Seeing His Face

I asked God to show me who He was,  to show me his face.   God proceeded to show me, tell me who he was ... because His face,  is his character,  it is who He is.  What is God's face?  His face is the full revelation of his character,  his mind, his will, his purposes and plans,  followed by his works.

So what does seeking his face mean?  I believe this means to see God's will,  his purpose and plans for our lives,  his thoughts and feelings, his heart ....  it also means to seek him;  his holiness, his love and his grace, his attributes,  who He is,  so we can made into his image.

He said, explaining who He is... that  He is LOVE and HOLINESS, and that they are intricately connected to each other.  All the other characteristics and attributes are covered under these two (plus Jesus being LIFE... see below).

Out of Love comes God's:  compassion, power, wisdom, grace, forgiveness, mercy, patience, humility, meekness, selflessness, gentleness, kindness, goodness, joy, peace, faithfulness.  It is like a full circle of attributes that  all stems from His love.

Out of God's Holiness comes:  God's judgment, discipline, truth, conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit,  justice, sacrifices and the cross, anger and sadness, God's jealousy.  This is also like a full circle, that stems from His Holiness, but interconnected with his love.   Holiness is also selfless, meek, and humble, just as Jesus was when he walked this earth.  Holiness is also justice and strength, pure and lovely, without spot or stain.  

No man could stand in God's holiness, only Jesus - and we stand in Him, and Him in us.  We are one with Jesus, because he stood in the gap, he identified with us, and became the sacrifice.

Holiness and love is interconnected in that, without holiness, love could be tainted, selfish or evil ....and  without Jesus' sacrificial love, we would not have been justified by his grace.   God's holiness demanded justice for our sin, and God supplied the only one who could do this, His own son Jesus.  Only love  could do this.  Only love could see the sin, but supply a way for us to be made holy and righteous in Him, at great cost to himself.  

Later, God showed me another strong attribute of himself, when I asked if there was anything else He wanted to show me.... He showed me he is  LIFE  ITSELF.   The life-giving force.  The alpha and omega, the bread of life, the living water, the provider (Jehova Jira) The Word, the Creator, the Keeper of the keys of death and life,  eternal life, the healer, the resurrection and the life, the way, truth and the life, the Vine... the light of the world.  He is prophet, priest and king, messiah, teacher and the cornerstone.  He is the essence of life.  All these attributes above, stem from being the essence and giver of life.

I asked to see his face again - and he said to me ....  if you have seen and known me (Jesus), then you know the Father.  I am the image and representation of the Father.  I am in the Father, the Father is in me, and I am in you, by the Holy Spirit.  He said to me, look at my face, what do you see?    I could see Jesus' face in a vision, and I could see ... love/compassion, kindness,  goodness, gentleness, mercy  majesty/kingship, and all the attributes they were written on his face.  Also truth, and strength, and a disciplined and focused mind. 

I was reminded of Moses, in Exodus 33:18-23, and Exodus 34:5-8, where Moses asked to see God's glory / face.  God went behind Moses,  and showed him his back... 

"Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord... And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming,  "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. ... Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."   

So here I see what God just showed me:  He is love and holiness....  loving and compassionate, and also holy. 

So I have understood that the many attributes and characteristics  of God all stem from these three main ones:  love,  holiness and life.   This is what He was showing me as He was speaking to me.     His face is knowing him, his character, his ways, his heart, his mind and his voice.