This post first appeared on the Living Loved Community on Facebook where I write a monthly column for Stewarding Saturdays.

The words of a worship song fill my ears and I close my eyes. I am suspended. Between the now and the not yet. On my knees before the throne. Surrounded by a host of angels.

I open my eyes and turn in my Bible to the story of the Exodus. I imagine Moses in the tent. Or on the mountaintop. Meeting with God “face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). Try as I might, I cannot put myself there.

And yet, in my own way, I know what it is to feel His breath upon my cheek. To watch this world fade away. To slip off the shoes of my day to day. And in these glimpses, a dawning. A realization of what Moses knew to be true.

Once you have stood upon holy ground, no other ground will do.

“If Your Presence does not go with us,” Moses cried, “do not send us up from here” (33:15). These ancient words are spoken in a voice with a familiar tonality. Because the same Spirit that set the bush ablaze, burns here, inside of me.

As it has burned for centuries.

“Do not cast me away from Your Presence,” David begged in Psalm 51:11. And to Jesus’ question of fidelity, Peter’s pained reply: “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

These stewards of the faith reach through time to hold my gaze. Listen, they say. Once you have felt the heat of the Spirit’s blaze, you cannot return to the chill of the world’s embrace. God’s Presence is the treasure we sell everything to gain.

It did not matter, in that wilderness place, what threats or promises the Almighty made. Moses did not fear destruction under God’s justified gaze. He cared nothing for angelic might, divine favors or legacies. And like a gift of grace, Moses’ heartfelt prayer speaks for me.

I cannot steward anyone on my own. Our every step would take a wayward route. It does not matter what trials may come. You, Lord, are the only thing that is true. Every single promise in that land would be empty without You. (Exodus 33:12-16, paraphrase)