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- ESPAÑOL: La Presencia Manifiesta de Dios
Hi my name is Dean Smith and in this podcast, I want to talk about the Manifest Presence of God.
My wife and I recently attended a conference on the Holy Spirit at our church. Yes, it was a full weekend of talking about the importance of the Holy Spirit in the church and our personal lives.
It was amazing.
But I want to tell you about something a bit unusual that happened. Well it was unusual for me.
After the Friday night meeting, my wife and I were praying for a woman to receive more of the Holy Spirit.
The woman was sitting in her chair. As we prayed for her, she held her hands out in front of her with the palms of her hand facing upwards.
As we continued praying for her, she turned to us and said that she was feeling a weight on her hands. In fact, she mentioned it a couple more times as we prayed for her. There was a weight pressing down on her hands even though there was nothing there.
This sounded strange, and we had no idea what was going on. And it wouldn’t make sense until the next day, when Cheryl Klingspon, an anointed worship leader, spoke at the conference.
During her session she talked about the Manifest Presence of God.
We have verses such as Psalm 139:7-8, that tells us the God’s presence is everywhere. David writes:
“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol behold, You are there.”
This is God’s omnipresence. God is everywhere.
God’s Manifest Presence
But there are moments when God’s reveals Himself in powerful distinct way in a particular locality. This is referred to as God’s Manifest Presence. When God supernaturally reveals Himself.
It occurred when God revealed Himself to Moses through the burning bush.
We also have an example of this Manifest Presence at the inauguration of Solomon’s temple when the ark of the Covenant was moved from the Tabernacle of David into the Temple.
We read:
“The house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” (2 Chronicles 5:13b-14 NASV)
I have read this verse in the past, but understood it rather simply to mean that once the temple filled with smoke the priests couldn’t see what they were doing so they just left.
If that is the case why did the verse specifically say they ‘could not stand to minister.’ Why specifically emphasize their inability to stand? I hadn’t caught that odd phrasing before.
Cheryl then pointed out that the word glory, which is the Hebrew word kâbôd, literally means weight. It means ‘to be heavy of weight.’ It can also metaphorically speak of honor and importance.
When God’s glory fell in the Temple, it was a heavy weight, so heavy that the priests could literally not stand to minister. This was not a metaphorical heaviness, it was a literal weight.
The Apostle Paul also understood this connection between God’s Glory and weight when he writes, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV)
Cheryl then shared what happened to her husband when he attended the revival that broke out at Toronto’s Airport Christian Fellowship in the 1990s, often referred to as the Toronto Blessing.
Her husband was sitting in a chair, watching what was going on in the service when a heaviness fell upon him. The weight became heavier and heavier and started pushing down on him. As this heaviness increased over the next several seconds, he was slowly pushed out of the chair and on to the floor.
As he lie flat on his face pinned to the floor by this heaviness, he felt no pain. Similar to the priests in the Temple, the Glory of God was preventing him from standing up because of its weight.
Cheryl added that this encounter with God’s glory became a defining moment for them resulting in her husband leaving his job and entering the full time ministry.
As I listened to what she was saying, the word ‘weight’ stuck in my mind, because this sounded similar to the weight the woman was feeling in her hands.
Was she feeling the weight of the glory of the Lord?.
And if so why was she feeling the weight only on her hands?
After the Sunday morning service, the last service for our Holy Spirit conference, I went to the gymnasium along with several members of our church to make sandwiches that will be distributed as part of the Church’s street ministry.
This ministry is headed by the woman we had prayed for who felt the weight on her hands.
As I sat at the table along with many others from our church, preparing the cheese and meat sandwiches, a light came on.
God’s glory was manifesting on her hands because of what she did. Because of her ministry to the poor. You can call me crazy but I believe this is what was happening.
After John the Baptist was imprisoned by King Herod, he sent a message to Christ asking if He was the Messiah, or were they to look for another.
Jesus answered, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Matthew 11:15 NASV).
The Glory of God rested on her hand because she was taking the gospel to the poor of our city.
God Wants to Manifest in Your Church and in Your Life
I don’t know how to say this anymore simply but I believe God desires to manifest His glory in our Church and In your church. He wants to reveal His Glory to us individually and corporately.
In Psalm 22:3, we read from the King James that “God inhabits the praise of His people” but newer Bible versions such as the NASV translate it slightly differently writing, God is “enthroned upon the praises of Israel.”
God is enthroned in our praises and I believe this speaks of the potential of God’s glory being revealed and manifesting during our services.
This manifestation can come in different ways. He can manifest as a glory cloud in the Temple or like on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in a very real way through tongues of fire and and “a noise like a violent rushing wind” (Acts 2:2).
And it can happen on a personal level. In his teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul writes, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” In verse 7. The supernatural gifts are manifestations of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives.
I believe the Holy Spirit is stirring today and He deeply desires to manifest or reveal Himself in your church and in your life in powerful expressive ways.
What are the conditions for that to happen?
As I mentioned earlier, it can happen through praise and worship. I believe the Holy Spirit want to anoint our worship. He wants to anoint our worshiper leaders and musicians to bring down God’s glory in our services.
Rivers of Living Water
But John also writes of the day that Jesus stood up in the Temple on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles and made this proclamation:
“If anyone is thirsty, [a]let him come to Me and drink. 38 The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37-38 NASV)
John adds in verse 39 that Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit. These rivers of water are the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said if you thirst for for the Holy Spirit out of you will flow rivers of living water. This river will not flow out of Jesus, this river will flow out of you. The Holy Spirit wants to flow out of you. He wants to flow out of me.
But notice how rivers in the plural, you will become a waterfall with streams of the Holy Spirit pouring out of you. You are the source of the outpouring and through this the Holy Spirit will manifest through signs and wonder.
But it starts with a thirst…. A thirst for the more of God. We need to have a thirst in order for these rivers of living water to flow out of us.
I just pray for those who do not have a thirst for the Holy Spirit, that you give us this thirst, that you ask for this thirst, that you make us thirsty, so that we want more of you.
I hope this is the desire of your heart.
Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will catch you again.
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