The Glory Cloud around our "Christ in you, the hope of glory"

Sometimes, in Christendom, we act as if our highest strategy is some sort of heavenly hoodwink to draw people in, give them a taste of Jesus and then hope for the best. The ceiling of our expectancy is "Oh Lord, may you make yourself known to a few of those who walk through these doors tonight."

We need to set our sights higher, O Church.

Listen to Paul's perception of his calling in the Kingdom: "For I am a minister of the Church by divine commission, a commission granted to me for your benefit and for a special purpose: that I might fully declare God’s word—that sacred mystery which up to now has been hidden in every age and every generation, but which is now as clear as daylight to those who love God. They are those to whom God has planned to give a vision of the full wonder and splendor of his secret plan for the sons of men. And the secret is simply this: Christ in you! Yes, Christ in you bringing with him the hope of all glorious things to come." (Colossians 1)

Do we even start to realize that, wherever Jesus has placed us, wherever the Holy Spirit is allowed to operate in and through us, we establish a living-breathing-moving-acting-loving cloud of His glory and authority and presence among people. Any city where "two or more are gathered" is a place where it's dangerous for the evil one to enter in and ply his trade. Yet we've become so used to paltry fruit because our expectations and experiences are paltry; we invite others into our lack, not our abundance-of-Jesus. The lost world desperately needs men and women so attuned to their "Christ in me reality" that their doubts, fears, hostilities and unbeliefs get drowned in His glory-cloud.

Oh, that we'd transact each day with Paul's chip on our shoulder! Men and Women of God, that we'd own the cities we're in with the Early Church's confidence of Belief, delight and trust in the Savior-within-us!

Hear Paul's courage in this One who lived and worked through him: "The spirit of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, and prevents the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, the image of God, from shining on them. For it is Christ Jesus the Lord whom we preach, not ourselves; we are your servants for his sake. God, who first ordered ‘light to shine in darkness,' has flooded our hearts with his light. We now can enlighten men only because we can give them knowledge of the glory of God, as we see it in the face of Jesus Christ... This priceless treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common earthenware jar — to show that the splendid power of it belongs to God and not to us. We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone: we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! Every day we experience something of the death of the Lord Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours. Yes, we who are living are always being exposed to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be plainly seen in our mortal lives. We are always facing death, but this means that you know more and more of life." (2 Corinthians 4)

O Church, unity in the Body guarantees zones of Christly authority where His fragrance, glory and love are made manifest. May we come together, members of a Body filled with Him; may there be no place in our fellowships, in our cities, in this world, where He is not.