I noticed something the other day that I hadn’t seen before (I love it when that happens, don’t you?). In a familiar passage of scripture from the book of Ezekial chapter 43:5 it says, “Then the Spirit caught me up and brought me into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.”
That part about the glory of the Lord filling the temple is of special interest to all who anticipate the manifest presence of God. We all want His glory to come and fill our lives as well as every church around the world. The part of this passage, however, that I hadn’t taken notice of before is found in a preceding verse,
Ezekiel 43:2
“And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the east and His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with His glory.”
Notice how the earth shone with His glory before the temple was filled with His glory. After reading this I realized that this truly is the necessary order of things. Too often we’re trying to get His glory to come and fill our churches but we forget about the rest of the world and it remains untouched. We cannot focus our efforts on beautifying buildings, developing programs, or anything else at the expense of reaching the nations with the gospel. What good is it if my church looks great on the outside and is even filled on the inside, but the world around me sits in utter darkness without the slightest hope of eternity, and I don’t do anything about it?
If we really want our lives and our churches to be filled with the glory of God, we must realize that the nations are our priority. The earth must shine with His glory, and when it does, our lives and our churches will too! I believe God will come if we will Go.