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THE SHEKINAH GLORY

BY

WESLEY A. SWIFT

 

The word �Shekinah� is a Hebrew word referring to the effulgent Glory that shines for from the presence of the Most High God.  The translations of the Bible do not use the word Shekinah, but call it a light a Radiant light. We call it by the intended name:  The Shekinah Glory of the Most High Yahweh.

Recognizing and understanding the significance of the Shekinah Glory is an intense and very important part of our knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures. The Shekinah Glory as well as many other words in the Scriptures are translated rather poorly. Because of this many people have different ideas about the things spoken of in those Scriptures. They look for the eventual doom of ungodly men and for their endless torture and punishment because they do not understand what they are reading. You should understand when reading the Scriptures that they contain the message, which is a glad tiding of great joy to all people. I can assure you that it would not be glad tidings to someone who is going to be punished and tortured throughout all times and ages. Thus we have some things to learn about the Grace and the Light of Yahweh.

Out of the vastness of the Majesty of God�s creation, we have Him coming out the yesterdays creating the heavens and the earth. He created also the sidereal systems whose magnitude we are unable to comprehend. Physicists who study relative energy and the patterns of the universe see its tremendous curve; they see its endless magnitude and realize that God has been creating forever and ever and that there will always be God as long as there is a universe.

He has been creating in the Majesty of His power and we discover that the Light of Yahweh and the substance of His Spirit is an effulgent light a radiant Glory. We see that Yahweh has an entity of Spirit, which is exactly like the physical body, which we possess. When Christ was in the world, His physical body was the exact image of his Spiritual body; and that is like unto the bodies we ourselves possess. His Spiritual body was synthesized and filled with a tremendous Light, and this effulgent light was the Glory of Yahweh.

May places in the scriptures talk about the Glory of God and how the Glory of God fills the heavens and the earth. For example: �And Yahweh went before His people by day in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar of fire.� (Exodus 13:21)

Here we discover that He took his people out of Egypt and traveled over them using His Shekinah Glory to protect them and to show them the way. The cloud was visible evidence that He was there. In the14th Chapter of Exodus we read in verse 19 �And the angel of Yahweh which went before the camp of Israel, removed, and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before their face and stood behind them.�

Here again we are reading of the Shekinah Glory of Yahweh and how this great light went behind Israel to shield her from Pharoh and His army. We see the protecting of Gods people by the Light of Yahweh as He went before them, behind them and above them. For forty years this Shekinah Glory hovered over the Israelites in their exodus, acting as a Witness unto His people of His tremendous power and glory.

When Moses led these children of Israel out of Egypt, he led 3 million people from the land of Goshen to the Red Sea, then across the Red Sea into the wilderness. There was not one lame, blind or sick person among them because the Glory of Yahweh was there to heal them and carry them forward. Those people walked under the protection of the Shekinah Glory of Yahweh.  There is no question of its Majesty and brightness, but remember: He talked of the day when He would shine forth across the whole world.

Ezekiel the prophet, talked about the Shekinah Glory of Yahweh, which he saw when he was standing in the field. He saw the great circular ships come in to land; he described the wheels within wheels, the markings on the ships of the flying fleet of God also the four living creatures, which we find to be the same as the beasts around the throne of God spoken of in Revelation 4:7. This marking according to the book of Numbers, Chapter 2, were on the standards of Israel. They are the signs that were to fly the highest, on each side of the tabernacle in the wilderness.  On the east was the standard of Judah with its mark ing of the lion. On the south was the standard of Reuben with its marking of the man. On the west was the standard of Ephriam with its marking of the ox or calf; and on the north was the standard of Dan with its marking of the flying eagle.

Thus Ezekiel tells about the great ships of the Most high as they came in to land in their formations. While he watched, he saw in the midst of these ships of a great flagship. A door opened, and they took out of that ship a throne; and upon that throne Ezekiel beheld One Who radiated a Shekinah Glory. All the space around the throne was also filled with a certain radiance, which to Ezekiel seemed to be the color of amber. Then he saw the colors as of a rainbow around the head of him who sat upon the throne. As Ezekiel beheld the Shekinah Glory of Yahweh, he fell upon his face. Lying there with his face towards the ground Ezekiel heard these words: �Son of Man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak unto thee.� (Ezekiel 2:1)

Later Ezekiel was to travel in one of those great crafts that came to the plain, and he tells us that the voice of Yahweh was there.

Ezekiel was not the last nor only prophet to fall before the Glory of Yahweh. When the Apostle John was on the Isle of Patmos for the name of Yahweh, he heard the voice and a trumpet and he turned to see One in white raiment who was majestic in appearance. This One was lighter than the day and brighter than the sun. He was radiant in His Glory. John heard a voice say, �Come, John, stand on your feet. You did not fall when you walked with Me along the shores of the Sea of Galilee.� 

When John heard these words, �I am Alpha and Omega, the Lord God Almighty,� he was amazed and realized that he stood in the presence of the Messiah and that these words had come forth from Him. The Apostle John, like Ezekiel, fell before the Shekinah Glory of the Most High, but then he also stood in the presence of the Most High.

Joshua was anther who fell before the glory of Yahweh. Later Isaiah went into the Temple and he, too, saw the Glory of Yahweh. To him it was like a great flame filling the Temple.  Yahweh spoke to Isaiah and told him that he was to go and speak to His people Israel. These people were the household of Yahweh, who have emerged today as the White Christian nations of the Western world. They are the people of the Book, the descended seed of Israel. They are the Saints, the breathing offspring of Yahweh. Thus God talks to you about how He is going to fill the whole earth with His Glory. We also discover that with the essence of His Glory, He will Cleanse the whole earth.  The One we call Jesus, the Christ, was the body of God with the fullness of God, dwelling among us.

When announcing the birth of Yahshua, the Messiah (Jesus), the angel said there would be glad tiding of great joy. The reason for those glad tidings was that Yahshua came to save His people from their sins. In the process of that redemption He was to buy the whole world to take out of it the treasure, which was His people.

In the Book of Hebrews we are told that Yahshua (Jesus) came �as a man among men�. In these instances he did not bring the Shekinah Glory because if the Shekinah Glory had enveloped His body, His enemies could never have crucified Him. You will note that throughout the ministry of Christ as He was speaking to the people, He always escaped the clutches of the Jews so that they could not kill His physical body until His time had come. He told His disciples that He had told His disciples that He had chosen theses twelve, but one of them was a devil and after this, he walked in Galilee because he could not walk in Judea as the Jews sought to kill him. Yahshua, the Christ, had absolute power in His ministry. He raised the dead, healed the sick and opened blind eyes; yet He constantly protected His physical body by eluding the Jews since they sought continually for ways to kill Him. He did this until the time came for His death. As noted before, if the Shekinah Glory had enveloped His human body, there could have been no destruction of that body.

Adam and Eve, the progenitors of the Adamic race, were enveloped with Shekinah Glory as they walked the earth in their beginning. From ancient books we learn that the children of Lucifer said, �We can not stand the light of them.� Thus Lucifer seduced Eve in order to bring their fall so that they would lose their Glory.

As part of the Adamic race today we imagine what it would be like if we were enveloped in that Light and Glory. We anticipate that great event even as the Apostle Paul did. He said, �For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.� (2 Corinthians, 5:1)  Paul was thinking about his Celestial house, his spiritual being, and he said in essence, I don�t want t o die; I just want to put on my light. I want to see this body enveloped in light. This, he knew, would be the ultimate victory, �mortality swallowed up of life,� as he says in the fourth verse of 2nd Corinthians 5. Paul knew this would happen because this is what God has promised will happen; namely, that He will put his children back in the light in which they lived while in the heavens before the world was framed.

In His prayer to be glorified, Jesus said, �And now, O Father, glorify thou mw with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.� (John 17:5) He was longing for that light even as He fulfilled His responsibility.

We turn to the Scriptures and note in the Book of Isaiah 35:2, that God speaks, and we read: �The wilderness shall be glad for them, and the deserts shall bloom as a rose and rejoice, even with the joy of singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellence of Carmel and of Sharon, and they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of the Lord.�

Thus we understand that the Glory of the Lord and the excellency of Yahweh/Yahshua shall cover the whole earth. The Glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see the might Shekinah Glory of the Most High Yahweh. In Isaiah 45:11-12, We read: �Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.

�I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.�

His declaration is that all the ends of the earth are going to look unto Him. In the elements of the supernatural is the light to shine on Israel. �Arise and shine for thy light has come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen upon thee.� (Isaiah 60:1)

Therefore, what do we know about the Shekinah Glory of Yahweh? We know that the Majesty of the God of Light was demonstrated in the hour of His resurrection when He hung His head and said, �It is finished.� They took His body from the cross and put t in the tomb, but now the Celestial Being of Yahweh encompassed in light and Glory stormed the Netherworld. The princes of Lucifer cried out: �Don�t let Him in or we shall lose all His people which we have held.� But when He resurrected from the dead, He came forth in Glory and there was no stopping Him. The guards at the tomb described what they had seen as the Glory of Yahweh; but it was hard for them to describe this light. They said that it was brighter than the noonday sun and that around the tomb came a light such as they had never beheld before. One came out of the tomb who was as the son of Jupiter in His Glory. When Mary came searching for her Lord, she saw a form, which she thought, might be the gardener. She said to this figure:  �They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.  Then a voice said, �Mary� and she knew that voice. He said, �Do not touch me for the Glory has not gone from me.� At this time Mary�s human body could not have stood the electrical charge which would have been a result of her touching His body with some of the Glory still in it.

You will recall the men on the road to Emmaus who were joined in their walk by Yahshua. When He asked they why they were said, they related to Him what and occurred concerning Jesus of Nazareth. After they had finished, He said, �O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

�Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His Glory?� (Luke 24:25-26)  And then �beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.� (Luke 24:27)  In other words, He was trying to show them the need for all that had happened. Should not He have made the way of atonement for His people? Should not He have destroyed their sins? Should He not have paid for His household?

Most assuredly He could have held back Lucifer, for He had the power; but from the fall came a greater glory: He, Yahweh, fulfilling all these thins and rising from the dead in all His Glory.  Was this not really what He should have done? And He revealed this Glory to the men on the road to Emmaus when they all went into a roadside inn to eat. In Luke 24:31,we read: �And their eyes were opened and they knew him, and He vanished out of their sight. In the hours after His resurrection many beheld Him who rose in Glory.

In all these instances we are shown the Shekinah Glory. This is very significant because when Christ returns, He returns in Glory and never again will this Glory be separated from His being. This tells us that the New Age is going to be wrapped in Glory. In fact, we are told that when He re-enters the area of our world, there will be no need of either sun or moon for the Glory of God will lighten the city of Jerusalem.  In this hour we shall be glad to see Him approach in all His Glory. The return of the Christ in light and Glory is the supreme paradise of the Christian.  He will live in that Glory, in that enveloping light, and there shall be no death. The constant power of Resurrection shall be upon Him, and no harm can come to Him enveloped in that Glory. The Scriptures tell us that when He returns, we, His people, are going to be changed in the twinkling of an eye. We shall know as we re known. (1Cor.13: 12), and we shall be enveloped in light and Glory.

Yes, he hath redeemed a people, His Israel people, a mighty people; and because He redeemed them, they can now stand in His presence. More than that, he took from them their weight of transgression and sin and became to them their redeemer.  Therefore, they are looking for His appearance. Some will say, �But Israel is a long way from being perfect,� and of course this is true. However, they make their mistakes under the veil of the cross and they still work and look for perfection.

Now come the questions about the wicked. What about the wicked dead? What about the wicked who are alive? What about persons who despise the name of Yahshua, the Christ? What about all organizations that work against the Kingdom? What about all the workers of iniquity?

The Scriptures say that they shall cry out. The plan of God for them is a rather interesting program, and I will cite to you what is in the Scriptures. You will find that in 700 places where the word �fire� is used, people think of it as �perdition� or Hellfire.  In all 700 of these places, however. The word was translated from the same word, which is used for SHEKINAH GLORY or the light that light of the Holy Spirit of Yahweh. Here are some examples of what we are talking about:

�And the beast and the false prophet were cast into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.� (Revelation 19:20)

�And the devil that deceived them was cast in to the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.� (Rev. 20:10)

�And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.� (Revelation 20:14)

�But the fearful, and unbelieving and the abominable, the murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.�

(Revelation 21:8)

This passage from Revelation 21:8 is the exact same meaning of �fire as we find in the Gospel of Matthew 3:11 where John the Baptist is speaking: �I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.�

John the Baptist was speaking of the Majesty of Yahshua the Christ and the words �Holy Ghost� and �fire� are of the exact same substance of translation given for the �lake of fire� into which the beast and the false prophet are thrown in other quotations. This is a spiritual fire a cleansing fire, and it will be a transforming fire, the same kind with which John the Baptist and Jesus would baptize men. Luke 8:16 speaks of the same thing, and the meaning is the same. In your Strong�s Concordance, which is that massive concordance of Scripture, turn to P. 352, and in the center column look at the pattern. This is a pattern of purging fire.

There will be �weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth�, and there will be agony because in America today there are masses who do not want Christ. However, they will be thrust in to the Shekinah Glory of Yahweh, our Yahshua, and this Shekinah Glory will burn out there errors. They will cry as though in torment when this occurs. We, the children of God, understand how He can activate the consciousness and bring on a guilt complex, which makes an individual act as if he were tortured by the conviction of the Holy Spirit until he turns from his transgressions into the path of the things of the Most High God.

In the Books of Corinthians we read about the Majesty of God�s purpose, again with reference to �fire�. In the first Book of Corinthians, Chapter 3, we begin at Verse 9:

9. For we are laborers together with God: ye are God�s husbandry, ye (Israelites) are God�s building.

10. According to the grace of God, which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12. (Here he likens men�s work to a foundation of Gold, etc.)  Now if any man builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble;

13. Every man�s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man�s work of what sort it is. (Again we have the same word the Shekinah Glory of the fire of Yahweh�s divine presence)

14. If any man�s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

15. If any man�s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Notice that if any man�s works be burned up, still the man himself will be saved by this fire. Again this is the work of the purging Divine influence of the Holy Spirit of Yahweh, and the Holy Spirit carries the Shekinah Glory of Yahweh. Therefore He is going to cast into the lake of His Shekinah Glory all those who do evil or are filled with evil and they shall be there forever and ever. This word �forever� is translated from the word �aion� and it means �for a time or a season�. Thus those who are cast into the lake of His Shekinah Glory will be there for a �time or a season� during which evil will be purged from them.

We are told in Philippians 2:10 �That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.�  Hymns are going to be sung in the heavens, in the earth, and even in the Nether worlds where perdition exists.

So we see that the Scriptures repeatedly proclaim the Glory of the Most High. Here on earth we are carrying out a battle to spread the truth. We are identifying ourselves with our Saviour and His great Salvation, so Majestic, so Divine. To the ends of the earth we have held out the opportunity to know Him, but His enemies will not see because they cannot see. Because of their blindness the children of Lucifer cannot see the things of Yahweh. Remember that in John 8, Jesus told them that they did not believe him because they were not of God (John 8:46-47) but the time will come when the refining influence of the light and Glory of Yahweh will purge out the errors and make new creatures of these people.

By spreading the truth we are fulfilling prophecy for this era.  The Satanic forces are battling us as in their error they have created depressions and wars bringing us to that time of prophecy where we are at the door of the final climax of Armageddon. Make no mistake about the fact that the sons of darkness have brought this to pass. However, in our determination to carry out the program of Yahweh, we will resist the powers of darkness and if necessary we, in turn will kill and destroy to save the Kingdom. We will fight for the liberty of people, even though they do not by their actions deserve liberty. This is the program of Yahweh�s Kingdom, and He says that He rises up His many sons, and they are His battle-axe and weapons of war. In His wrath He will utterly destroy the forces of His enemies; yet in the fullness of His prophecy, will reach out and redeem and save according to the great magnitude of His Glory. I point out to you that in his declaration even so they will be saved by FIRE.

The words �Sheol� and �Gehenna� are translated in the Bible as �hell�. �Sheol� means the �grave� and �Gehenna� refers to the fire in a garbage dump outside the walls of Jerusalem. This fire burned for 2000 years, but a study of the Scriptures shows that it is used very few times; and at no place is the kind of fire used in relationship to the punishment of the wicked.

The Shekinah fire, The Glory of Yahweh, is the punishing, refining fire. It is the punishing fire because evil natures do not want to think right. These forces in the world today curse and scream at the name of Yahshua, The Christ. They hate the name of Jesus the Christ, and yet some day they will have to acknowledge and bow the knee and admit that He is Yahshua/Yahweh the Eternal One; for He will be the triumphant One and will be all in all.

We have the everlasting Gospel and it is good news to all men.  We the children of Yahweh, the household of the Most High have been enveloped in His truths. They have become a part of us that cannot be removed from our beings; thus we live under and by the teachings of the Gospel and follow the signs of prophecy.  For these reasons we watch the news of our day and stand against what we read and hear.

Then we remember:

Isaiah 45:22 Look unto Me and be ye saved, all ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.

1 Tim. 2: 3-4 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (Did you hear that word ALL?)

1Tim. 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God (Yahweh/Yahshua) who is the Saviour of all men��

Psalms 65:2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.

Psalms 22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord�

Luke 3:6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Isaiah 52:10 The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Isaiah 45:17 But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation�  (And)

Romans 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

In Isaiah 43:9, we read: �Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.� These questions are asked to show that no one can carry out His plan. The ends of the earth are going to be reformed and redeemed, and brought into a new capacity by the Most High God. This does not happen in a short life span of a people, but it is the program of Yahweh, the Most High.

In Isaiah 49:26, we read�all flesh shall know that I am Lord am thy Saviour (Yahweh/Yahshua) and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.� And in Isaiah 66:23: �And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.�  Then in Psalms 33:8: �Let all the earth fear the Lord.� Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.�

These declarations don�t leave us much room for a defeated Christ!

He says: I shall be triumphant. I have the power to bring every soul, and I shall bring every last one of these to My feet. They are going to acknowledge me; they are going to acknowledge that you are My sons and daughters. Although they would not acknowledge you or recognize you and although the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing (such as wanting to throw off the yokes of control, culture and civilization), the Scriptures tell us that the enemies of Christ, those who follow the errors of Satan are going to worship the Most High God, and they are going to acknowledge that you are His sons and His daughters.  So we talk about how great is redemption, and we talk about the majesty of Calvary�s Cross. No wonder the Apostle Paul said: �God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus the Christ.� (Galatians 6:14)

I would like you to know that in the great and might of our God; He has provided so great a salvation because of the Shekinah Glory, which is the pulsing vitality of Yahweh, thy Yahshua. He as not as yet exposed the earth to this glory, but in the hour of His coming, it will envelope the earth from sea to sea, and from pole to pole. We, His children have the glorious promise of this declaration.

In America we have seen the development of technology. We have seen the work of our scientists, and we have seen the fulfillment of the prophecy, �Blood on the moon�, as our men of Spirit moved through space and walked as men of blood, on the moon. The revelation of Spirit in the consciousness of men has made these things possible. Everything that you have dreamed of doing has been done through the vision the Most High has provided. The Adamic people have sought to place our knowledge on the spools of computers and have made the instruments before which we sometimes stand in awe. As we think about these things, we remember that He said, �Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.� And we know that the essence of all knowledge and wisdom come from inspiration of the Most High God.

There is no question that things at the end of this age are fast moving toward a climax. We fight and we resist, and we work for the Kingdom knowing that God will raise up leaders, warriors and preachers and through them He will bring in the most triumphant period in all history. Yes, the forces of darkness can lead us to Armageddon but we stand fast knowing that the Victory of Yahweh/Yahshua will come out of the chaos.

Remember that in the hour of His appearing we shall be like Him.  We see Him now only dimly in the Majesty of His Glory; but all flesh shall be saved as it is written, and His Shekinah Glory will at last take away all transgression and purge out all error. Then the world shall be: each according to his own, each according to his race, each in his place in the category that God ordained from the beginning.

Thus we await the purging, refining fire of HIS SHEKINAH GLORY.            

 

 

 

 

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