Pursuing the Glory of God in our Midst
by Mamdouh Riad
Introduction
The Scriptures teach us that the glory of God is revealed to us in many ways. Among them, first and foremost, it is revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ: “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:5-7). It is also manifested in His creation, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1). It is manifested in His power, as Jesus said to Martha, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40), referring to resurrecting Lazarus from the dead. Yet another aspect is that the glory of God at times refers to the Lord Himself. Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on the throne in Isaiah 6 and John describes that as the glory of God, “These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him” (John 12:40-42).
The Scriptures also teach us that the glory of God is revealed to us through His manifest presence, when He makes His presence known among His people and causes them to be acutely aware of it. This happened when Moses completed the tabernacle, and the Lord manifested His presence in the physical form of a cloud: “Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34,36). The same took place upon completion of the first temple, “Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, 14 and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God” (2 Chron 5:13).It is that latter aspect of the glory of God, His manifest presence, that we refer to in this article, when we talk about pursuing His glory in our midst. And we are not referring to pursuing a supernatural cloud or manifestation of His glory. That was simply the way God chose to make His people aware of His presence at that time. That was the way He made them aware that He was with them.
God reveals His Heart
Throughout the Old and New Testaments, the Lord revealed Himself through His Word and through His dealings with His people. One of the things the Lord has revealed to us is His desire to dwell with His people, to manifest His presence (His glory) corporately among them. This was in God’s heart from the very beginning, as far back as when He commanded Moses to build the tabernacle:“And Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8).
This desire in God’s heart is expressed throughout the Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testaments:
"And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God" (Exodus 29:45); "And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake My people" (1 Kings 6:13); "And he said unto me, 'Son of man, the place of My throne, and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever" (Ezekiel 43:7); "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I will come and I will dwell in your midst says the LORD. Many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and they shall be My people. And I will dwell in your midst." (Zechariah 2:10)
“I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (2 Cor 2:16)
These verses express what the Lord desires for His people in this age, with the full realization of that to take place in the age to come,“…Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev 21:3)
Consider this: What does it mean for an omnipresent God to dwell among His people? God is present everywhere. He fills heaven and earth. So what do these verses mean about Him dwelling among His people? It means manifesting His presence among them, making them acutely aware that He is among them!
Moses realized that it was the very presence of God among the Israelites that distinguished them as His people: “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” (Exodus 33:15,16)
A.W. Tozer articulated the concept of the manifest presence of God well in his classic The Pursuit of God:
"If God is present at every point in space, if we cannot go where He is not, cannot even conceive of a place where He is not, why then has not that Presence become the one universally celebrated fact of the world? The patriarch Jacob, "in the waste howling wilderness," gave the answer to that question. He saw a vision of God and cried out in wonder, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not." Jacob had never been for one small division of a moment outside the circle of that all-pervading Presence. But he knew it not. That was his trouble, and it is ours. Men do not know that God is here. What a difference it would make if they knew. The Presence and the manifestation of the Presence are not the same. There can be the one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He is manifest only when and as we are aware of His Presence."
In Matthew 28:20 Jesus told the disciples:”Behold, I am with you always.”, yet in John 14:21 He says: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Whether by manifesting His presence in a supernatural form as we saw in the Old Testament tabernacle and the temple, or through His deeds among Israel when His glory was upon them, His presence was manifest and self-evident, and they were acutely aware of it.
Lessons from Israel’s journey
In 1 Corinthians 10, the apostle Paul talks about some of God’s dealings with Israel; then declares to us that “All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11). In other words, Paul is admonishing us to heed some lessons from Israel’s journey in the Old Testament.
As we look at such a journey, we see that when they walked in obedience to the Lord, the glory of God was upon them as He manifested His presence. Not only were they acutely aware of it, but even unbelievers around them recognized that God was in their midst, as He promised them He would do if they walked in His commandments: “Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD... 12 The LORD will open the heavens…” (Deut. 28: 10,12).
In the New Testament, Jesus said that when the people of God are the salt of the earth and the light of the world as He called them to be, unbelievers would “See your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
This theme runs throughout the Scriptures: Rahab, a heathen, told Joshua and Caleb: “For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt… 11 And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted… for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” (Joshua 2: 10, 11)
The same thing happened in Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal:” Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice… 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD -he is God! The LORD -He is God!" (1 Kings 18: 37-39).
Because of the presence of God in Daniel’s life, King Nebuchadnezzar, a heathen, told him: “Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings.” (Dan. 2:47). Also, King Darius, another heathen, said: “For He is the living God… He delivers and rescues And He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions” (Dan. 6:26, 27).
So it was in the New Testament, when the glory of God was present among the early church in the book of Acts, the Lord manifested His presence with signs and wonders, and the fear of Lord fell upon all:
“Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles… And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:43,47).
“So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things” (Acts 5:11).
Unity and the manifest presence in the New Testament
And while in the Old Testament God manifested His presence or dwelt in the tabernacle and the temple, in the New Testament it is the Church, the corporate body of Christ, that is His temple where He manifests His presence. This is why unity is a critical ingredient for us to experience His glory corporately, and why division hurts the cause of Christ.
“For as the body is ONE and has many members, but all the members of that ONE body, being many, are ONE body, so also is Christ.” (1 Cor 12:12)
“That they all may be ONE...so that the world may believe that You sent Me..” (John 17:21)
“For you (plural) are the temple of the living God, as God has said, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them..” (2 Cor 6:16).
"Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool, what kind of a house you (plural) will build for Me, or where is the place of My rest?" (Acts 7:49).
"In whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you (plural) also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:21,22).
It’s important to note that the original context of the above verses (1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 2) was Paul's writing not just to a local church, but to the body of Christ in a region (Corinth, Ephesus...etc).
The oneness/unity that the scripture calls us to in John 17, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 2 goes beyond simply having good rapport, courteous, friendly, conflict-free relationships, while individually considering ourselves independent and thinking we don't really need one another. The Scriptures teach that we ought to realize that we do: "The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you!"
(1 Cor 12:21).
The Scriptures does not paint us a picture that we are all independent, but that we are rather incomplete without one another. That truth becomes even more significant when it comes to our collective desire to see the kingdom of God expand on Cape Cod, and us preparing ourselves together for the glory of God in our midst as the above verses clearly state.
The kind of unity that would command the Lord’s blessing and make a significant impact on the spiritual climate of Cape Cod, is when we all come together recognizing our need for one another, that we are individual members in one body, individual living stones of one spiritual building, which is God's living temple in this region. Together we become a dwelling place for the manifest presence of God as the above verse says in Ephesians 2.
To the extent we are polarized / fragmented , or we are one/ united, we either lack or have the spiritual authority that God would give us. Before the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 became a great army, they first had to come together and become one body. Only then did God breath life in them.
Imagine what would happen on Cape Cod if the body of Christ here, with its full spectrum, whether we are Native Americans, Caucasians, African Americans, Brazilians, Jamaicans, or from any other nation, tribe, or tongue, come together on equal footing as one, valuing and honoring one another, and receiving from one another. The Word of God exhorts us to recognize that we are all members of one body, and that we all need one another, especially when it comes to praying for revival on the Cape. Imagine further what would happen if we also have that same spirit across generations in the body of Christ. Imagine older and younger generations in the body of Christ on the Cape walking together in mutual honor and love, pursuing the glory of God in our midst.
What kind of blessing from the Lord would such humility and unity invite?
Malachi 4:6 is an interesting verse. Regardless of how different scholars may interpret its original context and application to us today, one thing is certain: Division/polarization across generations is bad, and oneness/unity across generations invites something good. It releases a blessing on the land.
Psalm 133 teaches us that when we dwell in unity, the Lord commands His blessing, like the dew of Mount Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion.
When my wife and I visited Mount Hermon in Israel a couple of years ago, our tour guide was a local pastor. He shared with us something about Mount Hermon that further sharpened our understanding of Psalm 133 and the power of unity.
He explained that the area of Mount Hermon is very dry. It hardly ever rains there. Yet the large area at the base of the mountain is filled with thriving trees, plants, bushes, and all kinds of vegetation. How is all this plant life sustained without rain? Well, Mount Hermon is the highest point in Israel. It reaches to the clouds, collects a lot of precipitation and dew, which then flows down the natural grooves of the mountain and supplies life giving water to the vegetation.
What the Psalm is saying is that even though the dry climate condition at Mount Hermon would normally make the area hostile to plant life, dew from above comes down and brings life. When we come together in unity, God commands His blessing to flow from above, bringing life into our dry bones. According to our pastor tour guide, the “there” in “..there the Lord commanded His blessing” refers to both Mount Hermon AND unity among God’s people. The Psalm is basically saying, just as the Lord commands His blessing at Mount Hermon (there), and sends His dew to bring life despite the harsh climate, in the same way, when His people dwell in unity (there), He commands His blessing on them, pours out His Spirit, and brings life to His people regardless of challenging outward circumstances.
Unity in a local church commands God's blessings upon that local church. Unity between local churches, which together make the body of Christ in a region, commands God's blessing on that region. The unity we are referring to is relational, not organizational. Such unity was a critical element in past revivals.
To the extent we are united or divided, we either have or lack the spiritual authority that comes from the manifest presence of God in our midst. Jesus said: "A house divided against itself cannot stand"
(Matthew 12:25).
The picture of the glory of God desending upon the Old Testament temple parallels that of the New Testament one, the Church:
"Indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord....that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God" (2 Chron 5:13,14).
"When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord, in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting" (Acts 2:1,2).
To the extent we are united or divided, we either have or lack the spiritual authority that comes from the manifest presence of God in our midst. Jesus said: "A house divided against itself cannot stand"
(Matthew 12:25).
A.W. Tozer articulates the importance of the manifest presence of God in the life of the early church in his article The Eternal Continuum:
"It was this (the sense of Someone there) that filled with abiding wonder the first members of the Church of Christ. The solemn delight which those early disciples knew sprang straight from the conviction that there is One in the midst of them. They knew that the Majesty in the heavens were confronting them on earth: They were in the very Presence of God. And the power of that conviction to arrest attention and hold it for a lifetime, to elevate, to transform, to fill with uncontrollable moral happiness, to send men singing to prison and to death, has been one of the wonders in history and a marvel of the world.”
Israel without His manifest presence
In contrast to the times when Israel walked with God and experienced His glory among them, when they departed from Him in sin and compromise, the glory of God lifted off of them. He no longer manifested His presence among them, and they lost their acute awareness of Him. Their enemies overcame them and, rather than recognizing that God was in their midst, they mocked Israel, saying, “Where is your God?” Hence, we find that the cry for revival among Israel in the Old Testament throughout the psalms and the prophets is coupled by the repeated phrase/prayer, Why should the nations (unbelievers) say where is your God? :“Spare Your people, O LORD, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:17)
The Lord had warned them in His word that this would happen if they did not walk in His commandments: “The sky over your head will be bronze… 25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies…” (Deut 28:23,25).
Similarly, Jesus said in the New Testament, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men” (Matthew 5:13).
In Psalm 139:7, David speaks of the omnipresence of God, saying, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” Yet in Psalm 51:11, because his sin cost him his acute awareness God’s presence , he cries out,“Do not cast me away from Your presence."
In the same way, when Israel sinned, they lost the manifest presence of God among them, and the Lord told them through Jeremiah:“I will cast you out of My presence…” (Jeremiah 23:39).God told Ezekiel:“Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to make me depart from my sanctuary?” (Ezekiel 8:5).
What does it mean for an omnipresent God to depart from His sanctuary? It means He will no longer manifest His presence among them. In Revelation 3, we see Jesus standing outside the Church of Laodicea, knocking at the door to come in:"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in..." (Rev 3:20). We can live our lives walking in God's ways which would prepare us to be a resting place for His manifest presence, or we can live in compromise causing Him not to find rest among us and not to manifest His presence.
When Israel did not walk in God's ways, the Lord no longer manifested His presence among them. He subsequently delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who destroyed the temple of the Lord and took them as slaves in Babylon:
“By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. 2 We hung our harp upon the willows in the midst of it. 3 For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song… How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:1-4)
Consecration/Repentance and His manifest presence
Then the Lord, out of His great mercy and faithfulness, kept a faithful remnant for Himself. He raised up Daniel from among Israel in captivity, gave him understanding of the times, and stirred him to stand in the gap in repentance on behalf of his people. His prayer in Daniel 9 summarizes God’s dealings with Israel at that time:
“And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly! 16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name”(Daniel 9:15-19).
The Word Holy means totally other than, transcendent, set apart, uncommon. When we say God is Holy we are saying He is totally other than, totally different from all creation, uncommon, exalted above all, there is none like Him. The opposite of the word Holy is "common". When God comands us "Be Holy like I am Holy", He is saying, I want you to to be "set apart" or "uncommon", "peculiar" people. He is saying the unbelievers, the gentiles live a certain way that is very "common". They live in pride, dishonesty, lust, unforgiveness. He is saying to us I want you to live a different, consecrated, "uncommon" way. I want you be like Me, peculiar, totally other than, and live in humility, love, forgiveness, purity.
And the reason God asks us to live this "uncommon" way is that all virtues that God commands us to walk in are beautiful and life giving, and all vices that He commands us to walk away from are ugly and drains life out of us. "To observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good"
(Deuut 10:13). Agape Love is beautiful and life giving, self-absorption is ugly and life draining.Humility is beautiful and life giving, pride and arrogance are ugly and drain life, forgiveness is beautiful and life giving, bitterness and holding grudge is ugly and life draining. Relating to one another in love and honoring one another is beautiful and life giving. Jealousy and envy are ugly and life draining.
Unity is beautiful and life giving, division is ugly and life draining.
It's important to realize that holiness is not just about big scandalous sins like sexual immorality, it is about those things as well, about humility, love and how we relate to one another.
When God says "Be holy like I am holy" I want you, my people to be different. I want you to be uncommon, peculiar, different from those who don't belong to Me, like I am totally other than, totally different from the rest of creation.
Throught the Old and New Testament we see a relationship between consecration/repentence and the presence of power of God manifesting in His people:
In the Old Testament, we see that from Samson the Nazarite losing his power when he lost his consecration, to the defeat of Joshua in the city of Ai, to the Israelites going to the Babylonian captivity in Jeremiah's time. God explains the fall of Jerusalem that to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 33.
In the New Testament, Jesus said it is the pure in heart who will see God, and without holiness no one shall see God.
The road to restoration to God always begins with repentence. Israel's restoration from the Babylonian captivity began with Daniel's repentence, and continued with the repentence prayers of Nehemiah and Ezra . In the New Testamant we see the same thing that returning to God begins with repentance from Peter's sermon in Acts 2, and Act 3, to Jesus's word to the 7 churches in the book of revelation.
So we see that when , the glory of God is upon His people, God is known in the land, and revival is the fruit of His manifest presence. Conversely, when the glory of God departs from His people, they experience times of spiritual drought, lack of fruit, and darkness in the land.
Corporate Prayer and Revival
The relationship between corporate prayer and revival is a vast subject that was extensively studied and written about. Matthew Henry wrote: "Whenever God is about to do something truly great, He first sets His people a praying."
"On this rock, I will build My Church (Ekklēsia) and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Matthew 15:18
http://biblehub.com/greek/1577.htm
The picture below is that of the NY Assembly Chamber. This is where legislators have the authority to pass laws that set the political climate for the State of NY. Jesus used the word Ekklēsia for Church in the above verse.
The Ekklēsia in Ancient Greece was the body that was called out and entrusted with the responsibility and authority to legislate the laws of the land and determine its political climate : https://www.britannica.com/…/Ecclesia-ancient-Greek-assembly
By calling His Church the Ekklēsia, Jesus was teaching us that as we gather together in prayer, praying His will from His Word (Biblical prayers) as He taught us to pray “Thy will be done on earth as in heaven”, He uses our united prayers to give birth (legislate in the spirit realm) to His purposes on earth, and shift its spiritual climate. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19
An excellent classic resource on this subject, from someone who has seen revival in his lifetime and understood very well it's relation to corporate prayer, is Jonathan Edward's classic, A Humble Attempt.
Examples from history
During the First and Second great awakenings, the glory of God was upon the church. He manifested His presence among His people. Not only were they acutely aware of His presence, but so were the unbelievers that came in their midst. The fruit was a great harvest that transformed New England, and the nation at that time. Here are excerpts from Jonathan Edwards’s book A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising work of God, about that time:
“At that time God's work in the conversion of souls was carried on amongst us in so wonderful a manner, that, so far as I can judge, it appears to have been at the rate at least of four persons in a day; or near thirty in a week, take one with another, for five or six weeks together."
“Several persons have had so great a sense of the glory of God, and excellency of Christ, that nature and life seemed almost to sink under it; and in all probability, if God had showed them a little more of Himself, it would have dissolved their frame. I have seen some, and conversed with them in such frames, who have certainly been perfectly sober, and very remote from anything like enthusiastic wildness.”
“While God was so remarkably present amongst us by His Spirit, there was no book so delightful as the Bible, also, there was no time so prized as the Lord's day, and no place in this world so desired as God's house.”
“This work of God, as it was carried on, and the number of true saints multiplied, soon made a glorious alteration in the town: the town seemed to be full of the presence of God: There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought to them; parents rejoicing over their children as newborn, and husbands over their wives, and wives over their husbands. The doings of God were then seen in His sanctuary,God's day was a delight, and Our public assemblies were beautiful: the congregation was alive in God's service, every one earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink in the words of God. The assembly in general was, from time to time, in tears while the word was preached; some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors.”
“A loose careless person could scarcely be found in the whole neighborhood; and if there was any one that seemed to remain senseless or unconcerned, it would be spoken of as a strange thing.”
A fresh stirring from GodIn contrast, if we examine our condition today, it is not too difficult to see that we live in a very different spiritual climate. The Church has compromised and become more worldly than in past times of refreshing. The enemy has come in and sown division. We seem to have lost that self-evident manifest presence of God that the Church had experienced in times of revival. While we are very grateful to see God still faithfully working among us and people coming to Christ here and there, we don’t always bear much fruit that remains as Jesus called us to in John 15:16: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” We live beneath our spiritual inheritance.The Lord is not feared and the church is mocked by the world. In essence, the world is saying to us, “Where is your God?” similar to the condition of Israel during their Babylonian captivity.
However, the Lord is stirring His Church to return to Him. He is gathering His remnant and raising up many across the world to pursue unity, repentance/consecration, and united prayer, to prepare ourselves as a resting place, a holy temple, and once again experience the glory of God upon us. Many share the witness of the Holy Spirit that the Lord will release us from this state of spiritual Babylonian captivity and that His glory will come upon us once again as we respond and obey His stirring.
The word of God speaks of the glory of God upon the Church, the bride of Christ:“ ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Haggai 2:9).
"Arise; shine, for your light has come! and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His Glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see: They all gather together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy" (Isaiah 60:1-5).
Jesus said:“He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12).
“That He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).
“Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife… 11 having the glory of God…” (Revelation 21:9,11).
We must first begin by recognizing our need for revival. As we see in the biblical pattern, it begins in the Church, and then a harvest ensues.
As we pursue unity, repentance/consecration, and united intercessory prayer, we prepare ourselves to be a resting place for the manifest presence of God , for the glory of God in our midst, and the subsequent outbreak of revival in our land.
This is our spiritual inheritance.