The glory of God is wondrous, beautiful, and, let's be honest, exciting. When God gives us a glimpse of his glory we are undone and overwhelmed, and invariably it makes us thirsty to see his glory more. What is more, God loves to reveal himself and display his glory to us. So, we in the West are often faced with the question: Why do we not experience more of God's manifestation? Why do we hear about powerful miracles happening in other parts of the world and not more here at home?
I certainly do not have all the answers, but there are some clues. The most obvious is the cultural paradigm we inherited from the modern era that put science and materialism on a throne. With these ruling over our mindset, anything supernatural is suspect, and anything inexplicable can not be trusted, and thus not believed. Where does such a paradigm leave us when the Bible reveals that there is a spiritual reality surrounding us in which there are many spiritual players with real power? In particular our Father, who has throughout human history, broken in on the world he created and acted supernaturally? The rationalist paradigm relegates God to a distant throne room where he sits on an impotent throne. Christians simply can no longer accept such a paradigm and where needed should repent of buying into this system of thought.
However, what I want to focus on here are those believers who no longer buy into the above paradigm, but believe and have seen God's glory and power. Such experiences give rise to two camps of people. One is problematic and causes a hindrance to the glory of God being revealed. These are those who become glory hunters. The other is not problematic, for they are those who upon coming face to face with the glory of God become that much more enamored by him and fall deeply in love with him. These are those who become glory seekers, seeking after the One that they love and welcoming him and all that he is.
Glory hunters are easily recognizable. They are people who fall in love with the power of God. They go from place to place hunting for the manifestation of his presence where miracles, signs and wonders, and other supernatural events are happening. They love the rush of being in a place where the power of God is moving. They are often those who appear to worship with the most passion and intensity, yet there hearts are focused not on worshiping Jesus in spirit and in truth, but on convincing him to show his power. And when the power of God ebbs in a place they are quick to move on from that place and hunt down where the Spirit has “landed”.
There is a danger in this form of spirituality that is fairly self-evident, but still needs to be addressed. Glory hunters have placed the focus of their faith in the wrong place. They place God below his own glory. Their spirituality is out of order, for it treats God as a means to power. Ultimately they have made a subtle mistake in their understanding that leaves them worshiping the power of God instead of God himself, and thus make of his power a god that they attempt to reach through him. Now that last statement is a little wordy, but its worth rereading to get the gist of, for though it is a subtle paradigm slip, it is important to see.
The consequence of this slip is a situation in which God responds according to who he is. In Exodus 34:14 God expressly states: Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” The result of what glory hunters do is they effectively create an atmosphere that God does not abide where he is not being worshiped but what he can offer is. If this is not dealt with then the eventual result of the glory hunters' mistake is that God removes his overt displays of power. Now we should not miss his heart in this. When he seemingly withdraws his glory in such a situation it is out of love. It is meant to raise a flag that should cause us to ask the question why? He is a gracious God who will continually call us back to himself and refocus our spiritual eyes so that our spirituality is lived out from the right foundation of loving him first. What glory hunters miss is this opportunity for loving correction, for they pack up their tents and move camp to wherever they will be able to find his power moving.
Glory seekers move in the opposite direction from glory hunters. When glory seekers see God's glory they seek after him more. The focus of their heart is on God the giver of good gifts and miracles. They are grateful for his glory and power and run to his presence to tell him they love him. They recognize that the revelation of his glory is a display of his love and they respond in kind. This draws them deeper into knowing God. Glory seekers have a spirituality that is God-centered first and foremost. They are those who love him in seasons of overt displays of his glory and in seasons of silence. Their spirituality is in order, for they place God himself above all things.
In John 17:20-26 Jesus prays for all those who would become believers. In his prayer he talks about his glory and shows what is most important to him. In verse 22-23 he says that he has given his glory to us for this reason: that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. In verse 24 Jesus goes on to pray telling the Father that he wants us to be with him and to see his glory. It is Jesus desire for us that we see and experience his glory. But we can't stop reading there, for in verses 25 and 26 Jesus shows what is at the heart of his desire, and it is this desire that glory seekers connect with and understand in their spirits. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known (now listen to why:) in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. The purpose of the revelation of God's glory is not to display power, but is rather to make God known and to make his love known. Back in the second part of verse 23 Jesus adds that the revelation of his glory will bring about love and unity between us, and this will reveal to the world the truth and reality of the Gospel. So, one of the core themes of Jesus' prayer is his desire for intimate relationship with us, and the revelation and sharing of his glory comes out of that relationship and furthers and deepens that intimacy, as well as the kingdom of heaven. Glory seekers are those who catch this vision and seek him as a result.
Interestingly, Moses expresses the very same ideas in Exodus 33 where he boldly speaks to Yahweh saying If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you (verse 13). God responds by promising to go with Moses and Israel and that he will give them rest to which Moses gives an instructive response. In verses 15 and 16, Moses essentially says that if God's Presence does not go with him and Israel then no one whom they encounter will know that God is pleased with them, nor that they are a people who have been chosen and set apart from all others by the One True God. It is God's presence that distinguishes them as a people and marks them as unique and different. Just as it is the glory of Jesus that distinguishes his Bride and marks the Church as unique from all others systems of belief.
In verse 17 God says to Moses: I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name. The same weight and importance being placed on relationship from Jesus prayer in John 17 is now clear here between Yahweh and Moses. Once they have established the above agreement based on their relationship, then Moses asks to see God's glory. Notice the order of Moses' spirituality here: to know God and to be known by Him, to be accompanied by God's presence wherever he was to go, and then to behold God's glory. Moses sought to lay the foundation of relationship with Yahweh first then sought to see his glory.
Where glory seekers are willing to remain in community and to love one another we ought to find the presence of Jesus and the presence of his kingdom, whether there are overt displays of his glory and power or not. For we do not follow his glory and power, we follow him.
I hear what your saying, but my first question to someone who was leaving a church because they felt the community they were a part of was being led into a wrong season would be: why are you leaving? If you feel so strongly that it is the wrong direction then shouldn't you at least stay awhile and try to do something about it? Now if your voice falls on stubborn ears and you no longer fit into that family, then I would not oppose someone leaving. But if we are not willing to commit to our churches with enough love to say "Hey wait a minute, this doesn't feel right. Anybody else feeling that way?" then why bother going to any church?
That sounds a bit harsher than I mean it. Of course it is true that not everyone that changes churches is a 'glory hunter' and the article is not about those situations where we are called to make a change. That is very different from what I meant by 'church hopping'. Church hoppers are those that never really stay long enough to form any kind of relationship with others.
Thanks for you comment! I really appreciate people's feed back and comments.
cheers,
ehj
Posted by: Eric H Janzen | October 02, 2007 at 05:34 PM
Thanks for the very well-put explanation of a very important distinction.
One caveat I'd add: while glory-hunters are likely to church-hop and miss the point when God brings a dry season, it's dangerous to assume that someone who appears to be church-hopping out of a dry place is therefore a glory-hunter. (Hmm, is that sentence convoluted enough?) I think there are times when those whose hearts are close to God need to get themselves out of a place which is being led into a wrong dryness; perhaps one which God never asked that community to pass through in the first place. It's easy for us to equate staying in one place with faithfulness when it may be nothing more than complacency; although of course there are times when faithfulness does ask you to stay put.
But I guess the answer to this is discernment through relationship with God, which just leads back to the whole point of this topic anyway.
(Does that make sense to others? I'm still working this one out, please let me know if this sets off spiritual warning bells.)
Posted by: josh g. | October 02, 2007 at 04:59 PM