Smith Wigglesworth- The Glory Manifested
The Lord longs to fill every empty vessel and manifest His glory through every broken vessel.
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 3: 18
We are called to become beyond the veil, meet Him face to face, and encounter His glory. If we are to be a blessing to the Body, then we must encounter His glory. Smith Wigglesworth explained:
“What a privilege to care for the flock of God, to be used by God to encourage the people, to help stand against the manifold trials that affect the needy. What a holy calling!”
And
“Arise, shine;… for the time of your salvation has come, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gloom the kingdoms; but the Shekinah of the Lord will settle in you, and his glory will be revealed upon you.”
Isaiah 60: 1, 2 Targum Onkelos
When we think of the abiding Presence, we always find the glory, and when we encounter His face, we see His Shekinah glory. We are called to this most wonderful experience of meeting with His face to face. Here He imparts His glory in us, that through a yielded earthen vessel, His glory might be revealed. We are called to be ministers of His glory. He desires to look into our eyes and allow His light to permeate every fiber of our being. Remember, the eye is the lamp to the soul.
Smith explained:
“We each have our own work and we must do it, so that boldness may be ours in the day of the Master’s appearing, and that no man take our crown. As the Lord is always encouraging us, we have that which we can encourage others. There must be a willingness, a ready mind, a yielding to the mind of the Spirit. There is not place for the child of God in God’s great plan except in humility.”
We must come and present ourselves to the Master in the Secret Place and there meet with Him face to face. That means there must be no hiding or covering of any part of our lives. There is something about face-to-face encounters. Smith explains:
“God can never do all He wants to do, all that He came to do through the Word, until He gets us to the place where He can trust us, and we are in abiding fellowship with Him in His great plan for the world’s redemption.”
Listen to this:
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”
Psalm 116: 15
Another way of translating this is that there is “great cost” at the death of His saints. Why? Because there is a mantle and an anointing on the earth that is lost. Do we understand how precious the call the Lord has placed on our lives? We are called to make an impact, not for our glory and honor but to manifest His glory.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews said of Jesus, our Role Model and Example:
“Has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power…”
Hebrews 1: 2, 3
Jesus speaking of His life and ministry, asked the Father:
“Father, glorify Your Name.”
John 12: 28
And
“Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.”
John 13: 31, 32
The Life and ministry of Jesus brought the Father’s glory and revealed the Father’s glory. How did He do it? Smith explained:
“What does it mean, to be sober? It is to have a clear knowledge that you are powerless to manage, but a rest of faith, knowing God is near at hand to deliver all the time. The adversary’s opportunity is when you are something and try to open your own door. Our thoughts, words, acts, and deeds must all be in the power of the Holy Ghost. Oh, yes, we have need to be sober, not only sober, but vigilant, not only to be filled with the Spirit but with a ‘go forth’ in you, a knowledge that God’s Holy Presence is with you.”
We must be sober so that we are spiritually in tune and sensitive to the Holy Spirit. We must, at a second’s notice, respond to His call. We must have a greater love of Him and focus on Heavenly things, and not earthly things. This is a late hour, and we must not fall asleep spiritually by becoming consumed in the world. We need to jump in the barrel of His glory. We need a fresh encounter where we meet Him face to face.
and said, Behold, the Word of the Lord our God hath showed us His glorious Shekinah, and the greatness of His excellency, (tushbachteih, His magnificence,) and the voice of His Word have we heard out of the midst of the fire. This day have we seen that the Lord speaketh with a man in whom is the Holy Spirit, and he remaineth alive.
Deuteronomy 5: 24 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
The Word has revealed His glory and His excellency to us, and it is through a living and abiding encounter with His Word in the Secret Place that we come to know Him and experience His glory. Paul explained that we are to go from one level of glory to another, always increasing. But it comes as we look at His face as in a mirror.
Where we look for our validation and image is so important. Too many simply look to the world and judge themselves based on the world’s standards.
“Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Hebrews 13: 20-21
We are to do what is pleasing in His sight. Every day we must present ourselves to Him and learn to see who He is and who we are IN HIM. As we gaze upon His glory and abide in His Word, He imparts His life to us.
The Lord longs to bring us to a place where we are complete or stand perfect. Smith explained:
Keep in mind the fact that when perfection is spoken of in the Word, it is always through a joining up with eternal things. Perfection is a working in us of the will of God.”
There is a place where we go beyond simply doing His will to delight in doing His Will.
“I delight to do Your will, O my God…”
Psalm 40: 8
and
“Then I said, ‘Behold, I have entered eternal life when I am occupied with the scroll of the book of Your Law, which was written for my sake, I desire to do Your will, O my God; and Your Law is within my innermost parts…”
Psalm 40: 8, 9 Targum
This is comes from a Secret Place encounter and pursuit of Him. Smith explained:
“Our actions, our mind, covered by the blood of Jesus, and as we yield and yield we find ourselves in possession of another mid, even the mind of Christ, to cause us to understand the perfection of His will.”
We must come to a place where as we gaze in the mirror of His glory, our imperfection is covered with His perfection, and our earthen vessel is filled with His glory.
Then we must be ESTABLISHED in Him. Too many believers are unstable and, as they go through especially emotional events, are drawn from walking according to the order of the Spirit to the earthly. Smith said:
“You must be established in the fact that it is His life, not yours. Faith in His Word, faith in His life; you are supplanted by another, you are disconnected from the earth, insulated by faith.”
He wants to lift us by His glory so that we are no longer earthly. Our minds are lifted to see and think after the things of Heaven. We long to please the Master and bring Him glory on earth.
Smith said:
“Strengthened in the fact that God is doing the business, not you, you are in the plan, which God is working out.”
Such strength comes from our abiding place. Too many abide in the form and not the place of power. The place of power is found when we come to an end.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
John 12: 25
Many believers call me and fill stuck in the alone place. They long for greater impact and greater fellowship. Here the Master reveals the key: we must die and allow Him to plant us in the ground. Anything that is of us and remains will hinder His glory. He calls for a full surrender and a full yielding.
Smith explained:
“There is nothing in itself that can bring out that which God designs. What God intends is always a going on to perfection until we are like Him. It is an establishment of righteousness on His own Word.”
Oh, we must have much clinging to Him and His Word. We must cry out for eyes to see and ears to hear and an abundance of the living revelation of His Word. This means we must be settled. No wavering! No going back. But settled in the Secret Place.
“What is it to be settled? A knowledge that I am in union with His will, that I am established in the knowledge of it, that day by day I am strengthened.”
Do you know that you are in union with His will? How many of us long for it and look to people for confirmation? We put the burden of being settled on others. Like the Children of Israel, we fear the glory and the hearing of His voice.
Finally, if we are to bring Him glory, it all comes down to our hearts and the deep desire and longings of our hearts.
“To God be all the glory. What does it mean, for it all to be realized in my case? That I live for His glory, that there be no withdrawal, no relinquishing, no looking back, but going on, on, on, for His glory now and forever, until as Enoch, we walk with God and are not, for God has taken us.”
