His Manifest Presence - Part III By Joel M. Killion Email: joel@innerlifeministries.com Website: innerlifeministries.com
	The Form of the Lord In Numbers 12:1-2, Miriam and Aaron presumed to “bad mouth” Moses, their brother, whom God had chosen and not man.  But the Lord did not waste time; He “…broke in suddenly on Moses and Aaron and Miriam saying, ‘Come out, you three, to the Tent of Meeting…’” (v. 4, Message).  And when they went, the Lord “…descended in a Pillar of Cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent” and “called Aaron and Miriam to Him.” When they stepped forward the Lord said, “Listen carefully to what I’m telling you. If there is a prophet of God among you, I make myself known to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.  But I don't do it that way with my servant Moses; he has the run of my entire house; I speak to him intimately, in person, in plain talk without riddles: He ponders the very FORM OF GOD. So why did you show no reverence or respect in speaking against my servant…Moses?” (v. 5-8, the Message) The very “form” of God is His “fashion, shape, embodiment, manifestation, image, likeness and similitude” (Strong’s # 8544).  Thus, while the Lord is personally a Spirit, He nevertheless has a “form.” Moses, through intimate contact with the Lord Himself, came to know “this” very “form.” Those who know His form know it because they have spent time with Him in His Presence, learning His “kind” and what “sort” of Person He is (Eph. 4:20).   Just as there are different “kinds” or “sorts” of people and animals or plants and dirt, the Lord is of such a “kind” that there is no one like Him.  And only those who “study” His “kind” will know His “form.”  In other words, personal knowledge of “His form” is not given as a gift simply because He loves us.  Rather it is given as the result of being “alone” with Him, detached from the “noise” of daily life. Moses knew and pondered the “form of God,” as His friend, for he had paid the price that comes with knowing His form.  He had spent 40 years on the backside of the desert.  He had “seen” God in the burning bush and was changed by that experience.   And when Moses was in the wilderness with the children of Israel, he “regularly” entered “the tent of meeting” where God would personally meet with Him.  It was in this place of “aloneness” with the Lord, in the “solitude” of their “oneness,” that Moses learned the quality and substance of the living Christ. Presently, the Lord is whispering, drawing a people unto Himself, inviting them to turn aside from their “daily routines.”  He is wooing them into a place of “concentrated” fellowship with Him where they are totally and utterly “alone with Him,” disconnected from every distraction. For many, this is new territory, as they have never been “all alone” with the Lord.  Therefore, they are, in many ways, unable to “relate” to Him. Nevertheless, the Lord is working with them in the School of the Spirit, equipping them with an increased sensitivity to the “sound” and “feel” of His presence.  Little by little, through trial and error on a daily basis, He is training them to discern “His form” from “every other form.” Those who consistently yield themselves to the preparation of the Spirit will be matured in His ways until He can personally “trust” them with “the powers of the age to come” (Heb. 6:5, NKJV).  Like Moses, they will have “become” faithful in God’s household.  Therefore He will favour them with His very Life, making them to “become” the expression of His Life in the earth.