Glorious Faces

6 min read

11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
— 1 Kings 19:11-13

We expect to find God in dramatic events. God may be in those events, but that is up to God.

There is one place that we will always find God when we seek Him—in His word. But we have to be seeking, we have to be listening, and we have to be ready to obey. We have to come before Him with “unveiled faces.” And the more we do so, the more we become transformed into the image of our Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).

This is the Lord’s “gentle whisper.” And the Lord’s “gentle whisper” is the most powerful force on this earth.

I believe that one of the biggest problems with Christianity today is that we are constantly seeking God in big, dramatic programs and events. But we seldom seek God where we can be sure to find Him (where we are supposed to seek Him)—in His word.

And it’s easy to see how the church has gotten to this state. We are trained from a very early age to seek and find God at a VBS or at a retreat or at a revival. And I am not saying that these events and programs are bad. The problem is that not enough emphasis is placed on day-to-day discipleship through relationship and modeling.

But even discipleship through relationship and modeling can get off track if the modeling is not grounded in seeking God in His word and obeying Him.

If we were to honestly and deeply examine what most churches do, we would find that “discipleship” trains us in human principles and methods and not in biblical principles and methods. The result is a system that produces church leaders and Christian parents who are trained up more in human principles and methods and less on biblical principles and methods.

And so the cycle continues. And we end up approaching God’s word with “veiled” faces—not really absorbing the glory of God coming from His word and not reflecting it to one another (discipleship) and to the world (witness).

How can we tell if a church is leaning toward humanistic “discipleship” versus biblical discipleship? All we need to do is ask ourselves whether the church as a whole is pursuing what humans want or what God wants. And are we doing things the way humans want or the way God wants.

We are all very much in tune with what humans want, because we are all sinful humans. There is only one place and one way to know what God wants.

Father, You word is a lamp for our feet. And yet we seek the darkness by chasing after humanistic solutions. Forgive us when we do so. Unveil our faces and open our eyes so that we might absorb Your glory and reflect it to one another and to the world. In Jesus’s name. Amen.