Exodus 33:11 (NIV) Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

Moses had a very special relationship with God. The Word of God tells us that the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks with a friend (Exodus 33:11). Moses was allowed to approach God's presence when everybody else was prohibited from doing so (Exodus 24:1-2). What made Moses so special?Was he such a holy person that he rose above everyone else? As much as many people may think that was the case, the Word of God refutes that. We are told that there is not one person that is righteous and that everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10-12, 23). So what was it that made Moses so special?

What made him stand out from everyone else was simply his desire to spend time with God. The Book of Exodus tells us that Moses used to pitch a tent outside of the camp to meet with God. He called it the tent of meeting (Exodus 33:7). People who wanted to inquire of the Lord could go there and Moses would go to the Lord on their behalf. While people would go when they had a need, Moses went just to meet with God. He didn't need a reason. What separated Moses from everyone else was his extreme reverence for God and a longing and a desire to be in His presence. When you become that intimate with God, then you learn that He is truly all that you need.

There is an old song that is still sung in many churches entitled, "He Is All I Need." While everyone sings along with the worship leader, not everyone lives what that song proclaims. With a lot of Christians, it's "Jesus is all I need and…“ you can fill in the blank. We may sing that song, but we don't live that song. Moses lived the song. In the passage of scripture above, Moses was in the presence of God for forty days and forty nights without eating anything or drinking any water. That is a physical impossibility. While we can go awhile without food, we won't last more than three days without water. This was the second time that Moses spent forty days straight in the presence of God. He did it when he first received the Ten Commandments from God and then again in this instance when he had to go back to have God write on stone tablets again because he had broken the first set in anger when he found the Israelites sinning greatly against God as they worshipped a golden calf that they had made.

The question for us is this: would we dare spend that much time in God's presence? Do we even desire to do that? People can barely get themselves to spend one hour in a church service. Many are in a hurry to get back to their real lives. That's why so many of us never experience what Moses experienced. When you are in the very presence of God, there really is nothing else that you need. His presence provides everything that you could need physically, emotionally and spiritually. That's why heaven is going to be so amazing. There won't even be need for lights there because God's presence will be our light.

While it wouldn't be possible or feasible for most of us to spend forty days in God's presence, we can make it our business to seek His presence every day and give Him the priority of our time. We can look to spend time with Him in prayer and in His Word so that we can gain wisdom and understanding in addition to simply enjoying the beauty of who He is, like David wrote about. As you grow in your desire to spend time in God's presence, you will learn like Moses did that He is truly all that you need. If you have everything that the world offers but don't have God, you really have nothing. But if you don't have anything but do have God, then you have gained everything. Taste and see that the Lord is good and that He is all that you need.

Pastor Joey Vazquez