THE CLOUD OF GLORY HAS MOVED
THE CLOUD OF GLORY HAS MOVED
BY R. LOREN SANFORD
I recently did a study on the cloud that led Israel through the wilderness and settled over the Tent of Meeting in Exodus 37. The cloud of glory appears as a visible
evidence or sense of the Presence of God, His radiant and sometimes
visible goodness. We feel it. Sometimes we see it. It’s the
tangible sense of His love and peace. It’s the heat you feel or
the sense of electricity flowing through you when someone prays for you
and you know you’re being touched. At our church and others
it’s been audible angel song, feathers that fall from the air or
angelic instruments we sometimes hear.
According to Exodus 37, when the visible cloud descended at the tent of
meeting, the people came out of their tents to see and sense the
Presence of God.
PROPHETIC WORD, Part I: When
the cloud of the Lord’s Presence descends, those who love Him
come to the doors of their tents and bow down in order to be present
for the manifestation.
The cloud of His Presence, has appeared in our midst in recent years in
places and gatherings where God has been welcome and free to be
Himself. When this happens, whatever was going on inside your tent,
your home, your family or your life, you must put behind you. That
presence is more important than any trouble or problem residing within
your tent. The New Testament knows this as “seek first the
kingdom of God” and all these other things will be taken care of
(Matthew 6:33).
Exodus 13:21-22 reads, "The Lord was going before them in a pillar of
cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night
to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did
not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by
night, from before the people." Notice the quality of motion inherent
in the Presence and glory of God. That they might travel. This
held true throughout forty years of wandering in the wilderness until
they entered the Promised Land. God in His goodness takes us to a
destination but you won’t arrive at that Promised Land if you
fail to move when the cloud moves.
PROPHETIC WORD, Part II: The
cloud has moved. I’ve been around charismatic renewal fifty-one
years since I was seven years old and have seen all the movements and
their emphases come and go. For more than forty years the emphasis in
renewal circles has fallen primarily on personal blessing, personal
healing and being filled with the Spirit. Now the cloud of glory has
moved from renewal, from physical healing, from inner healing and a
focus on self NOT into revival, but into something much more than that.
It’s not that God will stop doing all these things to help and
heal the individual, but the cloud has now moved and has shifted the
emphasis into the kingdom of God - the will of God done on earth in
signs and wonders to win lost souls - where we live beyond ourselves
for a purpose greater than ourselves in order to affect and change the
world around us by ministering the powers of heaven come to earth.
We’ve been about receiving, being healed and being blessed. These
things will continue but the order of the day is now the kingdom of God.
We may want to camp out on some past experience, but it’s time to
move, to pack up our things and our households and put all the issues
of life - blessings, problems, loves, hates, fears, joys, hurts -
behind us so that we can make the move. The emphasis has shifted. We'd
like to remain where once the cloud rested, but the season has ended.
As a result some of us cry out, “Take me back to Egypt. I
was comfortable there,” or we wonder what happened to the last
move of God that so blew us away. The cloud has moved.
The cloud takes us to unfamiliar places that we’re not prepared
to face unless we’ve determined to come out to the door of our
tents with our backs to the problems to focus on the glory and then
pack everything up to move with Him. We must either trust Him in this
or go back to slavery.
Motion and change meant that the glory cloud led Israel out of Egypt
where they understood a way of life, where every meal was certain and
where they knew where they would sleep at night. It was a familiar but
comfortable misery. God therefore led them out of slavery directly into
a place of exposure, danger and risk where they could only survive and
win if they trusted God. Unless the Lord provided, they couldn’t
even feed themselves.
God therefore moved Israel from a comfortable slavery in Egypt into an
uncomfortable freedom. Similarly, today God constantly moves us
out of the comfort zone and out of spiritual slumber in order to keep
us awake and alive to do us good. If we don’t grow, we die.
There’s a destiny for us to step into that will overwhelm all
other issues in life.
Revival ends when God moves and His people don’t follow because
they’ve camped out on what God used to be doing or because
they’ve surrendered it and they don’t see or accept what He
is doing now. As a result they resist the shift and miss the glory.
We have entered upon a strategic time when we must move beyond the
focus on personal healing and restoration – which has been the
emphasis for most of my life - into the kingdom of God. The cloud of
glory has moved into the age of the kingdom of God where we must cross
boundaries and minister the power of the kingdom of God to a world that
doesn’t know Him. If you don’t pack up everything and move
with it, you stink up your house and die. Destiny is at our doorstep.
R. LOREN SANFORD
BY R. LOREN SANFORD
I recently did a study on the cloud that led Israel through the wilderness and settled over the Tent of Meeting in Exodus 37. The cloud of glory appears as a visible
evidence or sense of the Presence of God, His radiant and sometimes
visible goodness. We feel it. Sometimes we see it. It’s the
tangible sense of His love and peace. It’s the heat you feel or
the sense of electricity flowing through you when someone prays for you
and you know you’re being touched. At our church and others
it’s been audible angel song, feathers that fall from the air or
angelic instruments we sometimes hear.
According to Exodus 37, when the visible cloud descended at the tent of
meeting, the people came out of their tents to see and sense the
Presence of God.
PROPHETIC WORD, Part I: When
the cloud of the Lord’s Presence descends, those who love Him
come to the doors of their tents and bow down in order to be present
for the manifestation.
The cloud of His Presence, has appeared in our midst in recent years in
places and gatherings where God has been welcome and free to be
Himself. When this happens, whatever was going on inside your tent,
your home, your family or your life, you must put behind you. That
presence is more important than any trouble or problem residing within
your tent. The New Testament knows this as “seek first the
kingdom of God” and all these other things will be taken care of
(Matthew 6:33).
Exodus 13:21-22 reads, "The Lord was going before them in a pillar of
cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night
to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did
not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by
night, from before the people." Notice the quality of motion inherent
in the Presence and glory of God. That they might travel. This
held true throughout forty years of wandering in the wilderness until
they entered the Promised Land. God in His goodness takes us to a
destination but you won’t arrive at that Promised Land if you
fail to move when the cloud moves.
PROPHETIC WORD, Part II: The
cloud has moved. I’ve been around charismatic renewal fifty-one
years since I was seven years old and have seen all the movements and
their emphases come and go. For more than forty years the emphasis in
renewal circles has fallen primarily on personal blessing, personal
healing and being filled with the Spirit. Now the cloud of glory has
moved from renewal, from physical healing, from inner healing and a
focus on self NOT into revival, but into something much more than that.
It’s not that God will stop doing all these things to help and
heal the individual, but the cloud has now moved and has shifted the
emphasis into the kingdom of God - the will of God done on earth in
signs and wonders to win lost souls - where we live beyond ourselves
for a purpose greater than ourselves in order to affect and change the
world around us by ministering the powers of heaven come to earth.
We’ve been about receiving, being healed and being blessed. These
things will continue but the order of the day is now the kingdom of God.
We may want to camp out on some past experience, but it’s time to
move, to pack up our things and our households and put all the issues
of life - blessings, problems, loves, hates, fears, joys, hurts -
behind us so that we can make the move. The emphasis has shifted. We'd
like to remain where once the cloud rested, but the season has ended.
As a result some of us cry out, “Take me back to Egypt. I
was comfortable there,” or we wonder what happened to the last
move of God that so blew us away. The cloud has moved.
The cloud takes us to unfamiliar places that we’re not prepared
to face unless we’ve determined to come out to the door of our
tents with our backs to the problems to focus on the glory and then
pack everything up to move with Him. We must either trust Him in this
or go back to slavery.
Motion and change meant that the glory cloud led Israel out of Egypt
where they understood a way of life, where every meal was certain and
where they knew where they would sleep at night. It was a familiar but
comfortable misery. God therefore led them out of slavery directly into
a place of exposure, danger and risk where they could only survive and
win if they trusted God. Unless the Lord provided, they couldn’t
even feed themselves.
God therefore moved Israel from a comfortable slavery in Egypt into an
uncomfortable freedom. Similarly, today God constantly moves us
out of the comfort zone and out of spiritual slumber in order to keep
us awake and alive to do us good. If we don’t grow, we die.
There’s a destiny for us to step into that will overwhelm all
other issues in life.
Revival ends when God moves and His people don’t follow because
they’ve camped out on what God used to be doing or because
they’ve surrendered it and they don’t see or accept what He
is doing now. As a result they resist the shift and miss the glory.
We have entered upon a strategic time when we must move beyond the
focus on personal healing and restoration – which has been the
emphasis for most of my life - into the kingdom of God. The cloud of
glory has moved into the age of the kingdom of God where we must cross
boundaries and minister the power of the kingdom of God to a world that
doesn’t know Him. If you don’t pack up everything and move
with it, you stink up your house and die. Destiny is at our doorstep.
R. LOREN SANFORD
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