GAZING ON HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE

by Kathy Gabler

 

      There’s a place I go in His presence where I can see myself sitting at the Lord’s feet, leaning on His knee, hugging His calf.  I’m child-sized compared to His hugeness.  Or I see myself sitting in His lap, leaning on His chest.  In those times love cannot be questioned; His for me nor mine for Him.  I sit cocooned in His peace and presence.  However, one time in His presence like that, I looked up into His eyes, just for a moment.  A moment was all I could bear.

      I’d seen His garment in a vision a few years previously.  His robe was white, a more brilliant white than I can describe.  I was startled to find that same brilliance in His eyes in that glimpse.  They were like white fire, intense.  That glimpse did something inside me.  It felt like lightning struck within me.  Looking into His eyes took my breath and it made my heart burn with a sudden sense of purpose.  His Power and Plans and Purpose are in His eyes.  Ps 32:8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. (NKJ) When God looks at us, He sees the potential and the plan He put in us.  When we look into His eyes, we see what He sees. In that moment, without words, there was a charge, a commission, a mandate in His eyes that said, “Kathy, do what you were born to do!”           

      I looked down, snatched from the moment by a sudden fear of failure and sense of inadequacy.  I didn’t feel I could live up to the intensity I saw in His eyes.  As I looked away, I took my focus off of Him who is all-sufficient and looked down at myself and my insufficiencies.  Unfortunately, that seems to be a common pattern of behavior!  Since Adam and Eve hid themselves in the garden, fear is way too “normal” a reaction to the charge and challenge of obedience and purpose!

      If we see ourselves through OUR eyes, we are likely to agree with FEAR.  If we look through His eyes, we need not be afraid.  His WORD assures us that no mistake or weakness can be a weapon against us that is greater than God’s power that is for us!  Heb 11:27  Moses was not afraid of  the wrath of the king; for he never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him Who is invisible. (Amp.)  As long as Moses gazed on Him who is invisible, he saw his purpose and ability through God’s eyes, and that kept him from forfeiting purpose in his lifetime!

      We too can gaze on Him who is invisible.  We can see Him and all His sufficiency.  There are two steps necessary to see the Lord according to Heb 12:14:  “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (NIV) As I studied this scripture, I wondered what pursuing peace had to do with being holy?  The answer is in the definition of holiness.  Part of the definition of holiness means to be aware of God at all times and acknowledge God at all times.  The FOCUS changes in our day when we are at war with men.  It is easy to lose our awareness of God when we’re throwing grenades and planning raids.  Chewing others up and spitting them out disrupts a God-aware atmosphere!

            It is much easier to see God when I’m not blinded by negative emotions and chaos.  That’s why it is wise to put on the armor of Ephesians 6 daily.  Along with the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness and the belt of truth, we must not forget the boots - the walk of peace!  Boots make it easier to walk over the rocks of offense and grass burrs of daily life.  It is much easier to walk in boots than to stumble around barefoot, declaring what I don’t like and reacting to what’s driving me crazy, etc.    The peace of Ephesians 6 is supernatural and powerful.   It means we are exempt from emotional havoc - even during all-out-war!  So, we must keep our boots on!  PEACE with others does not oppose our God-awareness and positions us to SEE HIM!

      In Genesis 32, Jacob was about to see God face to face.  He definitely had not lived a life pursuing peace with men up until this point, but he began to PURSUE peace. He settled his affairs with his father-in-law after twenty years of conflict.  Then he sent gifts and humbled himself before his brother Esau, whom he had swindled out of his birthright and blessing.  Here is the account of what happened next from The MESSAGE:  Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.  When the man saw that he couldn’t get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint.  The man said, “Let me go, it’s daybreak.”  Jacob said, “I”m not letting you go ‘til you bless me.”  The man said, “What’s your name?”  He answered, “Jacob.”  The man said, “But no longer.  Your name is no longer Jacob.  From now on it’s Israel (God-Wrestler), you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through. Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and live to tell the story!

      Jacob did not just experience God’s presence, he saw Him.  He met with God in person, embraced I AM and came away changed.  Changing Jacob’s name signified changing his character.  Jacob’s name and character and heart and reputation had been:  “a man that trips up others to get his way.”  All this changed to Israel: “a man who rules having the power and authority of a Prince of God.”  Jacob’s life message was changing from ‘one who wins by strong will and cunning’ to ‘one who wins by the authority of God.’  In the name change, God was proclaiming his original purpose into being by calling something that was not as though it were!  Seeing who He sees us to be provokes us to change.

      God speaks to our potential and His plans and purpose, but He also addresses our character and heart.  Several times after this confrontation, Jacob was still called by both names, because the change was not complete in that one night.  Transformation is a process that continues as we continue to gaze upon Him who is invisible.  In Gen 46:2‑5, both names are mentioned: Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob! (NKJ) God spoke to Israel, but directly addressed Jacob.  He spoke to His eternal purpose, ISRAEL, but kept dealing with and CHANGING the character of the man, JACOB.  In  Ps 105:10 both are used again,  And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant. (NKJ) To the character and soul it was a law and boundary, but to the covenant man, it was an unlimited promise.  If Jacob had refused to cooperate with God, Jacob would have died unfulfilled, but Israel would have lived on in another generation.  The purpose and plans of God are as eternal as He is and they will come to pass, no matter how long God has to look for individuals who will surrender and cooperate, no matter how long God has to look for a generation who will gaze on Him who is invisible - face to face.

      1 Pet 1:13 tells us to roll up our sleeves, put our minds in gear and fix our hope upon this: when we see HIM, (when we GAZE on HIM who is invisible), grace is released to us.  In other words, when He is revealed to us, the power comes with that revelation to be transformed into all that God sees when He looks at us.  Continuing to gaze is a matter of relationship, continuing to see Him, a continual revelation of I AM.  That means we can live past every diagnosis and prediction because of what HE sees!  We can taste the fulfillment of obedience like Jesus did because of what HE sees!  They that KNOW their GOD will be strong and do it, (whatever it is), because they gaze into His eyes and see what HE sees!  This is the generation of them that seek him; this is the true Jacob, that seek your face, O Lord, Psalm 24:6. (NAS)  The evidence that we are a generation who truly seeks His face, a generation that gazes upon Him who is invisible, is that we submit our character to the continual process of transformation!

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