“The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them and make such corrections as the truth warrants. The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them” (A. W. Tozer).
“Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. 16 “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” 17 The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Exodus 33:13-18).
When the LORD answered Moses and agreed to do what Moses wanted, the terminal desire of the heart of Moses is put on display. Moses prayed and wanted to see the glory of God. We can assume from the fact that God answered the prayer of Moses that Moses really meant this above all things. This is exactly what the Church must learn to do. All night prayer meetings accomplish nothing other than make people sleepy if the hearts of the people do not desire God for God’s sake. Short prayers from burning hearts for God’s glory are far more effective than long prayers with cold hearts or warm hearts for things other than God.
How did God answer the prayer of Moses? It is very curious how God answered this prayer and it is totally unlike what the Church in America can begin to comprehend. “And He said, ‘I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion'” (Exodus 33:19). Here is the glory of God that was shown to Moses. God opened the eyes of Moses and displayed before Him that He was sovereign. Could it be that this is why so many do not really desire the glory of God in our day? When people desire God, they must desire Him as He really is and not as they imagine Him to be. The very glory of grace is that it is free and sovereign. Man cannot earn it in any way but simply be emptied of self and causes in self of merit in order to receive grace as free and sovereign. Most men hate this teaching in reality as doctrine and still others who hold it as doctrine hate it in practice.
What must the Church do to rediscover the glory of God? It must be like Moses who was ready to see the glory of God no matter what it entailed. Until the Church is ready to humble itself and deny self it will not see the glory of the one and only God who is perfectly and beautifully sovereign. Man wants to be in control of his life and of his eternal destiny. Man wants to use God for his own purposes and have an Omnipotent Being in a box ready to help him when he has a need. But that is not the sovereign God of Holy Writ. God will be gracious to whom He will be gracious. He does not respond to every prayer or every need. He responds as He wants to respond and in His own time. The very term “grace” demands that we understand that there are no causes in man to cause God to show grace. If grace is grace in reality and not just a concept, then it is sovereign.
As we face the facts of what the glory of God really is, it is readily visible of why the Church in America is not ready to see the glory of God. The Church is too full of itself, too full of confidence in its own power, too caught up with its own activity, and too enamored with the idol of free will. Until the Church is brought in humility and self-denial to seek the glory of God in truth and for His own sake, it will not rediscover the majesty of God. It is sad that when people seek God and His glory they are really seeking the god that they want to act for them. We must tear our hearts and cry out to God to tear the pride from those hearts so that we would be on our faces and ready to see Him as He really is. The sovereign God is the God that men will not honor as God (Rom 1:21). We can give lip service and so all sorts of religious activities, but until our hearts are ravished with God as God we are not going to rediscover the majesty of God. God is sovereign and He is free and utterly glorious to be gracious to whom he will be gracious. There is no shame in believing and loving that, it is simply how God has revealed Himself. Until the Church is ready to be like Moses and bow before God as God, it will be caught up with the activities of religion and the love of itself. But the majesty of God will not be there.
God Loves... Himself 
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