I Want to Meet You

Hi everyone, this this is Allen Forte

My message today is the second of a three-part message taken from chapter 33 of the book of Exodus.

Part 2 is learning to have a “I Want to Know Your Way” spirit.  

Although Moses and the people of Israel knew that God was with them daily, in Exodus 33:8-11 Moses realizes something was still missing about this relationship.  Moses wanted to personalize something among himself, the Israelites, and God.  Moses wanted more than to know what God was saying to them, he wanted to know God’s Ways with them. 

Moses was accustomed to God telling him what to do.  God always provided what the Israelites needed, and He was good to them.  But that wasn’t enough to make it a relationship.  Knowing what God does is great but knowing how He operates makes Him personal.

In verse 12, Moses says to the Lord, “See, You say to me, bring up this people.  But you have not let me know whom You will send with me.  Yet, You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.  Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You, and that I may find grace in Your sight.  And remember, this nation is Your people.”

Thank God for Moses.  In a way he was saying we know that you are God, but we are struggling to know you as our God.  We need to meet You so we can know more about You beyond Your commands.  Moses didn’t want to just be aware of God via the internet.  He didn’t just want to be a Facebook friend with God.  He wanted to meet the Person he talked about each day.  He wanted to relate to the Person the people obeyed each day.

Moses’s heart wanted to meet the Lord, but do our hearts today?  Moses wanted to meet God so he could know God’s Ways.  I often find that I don’t want to change my ways, so I am ok with the knowledge I have about God.  But I learned, a knowledge relationship is not the same as a personal relationship with God.

Remember, the people had only been out of Egypt for a short while before they started to behave in ways that displeased the Lord.  We cannot serve well the Person we do not know well.  Moses knew this about the people.  God was angry with them and with their ways, but they didn’t know God well enough to know His Way.

Knowing about the Lord and about His ways is not the same as knowing that you have been changed by His knowledge to His ways.  Knowledge of God by itself will not change our ways to God’s Ways.  Moses knew the people needed to meet God as much as they needed to know that God was with them.

I have learned that I couldn’t really know the Lord and His Way until I learned what it was about me and my way that stood in His Way.  Sadly, I believe there was a time where I was simply happy with giving lip service to trying to obey Him.  Then I learned I couldn’t even obey Who I did not know because I did not know Him or His Way.  I needed a spirit of wanting to know Him.

There is a specific meaning to the word Exodus.  It is more than just an account of the deliverance of the people from bondage. Exodus means this is the Way.  It’s like God says to us “Follow Me, I am the Way for you.” It means this Way should be your way.

Like Moses did for himself and the people, I came to understand that I needed to meet Him so that I could get to know Him and His Way personally.  My ways stood between me and God’s.  Even as I tried to obey Him and His Way, I failed often because I made knowing and obeying Him a series of events more than it is a Way of Life. 

I suspect many people are this way, and they don’t even know it.  God is not looking for us to have a Sunday morning event of worship and obedience with Him.  He is looking for someone who will cry out as Moses did and say, “I want to meet You so that I can know You and Your Way.”

It is in meeting Him and learning His Way that we can recognize and know who it is about us that stands in the way of who it is that God wants us to be.

Let this be your prayer cry today, “Lord, show me Your Way, that I may know You; I want to personally meet the Person I have been trying to obey.”  Then you will find grace in His sight.  He will come to know you by name because of your cry to meet Him in person.

Knowing God is not a series of events.  He is not looking for you to simply keep from eating from the tree of life.  He is looking for you to live your life the Way He wants all life to be lived.  Knowing Him is life.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.