way we are. We understand that if we can change, then our city and nation can change. Are you going to let Him get close to us, to you? I believe that this generation is very close to revival. But I don't want to simply watch as God passes down the street to go somewhere else where people really want him. It's going to happen somewhere, but if not us, who, Lord? We aren't satisfied with your gifts. As wonderful as they are, we want you. The equation for revival is still the same. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, die on the altar of repentance, and pray and seek my face instead of just revival or monetary visitations and turn from their wicked ways, then when I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will hear their land, heal their land. Second Chronicles 7 and 14. Father, we seek your face. As God redefines the church, it is highly likely that the church that emerged from the cloud of his glory will look very different from what you and I think the church should look like. This will happen because God is repossessing the church and drawing it close to him. Will we dare to draw close to his glory? God really wanted the children of Israel to come up and receive the Ten Commandments directly from Him along with Moses, but they ran from God's presence. The church is in danger of doing the same thing today. We can take the risk of something dying in us as we dare to draw close to his glory, or we can turn and run back to our traditions of men and the safety of religious legalism and man operated church services. Seeker friendly is fine. Spirit friendly is fire. Let's create a comfort zone for God and a discomfort zone for man by repentant worship. Our churches are more comfortable for man, plush with padding than they are comfortable for God, stripped of flesh. The Israelites are literally isolated and insulated themselves from God's intimate presence because of their fear of death. Moses, on the other hand, drew near to the thick darkness, concealing God's glory. It is time for the church to truly embrace the cross of Jesus. Our hunger must propel us beyond the death of the flesh into the life and light of God's glory. It is the destiny of the Church of the Living God. But it will only happen when we lay down the security of the new covenant law, our religious practice and carefully controlled supernatural visitation for the apparent uncertainty and risk of leaving face to face with our supernatural God. God doesn't want us to turn away from his glory so we can build pitiful monuments to a monetary revelation we never paid for with our tears. Salvation is a free gift, but God's glory will cost us everything. He wants us to press in and live in his perpetual habitation of glory. He wants us to be so saturated with his presence and glory that we carry his presence with us everywhere we go in his life. This may be the only way the unspeakable glory of God will find its way to the shopping malls, hairstyle salons, and grocery stores of our nation. This is why God's glory is destined to cover the whole earth. It has to start somewhere. The fountains of flesh have to be broken up, as well as the windows of heaven opened up for the glory to begin to flow like a river and cover the land. Jesus said, Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. We will have to be totally sold out to him if his glory is going to cover the earth. The difference between the anointing and the glory is a difference between God's hand and his face. And the path to the glory of God takes us right up to the altar where we must lay everything down and die. In the end, we will find ourselves face to face with face to face with God as a nation of dead men walking, in possession of his glory. Nothing else is needed, nothing else is necessary. Once God's children lay down their toys and crawl into the Father's lap to seek his face, the house of bread will once again overflow with fresh bread and every good gift. The hungry will find the eternal satisfaction satisfaction that they've always longed for. He will never frustrate us. God will allow himself to be brought, be caught by us. As a father playing tag with his child allows himself to be caught by the laughing, loving child, so too will the heavenly father allow himself to be caught. In fact, just because just when you when you would tire in despair, he will turn and catch you. He wants to be captured by your love. He eagerly awaits the laughing, loving encounter. He has missed those times when with man since the garden. Excuse me, they were willing to chase the uncatchable, knowing the impossible would catch them. In fact, one famous God chaser wrote this I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus, Philippians 3 and 12. Paul caught him. So can you come join the company of God chaser? The chase is on. Amen. What a powerful, powerful word that was. I want to be like Moses. I want to keep praying and praying to see his face. I don't ever want to give up. I want to get close to him. I want him to get close to me. Guys, I hope you have enjoyed this. I hope that you will send me an email. Let me know how much you've enjoyed it. If you want the book, let me know. I'll be glad to send it. Guys, remember, you can contact me through um email the ChristianCafe2022 at gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. Uh follow us on a Facebook, YouTube page. I'd love to uh talk with you and chat with you. Until uh next year, until next season. God bless you, and I hope you have a wonderful day.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:43

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