Sunday, February 10, 2013

THE GREATER GLORY

If you are reading this article right now, I want you to know that it’s not by chance. The Lord ordered your steps rightly. The Lord is getting us ready for an unprecedented manifestation of His glory, such a manifestation never seen before since Church history. This year will usher in this greater manifestation. Why this article? You see, the knowledge of the glory of God always precedes the manifestation of the glory of God. Habakkuk 2:14 clearly tells us prophetically that “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” O I love this! The knowledge always comes to us first because without the knowledge we wouldn’t understand the manifestation. Without the knowledge we wouldn’t know how to handle or function in the light of the manifestation. The knowledge comes to help us understand the purpose of the manifestation so that we can take good advantage of it. There are different levels of the manifestations of the glory of God. Reading through the Old Testament, we see that God manifested Himself in different measures at different times. There was a level of glory the Old Covenant folks could handle and there were levels of glory they couldn’t handle considering their unredeemed state. The Lord didn’t allow them have access to these higher levels of glory because they weren’t ready for them. Take Moses for instance. In Exodus 33, when Moses pleaded with the Lord, asking the Lord to show him His glory, the Lord said this to him “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:19-23). There are certain things we must observe from this Scripture. First, we see that the goodness of God is not the glory of God. Now the goodness is very good and sometimes comes as the result of the manifestation of the glory, but there’s much more. A lot of believers are satisfied with the goodness and have remained at that level. I call that cheap satisfaction. We also see that the glory of God is the face of God, meaning that the glory of God is God Himself – His identity, it’s all that He is and has. His very essence! But then, if Moses had seen the fullness of that glory He would have dropped dead. And so the manifestation of God’s glory to Moses was limited. However, we, the New Creation, have the fullness of the glory of God in the Person of Christ! Colossians 1:26,27 tells us “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” Today the glory lives in every saints in the Person of Christ! Now, see this: “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of CHRIST, WHO IS THE IMAGE OF GOD, should shine unto them…For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST.” (2 Corinthian 4:4,6). Two things here: First, Christ is the image of God (Hebrews 1:1-3). Secondly, the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ. Remember, Jesus Christ is God-made-flesh. This means that the face of God which is the glory of God, which Moses couldn’t look upon else he died has now been revealed to us, the New Creations, in the Person of Christ. Question: How do we now behold His face? Answer: By looking into the Word. Jesus Christ is the Word (John 1:1,14). 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us “But we all, with open face [remember, Moses’ face had to be covered. But we see with open (uncover) face but are not dead rather are changed from one level of glory to another!] beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Praise God! So whenever you look into the Word you are looking into the face of Jesus Christ (the glory of God) and as you do, something tangible is happening to you – You are being changed from one level of glory to a greater one! And the ultimate glory is that which we would experience when we meet with Jesus Christ face to face (1Pet.5:1). Hallelujah! In January, when the Lord spoke to me about this, I could barely contain myself. And the Lord emphatically said that this greater manifestation was going to start this year – 2013! Saints, the day has dawned upon us when we shall see a higher version of the Book of Acts happen. Acts 19:11,12 tells us “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.” You see, the book of Acts of the Apostles is the account of the Church at infancy. But the Church has come of age. Wigglesworth rightly said, the book of Acts of the Apostles was written because the Apostles acted. We must step out with the full consciousness of the glory of God upon us and present the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ with power! We must take the intuitive. It’s time to spread the glory around. The glory of God is God Himself in manifestation. I’m talking about a moment where even babes in Christ would move from street to street manifesting the glory everywhere, being witnesses of the living Jesus! I believe in the prophecy: “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” The prophetic Word in Haggai 2:6-9 tells us that God will shake the nations with His glory in an unprecedented way and will fill His present day house (us) with His glory and would even prosper us financially in a big way so that we can take the Gospel to the ends of the earth (Zechariah 1:17). The manifestation of the glory would affect the Church financially also. Never forget: The purpose of the greater glory is to bring in a greater harvest of souls into the Kingdom. Get ready for the glory invasion!