“And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh: for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” 1 Samuel 3:21
Dear Ones:
It is true that God manifests His glory in different ways, to different people, in different circumstances. Moses saw the glory of God from the cleft in the rock where God had put him, God’s hand shielding him from the brightness of that glory. Elisha saw the glory of God when a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, descended and carried Elijah to heaven. Martha saw the glory of God when Lazarus was raised from the dead. But what about the revealing of the glory of God where we live, in the “normal” life, for we are not prophets like Moses and Elijah? Is it not first and foremost in the aloneness with God, where we meet our Father, and where, as Scripture tells us, He sees us in secret, and rewards us openly? How is this so?
With the victory of Calvary, the resurrection of Christ, and the coming of the Spirit of God in a new way at Pentecost, this “new and living way” which Christ made, and “inaugurated,” into the presence of the Father, into the “holiest of all,” became a blessed reality. The believer and child of God is given, by the grace and mercy of God, access to the Father in a most extraordinary way. The new way, within the veil, was more than a means of coming to God. It was the way by which proximity TO God could be known and realized. The believer, now clothed with the beauty of the righteousness of Christ, is accepted into the very presence of God, to commune with Him. So great is this privilege and overwhelming blessing, that the Lord needs to tell us to be bold in coming. J.S. B. Monsell wrote the following: “Fear not to enter His courts in the slenderness, Of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine; Truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness, These are the offerings to lay on His shrine.” So then, the access to God that Christ has obtained for us has for its objective to bring us “near to God,” in very close proximity to Him. It is true that the believer is IN Christ, and Christ IN him. But with regard to experiencing God, knowing Him on this earth by the Spirit, there is the very real issue of proximity, and consequent power.
How then does God reveal Himself, or manifest Himself to us? When Jesus said that said, “…he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him,” what did He mean? It must immediately be said that the answer to this question is as great as the greatness, and sovereignty of God. It is also, as vast as the love and mercy of God. However, in light of our limitations and smallness of capacity, God still reveals Himself to us, manifests Himself to us. This is true of EVERY believer, for Christ has opened up the way to God the Father, by the sacrifice of Himself.
In the days of Samuel the prophet, the spiritual need of the nation of Israel was very great. There was very little of the manifest presence of God, and very little faith. However, God had provided for such a time as this, and had prepared Samuel to be that one through whom the revelation would again come to the people. How would God to this, and what application does it have for our lives? Scripture tells us that the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh, “…by the word of God.” It is in speaking to Samuel, and the accomplishment of His word, that the awareness, and conviction, of the Lord’s presence is again manifest. This is what should be the experience of the Christian, who has such a certain access into the very presence of the Father. God “reveals” Himself to the believer by His word, accomplishing that word in the life.
Dear Father, Give us to be hear Thy voice, spoken through Thy word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad