Standing in the Presence

“I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God…” (Lk. 1:19).

The mighty angel—he defines himself by God. “I stand in the presence of God.” That is what he does. That is the self-defining factor. Not “I am Gabriel, who fights, ministers, who is holy, a blazing fearful figure.”

He stands in the presence of God.

Mighty, fearful beings—the power and wonder. But God-toward, God-centered, God-defined. There is something about that that catches my breath. Makes me gasp. The beating rush of their wings like mighty waters, God-toward points with each beat. Their radiant blazing holiness, God-toward in splendor merely a glimpse of his. Voices that shake mountains, God-toward crying, “Holy, holy, holy.” Being, God-toward.

Gabriel stands—deference, honor to the one and only Great King. Stands—his job not done, ready to soar at the bidding of the LORD of Host’s voice.

 “No [human being] is so fierce that he dares to stir [Leviathan] up. Who then is he who can stand before me?” (Job 41:10).

Indeed? Who can stand? Isaiah falls at just the glimpse of the throne. The mountains quake at God’s backside when he passes by Moses hidden in the cleft.

But yet we desire his presence.

“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him” (Ps. 62:5).  

Do I know what I really want when I say that? A God whose love is so infinite it rips my heart? A God who is so holy before whom our secret sins are revealed in the light of his presence (Ps. 90:8), so omnipresent and great that we cannot run from his presence (Ps. 139:7)? A God in whose presence is fullness of joy that knocks us breathless (Ps. 16:11)?

But in Christ—Christ is now seated in the presence of God.
Seated.

Work done.

“It is finished” was his cry. And in response we cry, “Abba, Father!” We have boldness and access with confidence before him (Eph. 3:12).

“…since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus…” (Heb. 10:19).

Amaze.

And our identity and mission, like Gabriel’s is shaped. We are his Church.

We are together in his presence. He is among us, dwelling in us his temple (2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Pet. 2:5).

We together are his presence. We are his body (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:27).

Kings—like Christ, we are kings. In his presence, shaped into who he is. He reigns over us, in us, through us. We see him as King in his presence. Reminded of the right-side up in an upside-down world in his presence. We, children and heirs, run to his presence and there we grow in his authority and power. Touched by the King. Gazing upon the King. Only in his presence do we know kingship rightly, not in power or might or in abject self-abnegation.

“For you make [the king] most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence” (Ps. 21:6).

Priests—like Christ, we are priests. In his presence, his ministry is ours as we bask in him. In his presence, his love for his Father and the world washes over us, forms us. We stand in his shoes, in him, ministering both to the Lord and then out to the world with outstretched hands, willing to share in his afflictions for the sake of the world (Col. 1:24).

“At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD to stand before the LORD to minister to him and to bless his name” (Deut. 10:8).

“And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none” (Ezek. 22:30).

Prophets—like Christ, we are prophets. In his presence, we take on his words and actions. Prophets, by our lives formed by him as we walk with him. Living justice. Showing righteousness in our midst by the way we relate to one another. Proclaiming his Word.

“And Elijah said, ‘As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand….” (1 Kgs. 18:15)

We carry his presence. We stand before him, love him, adore him, are refined by him—and we carry his presence as we work, shop, chat with the neighbor. In us. Us in him. Him in us. His glory and might present in seed in us. And may it radiate, may it glow undimmed, washing over our neighborhoods. May we be so in his presence that like Moses we carry his glory, our faces shine. So close to him that his power courses through us and changes, turning the unclean into the clean. So in his presence, people see him.

We stand in his presence. Tasked in him in us and us in him. Together.