“Please show me Your glory.” (Ex 33:18)

This evening, the prayer meeting was wonderful. This ‘wonderfulness’ was not because we were smart, spiritual or strong. It was purely because the Wonderful Counselor was in our midst. Initially, we tried to pray some little prayers but ‘the engine oil’ of the anointing was not enough for such a time as this… Wobbling between petty requests, we finally got to the mind of the Spirit. He said: ‘Glory!’ This became was our congregational and individual prayer: “Oh, Lord, Please show me Your glory.” (Ex 33:18). We also prayed: ‘Lord, give me You!’

The religious spirits tried to hinder the flow. They tried to distract us, reminding us about our natural needs. Suddenly, angry voices remembered us that we need to cook for tomorrow; that we need to pay the house rent at the end of the moth and school fees for children… But the Holy Spirit, the Lifter of our heads was pointing to much higher. ‘Where Lord?’…It was a good choice to disengage from looking around, from looking at our circumstances… Nothing new in Nigeria… same old stuff, not worthy to be brought before the throne of grace… but what else should we pray for?…

With the strength that moves the mountains, we looked up on the beautiful face of Jesus… the Author and Finisher of our faith… Without faith no one can pleases the Lord… Faith makes us pleasing to God… it was so refreshing to feel pleasing to our Savior… Then Grace sang a solo song… the song of the unmerited favor money cannot buy… ‘Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me… I once was lost… But now… But now!!! I am found!!! Was blind but now I see! Grace is greater than all our sins… We rejoiced in the grace released at Calvary… Old things passed away before our very eyes… all things changed and became new… It is a newness that lasts forever, the unfading newness of life… Then the heavenlies opened and we were invited in… We steeped in like Moses…Like David… No fear…  we are walking on the clouds of glory… I’m not afraid! ‘Show me Your glory!’

For a second I panicked… I looked around… simple men and women… from Effutun, Nigeria… None was properly dressed… No designer clothes… just some Tee-shirts and jeans… We did not look like much… It flashed thru my mind that if the big men of God knew the release of glory here, they could have come to fill their buckets with it… But none came… It was the glory love of the Father for us… for us… for us… We looked like the servants who filled the jars of water at the wedding in Cana… we were entrusted with the secret of the party when the sadness melted in jars of clay…We kept pouring wine to others…The Bride must be happy tonight… the special wine kept for the last hour… We got drunk in His presence… We ‘managed’ to say ‘Thank You’ to the King of Glory… Shaking, we gratefully piled one crown on top of another, we crowned Him as the King of kings… Fear free and glory gazing we bowed down to worship Him alone…