I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.’ Acts 26:13-15.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD gives grace and glory. Psalm 84:11.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
There is an answer to hardened hearts that will change them from being zealous to do the works of the devil to hearts that are zealous to preach the good news of Jesus! One glimpse of My glory can open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to the dominion of My glorious Kingdom, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. Acts 26:18.
Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence! Does not the LORD of Hosts behold that peoples toil for fire, and nations grow weary for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:12-14.
What should you be praying for rulers of nations and others in leadership roles who are hindering those under their authority from being saved and coming to know the truth? That they be hit by My glory as with a mighty flood!
So they will fear the name of the LORD from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun, for He will come like a rushing stream which the wind of the LORD drives. Isaiah 59:19.
Saul, who is now known as Paul, had a very hard heart to My Son and the truth of the gospel. He pursued My disciples, breathing threats and murder against them, he went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. But his life took a whole different turn when My glory shone into His heart on the face of My Son.
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6.
As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from My Kingdom flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard the voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” Acts 9:3-6. The glory had hit Paul and he was blinded by that light for three days. But what he had seen in Jesus took his heart from being hard towards the truth to being totally committed with all his heart, soul, and mind for the rest of his life, and all eternity, as a disciple of Jesus and My apostle to the gentiles.
My glory in Christ arrested Paul and he was immediately changed from the darkness, the blinded mind of a hardened heart, to a new heart that could hear and obey My voice with joy unspeakable. And his encounter became his mission and assignment that he ran with the rest of his life on earth. It became his reward and his glory as he lived for My glory.
In one of the very worst episodes of hardness of heart from My own Covenant people whom I had safely and miraculously brought to the border of the promised land, I knew what the answer was that would save the next generation and the generations to come from hardness of heart, from doubt and unbelief to faith and trust. to change them to Kingdom seekers who loved My Word and treasured it with faith. As I looked with grief at the hardness of the hearts of the generation I brought out of Egypt by great signs and wonders I said what seemed a totally inconsistent prophecy of how I would counter this problem.
So the LORD said, “I have pardoned them according to your word; but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. Numbers 14:20-21.
Remember that Jesus said Moses wrote about Him.
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” John 5:44-47.
And I also tell you that Isaiah had seen the glory of Jesus.
These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. John 12:41.
When did Isaiah see the glory of Jesus seated at My right hand?
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord (Adonai, Jesus) sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD (Yahavah) of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah 6:1-3.
You cannot look upon My face and live but Jesus is My glory manifest in one like you. My glory filled with brilliant light that shines into your heart through Christ so that you can gaze upon Him without being immediately pulled out of the physical into the spiritual. When Moses asked to see My glory I told him I would show him My goodness. My glory is the exercise of My immense power by love to produce goodness and eradicate evil.
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. James 1:17.
And for you who have hearts that have received My Son, Jesus made a request of Me that I granted the night He was betrayed and then gave His life for yours that you could be with Me in the glory of My Kingdom forever. He paid the price to obtain what He asked of Me.
First He spoke to Me of the glory He had won by doing My Will in giving His life for you.
I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. John 17:4-5.
But then He made a gift to you of the glory He had won as if you had won it. But first He made sure you would know He was not only giving it to those with Him at the Last Supper but for all who would believe in Him.
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” John 17:20-21.
And then He immediately spoke that words that turned your life around to be lives of GLORY.
The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. John 17:22-23.
And then He told Me His desire that when I raised Him from the dead, that I would raise you with and in Him in the Spirit so that you would be seated with Him in Heaven at My right hand the moment you receive Him as Lord.
Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. John 17:24.
And I granted that as well. I took your hard hearts and My grace filled them with glory.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:1-10.
Dictators, politicians and others with hard hearts who block out My Word are seeking the glory of the world, the flesh and the devil, which is a fleeting and counterfeit glory that is hard to hold onto and usually ends in a violent overthrow, but if I can just shine My glory in, once they get a glimpse of the true glory that is only found in Me, they will count everything rubbish that they fought so hard for and turn to run after Me!
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him. Philippians 3:7-9.
And why did I have Paul that glimpse of My glory in Christ that hit him so hard it turned his heart from a hard one to a heart on fire with My love? The prevailing prayer of My disciple Stephen.
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep. Acts 7:54-60.
Stephen’s prayer saved everyone who stoned him that day, including a young man named Saul, who became Paul, My fearless preacher, and his prevailing prayers opened the eyes of millions to Me.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. Ephesians 1:18-19.
I love you. You have a job to do, pray for My glory to hit the nations, including yours, to change hearts from hard cold stony hearts to hearts on fire with My love and My glory. I am a sun and shield, grace and glory I bestow!
While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’ Acts 26:12-18.