REVIVAL
Desiring To See The Glory Of God
By Pastor Cohen Gary Reckart

 

The burning desire for revival cannot come until there is a love to see the glory of God.

 

Pastors are the greatest hindrance to real Holy Ghost Revival.  Most men who step into a pulpit to begin their work as a Pastor do so with a fervent heart of fire.  They have zeal.  They have a love for the move of the Spirit.  They pray and fast often to remain in instant contact with God's voice.  They seek after God.  They hunger for the altar to be filled with repenting sinners and those crying out for more of God, even to receive the Holy Ghost.  More of God they cry!  With tears and inner agony these men and women bring the sound of travail into our services.  Pastors fall on their face before God and cry tears from burdened hearts.  The house of God is filled with an awesome glory of God.  Whether this number is five or five hundred, the effects are always the same:  God dwells in the midst of praise and supplication.  Let me see thy face these cry, let me see thy face.  Let me see thy face O God as a stand in this sanctified place!  As I receive your mercy and your grace, let me see thy face.  When Pastors lose the revelation of their first love they change the house of God into Laodicea.

 

John Wesley said his first experience with God was an inner warmth.  As he chased after God, he fell on his face and said:  I don't want to be warm God.  I want to be on fire!  I don't want to be warm God, put in me a burning fire!  We do not know of his complete experience with God but it is reported by some that Wesley was filled with the Holy Ghost and even spoke in tongues.  We do know this:  John Wesley shook England with a holiness message of revival that created a complete new denomination.  People came to his meetings because he did get the fire of God in his heart.  He sang with this fire, preached with this fire, and became what might be seen as the foundation for the holiness movement out of which came the Pentecostal Revival of the late 1800s and early 1900s.  He desired to see the glory of God.  He was not satisfied just to stand before a crowd and relish the egoism of the inner self over the number who came to hear him.  He saw revival in front of him.  He saw souls on their way to hell and the Church of England was backslid and was not meeting their spiritual needs.  He wanted to see the glory of God upon the people. If a Methodist can have this burning desire, why is it lacking in the lives of many Pastors?

 

Many Pastors do not care if there is a revival.  They do not care if there is no real Holy Ghost move of God.  They are not pushing for a move of God in their services as in the first days of their ministry when they desired a burning power of God.  Many Pastors are not praying men and they do not understand it when their Church crumbles and falls apart and ends up as empty as last year's bird nest.  They fall into self pity and blame everyone but their own laziness and lack of consecration for a real Holy Ghost Revival.  In short, some men of God have just quit, retired from the front lines, and now sit on the platforms like old eagles with all their tail feathers plucked and can't even jump.  An old eagle that can't jump can't fly either.  Some men of God don't remember when they shouted in the Holy Ghost last.  They have not shouted and danced before the Lord in so long, they don't even know how it feels.  They have come to accept a dead, dry, church service where people either enjoy the fellowship and a little prayer or they have to seek another place to find the glory of God.  Come on preacher, are you going to sit there a dying eagle who cannot mount upon on wings because you are so lazy?  Are you going to kill your Church with a Laodicaea mentality and not fall on your face to see the glory of God again?  Get up man, go to the house of God: lock the doors, scream out to God you want to see his glory.  Shut yourself in and find that first love.  Seek to see the face of God.

 

When you desire to see the glory of God you will desire to see his face!

 

Revival is seeking the face of God!

 

EXO 33:18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

EXO 33:19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

EXO 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

EXO 33:21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:

EXO 33:22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

EXO 33:23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

2Cor 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I cry unto the O God, let me see thy face!

I desire to see thy glory!

Do not let me fall into the disgrace of going slowly blind until I no longer desire to see thy glory among the people.  Please O my God, let me see thy face!

Moses wanted to see the face of God when he said "let me see thy glory."  We know this because God answered Moses and said "Thou canst not see my face."  O how Moses had that burning inner love for God to see his face.   I understand how he felt.  He has been in the presence of God and it was wonderful.  He experienced the sweetness of God's Spirit when they were together.  He had met a friend whose face he could not see.  Please O my friend, show me your face!  Let me see thy glory!  I want more then to be here in your presence.  I want more then to come up here on the mountain and talk with you.  I want more then the miracles you have done through me.  God, I want to see your face!

And God talked with his friend and said go "stand on that rock."

O God, is there a rock somewhere I can stand?  Is there a place where thy glory may pass before me.  Is there something I can do to see thy glory O my God?  For I want to see thy face.

And God told Moses he would hide him in the clift of the rock and there cover him with his hand.

Is there a Man of God somewhere who desires to see the glory of God?  Is there a Man of God somewhere who will find the rock where he must stand to meet God?  Is there a Man of God who will refuse to fill his eyes with everything but seeing the glory of God?  Can Pastors and Men of God be covered with the hand of God, so that he might show them a part of his glory?  Hide me O God.  I don't care any more for the things of the world.  I don't want anything else God.  Hide me and cover me with your hand.  Pass before me O God and let me see your glory.  If I cannot see your face, please let me see your glory.

And so God hid Moses in the clift of the rock, covered him with his hand, then removed his hand so Moses could see the hinder parts of the God of Israel.  No, he did not get to see the face of God, but he did get to see the glory.  A glory so powerful, so wonderful, so awesome, and so beautiful that the face of Moses shined from the exposure to the radiance of his glory.  Did Moses lose this glow?  No, he went among the people with a veil because the glow was so awesome.  He stood with the Ten Commandments in his hand with a glowing face.   No one asked why he was that way?  No one else desired to see the face of God out of the masses of Israelites.  They wanted religion with ritual, and salvation without power.  One man, led a nation of hundreds of thousands, who desired to see the face of God.

I have desired to see God's face.  I have desired to see his glory.  I am not content to have a church service where the glory is not present and moving among the people.  If I have to stop the music, stop the singing, and go into travail myself, I will press until the glory of the Lord comes into the midst.  If I must shut myself in the house of God and renew my convictions, renew my vows, restore holiness, sanctify myself anew, then I will do it.  I want to see the face of God.

Paul tells us that we can see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I close this email with my final thoughts:

Jesus let me see your face!  I want to see your face!  Nothing else matters.  I don't want to be warm Jesus, I want to be on fire!  I want to have revival in my soul.  I want the inner burning of the Holy Ghost. 

Let me see your face Jesus....

Your son