Have you ever had those moments when you’re completely by yourself but think of something and just can’t help smiling from ear to ear? Those moments when you just know that if anyone saw you they’d probably think you’re crazy. Well, I’m pretty notorious for those moments… Actually, just the other day my roommate was making fun of me when she looked into my room and I had the biggest smile on my face while I was alone, cleaning. Weird, I know.
I had another one of those moments the other day while driving back to my Norman home after Thanksgiving. I had just listened to this sermon from Bethel church called Shekinah: Your Assignment. It’s an incredible sermon if you ever get the chance to check it out. The guy preaching, Paul Manwaring, has been studying the glory of God for years – which is cool because this is a subject the Lord has given me an immense passion for.
The sermon starts by defining shekinah. It’s often referred to as a shekinah cloud, an overwhelming cloud that the glory of God dwells in. Which is what shekinah is – a dwelling place for a dwelling God. He talks about the cloud of glory that overwhelmed the tabernacle Moses built God in Exodus – the cloud that filled the tabernacle with God’s presence. Exodus 40:35 says that the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle to the extent that Moses actually wasn’t even able to enter the tabernacle because of the cloud that covered it.
Can you just imagine the beauty?
The fullness of the beauty, majesty, and glory of God right before your eyes. I would fall face first on the ground, I’m absolutely positive.
Throughout the Old Testament we hear a lot about God coming down in the form of a cloud or fire and dwelling within a perfectly constructed tabernacle, temple, or tent.
But then Word became flesh. For the first time ever, the fullness of God, the whole of His overwhelming glory, dwelt within the flesh of a man – Jesus. All that glory, glory that would make one fall face first onto the ground, was embodied in a single body. Holy. Smokes.
Before then, there wasn’t a single body in the world worthy of God dwelling in. But in that instance, flesh became a tabernacle. Flesh became a dwelling place for a dwelling God.
And Jesus took our punishment that we would no longer need to build perfect tabernacles for God to dwell in here on earth, but that our imperfect flesh may become a perfect tabernacle – that the One True God may dwell in us. That our bodies may be a dwelling place for God.
I started thinking about my summer at Sky Ranch. This summer I encountered the glory of the Lord dwelling in so many people, as I do each and everyday. But there were three people in particular that I spent pretty much everyday for 10 weeks straight with. To say we became pretty close would be pretty accurate.
I smile from ear to ear every time I think about these friends because of the experiences I got to share with them. I shouted about the goodness of the Lord with these people, wept beside these people (and I’m not talking about shedding a few tears, I’m talking about full on terrifyingly ugly weeping), and I encountered Jesus with these people. But the thing that makes me smile the most when I think about these friends is the amount that I encountered Jesus through them. The glory of the Lord took the form of flesh and was embodied by these people, as it is everyday by so many. I experienced grace in the purest form, the fullness of joy, wisdom that cannot be linked to any human mind, healing, exhortation, diligence, vulnerability, submission, trust, and undeniably, unearthly love through these friends.
And as excited as I get thinking about all the encounters I had with Jesus through these people, I get even more stoked for the people that I’m about to encounter that don’t even know Jesus yet. I get stoked because even though these people don’t even know Him yet, I know one day others will get to encounter Jesus through them. I know that one day soon and very soon the glory of the Lord will be contained within these people! Because that’s what Jesus came to do! He came so that our God would dwell not only in this world with us, but within us.
2 Corinthians 3:18 says “And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”
What. A. Promise.
That we will go from glory to glory to glory till we are one with Jesus in Heaven, representing and embodying Him along the way. Being transformed into His image every single day.
I think about the people around the world that I get to go tell about the glory and majesty of my Savior – expectant that when the Lord reveals Himself to them, His glory will dwell inside of them! And I can’t get that stinking smile off my face. I think about the cloud of glory that brought Moses to His knees, the fullness of the glory of our Savior inside of these people that don’t even know who Jesus is yet! When Jesus will be closer to them than the air that they breathe because He will be inside of them!!! And it brings me to my knees every single time.
