Extracted from Latter House Glory by Larry R Taylor © 2013
Moses had a personal encounter with God’s glory. There was nothing theoretical or hypothetical about Moses’ understanding of glory. He asked for it and He got it: a personal, tangible, life-changing encounter with the manifested glory of God.
Moses had a glory encounter. Peter, James and John had glory encounters (Matthew 17). Paul had a glory encounter that changed everything. He was knocked to the ground and nothing was the same when he got up. His purpose, direction in life, and even his name was changed (Acts 9). Remember the principle of the Kingdom? Ask, seek, knock. “Show me your glory, Lord.”
Everywhere Jesus went He manifested the glory of the Father. The tangible expression of that glory is that good things happened. Everywhere Jesus went sick people were healed, demoniacs were delivered and provision was released. Nothing has changed. Everywhere Jesus shows up He manifests the glory of the Father. Miracles, signs, wonders and supernatural events happen when the presence of God is manifested.
The manifested glory of God is more than a mood or an atmosphere. His glory involves the tangible revelation of His goodness. When God shows up He brings the atmosphere of heaven with Him. The earthly realm is invaded by the heavenly, and God takes over. So another way of defining His glory is to say that it is when “God shows up and He takes over.”
One of the most interesting miraculous events described in the ministry of Jesus is the transformation of water into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11). The often-overlooked summary statement of that event says, “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him (John 2:11).” So, Jesus’ miraculous act was specifically referred to as the manifestation of His glory.
When we use the term “doing good” in a modern religious context we are usually referring to a “good deed,” some act of kindness done in the name of God—like feeding the hungry or clothing the poor or sheltering the homeless. All these are important, effective and mandated by scripture. But they are not what Jesus did when the Bible says, “He went about doing good.” Every event or act of “goodness” on Jesus’ part was miraculous in nature. Check it out for yourself. Examine scripture and see if you can find one example of Jesus doing something “good” that wasn’t miraculous in nature. When we ask, as Moses did, that God show us His glory, we should expect to see His goodness manifested in tangible, identifiable, miraculous events.
When God shows up and brings everything He’s got with Him—anything can happen. The atmosphere of heaven invades the human realm, which produces unexpected and even startling results, especially for those unaccustomed to the degree of reality that God is willing to reveal. Sometimes I find it amusing to hear people praying fervently for God to show up and then be taken totally off guard, even offended, by some of the things that happen when He actually does.
Seemingly the human body goes into something of an overload mode when His Glory manifests. Strange things can happen. People often shake or fall, simply overpowered by the experience. Tears are common, but so is laughter. The laughter is one of the more unexpected and puzzling results of His manifested glory for those who have a traditional rather than scriptural view of the atmosphere of heaven. Scripture says that in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures for evermore.