Some years ago, the Lord showed me a vision of the glory that was destined to be released on the earth before Jesus' return. It was vast and very heavy, and it was being held back by what looked to me like a thin, elastic sheet of some kind. As I looked at it, I was reminded of a balloon filled with water. The water will put pressure against the balloon and stretch it so thin, that you know by looking at it, it's about to burst. That's what the coming glory looked like to me. So continue to pray. Keep poking at that spiritual membrane with prayer and with faith until it breaks and spills the glory all over the earth.

In light of the vision God gave me, I believe only one thing can account for such a supernatural increase. The membrane that held back the glory now has burst! A powerful change has taken place in the realm of the spirit. The storm of God's glory has been released in the earth. The earth is now filling up with that glory. We're only on the edge of it right now. If you're alert to spiritual things, I'm sure you've already spotted a few lightning bolts of God's power dancing on the horizon. You've already felt the wind of the Holy Spirit picking up force.

My friend, it is time for the glory. We've reached the last of the last days. We've come to the time the prophet Zechariah prophesied about when he wrote, "Ask of the Lord rain in the time of the latter or spring rain. It is the Lord Who makes lightning, which usher in the rain and give men showers of it, to every one in the field" (Zec. 10:1, AMP). Zechariah wasn't just referring to natural rain. He wasn't just talking about natural lightning. He was referring to that bright, shining cloud of God's glory that would usher in the outpouring of the Spirit and open the way for the end-time harvest of souls.

He was pointing to the same day James referred to in the New Testament when he wrote, "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain" (James 5:7). Both Zechariah and James were looking ahead to the time immediately preceding the return of Jesus. That's our day! We've reached that time. The glory is beginning to flash around us and the rain has started to fall.

It is awe-inspiring to think that God has chosen this generation of believers to be alive at this moment. He has chosen us to help usher in the glory. What a great privilege! But with great privilege comes great responsibility. Because of the time in which we live, we cannot afford to just sit around and play church. We cannot afford to wave our hands without giving any thought to what the glory actually is.

It is our responsibility to follow the example of the Apostle Paul and make it our determined purpose to know Him, the Anointed One and His Anointing, to know His burden-removing, yoke-destroying power, and to know the power of His Resurrection, which, according to Romans 6:5 is the glory of God (Phil. 3:10). It's our responsibility to press on into Jesus until we come to know and understand the glory!

Some people shy away from that responsibility. They say, "Well, I'm not seeking the glory, I'm just content to seek the Lord." But you can't separate the two. You can't separate Jesus, the Anointed One and His Anointing, from the glory. You can't separate the Holy Spirit from the glory. You can't separate the Father from the glory. They are all One, and they are all glorious! Seek the Lord and the knowledge of His Glory.

As I've researched the glory, I've found that it is manifested in various ways throughout the Bible. It is manifested as fire. It is manifested as wind, rain and lightning. It is manifested as a bright, glowing cloud, brighter than the noonday sun, and it is manifested as light. So as we hunt for the glory of God through the following scriptures watch for references to fire and light, they'll serve as signs to let us know we're on the right track.

With that in mind, we'll start tracking in the book of Habakkuk: "God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise (Hab. 3:3, KJV) "And His brightness was like the sunlight; rays streamed from His hand, and there in the sun like splendor, was the hiding place of His power" (Hab. 3: 4, AMP). Consider for a moment those bright, sun-like rays streaming from God's hands. Let that image of the glory sink into your heart.

In Acts 2 it says, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them." (vv. 1-3) To get the impact of what happened on the Day of Pentecost, you have to forget the Sunday School pictures you've seen depicting tiny flames hovering over the heads of the disciples. Go back and think about that blazing fire of God's glory.

The disciples were just sitting there praising God and worshiping when all of a sudden everything was shaken with such a great sound of wind that it sounded like a freight train coming through a tunnel. It was the glory! It roared in and filled the whole room. Then a blazing fire appeared, and He sat on or enveloped each disciple one by one!

God Himself walked into that room in all His glory. For thousands of years, ever since the Fall of Man, it had been necessary for God to hide Himself from men because the undefeated sin nature made it impossible for them to withstand His glory. When Moses was in God's presence, He had to be protected with a cloud. When the priests of Israel ministered to Him, He had to cover Himself with a cloud.

But on the Day of Pentecost, God was able at last to embrace His people. There wasn't any danger anymore. They'd been washed in the blood of Jesus. Sin had been defeated at Calvary. They'd been reborn and made righteous with God's own righteousness. So He could come to them without any cloud, without any covering of any kind. He could come to them as His own glorious Self!

It's our time to walk in God's glory. It's our time to walk in that brighter-than-sunlight, radiating, fiery power that is so pure and full of the presence of God that the devil can't withstand it. The Apostle John wrote about walking in that kind of glory in 1 John 1:5-7, but for years we've missed the impact of what he said because we haven't understood the connection between the light and the glory.

Read that passage with that connection in mind, and you'll see in a whole new way: "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin."

It's God's plan for us to walk in the light as He is in the light, to walk in the glory as He is in the glory. It's His plan for us to be "blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Phil. 2:15).

The glory is here and it is time for us to shine! God doesn't intend for us to wait until we get to heaven to shine. He's equipped us to do it here and now in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. So stretch your capacity to conceive and to believe. Study what the Word says about the glory. Be like the Apostle Paul and make it your determined purpose to know Jesus and to know the power of His resurrection. Make it your aim to walk in the light as God is in the light. Believe and you shall surely see the glory of God.