Preparing for the Greater Glory

This last week I was listening to a minister talk about how God took him from the anointing to the “greater glory”.  He explained that when you operate in the anointing, it’s like you spend time with God, get your spiritual battery charged up and then you minister to others out of that anointing. He said often after ministering to others, he would feel tired, emotionally drained, etc., but he said after he began to enter into the “greater glory”, it was like the glory cloud of the Lord would settle down into the place where he was ministering and He (the Lord) would touch the people directly. This reminded me of my husband’s dream, which I shared in my last post (Revival Update).

Years ago, as a young woman in my twenties, I began getting opportunities to speak on Wednesday nights at my church (at that time) in Dade City, Florida.  I had started out teaching children, then teens, then young adults and eventually adults.  On one particular occasion, the week prior to my speaking engagement, I sensed the Lord leading me to go on a three day fast.  I went off of the fast on Friday evening, but when Monday came, I felt like I didn’t have a complete breakthrough, so I fasted again until evening. When Tuesday came, I felt like there was still a little more of my carnal nature that needed to be shaved off, so I fasted again that day and felt that I had complete breakthrough that evening.  When Wednesday night came I spoke on how Jesus didn’t just go to the cross at the end of his life, but he lived a crucified life everyday, choosing to deny himself and follow the will of the Father. As I neared the end of the message, I encouraged the people to be willing to live a crucified life, like Jesus did for us. As I finished speaking that last statement, a very strong presence of God fell in the room, like a blanket. First I felt it hit the top of my head, then my shoulders, then the floor and then it surged all around me.  Evidently the people in the congregation felt it too, because they began to spontaneously praise the Lord.  After I went home that night, I got down on my knees and began praying along the same lines as the message the Lord had given me, asking Him to help me to live a crucified life. Again, the presence of God fell in the room, the same way it had in the service, first hitting the top of my head, then my shoulders, then the floor and then surging all around me. I then had a vision where I saw Jesus walking back and forth on a wooden platform, like a stage, that was on the lower part of a mountain. I noticed how the people hung on His words in complete silence and it reminded me of how the people looked that night as I was speaking. I felt the Lord was showing me that it wasn’t really me they were hearing, it was Him.

I felt that if I had not fully obeyed the Lord by fasting the way He led me to that week, that we would not have experienced an “open heaven” in the service that night and I probably would not have had the vision the Lord gave me after I went home. I can’t take the credit for it. All I did was follow the leading of the Lord, but He showed me the fruit of complete obedience (and I wish I could say that I have always fully obeyed the Lord, but that would not be true, I am human and imperfect, like everyone else). So my number one point for experiencing the “greater glory” is just to obey God and be willing to live a crucified life. It doesn’t always take fasting, but it does take abiding in Him and obeying whatever He tells you to do. Moses said to Caleb “Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God,” (Joshua 14:9). Deuteronomy 28:1-2 says:  “Now it shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

Jesus said “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself, he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son does also,” (John 5:19, NIV). In John 15:4, Jesus said “Dwell in me and I will dwell in you (Live in Me, and I will live in you.) Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me” (The Amplified Bible). Any good fruit that is produced in our lives comes as a direct result of us maintaining a close relationship with the Lord; developing a listening ear (being sensitive to the Holy Spirit) and an obedient heart. God bless you all.

Kelly Rowe