Reflections On Glory [musings from the prayer room back in 2010]

Full lockdown starts again tomorrow and it would seem my posts here are directly proportional to the time I'm forced to stay home. I actually wrote this eleven years ago but came across it again recently thanks to facebook memories!

So thankful for that sweet season in the prayer room, the friends I got to journey with at that time, and the way God met us in each small 'yes' we gave him. It certainly wasn't a glamorous or impressive season (hidden would be an appropriate word!) but it was so foundational and these thoughts that came from that place challenge me all over again. So I'm putting it here again, in all its unedited glory, - as much as a reminder to me than anything else. And, also, maybe in the hope that it might motivate me to write more - my constant refrain here!

Right now I’m doing an awful lot of thinking about God’s Glory… what it is? How do we respond to it? How do we take it with us to the world? What does it look like? What does the word actually mean etcetcetc… And after 180 last night where so many people stared crying out for more of God no matter the cost this just hit me again.

The reason for all this thinking started when God told me, at ANHOP, a week and a half ago that he wanted me to ask, all the time, for his Glory to fall and then promised me that if I asked it would come.

And so I started to ask every day and every night… and what a couple of weeks it is turning out to be. God’s Glory is indeed falling in every area of my life. There are many stories - some big, some small … maybe for a later time though. At times it is ridiculously painful – but oh so worth it. And of course there is still more to come.

One of the first things I did on being told by God to ask for his Glory to fall was to go away and wonder what was actually meant by that word. Being the geeky English teacher that I am I went away and looked up different translations. And well there seem to be rather a few different words used in the Bible that have been translated into Glory in English but basically they tend to refer to a revelation of God – his essential being and often his power. So therefore when we talk about God’s Glory filling a room we are talking about his presence being there and bringing revelation and power. This is just a simplistic understanding …. but it will do for now.

So God’s Glory comes and falls in a room. It stops a worship service and brings us to our knees maybe, or maybe we respond in some other way. But, whatever, His Glory falls and we are astounded and in awe. If we have come into contact with the Glory of God and his presence surely we must change.

In Exodus 33 Moses asks God to reveal his Glory to him before he moves on so that he might be MARKED OUT from the other nations. In fact he refuses to move on unless God comes and shows him his Glory.

See when God’s presence, strength, power, holiness falls it must mark us out and change us in some way. Show that we are different from those around us. It is not our deeds and good works that does this but an encounter with God and the Glory of his presence.

Question is though do we allow that marking of ourselves to impact every area of our lives? Are we ‘marked’ for worship and not for work? Are we marked around people we know and not around those we don’t know? Or vice versa? Are we marked when everything is going well and not when it is going badly? Or indeed, vice versa again?

As we leave that intense presence of God, (for God is always with us but his presence is not always so thick) that Glory, we have a number of choices. Do we choose to think ah that was nice but what’s next? Do we choose to continue to seek that experience in our own time? Do we choose to live the same life we did before once we reach the outside world and suppress how God has moved in us?

Let me quickly share a brief summary of a vision God gave me a while ago that depicts this whole idea:

He showed me a filthy gross diseased looking hand (us) meeting Jesus’ nail scarred, but radiant and clearly holy, hand. As the hands met our hand was transformed from it’s wretchedness into radiance… but as it was transformed we also had the nail scar transferred onto our hand. And we were so amazed that we wanted to show this new hand (representing our changed character) to others we met.

Then I saw a different scene… the hand that had been transformed was in a different context – there were lots of other hands around. The hand still had it’s nail scar and its radiance – the other hands around it were different they were not marked in this way. The response of the marked hand was to curl itself over so that the scar could not be seen and try and put some patches of dirt on itself to camouflage its difference.

And then I just felt such a breaking of God’s heart.

As I said before we have a choice and we can choose to cover up the way that God has marked us when we have met his Glory. We choose to cover up for many reasons: fear, embarrassment, being worried about offending others etc… These are just some of the reasons I’ve hidden that change to people around me. I’m sure there are more though.

When we cover up that marking we will lose that change within us eventually. When we are put into his presence again we have to start back from where we once were… rather than changing from Glory to Glory in a forward motion we just go round in circles. Eventually we may become stagnant – eventually God may not bring his presence in the same way. One thing is for certain though it breaks God’s heart when we do this.

I don’t want that to be me. I don’t want to be marked with Glory in the hidden place and to let that marking remain hidden. I want him to mark me with his Glory in the hidden place SO THAT as I leave that place his Glory would go with me and start to impact the places I go and the people I come into contact with.

Yes, so many of us are asking for more of him… more of his Glory… more change…. breakthrough…. But the cry on my heart is that these things we ask for would change the essence of our being in all situations. That when we come and meet together we would have stories of how God’s Glory is not just falling in our worship services but also in our offices. And it’s HARD – but that’s why God comes and changes us and brings revelation of his power that is at work within us.