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The
Restoration of the Glory of the Lord
Wade E Taylor
I counsel you to buy of Me gold
tried in the fire. Revelation 3:18a
This
counsel is given by Jesus to the Laodicean
Church, who said that they were rich
and increased in goods (Revelation
3:17). Their emphasis was on the external blessing
and provision of the Lord, rather than upon their being changed
within.
This
gold that is to be refined in fire, is
the divine nature of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is our lives purified - with all the dross and sediments removed
in the refiners fire
so that His life might be revealed through our lives our being
transparent in His presence, as a sea
of glass.
And before the throne there was
a sea of glass like to crystal. Revelation 4:6
Another
purpose in our being tried
in the fire is to prepare us to be a container of His
glory.
Arise, shine; for your light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For, behold,
the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people:
but the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen
upon you. And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings
to the brightness of your rising.
Isaiah 60:1-3
This manifested glory is the result of all
of the dealings and struggles of life, along with the chastenings
and scourgings that we experience, in order to be prepared for this
revelation of the glory of the Lord through our lives.
Paul
said, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus (Philippians
3:14). The goal
that Paul is pressing toward is his placement
(level
of attainment) in the kingdom. He understood that he had to be made ready for this - That I may apprehend that for which I also
am apprehended.
I follow after, if that I may apprehend
that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12b
Let us be glad and
rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is
come, and His wife has made herself ready. Revelation 19:7
Jesus
ascended in glory, and He is increasingly releasing and imparting
that glory, in these last days.
But we all, with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
II Corinthians 3:18
This
open face is the result of the veil having been rent when Jesus died on the cross, so we can again enter into the
manifest presence of the Lord.
The reason why we behold as
in a glass the glory of the Lord is that this glass
acts as a shield which
allows us to experience as much glory as we can handle.
As our capacity increases, the level of glory that we experience
will also increase.
The
Apostle Paul was on his way to persecute the Church when the Lord
suddenly appeared in such glory that he fell from his horse and
was blinded. The manifestation of glory was so great, that
he had to be prayed for to restore his sight. Much of what Paul said of his pressing toward the mark was that he never forgot the manifestation
of glory that he experienced, and he contended to again experience
this level of glory.
One
of the many facets of
the glory of the Lord is that it has an effect which is like our
looking into a mirror. When the glory appears, we see the reflection of ourselves as we
presently are, in contrast to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see how far we are from what we should be.
We need to experience the glory, not because we have prayed
enough or that we have done all the right things, but rather so
we can truly repent.
There
is an example of this effect
of the manifest glory, and the repentance that resulted, in Isaiah
chapter six.
In the year that King Uzziah died,
(when
I came to the end of my dependence on the earthly) I saw also the Lord sitting upon
a throne, high and lifted up, and His train (His glory) filled the temple.
Isaiah 6:1 (comments
added)
Those
of royalty wear robes that trail behind them.
The Lords robe, the train of His garment, fills the temple. We are the temple, so this tells us that He
is much closer to us than we realize.
Heaven in not a distance, rather, it is a dimension into
which we can enter.
Above it stood the seraphims; each
one had six wings. Isaiah 6:2a
These
six wings are three
sets of wings, which reveal an overcoming life.
With two, they cover their face,
as Jesus is the head. With
two, they cover their feet,
as we are to walk in submission to His will.
Now, we are ready to fly
in a cooperative relationship with our Lord.
These
seraphim are the overcomers
in Revelation 3:20 who are with the Lord in His throne. To him that overcomes will
I grant to sit with Me in My throne.
And one cried to another, and said,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full
of His glory. And the posts of the door, moved at the voice of
him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah 6:3-4
These
posts of the door that
moved, is the barrier (closed
door) between the earthly and the heavenly.
As worship flowed up to the Lord, these posts (hinges
on the door) moved, and the house was filled with
smoke - the glory of the Lord.
In the functioning of the heavenly, and in the reflection
of glory, Isaiah saw how short he was of the relationship with the
Lord that was available to him, and he said,
Woe is me! for I am undone; because
I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Isaiah 6:5
True
repentance will result in deliverance.
An angel came with a coal
of fire, and all that was unlike the Lord was purged, and his
life purified. Gold
tried in the fire comes through a repentance in the presence
of the glory of the Lord.
Ezekiel
1:4 reveals the functioning of the glory in the last days.
And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind
came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself,
and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as
the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
Their wings were joined one to another;
they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.
Ezekiel 1:9
This
relates to the seraphim
in Isaiah 6:2, and is a type of the functioning of the corporate
Body of Christ in the end-time.
Now as I beheld the living creatures,
behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with
its four faces. Ezekiel 1:15
The
four faces speak of our coming into spiritual
maturity. The lion speaks of authority, the ox or calf speaks of sacrifice and commitment, the man speaks of relationship and fellowship, and the eagle, spirituality.
The
wheel is my life fully submitted to the Lord, and moving in harmony with Him.
Come, My beloved, let us go forth
into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early
to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the
tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will
I give you My loves.
Song 7:11-12
The
wheel, and the will of God, are interchangeable, and speaks of the
functioning, or moving in the purposes of God.
The appearance of the wheels and
their work was like to the color of a beryl: and they four had
one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were
a wheel in the middle of a wheel. Ezekiel 1:16
We
are living in the last days and the Lord is preparing a people
Come My beloved, let us go forth. This is the wheel within the wheel - my life merged into His life in order to
become the expression of His life, which will greatly affect all
mankind, and the nations. There
are forerunners whom the Lord is preparing, who will greatly affect
the world systems of our day.
The
greatest visitation this world has ever seen is about to begin. There is a two-fold purpose the out-calling
of a people into an end-time cooperative relationship with the Lord,
and the judgments on the nations, which will begin through the functioning
of this wheel within the
wheel.
This
glory is a moving glory. Not
only are we cleansed and purified in glory, (Isaiah
6:5),
but we are being changed - from
glory to glory (II
Corinthians 3:18). This is the wheel within the wheel that will lead to the establishing
of the government of God in the earth.
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