Hello, thank you for joining me today for Give Him 15.

The title of today's post is Restoring the Dream.

We've been looking at Jacob and his two encounters with God at Bethel and Penuel.

Bethel means house of God, and Penuel means face of God.

A house of God relationship allows one to know the blessings of salvation

without ever experiencing true intimacy with him.

At this level of relationship, Jesus is more of a Savior than a friend.

God is more of a distant ruler than an affectionate father.

A penuel face-to-face relationship, on the other hand, changes everything.

Jesus becomes our friend. on the other hand, changes everything.

Jesus becomes our friend.

God becomes Abba, Papa.

And Holy Spirit becomes our close helper.

Penuel comes from Pane, the Hebrew word for face, thus face of God.

It is interesting in revealing that Pane is also the word for presence.

Turning the face toward someone, as in face-to-face encounters, obviously requires being in their presence.

Thus, the word for face became the word for presence. When the scriptures speak of individuals having face-to-face in relationships with God, or that God shines his face on us,

they obviously aren't implying we're supposed to see his physical face. Rather, we're being

reminded that we can live in his presence, the intimacy of which is so personal it's akin to a face-to-face

meeting with a friend.

The circumstances leading up to Pannual, the beginning of Jacob's face-to-face walk with God are important to see.

Jacob is about to go home where he'll face his brother, Esau.

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