CHAPTER THE GLORY OF GOD IS MANIFEST …

1 THE GLORY OF GOD, HIS MANIFEST PRESENCE15 CHAPTER 1 THE GLORY OF GOD,HIS MANIFEST PRESENCEThat the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father ofglory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and rev-elation in the knowledge of 1:17 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the GLORY of theLORD is risen upon 60:1In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul describes the Fa-ther as the source from whom all divine splendor,beauty, holiness and perfection proceed in their manifes-tation. Isaiah the prophet saw the GLORY of God as lightand penned these words above for you and me. We mustarise out of our discouragement, lukewarmness and com-fort zones and, by seeking God with all of our hearts,allow Him to clothe us with His IN HIS GLORIOUS PRESENCE16 GOD S MANIFEST PRESENCEFor forty years in the wilder-ness, the Israelites experiencedthe MANIFEST presence of God inthe cloud by day and the pillar offire by night.

2 There were manyother manifestations of God sglory. For instance:When Moses came down frommount Sinai with the two tablesof testimony .. , the skin of his 34:29 When this happened, Aaronand the other children of Israelwere afraid to even come nearMoses. He lived much of the timein the presence of God and talkedwith Him face to face (Exodus33:11).The prophets Elijah and El-isha exhibited this same in his tomb, the GLORY wasstill so heavy upon the corpse ofElisha that when a dead man wasthrown in upon it, the dead wasrestored to life. This shows thatthere is resurrection power inForfortyyearsinthewilderness,theIsrael itesexperiencedthemanifestpresenceofGodi nthecloudbydayandthepillaroffirebynight!

3 THE GLORY OF GOD, HIS MANIFEST PRESENCE17 God s glorious presence . Death cannot exist in that veryweighty GLORY UPON JESUSThis same GLORY was upon Jesus. The Scriptures sayof Him:How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the HolyGhost [God s presence ] and with power: who went aboutdoing good, and healing all that were oppressed of thedevil; for God was with 10:38 This is the reason the lame walked, the blind receivedtheir sight, the dead were raised and the oppressed weredelivered everywhere He went. The GLORY of God thatwas upon Jesus was being visibly revealed through Hislove. The power He had was nothing less than the verypresence of the living God upon soldiers came to arrest Him in the Garden ofGethsemane, Jesus asked them, Whom seek ye?

4 (John18:4). Jesus of Nazareth, the soldiers replied. I am he, Jesus said (John 18:5). The moment He spoke thosethree words, something very powerful happened:They went backward, and fell to the 18:6 The GLORY of God was so great upon the very words ofJesus, our Lord, that those powerful soldiers could nolonger IN HIS GLORIOUS PRESENCE18 HIS HIGHEST PRIORITY WAS TOBE IN THE presence OF THE FATHERJ esus highest priority while He was here on earthwas to be in the presence of the Father at all times. Toaccomplish this, He arose early and spent much timealone with God. He was totally dependent upon the Fa-ther and was continually led by the Holy Spirit. If Jesusneeded that, how much more do you and I need to spendtime in the presence of our Lord and King, Jesus!

5 Weneed to start each day with a quiet time with Him. If wedid this more consistently, our lives would surely GLORY UPON PAUL AND PETERPaul, describing his own life-changing visitation fromthe Lord, said to King Agrippa:At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light fromheaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining roundabout 26:13On an earlier occasion, he gave further insight intohis experience:And when I could not see for the GLORY of that light,being led by the hand of them that were with me, Icame into 22:11 THE GLORY OF GOD, HIS MANIFEST PRESENCE19 That was a powerful demonstration of God times the GLORY of God was so great upon Peter thateven those who came under his shadow were healed(Acts 5:15).

6 His release from prison came because God spresence and GLORY were revealed in that place:And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him,and a light [the GLORY ] shined in the prison .. And hischains fell off from his 12:7 GOD CHOOSES WHEN AND WHERETO DISPLAY HIS PRESENCEGod is omnipresent, meaning everywhere:Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the 23:24 There are moments, however, particularly duringtimes of intense worship on our part, when His presenceseems to become so heavy, so great, that it can be seenand/or felt with the natural senses. This is what we callthe GLORY of God, and it is His MANIFEST presence . God sglory reveals His splendor, His beauty and the magnifi-cence of His personality.

7 We particularly see it in JesusChrist through the Holy EXPERIENCE THE GLORY OF GODWhen I had known the Lord for only a few months, ILIVING IN HIS GLORIOUS PRESENCE20had an experience with the GLORY of God. Pattie and Iwere attending a church service, and it was now over,and yet many of us who had attended were still lingeringat the altar, some praising God in English, but most of uspraying in other tongues. I myself was worshiping theLord through singing in tongues, and as I continued to dothis, the presence of God began to envelop me. Soon myhands began to shake and vibrate. I felt God s GLORY allaround me. I have felt that same GLORY often through theyears when I sing in a heavenly we call the anointing of the Holy Spirit refersto the empowerment given to us at salvation and, muchmore so, when we are filled with the Spirit.

8 This anoint-ing empowers us to testify, preach and teach. It also givesus wisdom, courage and motivation to do the work of GLORY of God includes the anointing, but it is a fargreater manifestation of it. In the GLORY , the nature andcharacter of God in His holiness and power are muchmore fully revealed. His GLORY can be seen and felt, andin the GLORY , there is beauty, peace and joy. God s GLORY isthe very atmosphere of Heaven His glorious GLORY UPON JOHN LAKE,THE FAMOUS HEALING EVANGELISTThe great healing evangelist, John G. Lake, experi-enced this GLORY . He said, Often, when I would shakepeople s hands, they would fall out under the power ofGod. At other times, it happened when they came withinTHE GLORY OF GOD, HIS MANIFEST PRESENCE21six feet of me.

9 I knew the purpose was to make Christreal to everyone watching. (Copeland, Kenneth, G. Lake, His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith,Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kenneth Copeland Publications, Pagexxiv).MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITHTHE GLORY OF GODY ears before I became a born-again Christian, I knew there wassomething distinctly differentabout the great American evange-list Billy Graham. I could see it inhis face and hear it in his was it? I wasn t sure, but itseemed to me that it must be thepresence of , this was the Graham preached in thatglory, and He lived in that , the character of Christradiated forth from his WOMAN WHO CHANGED MY LIFEGod gave me a beautiful gift in my lovely and talentedwife, Pattie.

10 Soon after we met, it was she who chal-lenged me to seek a greater reality in life. Jack, can you answer these questions? she said toThegloryofGodincludestheanointing,buti tisafargreatermanifestationofit!LIVING IN HIS GLORIOUS PRESENCE22me one day. And the questions she posed to me were: Who are you? And what is your purpose in life? Each ofus needs to be able to answer both of these of the saddest things in life is to never know one spurpose for being here in the first place. God has a planto bring meaning and significance into our lives, and Hedesires to reveal our purpose to tried to ignore both questions and quickly changedthe subject. But, in God s timing, I would find the an-swers, and in the process, I wound up, to my completesurprise, finding God HAD A FULL LIFEGod gave Pattie and me four beautiful children.