The Glory of the Lord Fills the Earth

We're all familiar with Habakkuk 2:14 "The glory of the Lord will fill the earth as the water covers the sea." Only that's not exactly what it says. Here's how it reads, literally:

For the earth will be filled with the KNOWLEDGE of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

That SUBSTANTIALLY changes how we should comprehend what this verse is saying. We've always simply assumed that God would pour out His glory in a mighty end-time move. And in context this verse is, indeed, exclusive to the end-times. Verse 3 of that chapter sets the context for that:

For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and it will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it: it will certainly come and will not delay.

However, Hab 2:14 is not speaking of an end-time outpouring, but rather an end-time revelation! We should come to realize its not God's glory that would fill the earth in the last days...it is an international KNOWING (literally: to know, to perceive, to be skillful in) His glory.

We can be encouraged that our yearning to intimately know the Lord and His glory is not "our idea." Rather, it is a fulfillment of an ancient prophecy and evidence we are living in "the end." It is a revelation from God reserved for the end-times according to Habakkuk. This is the Lord's doing, not ours!

Returning to Our Journal

It has been quite some time since I logged a Firelight post. It was originally intended as an opportunity to log what God was saying during our prayer gatherings and for others to likewise express their thoughts through any comments. Since none ever took the opportunity to log their own thoughts or comments, I saw no reason to maintain it.

However, in recent months, the LORD has been drawing a number of us i

nto a fresh and rich depth of relationship with Him. So as to chronicle the baby steps we are taking into this seeming new frontier of relationship with Jesus, I am resurrecting this blog. I hope it serves as a point of reference for each of us as we engage in our exploration of intimacy with Jesus!

First let me establish that a few short weeks back, we began meeting each Thursday night for what we call "Fascinate." Inspired by having read "Gazing Into Glory" by Bruce Allen, we have chosen to encourage each other to learn to become more attuned to the reality of the spirit life than we have been up to this point in our lives.

So to digress a bit, I will post a bit about our Fascinate gathering of June 9. During our worship, Tonya Rainey watched Jesus go to each person in the room and recorded what He said concerning each one present:

Russell:

with great love in His voice, and smiling, the Lord looked at

Russ then looked at me and said, "I am his sufficiency." there was great weight to the word "am"

Jordan:

as He walked in front of Jordan, He began giggling. He seemed to enjoy Jordan. Then He sai

d, "We're walking together." There was a certainty in His voice.

Eileen:

with great affection, He placed His hand on her cheek, then looked at me and said, "She's precious to Me."

Pastor Don:

when He walked over to Pastor, He patted his shoulder a couple of times and said, with a smile, "That's My boy!" Then He

looked at me and said, "he's walking in a new light."

Will:

He walked over to Will and placed His hand on Will's chest. He looked at Will for a while, then he said to me, "I have much more in

store for him."

Jon:

When He got to Jon, He lifted Jon's chin so that Jon was looking strai

ght up at the Lord, and said to Jon, "Keep your eyes on Me. Don't look

to the left or the right." Then He looked at me and said, "I love this boy!" (there was great weight to th

e way He said that He loves Jon.)

David:

The Lord embraced him

in a hug. It was a chest to chest kind of hug and it lasted a while. As they embraced, I could see tha

t there was an exchange happening between the Lord & David....spirit to spirit....deep

to deep. I knew that whatever He was transferring from His Spirit to David's that great encouragement would be a result.

Jack:

He stood in front of Jack for a while, enjoying his worship. Then said, "he'll see things h

e never imagined he'd see."

Bev:

He waited a while before speaking about Bev. It seemed He had many things on His mind. Then He said, "she yearns....and she will be filled."

Now we come to this week's Firelight. We blended our weekly Fascinate gathering with our once-a-month Firelight meeting. The truly astounding aspect of the night was that we CLEARLY were enjoying a spirit of revelation from the very outset. A comment would lead to a realization which would, in turn, lead to an "aha moment." Then an observation would be made and someone would relate it to something said earlier. A scripture would come to mind followed by a thought, that related to a comment and it would connect to an earlier revelation.

This continued unbroken for three solid hours! It was almost as though we couldn't turn around without bumping into a "eureka" thought. We tried to start our worship time but it was almost as though we couldn't stop the stream of thought, scripture, postulations and what-about's. At some point Mike finally, almost unable to contain himself, remarked, "Man, Jack! I don't know what's going on here tonight, but you'll say something and it reminds me of a verse that I'll wonder where to find it and when I open my bible, THERE IT IS!" Then he added, "I can't tell you how many times that's happened tonight just the short while we've been in this room."

It was finally 9:30 when we BEGAN worship. But we were already saturated! Wanting to be mindful of the time, we wrapped up worship at 10 but then interpersonal ministry got started in obedience to the Holy Spirit's direction. We finally ended at 11:00. It was a truly remarkable evening.

In conclusion, I could sum up the theme of the night as revelation on God's BOUNDLESS expanse of all He wants to do in our lives. "New wineskins" was an underlying topic as was "repent" AKA "burn the house down!" The operative word for the night was "enlargement." Lord, give us a greater capacity for Your Presence!