Introduction
It is such an honor and a privilege to be able to share tonight very briefly some things that I have found particularly helpful for us to understand as we are talking about Wanting More of Your Glory.
Ask the Person Next to you --> Do you want more of God's Glory?, Then buckle your seat belt for these next few moments.
Would you allow me to teach for a few moments?
Let's go together to the Book of Exodus 34:29-34, if you are from the house, you already know that I like to invite you to highlight and underline some of these verses. If you have your iPhones, or iPads, follow along with me.
The Word of the Lord says:
(29) When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. (30) Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. (31) But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. (32) Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. (33) And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. (34) Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, Exodus 34:29-34 - ESV
Context:
Moses was called by the Lord to ascend up to mount Sinai for a second time to receive the tablets that Moses broke in a fit of rage against the people of God. (cf. Ex. 32:19)
Moses in the middle of finding a solution to the problem, approaches the Lord and ask for his forgiveness on behalf of the people. The Lord commands him and the people to Leave Sinai.
Moses make an interesting intercession in Chapter 33:12-23, in Verse 18, Moses tells the Lord, SHOW ME YOUR GLORY.
God passed by him, covered him, and allowed him to see his back!
The Lord then commands Moses to cut tablets and return to Mount Sinai.
While at the Mt. Sinai, The Lord Descended as a Cloud and prompting Moses to worship (interesting that it didn't prompt Moses to stand, and do what ever he wanted, Oops, that our mistake)
Moses BOWED to the Floor and worshipped some more.
While Moses bowed, he asked the Lord for the forgiveness of OUR (Moses' and the peoples sins).
The Lord reinstated HIs covenant with Moses at that moment.
The Glory of God is Revealed to People who understands the Value of Repentance & To people who recognizes God as superior. (We have to Go to the Mountain of God, With God.)
If we are to experience the Glory of our God, we must first understand that we have to go up to the mountain of the Lord.
It is important to recognized that the Lord has revealed his glory and his essence to people are always willing to look up and go up. (Moses went up to the mountain of God, Isaiah looked up at God, Jesus went up the mountain to pray, John was told to Come Up Here).
The Glory of God will always call you to a higher elevation.
In other words God's Glory will elevate you.
In order for us to be transformed, renewed, empowered, enriched, you must first meet the requirement of consecration in the mountain.
One Day, my wife and I went hiking back when we were dating. It had been a long time since I had hike previous to this occasion. So I packed a bag, with my laptop (of course) my charger (idk why), a couple of books, my note book, (I think I was in the process of writing my first book), I had, long pants, a long sleeve sweatshirt (you know coz of bugs), my running shoes, needless to say, I was carrying ALOT of stuff up Skinner Mt.
The moment I started walking, about 10 minutes into the walk, I realized I had made a grave mistake. I was like, oh no. This ain't it.
I got too hot, I got to tired, My backpack was heavy, I forgot to pack water, it was a disaster. That is until I started taking things off. O decided to go back down and leave my bag in my car. As I went up the second time, I felt lighter but still was getting tired, so I had an undershirt I took off my long sleeve, I rolled up my pant legs, needless to say that person who started the journey up, did not look the same when they arrived up there.
That got me thinking, in order for me to be successful in my trailing up the mountain I had to abandon some things and let others things go and adjust and transform my comfort for the rewards of reaching the top.
As I pondered upon this, it dawned on me, the Holy Spirit ministered to my spirit and told me, see this is why I call people up, because on the journey up they have to let go of the baggage, of the burden, of the overweight, of the things that slowed them down. When they arrived at the summit, all they have is me and I have their attention. That's why when we are Called to come up, to go up to the mountain, there is a transformation that takes place along the way.
In order for us to contemplate the Glory of God, we must first be transformed in the process of nearness to the Father.
Moses' journey began with repentance. Our journey must begin with repentance.
We have too many people forced on how cute they are for the selfie up the mountain that they miss the process of God has set forth for them to behold the Glory. If you want to see the Glory of God its always to make it up there, ugly, full of buggers, and bald, but the reward of his Glory is so much better than the process, Paul Said, IN Romans 8:18 - For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Yeah, getting to this place has been tough, getting to to be close to GOd has been tough but it will all fade in comparison to God deposit of Glory! COME UP HERE!
COME UP HERE. Hallelujah.
Through Moses's repentance - came revival,
We are unable to usher revival to the city until we are revived ourselves by contemplating his majesty.
What Moses lived up on Mount Sinai, after requesting God to see His glory, legit it transformed his life.
The Glory of God - Catch this, The Glory of God comes to Confront, Examine, Equip and Send you.
Confronts - Your sin, your iniquity,
Examines - Your motives, intentions and desires and bring you to repentance and submission.
Equips You - With instruction, guidance, consecration and holiness.
Sends You - To encounter others with the Glory of God.
Once we receive the Glory, it makes us vessels of Glory that helps us usher God's glory to others who need to encounter it.
The Glory of God that encountered Moses, was there also to bring instruction. The Glory of God is not just an event that you get to encounter, it is a life experience that equips you to advance the Kingdom of Heaven.
Moses the Bible says that he returned to the people, with clear instruction, clear guidance, and clear directions. In other words, Moses came down with Presence, Purpose, and a Promise form God.
The Glory of God - Pushes you to promote the Kingdom of God (You can't stay in the mountain)
Moses came down to the point, that he was permeated by the glory to the point that his face shined.
The reason why we know this today, is because Moses didn't stay in the mountain. He came down.
Again, he didn't only come down, he came down with Presence, Purpose, and a Promise from God.
He imparted instruction and Gods command. God's instructions are constant and they are clear. They will always yield Glory if followed correctly.
Let me outline a Problem if you allow me:
We have a two-fold problem today.
One is that people want to stay stuck on the mountain and refuse to come down.
Two They end up coming down they expect to be revered and exalted for their encounter with God. They create a hieratic system to the Glory of God which ends up 99.99% of the time in iniquity and idolatry.
These two things causes us to miss the mark and causes us to receive a partial response. Because we expect people to want more from OUR glory that more of HIS.
The Glory comes to point us back to Jesus not to ourselves.
Tell the person next to you, check yourself before you wreck yourself. lol
See these situation sound funny, but it has been the trend that humanity has lived.
One Specific example is Haggai 1. God confronts them because they received the instruction to rebuild, but they focus on themselves and not on the house of God.
This causes people to enter into partnership with Counterfeit Glories. (Oh body do we have a lot of that in the church today)
I want to take this moment to honor my apostle for not only hearing the voice of God but for moving promptly, interrupting the agenda he had, to say, that this is God call for this season.
Thank you, because thought the network and churches who hear these messages, we will be able to:
Know that God is calling his bride into glory encounters with the beloved.
understand that we are in the season of great awakening .
Identify God powerful Glory vs. the counterfeit glory.
Thank you !
Everyone hear me out, especially , Leaders and Pastors, hear me out, When we are unable to set the Glory of God in motion (as in come down from the mountain and impart it, etc.) we run the risk of the church operating in a counterfeit glory.
Counterfeit glory is nothing more and nothing else than doing things your own way and with no divine inspiration or encounter.
See the flow of Glory gets interrupted when you try to counterfeit one of the three elements we spoke about earlier
Presence
Purpose
Promise
Look at a few examples
Abraham and Sarah tried to counterfeit the Promise by introducing Hagar into the picture. (taking things in their own hands)
Jonah tried to counterfeit his Purpose by trying to runaway in his own direction.
As we spoke last night, Eli tried to counterfeit God's Presence because he started operating without it. Just because he had the position doesn't mean it was genuine, he chose to not seek the Lord. We all have to seek him.
The church today struggles, with all three of these. Especially Promise and Presence.
At the mountain top we receive this revelation of Glory but we have stopped Going to the Mountain Top.
We have chose to lay dormant at the base of the mountain. (Well if God wants me to go us, then he must come down and tell me) WRONG. GO UP.
I am declaring a shift in the atmosphere not only for Habitation Church, not only for RIAR Network, but for Holyoke, the Pioneer Valley, New England and this Country!
GO UP TO THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD. REPENT OF THE COUNTERFEIT GLORY!
Some Solutions I Found in Habakkuk 3:2-3
Repent and Cry out to God to Revive His work in the Midst of the Years - Habakkuk 3:2
Make His Glory Known Put some action to your mountain top encounter and come down.
When you come down, partner with other Glory carrier, and the Glory of God will cover the earth.
What do we need?
Reliance on the Holy Spirit -
He has been the most neglected person in the process of finding God's Glory and Going up to the mountain.
Come down from the mountain and go and do!
Be witnesses to the power and glory of God (Acts 1:8)
Reach the souls
impacts your churches and your communities
make the riches and the wealth (in accordance to Gods word)
Serve the homeless and the sick
The Disciples went UP to the UPPER room. Be they didn't stay in the Upper Room.
They came down full of the Glory of God and Full of the Holy Spirit's power.
They proclaimed the Gospel and 3000 were saved! 3000 people encountered the Glory because they chose to put it in action.
The Glory of God is now manifested in the Mountain Top and in the Field.
The Holy Spirit Reveals God's Glory to His people and will make us his witnesses.
You know why I think that Glory has stopped moving before, because we kept it to ourselves.
Now that we are being awaken to the Glory of God again, woe to any of us that decides to conceal it.
God's glory is necessary today more than any time before. It requires a church that is willing to go up to the mountain top, Repent, be encountered, and come down and lead.
See it's okay to ask for God's glory, just be ready to be confronted. but the confrontation is necessary !
The Lord confronts our iniquity when we encounter his glory
Moses had to repent and his face shine.
Habakkuk had to repent and in prayer asked God to revive his work. And God glory filled the earth.
Isaiah had to repent because he was of unclean lips and the the Lord revealed his glory and his trains covered the earth.
Paul had to repent, be blinded, in order for him to see Gods glory. He was confronted from his persecution and God made him a precursor of our faith.
We can have glory without the confrontation of Sin.
We can have glory without the post eating of our hearts.
We can’t have glory if we are going to be in two waters with the Lord.
The Lord will not waste his oil on vessels who refuses to admit they are broken.
He can fix us and mend us but we gotta go and repent we gotta go on our faces.
We gotta go kill pride and ego and strife.
The glory of God is powerful to confront, to examine, to correct, to align, to fill us and guide us.
Gods glory sets a new trend. We don’t set it. He does.
I finish with this, I pray that I will see the day, that we walk on the streets of Holyoke and see a city completely transformed by the Glory of God. A day where as the Body of Christ (no matter the denomination) we can all go together to the mountain top as ONE Body SERVING ONE God and receiving the impartation of Glory that will transform generation.
One day, my daughters and my grandaughters, I will hear them say, My Ear Heard of the Glory of God, but NOW MY EYES See it
Go to the mountain top Let the Glory of God encounter you, let it transform you, let it send you!
