We're going to meeting!

Ezekiel sees the glory of God and this great cloud that engulfs it; one that is glowing from the inside out. The light is amber and affects all around it.

He writes, “And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. [28] As the appearance of the bow 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. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.”

Jordan explains, “Notice the description there. The appearance of the light was ‘like a bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain.’ We call that a rainbow. So the appearance of this light representing God’s glory was not just a light shining out. It was that, because that’s what light does, but rather it was the appearance of a rainbow.

“Now you know where a rainbow comes from. You take a ray of light and refract it; you bend it and when you put it through a prism, which is what water vapor will do, it bends out the different shades of the light and all the colors of that light appear.

“As that light comes out through that cloud, you begin to see the appearance of the glory of God in all of the facets of what light is. You begin to see God’s glory represented in all the various facets that make up His character and essence. That’s what His glory’s all about.

“So this cloud would have been an unbelievably spectacular, majestic, awe-inspiring thing to see. Israel had it; we refer to it sometime as the Shekinah Glory--it’s the glory of His presence. It was in the tabernacle, it was in the temple, and it’s here in Ezekiel.”

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At the Rapture, Paul tells us the Lord Himself is going to descend and all members of the Body of Christ will be caught up together in the clouds in our glorified bodies that radiate His glory.

“We’re going to be caught up out of the sight of people on the earth into this pavilion that encompasses the glory of God,” explains Jordan. “Now when I read that, I think, ‘Well, I understand from the other part that it’s going to be a visible event and an audible event, but it’s also going to be quite a majestic event. This is going to be something for the heavenly host and for us. I mean, I forget about everybody else. This is not some jitterbug we’re going to go to. This is not some shindig. We’re going to go meet the Lord in all of His glory!

“When Paul says we’re caught up together with them in the clouds, in that pavilion of His glory to meet the Lord in the air, that word ‘meet’ there is used in an interesting way in the Scripture. It isn’t like we’re just going to bump into Him; we just happen to be there floating around in the air and He happened to be there too and we just run into each other. This is a planned, intentional thing where we go there to meet him.

“Down South when you go to church a lot of times people say, ‘We’re going to meetins.’ There’s a predesigned meeting that we’re going to go to. We got a meeting to attend. You got an appointment.

“Acts 28:15 says, ‘And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appiiforum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.’

“I used to know bums in the rescue mission that loved that verse. There was a saloon in Mobile called ‘The Three Taverns.’ Guys would come into the mission and say, ‘You know, we just been down to that Bible place.’

“I just want you to see the thing about they came to meet us. There was an entourage that came out to welcome Paul and his associates when they heard about him coming.

“Well, the Lord is going to come down and we’re going to go up to meet the Lord. When you were young and you were being told how to introduce people to one another, you learned to take the person of more importance and introduce the other person to them. You remember that?

“You go to a meeting, and you’ve got your spouse with you, and you meet your boss. You will introduce your spouse to your boss, kind of a thing. Well, we’re going to go meet the Lord. He’s the Big Cheese. We’re going there to meet Him. But it’s a planned meeting. He set it aside and He said, ‘I’m going to meet with you.’ ”

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A great illustration of this concept is in the famous passage from John 12 about the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem: "On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
[13] Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
[14] And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written,
[15] Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt.”

Jordan says, “Notice they go out to meet Him. They heard He’s coming. It’s a planned thing. I Corinthians 5 says we have a rendezvous with the Lord in clouds in the air. I Cor. 4:5 says, ‘Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.’ ”