The Glory Has Departed...

1Samuel 4:21 (KJV)

The Glory is departed from Israel, because the ark of God was taken,...

Nothing more than one sentence, that was all the Lord gave me to read. But what He said was much more and deeper and holds a message for today, a message for you and me.

The ark, the symbol of the presence of God was taken by the enemy of Israel. Looking to the Church today we see that the enemy has taken the presence of God away from many Churches to, he could only do that by the permission given by the Church. How can we see the presence of the Lord today? By the presence of the Glory of the Holy Spirit. When it was about time for Jesus to leave the earth and to return to the Father, he promised the Holy Spirit, who would guide us in all truth. He would manifest the presence of God, His Glory. And because the Glory has gone all what is left is tradition, and not the right tradition as a way to remember what God has done and can by that still do, but as the idol; this is what we are and this is what we will be, we will not change.

We have so many programs, traditions and plans for the Church that we hardly miss the Glory, but we have to work so hard to get people to come to Church, or to stay in Church. If we had the Glory again, like we see now and then here and there, than would we see people come and stay like is written in the book of Acts, acts of the Holy Spirit.

What do we do... leave it like this or take back what belongs to us?

If we want the Glory to return, the Holy Spirit to feel at home, than should we offer or beloved traditions, our programs, all we have and return to the "folly" of a love affair with the Father, seeking His heart and passion. Even if this means that people think that we are nothing more like a bunch of drunks, like they thought of the disciples.....