Well, good morning, my friends, and welcome to the Heritage Hour. I’m Mark Gonzales, your pastoral and soul care encourager here in Southwest Florida, and I am so delighted to be with you on air, online, and in media ministry for about 35 years now.

So thank you for sitting with me at the feet of the Lord to listen for his heart to touch our hearts. Well, if you’ve been with us, you know that we started a brand new series just a couple of weeks ago. It’s an eight part series. I’m calling the Abiding Presence Portraits of God.

As you know, I see portraits of God throughout the scripture.

Now we’re looking at them thematically. we just finished up the soul care portraits of god in an eight-part series and by the way if you want to see any of these broadcasts or listen to them again or share them with others just go to my website they’re archived at markpg.org markpg.org i call it helping you hear god and yeah you’ll find the broadcasts there also some articles some quick guides and some videos all talking about portraits of God and just experiencing the depths of his heart, his character, and his love for us. Well, the series we’re on now is, as I mentioned, the Abiding Presence Portraits of God. And today, oh, I’m so excited to unpack for you what I’m calling how he is our holy presence. You see, when we talk about the abiding presence of God, that was the first week.

We see it as manifested in many different ways. Last time we talked about how he is our inner presence and he lives within us. His rooted presence, his interwoven presence, his mysterious presence.

But today I’ve got news for you. That presence is a holy, holy, holy presence. And it’s a game changer.

So if you have your Bibles, we’re going to be starting off in Isaiah chapter 6. we’re going to move to Exodus and Numbers and Isaiah and Acts to look at six sub-portraits on how the holy presence of God is manifested throughout the scripture. I’m just going to do the six highlights and of course throughout our lives his holy presence can be manifested in so many ways and I’m praying that this will give you an idea of what to look for as we let the scripture be our guide So as we get started as is our custom oh let just go before the Lord and ask him to speak shall we Well Lord I just so honored to be able to come into your awesome and holy presence just to sit at your feet with my brothers and sisters and let you speak to us heart to heart, especially on this topic. Lord, I love this portrait, how you are our holy presence. And I pray I’ll be able to do this well, to really inspire my brothers and sisters to go deeper and see how your holy presence is such a game changer in our lives, in our relationship with you.

Oh, thank you, Lord. We love you, Lord. And we pray this in the powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by his precious cleansing and healing, transforming, empowering, and forgiving blood. Amen, amen, and amen.

All right, my friends, just to get us started, I’m taking us to Isaiah chapter 6, and it’s a marvelous passage. We’re actually going to come back to it a little later in the broadcast.

But to set the stage on this portrait of how he is our holy presence, let me give you a little Hebrew grammar lesson that’s tucked in here that most people miss. in chapter 6 verse 1 it says in the year that king Uzziah died i saw the lord seated on a high and lofty throne his robe filled the temple seraphim those are angels were standing above him each one had six wings and with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet with two he flew and one called to the other here it is holy holy holy is the lord of hosts his glory fills the whole earth when holy that word is repeated this way three times it’s the hebrew superlative in english we’ll say something is hot we’ll say something is hotter then we say there’s something hottest hottest is the superlative of the form of that word hot in that sentence, in that usage.

But they didn’t have those kinds of endings. They would just repeat it. This coffee is hot. No, it’s hot, hot.

No, here it’s hot, hot, hot. Listen, when these angels are proclaiming he is holy, holy, holy, it’s the only character trait in all of scripture that’s given the Hebrew superlative.

So do you think it’s important? Absolutely. Do you think it sets the pace, sets the tone, puts everything in perspective? See if you talk about the love and the softness and gentleness and kindness of God like I do when we talk about soul care I do it a lot unapologetically because it all over the scriptures But if it alone without the context of the holy presence of God it can turn into this milk toast flowers and daisies kind of love thing caricature that people will react against and rightfully so The Lord’s love and kindness in the context of his holiness makes it a whole different thing.

We’re going to look at the holy, powerful, mighty presence of God today.

So let’s start with his burning bush presence. This is one of the first manifestations that strikes my heart in the scripture. His holy presence manifested as a burning bush presence. Let’s go to Exodus chapter 3.

I love this whole encounter that Moses has with the Lord at the burning bush. The passage opens up this way. Verse 1.

Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness, came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. And as Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire, but was not consumed.

So Moses thought, well, I must turn aside and look at this remarkable thing. And why isn’t the bush burning up? And when the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, hey, don’t lose sight of that. The Lord looks for us to turn aside.

Do you turn aside to spend time with the Lord? He loves it when you do. And look what he does. God called out to him from the bush Moses, Moses God calls us by name is that fascinating? but I’m fascinated that he was looking for Moses to turn aside first and then he called him by name very often that’s how God does it my friend he enters into this incredible conversation one of these days I’m going to do a series about the burning bush alone but as he continues to discover that God is calling him to be the deliverer.

As you know that story, Moses is this incredulous. He can’t believe it. He’s nervous. And in verse 13, Moses asked the Lord, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you.

And they asked, well, what is his name? Well, what should I tell them? Hey, you know what? That’s a great question.

I love how the scripture makes these things real Look at that But look how God replied to moses looks strange at first god replied to moses i am who i am this is what you are to say to the israelites i am has sent me to you well my friends here’s a couple of things i want to draw from this although there are many in our context of looking at the lord as our holy presence I am stunned that Moses was told by God as he came over. Verse five, do not come closer. He said, take your sandals off your feet for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. dirt became holy can you believe that how did the world the dirt become holy the holy presence of god himself his burning bush presence made dirt holy my friends have you ever stopped to think that because the lord jesus resides in you if you are a believer and have entered a covenant relationship with him gotten saved gotten born again he resides within in you.

He’s our inner presence. We talked about that last time, but that inner presence is a holy presence. You are a holy creation of God because of his holy presence in you. If dirt and a bush can become holy because of the presence of God, so can we.

Whoa.

Okay. I could go on for a long time with that one but let’s go to the second one the second of six sub portraits that show us how the holy presence of god gets manifested not just in his burning bush presence but let me show you his smoking mountain presence oh i love this one let’s go over to exodus chapter 20 now the context of exodus 20 of course is the given of the 10 commandments and they’re listed here but i want to go to verse 18. After the commandments are listed to us, look what happens in verse 18. Look for the smoking mountain presence of God, this kind of holy presence.

Verse 18, all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet and the mountain surrounded by smoke. There it is. And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. In other In other words, they were terrified.

That’s why they recalled and stood in the distance. You speak to us and we will listen, they said to Moses.

But don’t let God speak to us or we will die.

Okay, if you’re fearful of your life that you might die, you are terrified, my friends.

Now that’s important. Hang on to that because the next verse makes no sense at first blush. If you understand, there’s two kinds of fear. Look at it here.

Moses responded to the people, don’t be afraid for God has come to test you so that you will fear him. What? wait, wait, don’t be afraid. God’s texting you so that you will come and be afraid. That’s double talk.

Well, no, it’s not. When he says, do not be afraid. He says, do not be terrified is what he’s saying. Look, you’re recoiling.

You’re running away. You don’t even want to talk to him. You think he’s going to kill you. Yes, he’s powerful, strong, mighty.

Look at this mountain. Look at this manifestation and the thunder and the lightning and the smoke. And okay. Yeah.

Okay. I get it. Don’t be afraid. Don’t pray.

It’s okay. It’s okay. Look, the Lord has come to test you so that you will fear him. That is, have an awesome respect for him to be awed and inspired by the powerful and mighty manifest presence of God.

That is a good thing. That’s why the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Let me just see if I can explain it this way.

Do you have a fear of water? Well, I hope you’re not terrified of water and never take a bath and never go swimming in the ocean.

But I do pray you have a healthy instead of an unhealthy fear of water and respect it and learn the rules of going swimming and surfing but under toes. And if you’re going to go surfing, get trained on how to deal with these huge waves that can kill you. That’s a healthy fear of water, something that can kill you, but also something whose waves you can ride if you’re properly trained. We need to have a healthy fear of that.

Electricity, another good example. If you’re so afraid of electricity, if you’re terrified, don’t want to have anything to do with it and live in a cabin and have no electricity, you can.

But if you want to take advantage of the awesome power of electricity, just learn the power and the principles and the cautions of dealing with electricity and you’ll be fine. All right, that’s a quick way just to try to explain the difference between being terrified and having an awesome respect of the genuine holy presence and power of God.

So He is our holy presence who abides within us but it is a burning bush kind of presence that makes us holy It a smoking mountain kind of presence that powerful and should engender a healthy fear But now we look at a real interesting one over in Exodus chapter 17 that I call his striking rock presence. And we actually go to two passages on this one, Exodus 17 and Numbers chapter 20.

So back up, I want to show you two accounts of a rock that gives water. And it’s because of the hand of God, but something happens. A huge difference between these two accounts. Pick it up in Exodus 17.

I want to show you in verse 6 what happens. The children of Israel are complaining about the lack of water.

And so verse 5, the Lord answers Moses and says, go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the rod you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. I’m going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb, some kind of manifestation there. And when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.

Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. he named the place Massah and Meribah because it’s where the Israelites complained and they tested the Lord saying is the Lord among us or not so here we have God saying hey I want you to go and hit the rock Moses did it they had water everything is fine all right you got that now let’s go over to Numbers and we’re going to go to Numbers chapter 20 and a similar thing happening Tyre Israelite company in verse 1 entered the wilderness of Zin and they began quarreling and complaining among them and wanting some water and all of that business and so let’s look at how this this unfolds where in verse six Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the dory of the tent of meeting they fell down on their faces to the ground and the glory of the Lord appeared to them and the Lord spoke to Moses take the staff and assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch. And it will yield his water and you will bring out water for them from the rock and provide drink for the community and their livestock.

Now you may be already familiar with the story. There’s a different instruction. He said, speak, don’t strike it this time. Speak.

But what happens? Well this is what happens Pick it up in verse nine Moses took the staff from the Lord presence just as he had commanded All right so far so good Moses and Aaron summoned the assembly in front of the rock So far so good Then Moses said to them listen you rebels Okay now he may be losing it here Looks like he angry Must we bring must we, maybe me and Aaron, bring water out of this rock for you. He hasn’t referenced the Lord at all yet. Must we bring water out of this rock for you?

Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice.

Okay, God didn’t say to strike the rock. He did before the first time, but not this time. Apparently he’s losing it here. He raised his hand.

He struck the rock twice with his staff so that a great amount of water gushed out and the community and their livestock drank. All right, well, they did get the water. Yeah, but something else happened. Check it out in verse 12.

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust me to show my holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given you. All right. The issue is not that he got angry. The issue is he failed to treat God as holy in front of the people. over in verse 24 still in chapter 20 Aaron God says will be gathered to his people he will not enter the land I’ve given the Israelites because you both rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah you see they had gone before the Lord the Lord said okay this time I will be there I want you to speak to the rock and I will be the one getting the credit for providing the water not you just repeating something you’d done before in the flesh.

God takes his holiness seriously, and especially for his leaders to be sure and never ever diminish the holiness of God like they did that day, or to neglect it, or to disdain it, or to forget it. He is our striking rock presence where we learn, especially as leaders, don’t diminish the holiness of God in front of his people. Wow. That’s another series someday.

But you’re getting the picture. He is our holy presence, his burning bush presence, his smoking mountain presence, his striking rock presence. and what about this one his holy of holies presence his holy of holies presence you know where i going with this one the tabernacle in the wilderness god gave him very specific instructions on how to to uh put that all together So let just take a peek at Exodus chapter 23 And I want to focus in on the section when after talking about many portions of the tabernacle in the wilderness, he gets very specific. Actually, he was specific everywhere.

But regarding the Holy of Holies, I want you to see what he says in Exodus 23. and then in verse 36. All right, here we go. Let’s look at that.

So wait a minute. 23, 36. I must have the wrong reference down. Well, I’ll tell you what it says.

So he’s talking about the curtain and putting together the curtain that’s going to separate the holy place from the holy of holies where the Ark of the Covenant is. i mean this is where picking up in chapter 25 and he talks about in verse 15 the poles are to remain in the rings of the ark they must not be removed from it and put the tablets of the testimony that i will give you into the ark make a mercy seat of pure gold 45 inches long 27 inches wide he gets all of this very very very specific information about the construction of it and then he talked about the veil and then let’s pick it up in verse 26 or chapter 26 verse 33 he says hang the veil under the clasps bring the ark of the testimony there behind the veil so that the veil will make a separation for you between the holy place that’s the first portion of the of the tabernacle But then in the innermost part, the Holy of Holies, well, it is this curtain that’s going to separate the two. The Holy Presence of God at this time period was being focused in on the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was with this curtain that separated it from the regular holy place. The Holy of Holies. I love that.

But here’s the great thing. do you know that when jesus was crucified and did his work on the cross do you remember that in the gospels we’re told that in the temple the uh that curtain was torn now we have open access to the holy of holies the actual presence of god when in the old days in the tabernacle, only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies only once a year. a rope to him in case he died in there they could pull him out because they wouldn’t dare go in all right the lord was just establishing the reality and the power of his holy of holies at that time but now he’s saying you know what in this new covenant you can have direct access to my holy of holies not only that you are my holy of holies your heart when i become one with you as we talked about in the burning bush presence dirt becomes holy our hearts, our lives become holy because of his presence and it’s manifested to the degree we abide in him. Is that fascinating or what? Well then Isaiah talks about the throne room presence. We already got a peek about this in the opening in the year, verse 1, that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord seated on the high and lofty throne and he goes on to describe how the angels were saying he is holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts his glory fills the earth verse 4 the foundations of the doorway shook at the sound of their voices and the temple was filled with smoke and then I said this is i say saying woe is me i am ruined because i a man of unclean lips live among a people of unclean lips because my eyes have seen the king the lord of hosts how did he see him in a holy presence and a holy, holy, holy presence.

And in comparison, I am undone. Woe is me. We fall down in awesome, utter respect and worship of the Lord. He’s our majestic, holy King.

The holy presence of God. This is his throne room presence. There are times when we’re experiencing that way. We just fall on our faces.

And it happened in the New Testament as well. Acts chapter 9, verses 3 through 5, gives us the Damascus road presence of God, where his holy presence shows up again in yet another way. Let’s pick it up in Acts 9, and let’s start in verse 3. This is Paul.

As he traveled and was near Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. Falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul why are you persecuting me Who are you Lord He said I am Jesus whom you are persecuting This was a New Testament manifestation of the Shekinah glory of the Lord. Manifestation of the holy presence of God that like Isaiah, Paul, that time named Saul, before his name got changed, falls down in utter awe. overwhelmed at the holy presence of God. Wow.

Well, there’s so many more examples of this. And my friend, I just want to pose a question for you. Have you experienced times when the holy presence of God was so real, so strong, so powerful, you could barely speak? You want it to fall on your face, fall on your knees, lie flat on the ground.

That’s a legitimate form of worship. That’s a legitimate manifest presence, abiding presence of the Lord We been talking a lot about the personal presence of the Lord the inner presence the soft presence Like Psalm 23 He leads us beside still waters and he restores our soul and he does everything in between The Lord said of the burning bush, I am who I am.

Sometimes we need to be in the very presence of the soft, gentle, kind God that he is. Other times it’s his holy, powerful presence that we need to experience to empower us and embolden us in His might, in His glory, in His confidence, to do the things He calls us to do and everything in between. Don’t fall prey to debates, arguments, denominational scuffles about pitting one against the other. A soft God versus a strong God.

It’s a both and, not an either or, because He is our holy presence, my friend. Lord, thank you for being our burning bush presence, smoking mountain presence, striking rock presence, holy of holy presence, and throne room presence, and Damascus road presence, and more. We receive that. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Well, I’m Mark Gonzales, and I hope you’ll check out my website at markpg.org. Until next time, fall in love with Jesus, our holy presence.