Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. – Matthew 17:1-3.

Jesus took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. Every one of the six men who met on that mountain was eminently a man of prayer. And it was while Christ was praying that His face and His garments were changed, and became shining as the sun and white as the light. Then there appeared and talked with Him two men, Moses and Elijah. Many of us have seen people whose very countenances have been changed after a season of prayer, and their whole lives have seemed to be transformed. I believe that is how Moses got his shining face when he had been in communion with God for forty days. We cannot be in real communion with God without getting more or less of that same glory. When Andrew Bonar was in America, after Major Whittle had been speaking once on the shining face of Stephen, Dr. Bonar said:

“Did you ever notice that when the Jews accused Stephen of blasphemy against Moses’ law, God lit up Stephen’s face with the same glory that He had given to the face of Moses?”

When men are brought into communion with God, He will cause their faces to shine.

Dwight Lyman Moody, Moody’s Latest Sermons (Chicago; New York; Toronto: Fleming H. Revell, 1900), 72–73.

*Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Applicable Quotations

It is not that prayer changes God, or awakens in him purposes of love and compassion that he has not already felt. No, it changes us, and therein lies its glory and its purpose. – Hannah Hurnard

We need more Christians for whom prayer is the first resort, not the last. – John Blanchard

Prayer takes place in the heart, not in the head. – Carlo Carretto

For every one look within, take ten looks at Christ. – Robert Murray M’Cheyne