"God is a Person" Kathryn Kuhlman Part 1

Today, you and I are going to have a heart -to -heart talk about something that is vitally important to each of us. If I were to ask you, is God a person? I wonder what your answer would be. Perhaps you would say, I believe... in a power that is greater than the power of man. Or perhaps someone would answer me something like this. I believe that there is a great force. No man can comprehend the power of that great force. But I'm... talking about God as a person. And it means everything in the world as to your conception of God. Do you know God as a person? Perhaps you never thought about it. God a person? Perhaps that is the reason that you have never learned how to pray. Because you cannot know how to pray until, first of all, you recognize the fact that God is a person. Your Heavenly Father. A person who is interested in the details of your life. Wouldn't it be wonderful if just for a very few minutes we could call Abraham and say, Abraham, tell us. You've had some wonderful experiences as recorded in the Old Testament. Was God real to you? Abraham, was God a person? Did you fellowship a person? Oh, me thinks. Abraham would smile and say, oh, those were wonderful experiences. And today, I can give you the record of some of these experiences. Turn, if you will, please, to the 17th chapter of Genesis. And when Abraham was 90 years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou. Abraham, did God literally appear unto you? Did he actually speak to you? And what did he say when he spoke to you? And Abraham continues. And this is what God said to him. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan. for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. And some of those very covenants that God made with Abraham are being fulfilled in our generation today. Isn't that thrilling? That makes God a mighty real. That makes the person of God a mighty real. That makes the word of... God mighty real believe me when you realize that the person of almighty God the one who talked with walked with Abraham made covenants with Abraham that was the person of God who made those covenants with Abraham and to think that you and I are living in the generation that is seeing the fulfillment of many of those promises and many of those covenants made then. Who can take issue with that? Let me ask you. Oh, Moses. Please will you just come forth for a few minutes? We have a question we want to ask you, Moses. Is God a person? He's... And Moses said, I wish I could tell all. The holy scriptures don't begin to tell it all. All our wonderful fellowship was beyond the tongue to tell. There are no words in human vocabulary to really tell that wonderful fellowship that I had with him. Really? How could you doubt the reality of the person of God? And a part of the account is given in the 34th chapter of Exodus. And I read. And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone, like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou breakest. And be ready in the morning. You know, I never read those words, but watch. I could actually weep with emotion. So real is the person of God that he sort of makes appointments with us, you know? Have you ever had him tell you to be ready in the morning? Have you ever had that glorious fellowship with him where he's told you, Be ready at midnight. Be ready at noon. I don't believe that things ever just happen. When you're in close contact with God, when there's that closeness with Him, that fellowship with Him. Has He ever made appointments with you and say, be ready? in the morning. Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and presenteth thyself there to me in the top of the mount. And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount. Neither let the flocks nor the herds feed before that mount. He told him exactly what to do. He gave him full instructions. That was the person of God Almighty who was giving these instructions. The time, the place, in the morning, the very place. Mount Sinai. And don't bring anyone else with you. Come all alone. Has there ever been a time in your life when he has given you instructions like that? Those are sacred moments. Those were sacred instructions. That's precious. to the heart and the life of that somebody who's so close to him that you get your instructions from him. And no man shall come up with thee. Neither let any man be seen throughout all the munch. Neither let the flocks nor the herds feed before that munch. You'll find out a little later why. All right, let's continue. I know immediately that something's going to happen. Something thrilling is going to take place. And the Lord descended in the clouds and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Has there ever been a doubt in your mind that God is not a person? That God was just a figment of somebody's imagination? Just a spirit? Something so ethereal that really it wasn't anything that was tangible? You don't have fellowship with spirits. God is a person. The one who's... stood with Moses on Mount Sinai was more than spirit. 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 of God, merciful and gracious, long -suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. Things happened on Mount Sinai that day. Wonderful things happened. But what if, and I've thought of this a thousand times, what if Moses had failed to keep that appointment with God that day when God said to him, Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself to me on the mount, and no man shall come up with thee. We're not through yet. I ask you again. Has there ever been a doubt in your mind that God was not a person? That God could not speak? That he's only some great influence? A mystical influence of some kind? Oh, Moses said, I can bear witness to the fact that God is a person. He stood there beside me. He descended in the cloud. He stood there with me. He passed by. But I do not believe for one moment at any time that Moses... ever saw the face of God. We know that he saw God in bodily form. But the scripture also makes it very clear that no man can look upon the face of God and live. No man. If anyone has ever told you that they have seen the face of God, it is not scripture. For one day, Moses begged God to let him see his face. And God said, I will pass by, and you may see the hinder part of my body, but my face you cannot see. Stand here on the cliff of the rock, and as I pass by, I'll put my hand over your eyes. But you see, Moses, your body isn't geared for so much glory. These old bodies that are temporal, they're still corruption. They're still mortal. One day you'll be able to look upon my face. One day when this is... which is mortal will have put on immortality. One day when this which is yet corruption will have put on incorruption, then your glorious resurrected body will be geared for all the glory. And you can look upon my face. But I'll just let you know how real I am. You stand there in the cleft of the rock. I'll put my hand over your eyes until i will have passed by then when i remove my hand you can look upon the hinder part of my body after i will have passed talk about glory do you want to know how wonderful the glory of god really Don't stop here. I pray that somehow the Holy Spirit will make the person of God very real to you. Until he does, you cannot fully appreciate prayer. Until he does, I do not believe that you can fully understand what it means to be able to look up and say, My Father. My Heavenly Father. You do not fully know how to pray until there is that relationship, that fellowship with the person of God Almighty. Continue. I give you scripture. I must give you scripture for everything that I say because some of these things will seem so fantastic that it will be very hard for some folk to accept. But you can never. argue against truth. And the word of God is truth. All right, let's see what happened on Mount Sinai. The 27th verse of the 34th chapter of Exodus. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words. For... After the tenor of these words, I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did neither eat bread nor drink water. Think of it. For forty days and forty nights, Moses... did not have a drop of water, neither did he have a morsel of food. But he came down from the top of Mount Sinai, not in a state of fatigue, not with a machiated body. Do you know what this really means? Have you ever been so completely... immersed in the presence of God Almighty that there was no desire whatsoever for the food that would satisfy the physical. You never even thought about that which would satisfy the temporal. Moses, methinks, never even thought about the fact that he had not eaten. Neither was he thirsty. He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did neither eat bread nor drink water, and he wrote upon the tables of the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them, And Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him, and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. Until Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out. And he came out and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. And Moses put the veil upon his face again. until he went in to speak with him. Why there? He had been in the presence of God. He had partaken of the glory of God. And so great was the glory of God. Think of it, beloved. Oh, today you and I, Look through a glass that is so clouded. It's so dark. We get glimpses, spiritual glimpses now and then. But the full extent of the truth we cannot fully comprehend. It's more than we can comprehend. Just being in the... of God, not even looking upon his face, but just being in his presence. There was so much glory that when Moses came down from off of Mount Sinai, even though he had not eaten, for 40 days and 40 nights, He'd not had one drop of water for forty days and forty nights. And yet he was so strengthened. And the glory that shone upon him was so great that even the people could not look upon the face of Moses. He had to wear a veil to cover his face. I have seen that same glory shine forth on the face of many of God's saints. I have seen that glory on the face of many of God's children as they have fellowshiped with him. Yes, beloved? God is a person.