We want to take a closer look at some of the reasons we're not seeing the Glory of God moving over the face of the earth like we need to.
5 reasons for the absence of the Glory of God
1. We have become self reliant 2. The things of God have lost value 3. We are too busy 4. Preoccupation with other important things 5. We've lost the very pulse of God
Jeremiah 2:13- For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and the have hewn for themselves cisterns, "broken cisterns" which cannot hold water.
We've spent ourselves on everything under the Sun but God Himself. We've become rich and in need of nothing, and we have forgotten that we are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked! (Rev 3:17)
Isaiah 55:2 - '"Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy?
Isaiah 55:1- Wait and Listen ... everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters; He who has no money ; Come buy and eat! Come buy WINE...MILK...WATER...HONEY... without money; and without price!... God is waiting for the body to come to the end of itself so we can be completely reliant upon Him. We have no resources on our own and are completely void of being able to manufacture them. God's glory will move only in a people who have come to rely on Him and Him alone. Isaiah 4:4- says that the "intense Spirit of Burning and Intense Spirit of Judgement" is necessary to burn and blast everything out of our lives that is unholy in order to make way for the glorious return of the presence of God in our churches, homes, and personal lives.
God is restoring to Himself a hungry bride! To those who have been knocking, seeking, asking and pounding the very gates of heaven and courts of God for!
Heaven is opening and God is feeding us with very real bread from heaven. God is wanting to release such freshness from heaven that He is dispatching great outpourings of angels to help facilitate His purposes.
God is looking for a people who will again raise up the age old foundations of His Sanctuary and restore the Glory of His Presence! (Isaiah 61:4)
In the book of Haggai There are 2 things I want to point out . Firstly 13 times God referres to Himself as "The Lord of Hosts." The angels are very involved in the bringing about of the restoration process of the temple. Different types of angels;
WARRING...MESSENGER...WORSHIP...GUARDING...REVELATION...HEALING... SCRIBE...all kinds of diversity of Angels with different functions. The Lord was making it clear to all of Israel that He was the Lord of ten thousand x ten thousand and thousands of thousands (Rev 5:11) of Angels and that He would not change one bit concerning the order of His temple.
Secondly, Israel was preoccupied building their own houses. Haggai 1:9
The results of this is found in verses 6-9 read.
The word of the Lord came to Haggai for the people concerning the condition of His house. Israel had let the temple of God become run down because all were seeking their own interests. The Lord had told Haggai that there was a curse on the people because of there lack of concern over the House of God. The people were complaining that Gods blessings had lifted from them and they didn't know why.
Just as in the time of Haggai, God is redirecting our priorities and reinstituting His values concerning the condition of His temple. The world looks at the modern day church and laughs because we don't have an ounce of Power. We don't have the "Goods". The world is looking for evidence! They're looking for power and quite frankly the church has come up empty handed.
If we had the fire and glory of God going before us like the children of Israel did when they came out of Egypt, the world would gladly follow us. The nations hearts melted like wax before the presence of the Lord for all they heard about the great God of Israel and how God had oped up the red sea and swollowed up the armies of Egypt! Great fear and dread was upon all of them. If only we had a fraction of that power in operation in the Kingdom today. We would see mass revival and increase into the church. The world would turn on a dime toward the living God! People followed Jesus everywhere because he had the power to heal, (Luke5:17) They came from every village, township and city to to have Him lay His hands on them to be healed. In one place in Luke 5 there were so many people gathered around Jesus that a few desperate people literally took the roof apart where Jesus was teaching the people and lowered their friend down on a stretcher so Jesus could heal him. After Jesus healed him in verse 25, verse26 says"And overwhelming astonishment and ecstasy seized them all, and they RECOGNIZED and praised and thanked GOD; and they were filled with and controlled by reverential fear and kept saying, "We have seen wonderful and strange and incredible and unthinkable things today"!!!
God is serious about the restoration of Glory in His temple!
The feast of tabernacles: The last and greatest feast of all!
During the Feast of Tabernacles, the people brought their tithes and offerings to the Temple for they were not to "appear before the Lord empty-handed" In the days of the Temple, the Feast of Taabernacles was viewed with great awe, for it was during the Feast of Tabernacles that Solomon dedicated the newly built Temple to the Lord. At that ancient observance (2 Chr 5:3) the Shekinah glory of the Lord descended from Heaven to light the fire on the altar, and fill the Holy of Holies (1Ki 8:2 2Chr 7:1-10) People came from surrounds towns and nations bringing the best of what they had to offer to the Lord! They focused their attention on building booths, and at sundown the blast of the Shofar would announced the arrival of the Holiday.
The Lord will not only gather His people again, but He will tabernacle in their midst during the coming Kingdom! "My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be my people, (Ezk 37:27-28; Rev 21:3)
The sign of God's presence, the Shekinah glory, will be seen in Zion again! It will appear as a shining fire over the whole of Mount Zion; a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. (Isa 4;5-6)
About a year and a half ago we were preaching and ministering at a church in the rural Knoxville area. I was half way through the message the Holy Spirit had given me to share, when a group of two different families came in the back of church. I was preaching on Jacob's ladder Genesis 28 and that interaction was begining to take place in the church like never before! Angels ascending and decending with power, fire, and glory!!
Just then one of the men raised his hand as to ask a question. He said they heard about the meeting and were excited about coming but didn't know how to get to the church because it was out in the woods a ways off. While they were trying to decide what they were going to do, one of them looked out the window and said, "Look at that huge beam of light coming down from the sky into the woods, let's follow it." That beam of light was changing colors from red to white to gold to blue to green. It came to rest right on top of the church where we were having our meeting. Finally the other family spoke up and said "Yeah we saw it too but were afraid to say anything!" That sign and wonder taking place that night reenforced God's desire for His people to be moving in glory dimentions! God so wants to fill His people with His power that not only the buildings would appear to be on fire from heaven, but the very saints of God would appear to be burning with heavenly fire because of the Glory Fire of God!!!
We should all be shining like Moses. This was the very intention of God when Moses was commanded to get the people ready in Exodus 21:19. God's desire was for all of Israel to go up to the mountain but they would not because they were afraid of the thunders and lightenings and quaking of the ground, and the smoke on the mountain. They told Moses, "You speak to us and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, lest we die!"
God will have a people that are filled with His Glory! The Lord swore by Himself in Numbers 14 "That as surely as I live my glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea!" Just think of what could have happened if all Israel would have beamed as brightly as Moses did! Millions of little Moses's running around with faces full of light!
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