11 Cor 4:6For it is the God who commanded light to shine into darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Can we know the glory of God? Can we even walk as Christians if we have never experienced the glory of God? We cannot be victorious Christians outside of this “knowledge.’ Those who have experienced the glory of God walk in victory. It is this victory that allows for joy even in the midst of suffering. For those who walk in the presence of God cannot help but radiate His glory. It is not something that is achieved by effort. If I radiate joy it’s because I am like the moon. The moon is a dead object, yet the light of the sun reflects off the moon and lights up a dark world. And just as the moon, by virtue of its position to the sun and the earth, radiates the light down into the darkness, then so to do those Christians who come before the throne and kneel before the King radiate the light from this glorious place into the darkness of the world.

Paul says in 2 Cor 2:14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place, for we are to God, the fragrance of Christ.

Do you walk in triumph? Do you diffuse the fragrance of His Knowledge in every place? If you have not experienced the knowledge of His glory then how can you radiate and reflect and diffuse the beauty of His presence and the manifest glory of who He is? If you have not stood in the manifest presence of God and glow from that encounter then how can you effectively share the reality of Jesus in your life? His life is life to us. Those whose hearts are veiled to this knowledge of His glory, who have not yet stepped behind the veil and experienced the glorious majesty of His presence cannot walk in the life of Christ that flows from that place.

Has God the Father shone this light in your heart? Have you knelt or fallen prostrate in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus? Do you radiate? Do you diffuse the fragrance of God? Do you walk in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God? When we speak of knowledge we are not speaking about information? The knowledge of the glory of God is an encounter. It is not information it is an experience. Only by experiencing the knowledge of the glory of God can we be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord ( 2 Cor 3:18)

This is the heart cry of our age. To stand in ”the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Let us lay aside everything else until we have stood in that light and been transformed from glory to glory. Let us not run the rat race but rather let us run the race that brings us into His presence. Only then share that with the passion that inevitably comes from such an encounter. People will be drawn to Christ by the light of the knowledge of glory that is in you, that is seared upon your heart, that makes you alive to the Spirit and dead to the world. Dear Lord in heaven pour out your glory into the hearts of men.