This article by Prophets Russ and Kitty Walden of Father’s Heart Ministry is also available here as a PDF download.

 

Introduction:

The Glory of God is a blood bought resource placed at your disposal by the sacrifice of Calvary.  It is immediate, available and accessible within.

The Glory of God is what draws angels to you for their created purpose is to attend to the Glory wherever they find it.

The Glory of God contains the predisposed answer to every prayer you will ever pray.  It is important to understand, comprehend and align yourself with the Glory of God in your life.

The Purpose of God’s Glory in Your Life:

The glory of God in your life is intended to be that instrumentality by which all prayer is answered.

All the favor, blessing and authority that manifests your life is extended to you through His glory that He has made available to you in a very tangible way.

The ancient Hebrews thought of the glory of God as the WEIGHTINESS or HEAVINESS of God. In today’s language we can identify the glory of God as the WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT we have that we are children of God and that He is near to us in our challenges and struggles.

In the first chapter of Colossians Paul sets forth the centerpiece of the gospel and the primary focus of his commission from God:

“The commission God gave me (is) to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.  To make known the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,”   Colossians 1:25-27 NIV.

One translation calls the glory of God the EFFULGENCE of God and the OUTRAYING of the DIVINE.

It is the sum total of HIMSELF that He is willing and has purposed to make known to us NOT DOCTRINALLY but EXPERIENTIALLY.

Doctrine without experience is dead religion.  God would rather see you become SPIRITUALLY ALIVE than DOCTRINALLY CORRECT.

The Understanding of God’s Glory in Early Church History:

In the third and fourth century as the church became the ruling power in the Roman Empire an unfortunate shift took place regarding the theological understanding of the Glory of God.  The early fathers began to regard the Glory of God as DOCTRINAL and NOT EXPERIENTIAL.

As a result the DOCTRINE of the CHURCH usurped SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE and the church died and lapsed into the Middle Ages.

When Martin Luther reintroduced justification by faith as the basis of approach to God the church recovered the reality of SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE afresh and anew.

It is said that Christianity is a RELATIONSHIP and not merely a RELIGION.  The framework of any relationship is EXPERIENCE.

You can know the FACTS about someone by reading their credit report but you don’t have relationship.

Being conversant in Christian doctrine will give you INFORMATION but not transformative experience that empowers you in life and brings you to intimacy with the Father.  The GLORY of GOD is the instrumentality by which God lives in you and facilitates intimate and life changing relationship.

Unfortunately for centuries the church has established a reference to itself in the earth that is INFORMATION based and not BASED ON THE GLORY.  Those who have had and emphasized experience have either been branded as heretical or when expedient to do so as MYSTICS.

But relationship and experience with God is not intended to be the purview of unattainable mysticism.  Experience with God and walking in the glory of God is intended to be ACCESSIBLE, AVAILABLE and the common experience of every believer who names the name of Christ.

The Father is still walking in the garden in the cool of the day seeking intimacy, friendship, communion and one-ness with his children.  This is the entire purpose from His standpoint of the cross of Christ.

That you might be ONE WITH THE FATHER seated in heavenly place with Christ and walking in His glory in the earth.

The Essential and Necessary Place of God’s Glory in Your Heart:

The Father spoke this to me years ago:

Christ in YOU is the hope of Glory – Christ is ME or ANY OTHER person is NOT your hope of Glory.

Christ in YOU is your Father – Christ in ME or some other person is just your brother.  You LOVE your brother but you OBEY your Father and listen to HIS voice.

Understanding the GLORY of God is vital to connecting with the resource from which God meets your needs and moves in your life:

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,”   Philippians 4:19 KJV.

The INVENTORY of answered prayer in your life is not a FAR OFF repository of blessing.

The GLORY is IN YOU and in the glory is the intangible substance of every prayer you will ever pray.  When you yield to the glory and respond to His glory and align with His glory then it becomes MANIFEST IN YOUR LIFE AS HEALING, DELIVERANCE, PROVISION AND BLESSING.

So it behooves us to understand and know and pursue more access and alignment to the glory of God in our lives.

Making Room for the Glory of God in Your Life:

What IS the Glory of God and how can we make room for it in our lives?

The Greek word for Glory is: DOXA which means literally OPINION.  The church of Constantine’s time shifted their thinking about orthodoxy from GOD HIMSELF to a belief about God.

Thus we use the term ORTHODOXY to describe what our common belief is.  But originally DOXA was a term to describe not INFORMATION ABOUT GOD but the SUBSTANCE AND GLORY OF GOD HIMSELF.

The Glory of God includes in its definition God’s OPINION or viewpoint on any given subject in your life.

God’s opinions are important because His thoughts when He thinks them automatically become creative substance.  It is impossible for God to think a thing and it not spring into being.

“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! [If] I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee,”   Psalm 139:17-18 KJV.

God has more thoughts about you than there are grains of sand in the oceans of the earth! Every one of His thoughts are becoming substance in your life. Now it is important to know that this SUBSTANCE of God in your life is produced not merely by what you believe but by GOD HIMSELF.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” Hebrews 11:1 KJV.

Aligning Yourself with God’s Glory Through Your Relationship with Christ:

Faith is the Greek word for CONFIDENCE and FIDELITY.  Confidence and Fidelity cause our HOPE in God to become MANIFEST SUBSTANCE in our life.  This is the essence of answered prayer.

Confidence and FIDELITY imply an object of trust. Is our trust to be in our beliefs (as the term ORTHODOXY implies) or is our faith and fidelity toward GOD in His PERSON (and the implied experience of relationship with Him?)

Jesus dealt with this directly in the gospel of John.  He reproved the religious leaders:

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me,”   John 5:39 KJV

The substance of God is not released in the INFORMATION about God but God himself.

The word of God is powerful because it points us to Jesus and testifies in miraculous ways of who He is in our lives and what He is willing to do and to be on every level at any moment.  Where is your confidence?

Do you see yourself going to heaven because your doctrine is correct or because you have a living and vital relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord?

Making this shift transitions you from the role of a 21^st century believer to a first century receiver of the immediate glory of His presence.  You become a man and a woman of New Testament character and caliber.

Many times we won’t look directly at the weightiness of God in us because we have a baseline prejudice against His kindness.  We see God as aloof and austere and unapproachable.

Through the prophet Jeremiah even in the OLD COVENANT of the law God repudiates this unfair assessment of His nature:

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end,”   Jeremiah. 29:11.

God’s thoughts toward you are not evil nor are they capricious in their character.  You don’t have to overcome His reluctance to move in your life because He doesn’t HAVE ANY RELUCTANCE TO ANSWER PRAYER.

He isn’t looking for reasons to deny you.  His default position toward you is YES.  Every one of God’s thoughts toward you are BLESSING and LIFE and ADVANCEMENT.

God’s Own Estimation of His Glory:

Notice that Psalm 139 says God’s thoughts are PRECIOUS toward you.  That is a very telling adjective to describe God’s thoughts because in the mind of the Ancient Semitics of Mesopotamia the description PRECIOUS was EQUIVELANT TO GOD’S GLORY:

The word used for Glory in the days of Moses through King David was the word “Kabod” and it means “to be heavy”.

When the Major and Minor Prophets were penned the word for Glory was “Yaqar” which also meant to “be heavy” and also to “BE PRECIOUS”.

So when God put His glory IN you He put in you that which He esteems to be PRECIOUS in His estimation (J.R. Tolkien wasn’t very far off when he alludes to this concept in his Lord of the Rings).

What is PRECIOUS to God?  What does He value?  We might struggle with that answer but WHATEVER THAT IS the place He chooses to keep his valuables is in IN THE SAFE KEEPING OF THE HUMAN HEART!

Ancient Patterns of Understanding the Glory of God Seen in Ancient Cultures:

The ancient KABOD concept of Glory was not exclusive to the Semitic culture of the Jews.

It was universal belief of ancient peoples that the glory of God was was connected and reflected in the human body specifically the liver.

Remember that the literal meaning of the word KABOD or GLORY is the same word for the human liver. In our culture we instinctively place deeper significance on the human heart as the seat of emotions although we know it is simply the central organ of the circulatory system.

The ancients held beliefs regarding not just the heart but the kidneys, the liver and many other organs as well.

Our modern sentiments toward the human heart were very similar to the ancient beliefs about the liver.  The root word in the Hebrew language for the GLORY (Kabod) is LIVER.

What does it matter what these ancient beliefs were?

All ancient cultures have their roots and origins in Eden.  These deeply rooted beliefs spring from the common source of a sociology rooted in Eden and designed by God Himself.  The KABOD GLORY of God is a reflection of God placing IN US His courage, His knowledge, and His strength.

The liver was also believed to be the seat of the emotions which agrees with the verse of scripture “the JOY of the LORD is our STRENGTH”.

“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for [this] day [is] holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength,”   Nehamiah 8:10 KJV.

This is not to suggest that our physical liver has any mystical properties.  It is however a reflection that God speaks to us in nature and even the anatomy of man regarding who He is on the inside of us and what it means that we are His dwelling place.

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse,”   Romans 1:20 KJV.

The ancient Persians believed the liver was where human courage resided.  Many ancient peoples looked at the liver as a source of supernatural knowledge and practiced divination regarding it.

In North Africa the word for liver was the same as the word for courage.

Although they didn’t have an understanding of CHRIST in YOU their grasp of the Glory of God was synonymous with the human LIVER in their beliefs.

That may sound foolish to you and I but the ancient peoples had a different regard for the human body than we do today.

God’s Glory in You is FUNCTIONAL and NOT MERELY ORNAMENTAL:

The Glory of God is IN YOU serving a function – not just a supernatural ornamentation.

The Glory of God was the metaphorical LIVER of God or what GIVES GOD LIFE is placed in us to GIVE US LIFE – the GOD – KIND – OF LIFE!

We have shown that the ancient peoples regarded the LIVER much as we do the physical heart today.  They saw the LIVER as the heart and seat of passion and emotion.

So when Paul says the GLORY of GOD is IN US he was saying that the CORE of GOD’s EMOTION and PASSION is in us.

So the Glory of God is not an ornamental thing – it serves a function. The Glory of God is not a static thing but it is living, passionate and emotive!

The Glory of God or the KABOD was that which was HEAVY and by inference was VALUABLE.

The concept of HEAVINESS in relation to the Kabod was only in the most positive sense.  We know the heaviness of the glory when we experience it and relate to it as a mantle upon our lives.

Unmasking FALSE GLORY:

There is a false glory.  The scripture describes the HARDENING of PHAROAH’s heart as being connected with a corrupt KABOD.

This is what RELIGION displays in contrast with true spiritual life.  Religion is HARD and INTRACTABLE but the KABOD of GOD in you is living and viable and vital.

The KABOD is connected with the idea of HONOR.  God put His living and vibrant HONOR on the inside of you as a RESOURCE and vitality to strengthen and function within you.

It is comparable to the SCEPTER or SIGNET of the King in Ancient times.

Honor carries with it FAVOR and AUTHORITY.  The Favor of God and the Authority of God flow out from His Glory on the inside of you not from any outward source as superstitions such as GOOD LUCK or GOOD FORTUNE might suggest.

The Properties of God’s Glory in Your Life:

As a verb the KABOD or Glory of God is connected with the idea of that which ENDURES and is MADE LARGE.

The Glory of God imparts the capacity to ENDURE and be ENLARGED.  This is what the Glory of God does in your life (it lends its properties to your person and character).

“I will … enlarge thy borders … when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God,”   Exodus 34:24 KJV.

“The LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border,”   Deuteronomy 12:20 KJV.

“I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart,”   Psalm 119:32 KJV.

In Exodus 33:19 God told Moses no man could look on the Glory and live.

The glory that passed by Moses while he was in the cleft of the rock doesn’t just pass by us it lives on the inside of us.  We are the resting place of the glory of God.

In Ezekiel 1:27-28 Ezekiel describes the Glory as God appearing to be a FIRE from his waist upward and a FIRE from his waist downward.

That FIRE that Ezekiel briefly saw is abiding and living on the inside of you as your fixed hope both in this life and in the next.

In Genesis 15:17 the Glory of God appeared as a pillar of fire appear and ratified the covenant between God and Abraham.

This is the same glory that is IN YOU through Christ Jesus.  The Glory that ratified the covenant with Abraham is IN YOU to IMPLEMENT the covenant and bring it to substance in your life.

The New Testament Concept of Glory:

In the New Testament the word for Glory is DOXA and it means BRIGHTNESS and also OPINION.  Angels are always associated with the glory.  God put the Glory in you to attract the angels.

The Glory attracts angels.  Their whole purpose is to tend the fires of God’s glory wherever they find it.

The glory in you is the altar of their service just as the glory of God in Christ was an altar of service and they followed Jesus into the wilderness and ministered to him.

They serve – their whole purpose is to serve and tend the glory of God wherever they find it crying “Holy, Holy, Holy”.

The word DOXA arises from ancient Greek expressions meaning TO SEEM and TO EXPECT.

When God put His glory in you He put His EXPECTATION in you.  He caused you to SEEM or to REFLECT HIM which is why angels and demons themselves respond to you the way they do.

They look at your and see the glory in you and respond accordingly (the demons with fear and loathing the angels with service and ministry).

This is why the enemy can’t see past the glory to get at you when you cooperate and yield to the Glory God put in you as a defense.

Now in the first three centuries of the church the concept of DOXA or glory changed from being a thing of SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE to being a mere doctrine about God.

It became conceptualized and compartmentalized as a mental rather than a spiritual something on the inside of you.

This was very unfortunate and has robbed us of the SUBSTANCE of GOD on the inside of us.

The Image of the Halo is Connected with the Reality of the Glory of God:

In artwork going back to ancient times and in all cultures we see the appearance of a halo around venerated people and spiritual leaders.  Moses’ face shone with the glory of God.

“And not as Moses, [which] put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished…..
….. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord,”   2 Corinthians 3:13, 18 KJV

Experiences of Manifest Glory:

I have had people in meetings start shouting and calling out because they couldn’t see my face because of a light around it.

The glory of God is a tangible thing that can be released when you give Him honor and deference in your life at any given moment.

God has put the weight of His glory on the inside of you.  From this glory He directs you, corrects you, provisions you and manifests Himself to you in intimacy and also in power.

Lean on His glory on the inside of you.  Trust in the glory.  It is the resource of heaven to put you over in life.

It is the government of God upon your shoulder to which there shall be no end of increase.

Entertain the glory. Honor the glory and yield to the glory and it will become substance in every setting and cause you to overcome in every challenge.

 

~ Prophet Russell Walden

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Prophet Russel Walden and wife Kitty were founders of Father’s Heart Ministry of Branson, Missouri, traveling internationally and in the USA ministering in the prophetic. Prophet Russ brings a new dimension to the prophetic through activation and impartation of God’s voice in your life. Russ comes from a long history in business world and full time pastoral ministry.

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