I was reminded of a song in which the writer says, “there’s a mighty revelation of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
What does “the glory of the Lord,” mean? And how will it cover the world?
Exodus chapter 33 verses 13-14, 19; and chapter 34 verse 5-7 gives us a clear indication of what this means. Let’s look at the last three verses:
“Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with [Moses] there, and proclaimed THE NAME of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God…
- merciful
- and gracious,
- longsuffering,
- and abounding in goodness
- and truth,
- keeping mercy for thousands,
- forgiving iniquity
- (forgiving) transgression
- (forgiving) sin,
- by no means clearing the guilty,
- visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
Nowhere in this description does YHWH tell us his NAME.
Instead he gives the ancient Hebrew meaning of the word, “name.” That is, he describes his nature.
And it is nature which is his “glory.”
This may seem a bit abstract.
Not so. For his glory was been placed in you and me when he sent the Spirit of his son, Yeshua’ haMashiach into our hearts when we called upon his name for salvation.
That glory is everything described to Moses when YHWH answered his question, “Show me your glory.”
And living out YWHW’S attributes, is how the revelation of his glory will cover the earth.
To give you an idea how it would be possible for this to happen, here are some statistics –
- the smallest congregation in South Korea has 60,000 members
- The largest church in Seoul, South Korea (and in the world) has about 1,000,000 members (2007 stats)
- The Winners` Chapel Canaanland, Otta, Nigeria has sitting capacity for 50,000 and 250,000 capacity outside
These are just three congregations.
In the exhortation I heard on Sunday the elder challenged the congregation and asked, would we, like Daniel, reveal YHWH’s glory no matter what we are faced with? Daniel showed respect when he mentioned he and his friends could not eat the food the king had commanded them to eat. His respect was revealed in that he asked, instead of saying, “Well, you know, we are the chosen race, and you had better give us the food YHWH commanded us to eat – or else!” Secondly, he showed patience and prudence when called upon to reveal the king’s dream and interpret it. Thirdly, he put his trust in YHWH rather than the fickleness of government favour. As a result of his life of excellence and integrity he was raised to the highest position in the land.
If you read my latest post in http://www.backthewaywecame.wordpress.com the last sentence reveals what can happen when we are under pressure. I knew I was called of the Lord to be a missionary in Mwinilunga, Zambia. But the ineptitude of the local officials stymied me. It was as if I had walked into a wall. And I I lost my cool. Bureaucracy in Africa (and elsewhere) is difficult to contend with. Was I respectful? No. Was I patient and prudent? No. Did I place my trust in the Lord? Yes. But also, no. Was I raised to a higher office? Definitely not.
There is so much to learn. Thank goodness Paul says we are being changed from glory to glory, and that we are being sanctified as we walk with the Lord. Had it not been so we would rightly deserve the phrase: the scum of the earth.
For those of you who are struggling with this very thing, I highly recommend the testimony of Veteran Missionary to Irian Jaya, Indonesia, Otto Koning. While his testimony is hilarious, and he gives it with a dead pan face, it will be a huge encouragement on how to deal with the attitudes we evince in the face of pressure. Watch his video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYM-4mGYzzE
atransformedcreation 