TIMELESS TEACHINGS OF KENNETH E. HAGIN

"But he [Stephen], being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God." —Acts 7:55

Notice that when Stephen looked up to Heaven, he saw the glory of God. Have you ever seen God's glory? I've seen it on more than one occasion. Scripture has much to say about God's glory and uses words like cloud, brightness, smoke, white, bright, shone, and glistening to describe it. Let's look at some verses, beginning in the Old Testament.

 

 

 

 

 

 Exodus 16:10 says, "The glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud."

In Exodus 40:34–35 we read, "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon."

Ezekiel 1:28 says, "As the appearance of the bow [talking about the rainbow] that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord."

In the New Testament, we see where Jesus' face "did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light" (Matt. 17:2). When Saul was on his way to Damascus, a great light shone round about Him, and he could not see "for the glory of that light"
(Acts 22:11).

The Cloud of Glory

The first time I saw the glory was on the 16th day of August in 1933. It was 106 degrees outside, but I was cold as ice. I was at death's door on the bed of sickness. I told my brother Pat to go get Momma. I wanted to tell her goodbye.

When he left, the whole room lit up brighter than the sunshine dazzling on snow. Momma and Granny came running, but they couldn't get into the room. Momma later told me that it looked like a cloud had filled the room. Granny tried to get in the room three times. She backed up and tried running through the door. But each time she'd hit the glory and bounce back like she'd hit a rubber ball!

Another time I saw the glory was in December 1941. The war was on and I was holding a street meeting in East Texas. I was driving around with my PA system announcing, "Japan is doomed! Find out details in the market square." When I got to the square, it looked as if everyone in town had come.

I was about 20 minutes into my sermon when that cloud enveloped me. I don't know how much longer I preached or what I said! When the cloud lifted, nobody had a dry eye. I said, "Everybody who doesn't know Jesus and wants to know Him, step up here." Twelve grown men came forward sobbing like their hearts would break. All of them gave their lives to the Lord!

The Purpose for the Glory

What's the purpose of these manifestations?

ACTS 2:17, 19
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. . . .
19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke.
Some people think these verses are talking about bombs falling and people being killed. But that can't be so. These verses are telling us what God will do in the last days. He's not a murderer. It's the thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy
(John 10:10)—not God.

These verses are referencing signs that God has put on this earth concerning His Presence, which are:

The blood of Jesus

Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. (Heb. 9:22).

Holy Ghost fire

Tongues of fire sat upon everyone in the Upper Room. (See Acts 2:3.)

Vapor of smoke

"And the house was filled with smoke" (Isa. 6:4).

God wants to demonstrate signs in the earth through the outpouring of His Spirit. The Lord said to me back in January of 1939, "It's time for this to come to pass."

Why will God use these signs? Well, why did God deal the way He did with Israel? It was because they were spiritually dead. He had to appeal to them through their physical senses because they had no spiritual perception. He had to do something that they could see.

Today just as then, sinners are spiritually dead, so God has to go through their physical senses to reach them. And the purpose of these signs is to attract attention to the power of God and to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Signs and Wonders

During my ministry we had some supernatural things happen—and not just people being healed or baptized in the Holy Ghost.

For instance, a 16-year-old girl came to one of my meetings seeking the baptism in the Holy Ghost. She spoke in other tongues and then a spirit of travail and compassion came upon her. She stood like a statue for 8 hours and 40 minutes with her hands lifted up. During that entire time, she never once blinked her eyes.

The girl's mother was concerned because there was only one heating stove in this church building, in the center of the room, and the young girl wasn't close to it. This happened in January, and it was cold in that part of Texas. The mother asked the pastor, "Would it be all right to move her close to the stove?"

The pastor didn't know, so he asked me.

"I don't know," I said. "I've never seen anything like this before."

We decided to lift her up and move her closer to the stove. Although the pastor weighed 250 pounds, we couldn't budge her. It was as though she was nailed to the floor! We recognized that a power was involved here, so we just backed off and left her alone. She stayed that way all night. She came out of the trance the next morning at 20 minutes till nine, danced in the Spirit, and then went on to high school. She never slept, never ate, and said she never felt better in her life.

Contend for the Glory

Supernatural manifestations such as this will happen in the last days. I'm not talking about healing. Thank God for healings and miracles. But God is going to manifest His glory in unusual ways. Men and women will stand for days like statues under the power of God. People will fall under that power, and God will raise them up from the floor!
We're on the verge of this happening. So stand in faith and contend for the manifestation of God's glory!
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(Editor's Note: This article was adapted from a message Kenneth E. Hagin preached at a camp meeting in Detroit, Michigan, on June 5, 1975.)