When you begin to see the greatness of God’s love and what He goes through to bring you into His glory, such a heart is developed in you that you begin to despise sin the way He does. You begin to fear the world that constantly tricks you into sin because you do not want to be separated from that love and intimacy. Repentance, deep tears of grief, godly sorrow, crying out to God, “Forgive me for my love for this sin and change my wicked heart!” until godly sorrow breaks forth into repentance and you see the sin from God’s eyes and you despise it and turn radically from it. Then the veil is removed and you are beholding a glory you have never seen before.

It is His glory that transforms the soul. When you are beholding His face, beholding Him in His glory, this transforms the soul. It is the beholding of His face in the radiance of His glory that begins to transform your soul into His image, begins to transfigure you from the inside out. It is beholding His face in His Word and letting His Word become alive and living in you.

Jesus appeared to me once and let me experience my entire being becoming filled with the living Word. I was totally transformed. All old things had passed away and the new had come and the living Word filled every part of my being. Then He said to me, “Would you like to live here?” I was flabbergasted. I could not believe a human being could live in this place in God. It is not only for the mystics, it is for every child of God. Any who will can have as deep a walk with Him as you want.

How can I make you want it? How can I grab your hearts? How can I shake the dust of the world off your eyes? How can I make you want His glory enough that you will pay any price to abide deep in the crevice of His glory? How? What words can I use to describe to you the beauty, the infathomable beauty of His glory, the preciousness of His heart, to walk with Him and talk with Him and see Him? To be with Him in heaven, to behold His majesty!

The other day we were reading chapter 4 of Revelation, where John was taken up before the throne of God. I have been there! I have seen that place! I have seen chapter 4 and I shook and trembled because the holiness of God had so filled the room. My dear friend and secretary, Bonnie, was with me at the time, and said she could hardly breathe under the holiness of God. She told me, “I knew what you were seeing because you were expressing the awe of what you were seeing.”

Want it! Be tired of listening to other people’s stories and desire it so badly that you will go after it with every part of your being! That you will leave the world in the dust and head straight into God! Do you think the apostle Paul knew one day before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus that He could have had the walk with the Messiah that he had? He knew nothing of this kind of thing and yet he out-ran every theologian of his day! He had such a hunger for God. He wanted to know Him, he longed to know Him, he longed to see what David saw when he went into the sanctuary and saw God’s glory, but he did not know how to get it! But one day God saw the jealousy of that man’s heart. He saw the hunger and thirst that Paul had. Christians were being killed and Paul was responsible, yet God saw deep into the heart of a man who was hungry to behold His glory. And one day on the road to Damascus, He arrested Paul by showing Him His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and it changed Him forever. If an unsaved person can hunger for God like that, how can a Christian not hunger for Him?

The hunger grows as you plead before His throne to know Him in His Word. You spend time in prayer and you begin to worship Him and adore Him, not because you are being moved to, but because the discipline is required to open the door. And then finally, the desire and the yearning begins to grow as you obey and give yourself to the practice and the discipline of the Word and of prayer and of worship. The hunger begins to grow, the thirst begins to grow. and you cry out to Him more and more. You increase your Word time and prayer time because your hunger is growing. You are not satisfied any more with a just little—you have to have more until the day comes that nothing but His company matters.

I can remember one time when I had been with Him a few hours, worshipping, having just such a wonderful time with Him but I needed to bring my time to a close and go out and do some other things. As my hand touched the door, the Holy Spirit said to me, “Do not go.” I felt Him pull on my heart, like a husband pulling on his wife, “Do not go.” I began to weep and I turned around and went back into the prayer closet and spent glorious hours with Him. I was taken to heaven in a day and I found out that the things I thought were so important really could wait.

The Lord wants to reveal His glory, but there is a price. He wants to take you into His heart and reveal His heart. But listen to me, He will not reveal that heart to anyone who is not proven worthy to touch it. He will not do it. You have to prove your worth by your hunger, your passion, your obedience and as you begin to behold His glory.

I love the song that used to be so popular in the states. I do not know if you have ever heard it, but the chorus goes like this, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” The more you behold Him, the more the world loses its pull upon your soul. The more you behold His glory and His grace, the world becomes dim, strangely dim. The hunger for more becomes insatiable.

What do you think it took for a townsmen like Abraham to go out into a strange land and live like a nomad, against all the counsel of friends and relatives? Desire. What do you think compelled Moses to go through forty years of purging? The Bible says, “It was because he beheld Him.” What do you think it took Isaiah to endure what he endured to be a prophet of God? He saw Him in His glory and in His majesty! Why do you think Paul could endure stonings, beatings, whippings and hunger? He saw Him.

Do you know that God wants you to see Him too? He is not withholding Himself from you, Church. There are veils to keep you blinded to Him. They are your veils. Come into the sanctuary of His love. Seek Him like a jealous lover until you see Him. Be clean from your sin until you behold Him. Live in His Word until His Word begins to live in you and He will own you.

Come and knock on the door of His heart, Just like our pastor said, “Make me more worthy of entering. Do not deny me!” Be like Rachel who cried out, “Give me a child lest I die!” Give me your heart God, lest I die! Open the door of your heart lest I die! And if you will not be denied He will not deny you.

Do you want to know Him? Then tell Him.

In His Amazing Love,

Nita Johnson