Encounters with God are intended to radically alter our lives. When we allow change to happen, they can become transformational experiences.

In Exodus 24, God issues a very special invitation: Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone is to approach the LORD; the others must not come near” (vv. 1-2). In verses 9-11, we read that they “went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank” (NLT).

This had to be a life-altering experience for them. Later when Moses still had not come down from Mt. Sinai, the people gathered around Aaron and demanded that gods be made for them, to give them leadership (Exodus 32:1-2). Sadly, there’s no record of the leaders of Israel standing up to oppose the people, to keep them from sinning. The worship experience had been given by God to transform these men into true leaders, not just men with titles.

Before we harshly judge these men, we must acknowledge that this can be as true for us today as it was for them. God gives us potentially transformational experiences and we, at times, do not allow them to transform us.

We walk away from the mountain, as it were, thinking about our great experience with God, and soon turn our thoughts to, “What’s for lunch?” or “What’s so-and-so doing after church?”

We can become experience junkies, moving from one God-event to the next, looking for bigger and better happenings. Yet, when the high of the experience is over, we are not satisfied.

We must allow experiences with God to transform us into His image. We need to be drawn closer to the Lord and to do the work of the ministry that He has called us to do. This is where we all find true satisfaction in the Lord.

We do this by asking the Lord, “What is Your purpose for us having this experience?” Then, we need to meditate on that purpose. Finally, we must ask the Lord to help us and allow the transformation to take place in our lives.

The Lord Jesus has chosen each of us to be His own. He wants to transform us into a royal priesthood—a holy nation—that we might, in turn, transform the world for His glory.

Streams in the Desert – January 30

• 202230 Jan

I will be as the dew unto Israel (Hosea 14:5).

The dew is a source of freshness. It is nature’s provision for renewing the face of the earth. It falls at night, and without it the vegetation would die. It is this great value of the dew which is so often recognized in the Scriptures. It is used as the symbol of spiritual refreshing. Just as nature is bathed in dew, so the Lord renews His people. In Titus 3:5 the same thought of spiritual refreshing is connected with the ministry of the Holy Ghost–“renewing of the Holy Ghost.”

Many Christian workers do not recognize the importance of the heavenly dew in their lives, and as a result they lack freshness and vigor. Their spirits are drooping for lack of dew.

Beloved fellow-worker, you recognize the folly of a laboring man attempting to do his day’s work without eating. Do you recognize the folly of a servant of God attempting to minister without eating of the heavenly manna? Nor will it suffice to have spiritual nourishment occasionally. Every day you must receive the renewing of the Holy Ghost. You know when your whole being is pulsating with the vigor and freshness of Divine life and when you feel jaded and worn. Quietness and absorption bring the dew. At night when the leaf and blade are still, the vegetable pores are open to receive the refreshing and invigorating bath; so spiritual dew comes from quiet lingering in the Master’s presence. Get still before Him. Haste will prevent your receiving the dew. Wait before God until you feel saturated with His presence; then go forth to your next duty with the conscious freshness and vigor of Christ.
–Dr. Pardington

Dew will never gather while there is either heat or wind. The temperature must fall, and the wind cease, and the air come to a point of coolness and rest–absolute rest, so to speak–before it can yield up its invisible particles of moisture to bedew either herb or flower. So the grace of God does not come forth to rest the soul of man until the still point is fairly and fully reached.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease:
Take from our souls the strain and stress;
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

Sunday Reflection: Just a Little Patience