Changi Chapel

Have you experienced God’s manifest presence?

In Luke 9:34, we see how the disciples Peter, James and John were filled with fear when a cloud encompassed them on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Why is the presence of God so fearful? Why is a person involuntarily seized with fear and dread when God’s presence is manifestly revealed?

We read in 1 Kings 8:11, when the first temple was being inaugurated by King Solomon “the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD”.

So why did they run out of the temple? Why could they not continue to serve in the temple?

God’s manifest presence is always awing, overwhelming and unnerving! The fear is visceral! It is so unlike engaging with a human being.

Whenever God chooses to manifest His presence, all other human faculties including one’s intellect seem to collapse!

We see this secret in Exodus 33;20 when God tell Moses, “for there shall no man see Me, and live”. And in this passage God revealed himself to Moses only partially allowing him a glimpse of His back.

People who encountered God’s manifest presence, were never the same again.

Jacob, after his encounter with the God (who wrestled with him all night) in the morning said with relief “I perceived God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

So have encountered the manifest presence of the Living God – or is He still only an idea or a concept to you?