Burning One(s)
John the Baptist and the Nazarites are often referred to as “burning ones” and some are of the view that Psalm 104:4 speaks about us and others say it refers to angels, “he makes his ministers a flame of fire”.
But none compares to God. He stands apart as The Burning One!
He is described as a Consuming Fire (Deuteromy 4:24) and His eyes are said to blaze like a flame of fire (Revelation 19:12). His Glory and Presence looks like fire:
Ex 24:17 “To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming (devouring) fire on top of the mountain”.
Ex 19:18 “Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder & louder.”
Moses’ first encounter with God, the burning One, was with the burning bush. He noticed it and drew closer to it; an act which I believe set him up for an invitation up the mountain.
I believe God is saying to us, as the Body of Christ, that it is time to pass the burning bush experience to ascend the mountain and stand in the midst of the fire of the Holy One. As in the previous blog, there is a call going out for us to ascend the mountain and encounter God face to face.
While the rest of Israel was too afraid Moses dared to respond to the call to come up (Exodus 2:9-18), and so the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend (Ex 33: 11).
Again in Numbers 12: 6-8 God says, “with Moses I speak face to face (mouth to mouth) he beholds the form of the Lord.”
A generation passed up on the privilege of encountering God face to face, only one man dared draw near to the fire. Throughout history the voice of God calls to entire generations to draw near to Him, even into His burning presence. I pray that we will be the generation that responds and goes there –together.
Both Moses and John the Baptist, who was said to have walked before the face of God, experienced amazing friendship with God, encounters of intimacy and exposure to Glory that we only dream of. And they lived under an inferior covenant. They looked to this day when we who live under the new covenant can experience so much more of God and in God. We can have the stuff they only dreamed of.
Every time Moses got lost in that place with God he came down with the kind of revelations that shaped and changed history for ever. I’m jealous for this for us… encounters that lead to revelations that shape and change history.