Hearing His Voice #169

Your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the earth.

Exodus 33:16

God pulled His people out from among the Egyptians, led them to a mountain in the desert, and gave them a set of laws and teachings that would distinguish them as His own. Yet, during this season at Sinai, Moses appeals to none of that. He doesn’t talk about Israel’s cultural distinctives or its geographic destiny in the Promised Land. He doesn’t bring up their superb, God-given moral code or their unique worship practices or their intensely specific kosher laws. These are not the marks of a set-apart nation. The key variable—the one identifying characteristic that sets this people apart—is that God’s presence is among them.

That speaks volumes about our efforts to be separate from the world. God has called us to be set apart for His pleasure and purposes—holy is the biblical word for it—but a particular lifestyle can accomplish only so much. A unique lifestyle gives numerous people around the world a sense of identity, but it doesn’t set them apart. What sets God’s people apart is His presence—and all that His presence entails, including His voice.

Our lifestyle matters to God, of course, but only as it flows out of our relationship with Him. What matters more is our communication with Him, and central to that communication is our capacity for hearing Him and sensing His presence. We aren’t distinguished from the world because of our moral code or our theology; we are unique because God lives in us and with us and shares His heart with us. We live by revelation, not by principles. We are guided, not self-directed. We are immersed in a relationship, not an ideology. When we choose to live in full awareness of His presence, our spiritual senses open up to hear and see new things.

Lord, let me never confuse Your voice with mere religious principles and ideals. Help me always focus on Your living presence and Your voice above all else. You are far more than a belief; You are my life.