“I’ve seen the face of Jesus… He smiled in love on me;
It filled my heart with rapture, my soul with ecstasy.
The scars of deepest anguish … were lost in glory bright;
I’ve seen the face of Jesus … it was a wondrous sight!
Oh, glorious face of beauty, Oh gentle touch of care;
If here it is so blessed, what will it be up there?”
Psa. 27:4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD
And to meditate in His temple.
Psa. 27:8 When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You,
“Your face, O LORD, I shall seek.”
The next time you pray, make sure you pray with an open Bible, asking God to reveal His beauty to you in the face of Christ.
Our primary purpose in life isn’t to ask Him to do things for us, but is to love Him, and adore Him. Beholding His beauty invokes, and adoration invokes consecration, and consecration invokes participation (not imitation) in His life, and participation in His life invokes transformation into His image. Faith works through love, and the depth of my love for Him is inflamed as I spend time looking into those “Eyes of Fire.”
We have a tendency in the West to break everything down into a formula, but Christianity is a person, and a deep relationship, and growing experiential Union with that person. We teach the principles of prayer, and the principles of faith, and the steps of obedience, etc., etc. I understand that there are practical principles, or “how’s” to the Christian life, but if we are not careful we can reduce it all to a bunch of lifeless steps, instead of experiencing the seamless, and endless flow of the “River of His Delights” that involves intimate beholding, deepened love and surrender, delightful obedience, and resting, expectant faith.
It all may begin, and be renewed daily, as we behold His face in The Secret Place, but from there, it is perpetuated in the public place of life, as I continue, in absolutely surrendered affection, and utterly dependent confidence, to behold the One who lives in me, (I don’t leave Him behind in the Prayer Closet) who always is prepared to share His life with me, and through me. That is Union. That is an an ever flowing River of Delights, of Living Waters.