No Christian practice can take the place of experiencing God. It’s in experiencing God that we begin to live in response to the unconditional, unfathomable depths of God’s love. It’s in experiencing God that we learn to discern and trust his perfect, pleasing will. And it’s in experiencing God that our hearts are transformed into powerful reflections of his wonderful character. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” When we see God face-to-face everything changes. You can’t see God and stay the same. Encountering him always requires something from us. Experiencing his holiness always calls us to be holy as he is holy (1 Peter 1:15). Experiencing his love always calls to love because he has “first loved us” (1 John 4:19). And experiencing his heart for transformation always calls us to surrender our lives to him as a “living sacrifice, holy and pleasing” (Romans 12:1). In Isaiah 6:1-6, Isaiah’s encounter with the living God speaks to the truth of transformation through experience. In response to seeing “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up” and hearing the Seraphim calling to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory,” Isaiah’s natural response was, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” And upon declaring the truth of his depravity a seraphim touches his lips with a burning coal and says, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Isaiah was transformed through experiencing God. If you want your life to be transformed you must set out to seek the face of God. You must respond daily to his invitation to meet together. Your life must be centered around the fact that perfect, blameless Jesus gave his life that you might simply have relationship with the Father. If you do—if you give your life to experience the fullness of God’s love, power, and presence—you will never be the same. May you “[behold] the glory of the Lord” today as you enter into a time of guided prayer (2 Corinthians 3:18).