What Does God Want

WHAT DOES GOD WANT

By

Nita Johnson

New Orleans

I love it when Jesus comes, and says, “I want to reveal My heart in a particular area to My people.” Then you know the message you are giving is the most important thing you could possibly say at that particular moment in time. This message is of that nature and something very special from His heart for you.

I grew up in a state where tornadoes are very common. When a tornado has been sighted and about ready to rip through a city, parents will gather their children under their wings and instruct them once again on what to do when a tornado hits. Of the utmost concern in the parents’ hearts is to know that their children will be safe, protected, and near. In that moment, they do not care about the house, the cars, or anything else.

We are heading into some very troubled seas. Our Father, out of His great love, is doing the very same thing that earthly parents would do. He is calling His children to His side, and He wants you to stay very close to Him. He wants to know that you are going to be safe. What an incredible Father He is. His ways of protecting us are different than our natural parents and so much higher. (Is 55:9) I love His ways.

One thing we see in the life of Moses is that the more he saw the manifestation of God, the more he longed to know Him. He was given the privilege of seeing very high things. He ate and drank with God. He saw Him. He sat before Him, stayed in His presence, and learned to make God the very subsistence of his life. The Bible does not say that the more he saw Him, the more he wanted to see Him. Rather, it says that the more he saw Him, the more he wanted to know Him. (Ex 33:13) That is what comes with seeing the Lord. It stirs something deep inside. I love the song that we sang this evening, “Lord, I Want to Know You More.” I used to sing that song by the hour. Moses lived to want to know God. In Exodus 33:13, we hear one of the most incredible prayers in all of Scripture.

Exodus 33:12-13 Amp.  Moses said to the Lord, See, You say to me,

Bring up this people, but You have not let me know whom You will send with me.

Yet You said, I know you by name and you have also found favor in My sight.

Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, show me

now Your way, that I may know You [progressively become more deeply

and intimately acquainted with You, perceiving and recognizing and

understanding more strongly and clearly] and that I may find favor in Your sight.

And [Lord, do] consider that this nation is Your people.

Moses asked the Lord to show and help him understand His way, that he might know Him. Entering into intimacy with God corresponds with understanding His way. The Bible asks us, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3) That question was asked by the Lord Himself and he is still asking for the purpose of drawing our attention to our willingness to agree with Him. If a husband and wife are not in agreement in the way they want to raise their children, then arguments, discord, and troublesome times are sparked. The parents and the children are miserable, and no one is growing normally. If two are not in agreement, they cannot walk together. However, Nevertheless concerning the Lord, if you understand ways, you will find your heart coming into agreement with Him.

The problem with the Church today is that it has essentially been a prayerless Church. They have tried to understand God’s ways with their mind, which is not possible. It takes intimacy. It takes opening your heart to the heart of God and the Spirit of Revelation being released from His heart to yours. Although God’s communication can frequently come into your heart and understanding through words, His highest communication is the impartation of the essence of His being to the essence of your being. He does it through the heart. That is why the Bible says to “keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flows the springs of life.” (Prov 4:23 Amp.) When you allow your heart to get embittered, you block the knowledge of God because He speaks to you and reveals Himself through your heart. If your heart is bound up in bitterness, unforgiveness, hate, anger, unbelief, distrust, and such things, you block the revelation of God. You hinder receiving the understanding of God. You prevent the very Word of God from entering into your heart and soul as He longs to impart to you His very essence.

That is why I like it when Jesus appears to me because when He reveals to me what He has to say, He also imparts the very essence of His being and life into me. It is not just words, but it is an impartation that helps my whole being understand Him. That is what Moses was crying out for. He did not say, “Lord, if I have found favor in Your sight, give me two or three new tents because we’re growing out of the one we use for the tent of meeting. And Lord, we’d like a couple of camels. Oh, and incidentally, we’re having family problems at home. Would You go deal with my wife?” After he had received revelation of God, all that came out of his heart was, “I want to know You! I want to know Your way, that I might find favor in Your sight. I want to know You, deeply and intimately!” Why did He want to know God? That he might find favor in His sight to know Him more. Why did He want to know God’s ways? That he might find favor in His sight to know Him more.

Moses keyed in on the most important focus in all of life, and it only took him eighty years. He had heard about God by the hearing of his ear. He was taught about the God of their fathers. Yet, ponder this for a moment: after years of hearing about Yahveh, he now found himself beholding Him. This changed everything. Everything inside of Moses and around the circumference of his life changed because he saw God. He could never live again as he once had. It was no longer about the hearing of the ear, rather, it became about the knowing of the heart.

When men say to me, “Well, we leave the praying to the women—they’re the spiritual ones,” then I remind them about men like Moses, Elijah, John the Beloved, and John the Baptist. Who are the spiritual giants in the Word of God? They are the men. God has created men to bear the priesthood of the Lord. He has created the heart of the man to love God exceedingly, so much so that it calls the wife to further learn God through her husband.

Moses was changed, transfigured, and renewed. He could no longer do what he used to do, nor could he do it the old way any more. It was no longer about hearing about God; now he has seen the face of God. His heart has been transformed by the impartation of the very essence and life of the One who he has loved. Now he knows the One he has heard about, respected, and tried to understand because God has imparted Himself to him. This is one of the most awesome truths you will ever hear out of the Word of God. God trusted this man Moses with a revelation of Himself. What more could a man want in life than what Moses was given? A man would give all that he has to stand face to face to God.

Moses found favor in His sight. He was a man of great nobility in the Spirit and of great character in the natural. At the point when he asked God to show him His way, he had not yet seen the greatest and highest of what he was created to behold, although God had revealed Himself to him magnanimously. Do you know that you also were created to see, behold, understand, and receive the very life and essence of God’s regal being? You also were created to see Him, stand before Him, and know Him. God makes every man to whom He reveals Himself a man of noble character. And so it was with Moses. After receiving the revelation of God, the very next thing we see is that Moses was willing to give his life for Israel. He went through season after season of intercession, repentance, and pleading with God for these people until he was brought to the place that he was willing to lay his very own life on the altar for the people of God. Because of the character that God formed in this man, He was willing to reveal to him the highest of Himself.

In the next chapter, we see God answering his prayer.

Exodus 34:1-3 Amp.  The Lord said to Moses, Cut two tables of stone

like the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were

on the first tables, which you broke. Be ready and come up in the

morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the

top of the mountain. And no man shall come up with you,

neither let any man be seen throughout all the mountain;

neither let flocks or herds feed before that mountain.

Isn’t this amazing? No human being was allowed to touch the mountain of God. Yet, upon this mountain, God said to Moses, “I will reveal Myself to you. You come up to Me.” Thus, he was given permission to climb the high precipice of revelation and see in God what no man had seen before. The others could not even so much as touch the mountain.  Yet, to the man who had sanctified himself, set himself apart unto God, purified himself of the world, made himself a sacrifice for the people of God, and stood before God in purity, God said, “….but you come up to Me.” He intended to answer the pleading of Moses’ heart and to grant Moses the revelation.

Exodus 34:4-8 Amp.  So Moses cut two tables of stone like the first,

and he rose up early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tables of stone. And the Lord

descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the

name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed,

The Lord! The Lord! A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and

abundant in loving-kindness and truth, keeping mercy and loving-kindness

for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,

but Who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the

fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third

and fourth generation. And Moses made haste to bow his head

toward the earth and worshiped.

Moses was given to see the pre-incarnate Christ. Jesus stood beside him as a mediator as the Father passed by. When we read this passage, what we see is a man standing on the mountain, and the Lord passes by him and speaks words to his intellect. Now Moses understands intellectually what he did not understand before, and this intellectual revelation will be something that will have to carry him through years of dealing with Israel. That is what we see in this passage, but that is not at all what happened. Something happened that was so incredible. Moses did not just hear words; instead, God gave Moses the privilege of experiencing a dynamic impartation of the life and truth of God with every word that came out of the mouth of God.

One night, I was in prayer with my friend and secretary in Clovis, California. We were worshiping the Lord when suddenly I was taken up to the mountain, and I was given the privilege of experiencing what Moses experienced. That is why I know what happened to him on top of that mountain. Moses stood on top of the mountain, and God passed by. He uttered words, but with every word that He spoke, the very essence and life of that truth came out of the belly of the Lord.

God spoke, “A God merciful,” and the very essence of mercy came out of the belly of the Father. It slowly moved across time and eternity towards Moses. Suddenly, the very essence of God who is mercy entered into the belly of Moses and exploded until the very nature of God’s mercy filled his entire being. Moses stood in awe because now he not only understood God’s mercy intellectually, but he experienced the very essence of the life of God who is mercy. It filled Moses. I know because it also filled me. I could feel every cell in my body being enlarged with mercy.

When it finally settled down, and my being had absorbed that truth, He said the next thing: “And gracious.” The grace of God left the belly of God and moved down through time and eternity toward Moses. It entered into the belly of Moses, filled his entire being, and exploded. Grace filled every cell of his person, his mind, his heart, his soul, and his flesh. God revealed to him what it means to be God who is grace.

When Moses finally absorbed that, He said, “Slow to anger.” The very essence of the long-suffering nature of God moved out of His belly, flowed down through time and eternity, entered into Moses, and exploded into him until every cell of his being was filled with the long-suffering of God. It was not just a word to Moses; it was life. It was not merely an explanation, but it was an impartation of the very essence of God.

Exodus 33:13a Amp.  Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, show me now Your way….

God spoke, “Abundant in loving-kindness.” The loving-kindness of God moved out of the belly of God, flowed down through time and eternity, and exploded into the belly of Moses until every cell was filled with the loving-kindness of God. Moses touched love divine. He was saturated with it. Every cell was enlarged with the understanding, revelation, experience, and even the union with God who is love.

Following that was, “And truth.” God is all truth and only truth. His truth flowed out of His belly, moved down through time and eternity, entered into Moses, and exploded in him. Moses became united to He who is truth. This is why, when he came down from the mountain, his soul was so filled with the light of God that he had been transfigured in light into the image of Jesus Christ. The glory not only shone, but shot out from his face like  with great flashes, the transcendent glory! Can you imagine?  It was because this revelation transfigured this man. Think about that. The Word of God changed a human soul. His Word is so powerful. The One who knew Moses better than anyone on the face of the earth had just utterly changed him into a giant in the Spirit.

How was it that Moses was able to endure forty years of Israel’s complaints? It was because he had become grace, love, truth, long-suffering, and mercy. God had transfigured him with His very own life. Having met God, and having been united to Him, Moses loved God more than he loved the air that he breathed. Never again would it ever be different. He lived only to please God, no matter the price, every moment of his life. He endured whatever he had to endure, and yielded whatever he had to yield, to bring pleasure to the Father. His joy and love was not connected to the things of this world, but only to God. He loved and fought for Israel because God loved and fought for Israel. He was willing to die for Israel because God called him to be a protector and a guard over Israel for His name’s sake. This is the life of the Spirit—the life of one conjoined to God. This is the way of one who is willing to give up all things on this earth to please the Father. The Lord will give incredible responsibility to such a one because they can bear it. He will give unbelievable heavenly authority to such a one because they will not pervert it.

He will reveal Himself. It was to Moses that God came to the tent of meeting. Every single day he saw the face of God. Likewise, Paul calls us to behold Him with an unveiled face. This is the call to the Church in this hour. This is the call to the Bride—those who belong to God. Come and behold Him with an unveiled face that you might be transfigured and transformed into the very glory of God and know the revelation of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 3:18) God wants to take you behind the veil and bring you through the mist of misunderstanding that you may know who and what He really is. He wants to reveal Himself to the Church. The call is to answer the fire and passion of your heart, to answer the longing of your spirit, and to put down the longing of your flesh that you might know God.

The Church is going through a time of pressing, purging, and cleansing. It is a time when the wilderness is taking its toll, but she is soon going to come out with a new heart.

Song of Songs 8:5 Amp.  Who is this who comes up from the wilderness

leaning upon her beloved? [And as they sighted the home of her childhood,

the bride said] Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother gave

you birth, there she was in travail and bore you.

The Bride who is getting ready to come out of the wilderness is one whose head will be leaning on the shoulder of her Beloved. Her strength will no longer be the world, but rather, her strength will be the Beloved. The One upon whom she believes and leans will be her sustenance.

Song of Songs 8:6-7 Amp.  Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a

seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy is as hard

and cruel as Sheol (the place of the dead). Its flashes are flashes of fire,

 a most vehement flame [the very flame of the Lord]! Many waters cannot

quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would offer all the

goods of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned and despised.

He has set Himself as a seal upon her heart so that her heart cannot be touched by the things of the world. When you see the king’s seal on a document in days of old, that seal is there until the king breaks it. It is the same with His Bride. He is sealing the heart of His Bride with a seal that cannot be broken with human hands. As she comes out of the wilderness—this time of testing—her self-sacrificing love for the Lord will be as strong as death itself. He will own that passion. We will see in the Bride the same heart that we saw in Moses. Her heart will give all to know Him. This is what we see in this passage. She has learned that many troubles and many waters cannot quench love. No matter what happens, it deepens, broadens, secures, and purifies love. Her love for Him cannot be quenched. The troubles will not move the Bride, but they will enhance and deepen her love, making it as strong as death.

The jealousy of the Lord is as hard and cruel as Sheol. Moses learned both the kindness and the severity of God. He learned that his authority was protected by God. When men would rise up against Moses’ authority, Moses never had to deal with it. God always dealt with it, so much so that Moses would be on his face pleading on behalf of those who were assailing him. God does not do that for everyone, but He does do it for the one who belongs wholly to Him. When someone touches the Bride who loves Him with her life, His jealousy is ignited. It is strong and cruel, just like a husband who would stand up in vehement protection of his wife if a man was trying to violate her. God is the same. When man wants to violate His Bride—she who has sold all to come follow Him—His jealousy on her behalf will be strong, vehement, and severe. Its flashes are the flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.

His Bride is about to come forth, purified and clothed in fire. Why am I sharing this with you? I saw it in a vision. I saw the Bride clothed in fire, and she had come through what both Moses and the Shulammite had come through. God owned her, and He clothed her in His very own fire. It is a fire that terrifies the enemy and brings him to his knees. It is a fire that can ignite the very heavens for God’s plans and purposes. She is clothed in the very fire of God. The fire manifests itself in love, mercy, compassion, authority, and power. All the world will see that the Bride is in love, and they will fear it because she has become the flame of the Lord.

You must let go of everything that hinders God’s possession in you. He is proceeding towards something so glorious. He is going to bring His Bride to Himself and into union with Him. He is going to make her a glorious flame across the earth. If we want to be part of that, the world cannot stay within us. We must become people of noble character, just like Moses. We cannot be weak and beggarly. Our faith must be strong and noble.

We cannot be people who love the truth when they hear it and then turn their face, forget the truth, and live the lie. We cannot be people who want the Kingdom with one hand, but reach out for the things of the world with the other hand. That is not the Bride; that is the harlot. The Bride will speak in purity and will love in purity. She will cleanse herself of all things that offend for the sake of her divine Husband. The harlot will have a continual love affair with the world even while she says with her mouth, “I love you, Lord.” The Bible clearly says that in that day, Jesus will turn to that so called virgin and say, “Be gone. I never knew you.” (Mt 25:12) The harlot will not come into the chambers of God, but the Bride will. There she will find the flame of divine love that will capture her, purify her, and empower her for His glory.

Who would have touched Esther when the king put his seal of approval on her? The only one in the whole kingdom who dared to do that was Haman, and where did he end up? Esther had purified herself for her king, and that is what God is looking for from us. Be pure and holy. Be pleasing to Him. Be pure in love, humility, mercy, and righteousness. Be holy, and He will be to you what King Ahasuerus was to Esther.

In His Love,

Nita Johnson