The Marks of GLORY

I treasure the GLORY OF GOD when HE shows up. I will chase after HIM till I encounter the true and living God's Glory. Tuesday night at Crusaders during the prayer time the minstrels were playing and singing in a spontaneous symphony.  Apostle John Eckhardt was crying out to God to Send HIS Glory.  Suddenly HE showed up.  His Glory Came.  Not the whole night, but in a kairos time. You can't manufacture or gin these things up, they come in response to hunger.

I am sensitive to these things because I have been there before. Not often enough. Once you have been in the Glory, you know it, you smell it, you feel it, it's tangible, it has weight. We hit that place for a brief time at Crusaders. God IS the rewarder of those who diligently seek him.  He rewarded us Tuesday night. 

When the Glory Comes I have a sensation that washes over me.  It's the "come up here" sound.  I feel like I may just float up and fly around the room. It happens so seldom that I can almost remember every time it has. Twice at First Assembly in Fargo: Once in the Old building during a late night prayer meeting, once in the new building during a Sunday evening meeting.   Then there was a meeting with Rodney Howard Browne at the Bible Camp during a men's retreat.  Once at Faith Center at one of the Praise Nights. And again Tuesday Night at Crusaders. There may be a few others, but too few in any case.  When it happens, it's amazing. Stunning.

People need to experience the Glory of God. They need to know what it is like. Experiencing the Glory creates hunger. There are too many saints not knowing spiritual hunger because they don't know what it is like to be filled.... They believe that there is nothing more then the starving emptiness of the Christianity they experience now.

Once a person has truly been in that place you are changed forever.  You are Marked by Glory.  The imprint on you is permanent.  The Apostle Paul tried to talk of it.  The marks of an Apostle.  He spoke of it in 2 Corinthians 12: 1-6.  He speaks of being called up into Glory, how it changed him and how he now struggles to get there once again.

IF we are going to see people change, they are going to know the Glory of God.  There are a lot of episodes in the Bible where the Glory came and people responded to it, the real question is,  were they changed?  Every person who had a true encounter with the Living God in Glory according to the Scripture was never the same again.  Never.  For the rest of their lives they sought to get there once more.  At the end of their life as they stepped from time into eternity the Glory manifested forever.  When you have once truly been there, in Glory, you will have a permanent longing to stand near the throne of God on the Crystal Sea... Revelation 4.  You know the reality of Revelation 7.  Nothing else satisfies.  That is being Marked by the Glory of God.  All this can happen on this side of the Veil.  You can have Glory HERE.  But you will long for the Crystal Sea.

I know a Pastor, a decent man, when I first met him and considered partnering with him, I asked him about his encounters with God.  Tell me a bit about what you have known and seen.  He had lots of book knowledge.  He knew the word.  He had heard good preaching.  He had participated in some good worship. I waited to hear him talk about that time when the Glory of God had overtaken him.  Like a Paul the Apostle Overtaking.  It never came.  Even when I pushed, and gave an example of how others had been so marked, he couldn't relate.  Today he is the pastor of a large church.  Not yet a thousand but well on the way.  He knows more about church growth than anyone I know.  He knows how to gather a crowd.  BUT, he hasn't yet been marked by Glory.

I don't think he is a bad man.  He will get to heaven.  He will have a good life.  He will grow a mighty church.  He will have a powerful ministry.  He will have just missed the Glory... on this side of the veil.

For that he is to be pitied.  In this spiritual climate in the USA we must have our leaders, ministers, prophets, Evangelists, apostles, pastors and teachers have a genuine encounter with the Glory of God.  Marked by the Holy Spirit.  Ephesians 1:13  "Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit".  It's more than speaking in tongues, it's more than the Gifts of the Spirit, It's a visitation... OF GLORY.  Without it as this, when revival (with persecution) comes, those who have not known this will falter.

I pray that every person who reads this will be stirred to seek First His Kingdom... for it is a Kingdom of his GLORY.  You will be marked forever,  never to be the same.