FROM GLORY TO GLORY
BY MARK HANBY & V. ARLEN GUIDROZ
Perhaps each of us could be likened to one who has just tumbled off the precipice of time into the swollen, raging tide of this generation, being carried swiftly toward its eternity. A drowning man will clutch at any object on the surface when tying to keep his head above the water. The initial experience of the Holy Ghost was a welcomed limb, supporting our weight and rescuing us from certain death. However, we have been in this stream for some time. Our boots are full of water, our clothes are soaked, and the limb isn’t nearly as valuable in supporting weight as it was at that first plunge. We need something more-something bigger-something with more security.
Leave Something Good, To Gain Something Better
It is perplexing for us to leave something that has been precious and valuable in order that we may find something else. But the Scripture teaches us that we go from glory to glory (II Corinthians 3:18). We
must be willing to leave something good to gain something better. The principle of renewal, working in us, demands that we let go of complete dependence in past experiences. With trusting hands we release the death grip on our initial baptism that we may flounder, plunge, and swim toward the log of greater glory drifting a few arm lengths from our present situation.
We must come to a crisis. We must be more willing to give away what we have, that we might gain something more; this is the principle of Heaven. “For God so loved the world that He gave. . .”(John 3: 16). Is Heaven poorer for His giving? Shall we not rejoice with John as the messenger comes to him, arms laden with wrath and destruction, and leads him into the city to be introduced to the Bride, the Lamb’s wife? (Rev. 21:9). Nay, Heaven is richer for His giving, and so are we’ The whole principle is established: WE GET BY GIVING! “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39).
From Victory to Victory
We go from victory to victory. We must leave Samaria’s revival to save the eunuch in the desert We must let go of the limb to gain the log. Then we must balance, tottering and teetering precariously on the log, paying the price and taking the chance to reach the over-hanging branches that will save us from the pounding falls.
Many timid souls are not willing to leave the victories of the past and continue to testify and talk of those blessed things that have happened to them years ago.
But those renewed in the Holy Ghost will talk of the present power and glory of God, proclaiming the wonderful things happening NOW and the victories that are coming in the near future because they have been willing to go from victory to victory and from glory to glory.
I. WAKE UP THE WIND
“And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven” (Mark 13:27).
Four Distinct Winds
We are the spiritual elect of God and prophetically will be gathered from the four distinct and different winds which the Bible declares will blow at some time upon each of us.
The east wind of chastening (Hosea 13:15), the west wind of blessings (Exodus 10: 17-19), the north wind of cleansing (Job 37:21-24), and the south wind of renewal (Job 37:14-17), must sometime come to every one of God’s elect Solomon, in his Song of Love (4:16), shows us the espoused bride standing in her withered garden when she senses the nearness of her coming groom. She does not cry for chastening, nor for blessings; but the urgent voice of the end-time bride wails out “AWAKE, 0 NORTH wind; and come, thou SOUTH; blow upon my garden, that the spices there of may flow out.
The Wind of Cleansing
The north wind was Job’s wind that passed and cleansed him, bringing God to him with all of His terrible majesty–the God that Job ‘could not find out’ It brought His excellent power, judgment and justice, and a definite fear and respect (Job 37). The north wind was Ezekiel’s wind that brought Diety to him in the striking fiery amber and power that smote Ezekiel to the ground (Ezekiel 1:4, 27, 28).
The espoused bride knew that the raisins could not pass for the lush grapes and that the dried prunes upon the vine would not be acceptable as sweet plums. She knew that the shriveled fruit beneath the brown branch and the dying leaf would not be pleasant for her beloved to eat. She had to be willing for the cold, chilling north wind, that drives the ducks from the ponds, the leaves from the trees, and the brown grass into the soil, to come and strip her garden until it stood empty and alone with nothing but the promise of the south wind.
The Wind of Renewing
The south wind is the wind for going (Acts 27:13), the wind of refreshing and renewing. It is the wind that awoke in the heart of seamen the desire to put their ships to sea, discover new ports, and to explore pleasant islands. The south wind woos the spring rains that fall softly upon the cultivated tracts causing the small seeds in the soil to burst forth, sending green shoots upward toward the sun. Only after a long, hard, cold winter can a farmer appreciate the small blade of grass or a tiny leaf of corn. After the winter’s chill he is so excited that he may drop to his knees, fascinated at the first showing of green across the wintered field.
The north wind has driven everything but memory away and now comes the renewing. The new world is sweet and fresh; all things come to life again. The feelings that had once died in the farmer through
familiarity are now vibrantly renewed. Where once he strolled carelessly through the fields, tramping down the familiar stalks, not careful for the moaning of the common plants; he now places his feet
very carefully between the tender rows. The heart of the husbandman thrills with the song of spring. He has been willing to leave one victory to come to another. After suffering the north winds, the renewing again brings to him that FIRST LOVE, the ONLY hope of the church.
The cry of the espoused bride, in hearing the footfall of her coming lover, is not for blessings, but that she may be stripped of all past benefits and be renewed with lush new fruit that her lover may find her
garden pleasant to eat from.
II. THE CRISIS
The renewing of the Holy Ghost is God’s “Shibboleth” to the church, Pastor; it is the watchword of life or death! (Judges 12:6). Renewing brings a sense of emergency to the church. Stricken saints will moan
with their heads under the altar as though they had never known God at all. Young people in your congregation will lay on their faces in travail groaning out spiritual utterances-expressing their pain and
grid And the pastor will find himself staring blindly at the people, with a haunting emptiness in his soul, strangling at times on the very words he tries to moralize. Eventually, the once well-satisfied, comfortable congregation becomes a ragged nest of mourning, searching, dying people; striking out wildly from the limb of salvation to the log of renewing. Floundering, flailing, coughing and choking, where once they were at ease and secure; they now chance life, to find its deeper meaning.
Violent Winds of Renewal
The bland messages that have been warbled over and over again unexpectedly become choking sobs as the minister weeps between the porch and the altar, standing pleadingly between God and men. Tact is
flung to the winds and arguments for security disappear. Past blessings and accomplishments are completely obliterated by rivers of salty tears. The unconcerned and the hypocrites become sadly
outstanding by their refusal to participate, and every church service seems to be paced by the chiming of the bells of eternity.
The phrase ‘inherit the wind’ (Proverbs 11:29), reveals the principle that rewards, both good and evil, may come in time. Many end-time Pentecostals passively insist that greater glory and victory may be
inherited by those who wait These drowsy Christians have immortalized the phrase ‘when God gets ready’ and have evasively omitted ” The violent take the kingdom by force” (Matthew 11:12).
Beware! We haven’t time for pleasant zephyrs to awake and aid us at their leisure. The coming of our groom is at hand! We observe His approach through the sooty mirrors and darkened glasses of this hell-
bound generation. In gutteral. tones of anguish we should plead. . .”Oh, blessed wind of Pentecost where did you make your bed in this dark night of sin … Holy wind of Apostolic boldness, our churches are
unshaken in your absence … WAKE UP OH WINDS and gust into our sanctuaries, leveling our idols of tradition and ripping down our proud banners of apathy. ”
The Spring Will Come
Now, seeking, hungry saints fill hours with lonely, tearful prayers; men leave their jobs and come home early because of crushing burdens. Ladies abandon their washings to fall beside the couch, tearfully
battling to gain a new place in God. Young people with tear-stained cheeks look for a closet of prayer.
It’s happening! Fresh testimonies are bursting forth. Reports of healing sweep in! The entire church is abruptly caught up in a vast feeling of revival. No one is talking about the good old days for everybody is consciously aware of the present power and renewing of the Holy Ghost’ The sound of the dressers’ axe rings clearly through the vineyard! His pitiful voice speaks. . . “Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none. ..” With a sigh of resignation he regretfully announces cut it down!” (Luke 13:6-9).
Alas! Necessity is laid upon us; we must be rebaptized. As Rachel mourned for children and would not be comforted “…give me children or else I die” (Genesis 30:1), so may we sorrow for our fruitlessness.
“RENEW ME OR I DIE!”
==================================================================
THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS TAKEN FROM THE POWER WITNESS AND PUBLISHED BY THE GENERAL HOME MISSIONS DEPARTMENT UNITED PENTECOSTAL CHURCH, HAZELWOOD, MISSOURI, PAGES 19-21.
THIS MATERIAL MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.
