Many of us have watched Cecil B. DeMille’s classic movie The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston as Moses. Remember the scene at the burning bush at Mount Sinai where he experiences the divine presence of the Great Deliverer of Israel and hears His voice?

Moses humbly asks how to answer the Israelites when they ask the name of the God of their fathers who has sent him. The deep, resonating voice responds: “I AM THAT I AM. Thou shalt say, ‘I AM hath sent me unto you’” (see Exodus 3:13-14, King James Version). The Hebrew could also mean “I shall be what (or who) I shall be.”

This is related to the name God gave immediately afterward—Yhwh (perhaps pronounced Yahweh), which is difficult to translate into English. Its general meaning is “He Is”—or “He Was, Is and Will Be”—having the sense of Self-Existent or Ever-Existent, “the Eternal.” The name is often represented in English Bibles by the word “LORD” (set in capital letters), as it is here (Exodus 3:15).

The Great Deliver who said He would deliver Israel (Exodus 3:7-10) figuratively hands His calling card to Moses to hold on to the rest of his days, defining Himself essentially as “Always.”

Nearly 1,500 years later Jesus of Nazareth, in walking the paths of Judea and Galilee, directly identified Himself as the One who spoke to Moses in shockingly telling the Jews of His day, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). Moreover, the One whom Moses and the Israelites followed in the wilderness was called the Rock (Deuteronomy 32:3-4; Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:18), and the apostle Paul tells us, “That Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:3-4).

Thus, the One later born as Jesus was the “Always” who personally interacted with the Israelites as God. The “I AM” who beckoned Israel to follow into the wilderness toward a land of promise is the same Jesus who invites us today with the call of “Follow Me” (John 10:27)—towards the ultimate land of promise, eternity in the Kingdom of God.

In the midst of His followers

But there are times we lose sight of this revelation regarding the One our Heavenly Father has granted to be our immediate and personal Deliverer. Then our cry goes out, “God, where are you when I really, really need you—like right now?!” Yet God said He would never leave us (Hebrews 13:5).

We all need to be reminded at times what makes God what He is. Above His being ever-present, all-knowing and even all-powerful, He is ultimately and undeniably all-loving. In fact, the simplest scriptural definition for God is this: “God is love” (1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16, emphasis added throughout).

The one who wrote this, the aged apostle John, was given an opportunity, in a vision, to see the resurrected Jesus Christ and to be powerfully encouraged that, no matter what our condition here might be, Christ, the I AM, is in position to care for our needs.

At a time when the Romans were dramatically persecuting the Church in the late first century A.D., John was reassured that Jesus was and is the living Head of the Church (see Ephesians 1:22-23). Under such severe persecution it would be easy to think that Jesus was a myth, or that He was just one more distant deity whose attention was only drawn through obeisance and continual appeasement.

The apostle records, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,’ and ‘What you see write in a book . . .’” (Revelation 1:10-11). He then refers to the seven churches of Asia Minor that were being challenged (also representing the whole Church through history).

John next says: “Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man . . . The seven lampstands . . . are the seven churches” (Revelation 1:12-13; Revelation 1:20).

The imagery is striking. Here the ascended Jesus Christ is not sidelined or disinterested in the challenges facing His followers, but is directly “in the midst of” them and what they are experiencing. And Jesus conveys a vital message to John intended for the Church then and for us today: “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades [the grave] and of Death” (Revelation 1:17-18).

Here we have the ever-present presence of the ascended and exalted Lord Jesus Christ whose consistent self-disclosure, whether as the man from Nazareth or as a glorified being, is “I AM.”  He proclaims that He is the One who lives forever and who has experienced the worlds of life and death, both placed into His forever hands.

And He tells us, “Don’t be afraid!” He’s saying He’s here with us now, as much as He was “in the midst of” the fiery furnace in Babylon with Daniel’s three friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego after they refused to worship an idolatrous image (Daniel 3:25). If even King Nebuchadnezzar could see a fourth person with them in the fire whose form “was like the Son of God” (Daniel 4:25), perhaps this column will help open your eyes.

At times we are seeking God from outside of the challenges we are going through rather than recognizing He’s right in the midst of those challenges with us. Our Heavenly Father, who is the ultimate Revealer (Revelation 1:1), desired the ever-present presence of His Son in the lives of those personally called by Him (John 6:44, John 6:65) to be fully understood and appreciated.

Bearing a cross—but of whose making?

At this point it’s incumbent to remind ourselves that Jesus never said being His disciple would be easy, but He did say it would be worth it.

From the beginning Jesus was brutally honest when He told those who would accept His invitation of “Follow Me” the commitment that was required: “Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). This referred to bearing the weight of one’s own instrument of execution, which of course Jesus did literally toward His own sacrificial death for the sins of the world.

But He showed us how we are all, in a figurative sense, to carry the burdens of our life in self-sacrifice and, like Him, to ultimately commit our spirit to our Heavenly Father (see Luke 23:46) no matter what comes our way. The reality of the Christian life is this: Before you bear a crown, you will have to bear a cross—yet not alone!

The big question at this juncture might concern the nature of the cross we are bearing. Is it a heavy weight borne for righteousness’ sake, or is it a self-made, earthbound burden created by our own stubbornness, foolishness or simple rebellion against God’s laws? Every decision has a consequence. Only you can answer this question for yourself—and perhaps this means being completely honest with yourself for the very first time.

No matter the origin of our personal burden, God wants to share His presence with us and provide a means to experience Him and for us to know that He doesn’t want to be marginal to our challenges but at the epicenter of our existence, as we exist to perform His will.

What might possibly be hindering us from experiencing the blessing and comfort of His presence? Unrepentant sin can hinder our ability to experience God’s presence. Isaiah 59:1-2 speaks of God’s extensive desire to love us, but also what can stymie experiencing Him. The prophet says: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”

Beyond the impact of sin, our busy lives can hinder our sense of God’s presence because there’s too much of everything else going on. Too much noise. Too much traffic. Too much confusion. Too many thoughts running rampant in our minds. Too much anxiety!

There’s a reason God says, “Be still and know that I am God . . . !” (Psalm 46:10). The apostle Paul speaks to a “simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3), and we experience that profound simplicity in His presence when we stop our world—just stop it!—and reorder it to His and our Heavenly Father’s glory and honor.

Don’t just knock—answer the knocking

It’s time we focus on “the double knocking” that Scripture tells us about. What’s that? We may be aware of one part of this equation, but not the other. You may be familiar with Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:7: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” It’s a wonderful invitation towards seeking God’s presence, but it’s on our terms and timing.

Now let’s notice what Jesus later said in Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” The reality, then, is that Christ is also knocking on the door—the door of our heart—the entrance to our existence. And we must be aware enough of His presence to open the door—over the roar of self and the deafening torrents of this increasingly godless culture swirling around us.

So the knocking goes both ways. The major difference is that Christ continues knocking. His presence is ever-present. The One who identified Himself as “I AM” is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He is always there for us, and His abiding words remain ever-present to those who accept His invitation of “Follow Me.” As He tells us, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Did you hear that knocking again? It’s time to answer the door!