VESSELS OF GLORY
VESSELS OF GLORY
Sunday, October 14, 2018, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
The writer’s of the Old and New Testament were acquainted with the glory of God.
Rev. 1: 13-18: In the midst of the seven lamp stands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the last.”
Ez. 1:26-28: Above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.
Paul spoke so often of this kind of “glory” that subsequent readers have a tendency to pass over the word, much as they do the word grace. Paul spoke about this kind of “glory” in every epistle.
Paul’s treatment of “the glory” identified a “state of being.” In modern theology, many have factored the glory out, just as they have factored out the ministry of angels, the power of the Lord’s Supper, and the power of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The answer to Jesus’ prayer for glory to be manifested was seen first at Pentecost and then multiple times throughout history. What the early church described as “cloven tongues of fire,” came not only upon them, but was also inside them.
They glowed with supernatural power. (Stephen’s appearance was hailed to be as glorious as an angel.) So much glory power resided in those early disciples that, “they turned the world upside down.”
They reacted like freshly created Divine creatures. They were filled with His (I AM) Glory. Every creature in heaven possesses “that kind of glory”
1 Co. 15:40: There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. (ESN)
Both Paul and Jesus said it was not only for heaven, but for earthly vessels as well. Prayers should petition heaven to impart the Heavenly Glory in the people of God now and complete the prayer of Jesus.
God is drawing and has always drawn his true people into HIS Glory. It is an inner, illuminating, power surging state of being which includes provision and protection. Such glory finds expression in love and pervades every life situation. The glorious church is only to be comprised of this kind of glory people! Saints are to be immersed in Christ, and joined to one another in such a way as to form a Christ-like order that hell cannot prevail against.
Paul in describing his ministry said he did all his works That you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His kingdom and His glory. (1 Thess. 2:12)
Again He said, To which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess. 2:14)
Old Pentecostals had an understanding of “being in Christ,” and His indwelling fire. Martha Wing Robinson (1874-1936) describes her experiences in her book, Radiant Glory.
“We felt we had died and Christ had come to dwell where we had been. We knew only God and were hidden away in God in such a tremendous mystery---the very presence of God came upon us, and we were just bowed before God in that wonderful experience. I felt my God had moved in and, as it were, had eliminated me. My mind did not seem to work at all---my spirit (seemed) off in heaven. It seemed that Christ was just borrowing, as it were, my body. Christ was living in me, and yet I did not seem to live at all. It was more wonderful than anything I had ever dreamed of. I would say it was just Himself.”
Mrs. Robinson was characterized as having a “celestial inward fire.” This fire is available to all who come to Jesus for it. The fire within is not something illusionary and evasive. It is the result of the promise made by Jesus that He would baptize with the Holy Ghost and Fire. This is the fire from the very throne of Heaven as seen by Ezekiel.
Mrs. Robinson’s diary, 6/8/1906: “The Shekinah glory descended upon them while at prayer and shone not only in the room but over the house, so that fire reels (Canadian fire fighters) came to put out what appeared to be a fire; and there was no fire.”
Mrs. Robinson’s understanding of the “indwelling mystery” surpassed that of the finest theologians and most perceptive parishioners in modern times. Her simple evaluations testify for her: “If we seek Jesus more and more, and more and more, a personal relation with Himself, we come into Him and He into us, and the cleansing, and purging, and pruning.”
They understood the “indwelling of the Baptism of Fire” was directly related to the kiln and crucible. Iniquity could not remain in its flame. They opened themselves to the flame of cleansing.
Paul took the subject a step further in Romans:
Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanted to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared before hand for glory, even us whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? (Ro. 9: 21-24)
Vessels of honor contain the glory, hold the glory, magnify the glory and reflect the glory. Vessels of dishonor contain wrath, magnify wrath and are flawed; they are to be destroyed (He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels (Rev. 2:27).
In the vessels of glory are the promises of God, the wisdom of God and the power of God. In the vessels prepared for destruction lies all that are fake, deceiving, compromised and duplicitous.
Vessels of glory carry the oil characterized by the five wise virgins who were prepared to enter the chamber. Vessels of dishonor were the leaky, depleted vessels which were unreliably depended upon by the five foolish virgins.
This glory is available to us while we are on earth. It is not just a heavenly “add on.” Earthen vessels are to carry this “kind of
glory.”
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. ( 2 Cor. 4: 6-16).
When God commanded light to shine out of darkness, he flung a part of Himself into a physical being. Whenever He spoke about light in the O.T. or N.T. , He is speaking of part of His own Being. Light has the DNA of God. Light is still being made, because God said, “Let there be light,” and He has never rescinded that command. Jesus spoke of light within. He spoke of a flame of fire burning inside and cautioned that it be not darkness. Jesus said that He was the light of the world. Those who heard him immediately thought in terms of a literal flame of fire. Jesus referred to himself as a flaming fire and expected His disciples to be the same.
John 9:5: As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
John 12: 35-36: Then Jesus said to them, A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.
Jesus said He came to send fire upon the earth and asked, what if it was already kindled?
The glorious light, fire and power within the life of Mrs. Martha Wing Robinson were so powerful, the dead were raised and extraordinary healings took place.
Jesus wishes to manifest Himself to His people in this manner. Congregations have been robbed of the richest arena of God’s blessing, “the Manifest One.” Jesus must be presented as the living Manifested One, who desires to manifest Himself to any person who will love Him and keep His commandments.
Closeness to God and the power of His presence produces a vessel which cannot be simulated, mass produced or feigned. Paul entered the ranks of the sealed the moment he encountered the Son of God in glory and power. Heretofore, he knew God in distance and worshipped him as one among many. Now, as a vessel of honor, he knew he was unique. Only the power of the indwelling Father, Son and Holy Spirit with supernatural fire from the throne of God could explain the Manifest presence of Christ in his being.
The last words of David express how God was a light to him:
2 Sam. 23: 1-4:
Now these are the last words of David.
Thus says David the son of Jesse;
Thus says the man raised up on high,
The anointed of the God of Jacob,
And the sweet psalmist of Israel;
The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me,
And His word was on my tongue.
The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me;
He who rules over men must be just,
Ruling in the fear of God,
And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises,
A morning without clouds,
Like the tender grass springing out of the earth,
By clear shining after rain.
(Unjust rulers are darkness; unjust rulers do not fear God and have no authority to rule as their light is extinguished.)
Throughout history, those who were used mightily of God exhibited the Spirit of Glory on them. Moses ministered to Israel with the Spirit of Glory resting on him. Peter ministered to the multitudes with the Spirit of Glory resting upon him. Stephen ministered to the crowds with the Spirit of Glory resting upon him.
Jesus’ prayer for the saints emanated from the Spirit of Glory resting upon him. He officiated in the glory, spoke from the glory, walked in the glory and preached through the glory. Glory Fire was not just for Pentecost. It is for Tabernacles.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V., E.S.V. and N.K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Dr. C. R. Oliver, Consumed By His Fire, Zadok Publications, P. O.
Box 971, Montgomery, TX 77356. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Dr. Oliver.