Having the Appearing of the God of Glory so that God’s Glory Fills the Church

Praise the Lord, we can have God’s appearing every day and be infused with the God of glory until God’s glory fills the church!

Our God is a God of glory, He appears to us in His glory, He attracts us with His glory, He is joined to us by means of Christ as the heavenly ladder, and we as His house will be filled with the glory of God, even as God’s glory filled the temple. Amen!

As believers in Christ, we are members of the church as the Body of Christ, and the church is the dwelling place of God, the habitation of God.

God desires to gain a building, a dwelling place, among men.

He is not pleased to dwell in the heavens or even among men; He wants to dwell in man.

His dwelling place is our spirit, our inner being; this is why He created us in His image and according to His likeness.

And He wants to dwell in one man but in many men, the many believers in Christ who receive Him and give Him the cooperation that He would fill them day by day.

When we come together as believers in Christ, we don’t merely perform certain activities or do things according to some teachings; we come together in the name of the Lord to enjoy Him, worship Him, and partake of HIm, and we are His dwelling place, His house, His habitation.

God wants to fill His people with His glory so that He may be expressed through them on earth.

For this, we need to advance with the Lord day by day, week by week, and year by year; we need to go on with Him and have a strengthened, uplifted, and renewed church life where God is pleased to dwell.

It may have been that at one point in our Christian life the church life was full of excitement, singing, and rejoicing, but today it may seem that we’re not like that.

As we grow in the Lord, we may leave aside the matter of having exciting meetings and advance to the deeper truths in the word of God to experience Christ as our inner life supply to serve God, the inner light of life, and the interceding One who prays for God’s interests.

May we not look back at the good old days in the church life and desire to be in meetings that are as exciting as they used to be; may we be willing to be brought forth to maturity.

May we advance further and further in God’s economy until we become a people that are built up together and filled with the glory of God so that He can be expressed and manifested through us.

When the tabernacle was erected in the wilderness according to the vision God gave Moses on the mountain, the glory of God filled the tabernacle.

When the temple was built by Solomon according to the pattern given to David, his father, God’s glory filled the temple.

May we be the built-up church today for the glory of God to fill the church, the building of God, for His corporate expression and manifestation on earth today.

May the Church be Brought to the Stage where God’s Glory Fills the Church!

1 Kings 8:11 says, The glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah. Wow.

When the tabernacle was erected and everything was set up, the glory of God filled the tabernacle. Now, when the temple was built and completed, the glory of God filled the temple.

1 Kings 8:1-11 shows that the tabernacle was merged with the temple.

The tabernacle was movable and portable; it was the precursor of the temple.

But the temple is the consummation of God’s building, and it was built on Mount Zion.

When the temple was built, the glory of God filled the building of God.

May the church today be brought to a stage where God’s glory fills the church.

May we have a strengthened, enlarged, and a renewed experience of Christ in the church and may we be built together to the extent that the glory of God descends and fills the church.

God today is looking for an entity into which he can come and fill with His glory.

When the tabernacle was erected, He found such an entity, and when the temple was built, He was pleased to be there.

The Lord today is still waiting for us to advance from the tabernacle church life to the temple church life and enter into the reality of the church as the temple of God.

Where is such a church life today that is not only in the tabernacle stage but even more, into the temple stage?

Where is the church life today that is ready for God’s glory to fill and be manifested?

We need to have a more stable, enlarged, expanded, enriched, renewed, and strengthened experience of Christ and the church so that the glory of God may be able to descend and fill the church.

In Ezek. 40 we see that the temple is being built and in ch. 43, after the temple was completed, the glory of Jehovah came back.

In the book of Judges we see that the glory of Jehovah departed from His people because they forsook Him to go after idols, but in Ezek. 43 the glory of Jehovah returned and filled the house of Jehovah.

May we return to the Lord with all our heart and may we be willing to pay the price to enjoy the Lord, experience Him, and advance in Him to the extent that God’s glory fills the church.

Now God is waiting for a proper place to be available for Him to come back and fill it with His glory. May the Lord gain such a reality among us today.

May we be those who are brought on to maturity and are built together into the church to the extent that God’s glory fills the church.

May we fulfil God’s longing today by being those who build up the church according to His eternal economy, His ordained way revealed in the word, so that He would have a way to come in and be expressed.

May the Lord not move on to another people who are willing to cooperate with Him; may we be those who cooperate with the Lord today, in this age, for HIm to fill us with His glory.

May we daily come to the Lord to receive His fresh, instant, personal appearing as the God of glory, and may we allow Him to shine in us and through us in the church.

The Lord is longing, desiring, and yearning to gain a group of people who are built up to be the church, the building of God, for Him to come and fill with His glory.

When He gains a corporate expression and habitation on earth, the glory of God will fill the church as the building of God, and He can be expressed on earth through the church.

Lord Jesus, make us those whom You can fill with Your glory for You to be expressed on earth today. May we have a more stabilised, enlarged, expanded, enriched, and strengthened experience of Christ and the church in our Christian life. Advance in us, Lord, and take us on with You stage by stage until the church is filled with the glory of God. May Your desire and longing become our desire and longing. Bring us and bring the church on with You to such a stage that You gain an entity on earth that is Your built-up church for the glory of God to fill the church! Amen, Lord, may You gain the built-up church that You desire so that You may fill the church with the glory of God!

The God of Glory Appears to us and Infuses us with Himself, and Christ as the Heavenly Ladder joins Heaven to Earth

When the glory of Jehovah filled the temple of Jehovah, the God who is in the heavens was brought onto earth and heaven was joined to the earth.

Many Christians want to go to the heavens, and their desire and prayer is that God would bring them to the heavens.

But God is trying to bring His glory to the earth. God’s desire is related to the earth.

God doesn’t want to remain in the heavens on the throne; He wants to bring His heaven to the earth.

God desires to join Himself with man and also join man with Himself.

Glory, which is God expressed, needs to fill the church.

When God gains a temple on earth, God’s glory fills the church.

The first time we see this joining of heaven and earth is in Gen. 28 where Jacob had a dream that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and its top reached heaven (v. 12), and he said that this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven (v. 17).

This ladder is nothing else but the wonderful person of Christ, the incarnated God, who came as the heavenly ladder to join earth to heaven and bring heaven to the earth.

God’s desire is to bring heaven to earth and express Himself through man.

God doesn’t want man to worship Him just in an objective way, with solemnity and fear, but He wants to mingle Himself with man, to dwell in man, and bring Himself into man. So Christ as the heavenly ladder came.

He is the Son of Man, with His humanity as the ladder set up on the earth and leading to heaven, keeping heaven open to earth and joining earth to heaven for the house of God, Bethel (John 1:51; Gen. 28:19). Amen!

This is the house of God; this is the church, the place where the glory of God is brought to the earth and is manifested on the earth.

How is this possible? It is possible by us having God’s appearing and seeing Christ.

Abraham had God’s appearing; God appeared to Abraham and attracted him.

God’s glory was seen as the children of Israel journeyed from Egypt to the good land (Exo. 13:21).

As they were journeying through the wilderness, God was seen in the cloud during the day and in the pillar of fire at night.

When the Lord Jesus came, the disciples beheld His glory, for He was the Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among them (John 1:1, 14).

No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (v. 18). When God is declared, that is glory.

In Acts 7:2 Stephen said that the God of glory appeared to Abraham; later he testified that he saw Christ the Son of Man standing in the glory of God (v. 55).

This God of glory appeared to Abraham, attracted him, and separated him from the world unto God (Exo. 29:43), for this glory was a great encouragement and strength which enabled him to follow God (Gen. 12:1, 4).

It is the same with us; God called us by His glory and to His glory (2 Pet. 1:3), and we were called by the glory of our Savior (2 Pet. 1:1).

This is why we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior: we saw His glory and were simply attracted by Him.

One day the God of glory came to us through the preaching of the gospel, we were attracted and convinced, and we began to appreciate Him.

As we beheld Him, something happened: the God of glory transfused some element of His being into us, and we spontaneously believed into Him! Amen!

Our believing into the Lord was a reaction to His attraction and infusion; if we simply spend some time with Him in His presence, He will transfuse Himself into us to be our faith.

The transfusion of God will cause infusion, saturation, and permeation; once God has transfused Himself into us, we cannot escape – we simply believe!

He infuses Himself into us and Christ becomes the ladder in our spirit joining earth to heaven.

He wants to infuse us to such an extent that God’s glory fills the church, that is, the earth is joined to heaven and heaven is brought down to earth.

God doesn’t want us to have a “halo” around our head to show others how holy or glorious we are; He wants to come and fill us with Himself by means of Christ as the heavenly ladder to the extent that God’s glory fills the church!

Our God is the God of glory, and He wants to dispense Himself as the God of glory into us.

When God is expressed, that is glory; the unseen God is God, and the seen God is glory (Exo. 13:21).

He is not only love, light, righteousness, and holiness, but also glory; one of the most wonderful, glorious, and excellent attributes God has is glory.

When He dwells among us and is pleased to be with us, for we are built up as the church, His dwelling place, God’s glory fills the church, for our Triune God is a God of glory.

May we spend much time with the Lord to have His appearing and experience Christ as the heavenly ladder bringing heaven to earth and joining earth to heaven, and may we remain in this experience of Christ so that we may express Him and manifest Him even in our daily living.

Thank You, Lord, for appearing to us as the God of glory to infuse us with Yourself and bring us into an organic union with You. Hallelujah, God transfused Himself into us to become our faith, our ability to believe. Praise the Lord, Christ as the heavenly ladder has been installed in our spirit, and now in our spirit, we can touch God, touch heavens, and live a heavenly life on earth. Keep us in this touch with You, dear Lord, that we may continually be infused with the God of glory and live a heavenly life on earth. Fill us, Lord, with Yourself, until God’s glory fills the church! May Your glory fill the church so that You may be expressed, manifested, and displayed on the earth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 4, 11, 21, 45, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 9, entitled, The Temple of God Filled with the Glory of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Thou art the ladder Jacob saw, / By Thee the heav’n is open; / In Thee we are the house of God, / And earth is joined to heaven. / O Lord, Thou art the great “I AM,” / Who all our need doth furnish; / Enjoying Thee as all in all, / God’s purpose we accomplish. (Hymns #187 stanzas 25-26)
  – Oh, Christ will come, the Bridegroom, for us, His glorious Bride, / By coming from within us the church is glorified. / His Person is the glory expanding now in us; / This glory is our Person—how glorious! / O Lord, O Lord, by Your economy / So flood us with Your glory, saturate us thoroughly. / Come out, come out, break forth in glory here, / And from the church, O glorious One, in glory soon appear. (Hymns #1177 stanza 3)
  – In God’s house and in Thy Body / Builded up I long to be, / That within this corporate vessel / All shall then Thy glory see; / That Thy Bride, the glorious city, / May appear upon the earth, / As a lampstand brightly beaming / To express to all Thy worth. (Hymns #840 stanza 5)