In the book of Ezekiel, God speaks to Ezekiel in a variety of ways.
1) The word of the Lord came
2) The hand of the Lord was on me
3) The Spirit lifted me up.
4) The Spirit entered me
5) The voice above the expanse said to me.
6) The Lord God said to me.
7) Son of man, stand up on your feet
8) The hand of the LORD was strong upon me
God communicates to a prophet in many different ways. One time by the word, another via the Spirit, yet another via the voice above the expanse, etc.
Before an open visitation in Ezekiel 1, God’s hand touched Ezekiel. Open visitation or vision is when you actually see and experience a vision here on earth. Physical body and eyes are involved in this visitation. There is a change in surrounding like it becomes cloudy and people in the vicinity are also impacted. This vision is not just seen by the prophet; it is also perceived/seen by those around the prophet.
Sometimes those in the immediate vicinity can sense a change in the environment without being able to see the vision. In this chapter, Ezekiel was present among certain people when the vision occurred, but others noticed a change in the atmosphere. Ezekiel was present at Chebar Canal when the heavens were opened, and he saw God’s Glory there.
His physical eyes were transformed to see an open visitation when the hand of God touched him. God’s nature rubs on Ezekiel, and as a result, his physical body is altered to support and contain God’s glory. His natural eyes were altered/ transformed in such a way that he can now view the grandeur of God’s Glory.
His eyes were seeing things that were moving faster than light, including a five-dimensional living creatures, a living creature with multiple faces, giant wheels, interdimensional travel, a living being with numerous eyes, complex objects, burning air, an appearance similar to glowing metal, and a variety of iridescent colours of air that were extremely difficult to understand.
Ezekiel was witnessing celestial objects or things that had never before been seen by a person. He used things/items from the earth to describe these celestial wonders. Ezekiel with transformed physical eyes got a glimpse God’s Glory. God’s Glory can be seen only by God’s eyes. It was a wonder to witness and sustain an open visitation with a physical body. He frequently trips and falls down in view of God’s Glory. When the hand of God touched Ezekiel’s body, it transformed Ezekiel’s body into God’s physical body ( A body in which God can live), which was able to sustain the open visitations. Ezekiel physically shared in God’s suffering.
When the hand of God touches the below things can happen
1) Eyes are opened to see open visitations
2) God can give visions related to His Glory
3) There will be a physical direction. Ezekiel 3:22 – “Get up, go out to the plain, and I will speak with you there.”
4) Chances to be led by His Spirit. Ezekiel 37:1 – The hand of the Lord was on me, and He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.
5) Take part in God’s agony
Six times the phrase “the hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel” was mentioned, and most of the time it was an open visitation that revealed some facet of God’s Glory.
1st time – Ezekiel 1:3 – Open visitation of God’s Glory
2nd Time – Ezekiel 3:14 – Mostly an open visitation with Ezekiel being taken to a place of God’s Glory. Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: “Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place!” 13 I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise. 14 So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.
3rd time – Ezekiel 3:22 – Another open visitation of God’s Glory. Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out into the plain, and there I shall talk with you.” 23 So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face.
4th time – Ezekiel 8:3 – Open visitation of God’s Glory leaving the temple
5th time – Ezekiel 33:22 – Jerusalem destroyed
6th time – Ezekiel 37 – Open visitation of restoration of God’s Glory.
In all these references, the hand of the Lord was on Ezekiel to reveal and share knowledge about God’s Glory. In these references, there was a revelation of what is God’s Glory, how it is hindered, and how it will be restored.
The hand of the Lord is directly related to God’s Glory. Hand of the Lord comes to align our life in the direction of God’s Glory.
The revelation of Jesus Christ is the Brightness of God’s Glory. There is a great deal of wisdom about Jesus in this chapter if we can correlate Ezekiel 1 with Jesus as the king on the throne.
Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. ( Ezekiel 1:27 & 28)
In Ezekiel 1, the four living creatures, display of the working nature of Jesus. The appearance of a man seated on the throne – is the description about Jesus. The color of amber is used to symbolise God’s overpoweringly bright and immediate presence. God’s presence is symbolised by fire.
God’s Glory is revealed more and more as Jesus is seen more and more clearly.
The hand of the Lord comes to reveal God’s Glory in the face of Jesus Christ aligning our physical walk to the direction to reveal and display Jesus.
All the brightness and fire resemble the radiance and vastness of God’s Glory in Jesus Christ.
Jesus is God’s brightness and light to this world
The capabilities required to perceive, see, sustain, and grasp an open visitation are provided by God’s hand.
These days people rarely talk about open visitations. Saul was transformed to Paul after an open visitation, and that encounter transformed his life.
Ask God for an open visitation today, where the heavens are physically opened so that you can see Jesus.
