#121: Business as Usual (This Same Jesus)

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About eight days later, Jesus took Peter, John, and James up on a mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white...Peter and the others had fallen asleep. When they woke up, they saw Jesus' glory and the two men standing with him (Luke 9:28-32) NLT

Blessed be the name of our LORD Jesus who has granted us another opportunity to glean at His feet on this platform.

As a form of background, we know that Peter, James and John were disciples of Jesus. They knew a lot about Jesus because they were practically following Him everywhere. This is true for many of us: who were brought up in christian homes, brought up in the church assembly, brought up to a habit of meeting with God daily through scripture reading and prayers. However, this particular day, the Jesus that Peter, James and John saw, was not the Jesus they had always known. It was not business as usual. They saw Jesus in His glory.

Have you ever had a similar encounter or experience with the Word of God; where you come across a scripture that is not so alien to you, a scripture that perhaps came up several times during the childhood sunday school classes as memory verses, but on this one occasion, it had a different depth. it was not business as usual? It is similar to what the disciples encountered on this mount of transfiguration.

In the revelation of John, he describes his encounter with Jesus as well, and after a detailed description of what he saw in human words, in Chapter 1:17, we read 

when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as if I were dead...

Whatever must have made John to react in such a way was because this was a fresh encounter with Jesus. This same Jesus that he ate with, followed physically for 3 years and on seeing Him at this instant - on the LORD's day, while worshiping in the Spirit (Rev 1:10), he was in awe of his LORD. It was not business as usual.

Can you cry to God to make Himself real to you, to reveal Himself in His glory to you? Are you tired of going through scriptures everyday and it all looks like a text from some ancient scroll or journal? you can make the day of the LORD a daily experience. How? God does not reveal Himself to people carelessly. He reveals Himself to people who are hungry for Him. John was worshiping in the spirit when the revelation came, Jesus revealed His glory to Peter, James and John - His closest disciples and not all of the 12 or the others who followed Him. vs 28 of our anchor text says that Jesus took the 3 disciples to the mountain. Today Jesus is here and He is inviting you to come up higher. He cannot reveal His glory to you at the foot of the mountain. It is at the mountain top, at the place where determination and desire meet. That is where the LORD will speak. For He spoke to Moses not, until Moses turned aside to see. And when the LORD saw that Moses was focused on Him, He spoke (Exodus 3:3&4).

Prayer: LORD God, as I read your Word today and daily, as I long for You as the deer pants after water, give me an encounter. Show me Your glory. Make Yourself real to me. I want to have a personal encounter with You. not stories from other people, but an experience that will put an undeniable stamp on my life. Let this not be a one day experience. Let it be as oft as I read Your Word. Amen.

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