A People Prepared for His Manifestation

The word we have received is that this is the year of God’s glory. As the people of God, it is important for us to know what this means so we can be prepared for this glory. To do this, we will look at the topic under four headings:

• What is the glory of God?
• The nature (or characteristics) of His glory
• The Effect of His Glory
• Preparing For His Glory

What is the glory of God?

To begin with, the glory of God is the manifest presence of God. Scripture records that when Solomon dedicated the temple of God and the people praised God with instrument and song,’...that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God’ - 2nd Chronicles 5:13b -14.

Numbers 16:19 also says, ‘and Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation’.

The glory of God also stayed as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to keep the enemies of the people of Israel from reaching them. The glory of God is therefore the presence of God. This glory (presence) of God however has certain attributes which we will examine in the next subheading.

The Nature of His Glory

It is important for us to understand that while the Lord is with his people at all times, when his glory comes down, it is marked by clear supernatural happenings coming to us in a higher dimension. Believers are awed by it and sinners tremble from fear. In Acts 5, St. Luke recorded concerning what happened to Ananias and Sapphira in verses 11 & 12, ‘great fear fell upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. Verse 14 says ‘And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and Women’. Verse 15 goes on to add that mass healings and miracles took place. One of the things we found is that where the presence of God is, there is conviction of sin ( Isaiah realised he had unclean lips and was repentant),  there is also judgement of sin if there is no repentance after conviction. This is what happened to Miriam, Aaron, Ananias and Sapphira in the Bible.

The Effects of His Glory

When the glory of the most High God comes down, it will not only deals with sin, we understand that:

Firstly, there’s God’s full joy and pleasurable moments - ‘in the presence (glory) of God, there is fullness of Joy and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore’ - Psalm 16:11.

Secondly, since the glory of God also comes with his power, we can expect demonstrations of God’s power. How do we know this? When Jesus came on earth, John the Baptist said, we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father. Jesus came with that same presence of God, then display of God’s power, miracles, and healings attended Him wherever He went. There is great power and anointing beyond the ordinary during these times of God’s visitation as we saw in the book of Acts.

Thirdly, in God’s presence the mountains melt like wax - Psalm 97:5 ‘The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth’. This means long standing problems and obstructions dissolve when the glory of God descends. We can thus expect extraordinary things, divine interventions, healings, miracles and spiritual upliftment.

Preparing For His Glory

To be able to receive God’s glory, we need to be prepared. Just as the Levites of old got themselves ready before entering into God’s presence, we also need to get ourselves ready by:

• Cleansing ourselves, i.e. confess any known sin, repent and forsake them,
• Setting ourselves apart to God. This is not excluding ourselves from society but rather ‘being conscious that we are God’s people and that we cannot do the things that the unsaved people are doing.  2nd Corinthians 6:17-18 says ‘Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty’.
• Believe the words of prophecy we have been hearing from the servants of God. God says ‘... Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper’. 2nd Chronicles 20:20

This is a year of visitation for everyone, I pray we will all receive this and be ready for him when he comes.

Remain blessed and highly favoured. 
Titi Obishai (Mrs).