Fall 2001
Intimacy with the Lord
Tara Wentworth

“Moses spoke face to face with the Lord, as a man speaks
to his friend.” Exodus 33:11.

The word “face” is used twelve different ways in the Scriptures. One meaning is to seek the audience and favor of God.

“When You said, Seek My face, my heart said to You,
Your face Lord, will I seek.” Psalm 27:8.

It is easy for us to desire the Lord’s blessing and provision, as these needs are ever present with us, and He will respond and provide for us. But the Lord desires something far deeper from us - our fellowship. Throughout the ages, the Lord has looked for those who earnestly seek to personally know Him; those who have turned aside to cultivate a personal relationship with Him.

The Lord came often to the Garden of Eden, to walk with Adam and Eve and share His heart in fellowship with them. The enemy also came, and convinced them (and at times, us) that they should live independently from God. They rebelled against the Lord’s command, and the intimate (face to face) communion they had with the Lord was broken.

Throughout the ages, from time to time, a man or woman hungered to find that special place of relationship once again. Genesis, chapter five, tells us that Enoch walked with the Lord so closely, that one day, he walked into eternity! He had become so intimate with the Lord, that he was taken up into the place of continual communion with God.

Noah appeared on the scene at the time in which the Lord said that He was sorry He had made man. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Gen.6:9b tells us that “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” Instead of taking Noah to Himself, the Lord gave mankind another chance.

If you walk close enough to someone, you can gaze into their face and know what is on their heart. Abraham was called “the friend of God.” He knew the Lord so well that when asked to sacrifice Isaac, he knew that the Lord would raise him up. Isaac was the seed of promise, as Abraham had been told by the Lord that from his loins would come many nations, even as the sand of the sea in number.

The apostle Paul said, “that I may know Him …” Phil 3:10. This kind of knowing is intimacy, or face to face relationship.

After Moses had spent years with the Lord, he still cried out “show me Your glory.” The Lord was so pleased that He hid Moses in the cleft of the rock, so He could expose as much of Himself to Moses as he could handle. When he came down from the mountain, there was such glory upon him, that he had to veil his face.

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” II Cor 3:18.

As we behold the Lord, face to face, we will become so much like Jesus, that His image will be reflected through us. This will greatly convict and influence all those who are around us.

Isaiah speaks of a people who have beheld Him to the point that His glory literally radiated from them.

“Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of
the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness
shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But
the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen
upon you.”

“The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the
brightness of your rising.” Isaiah 60:1-3 NKJV.

May those of us who truly are seeking the Lord, begin to seek His face, and not just His blessings.