The Power of God’s Manifest Presence
Prayer Shapes History
Voices from the Past:
“Generally, if not uniformly, prayer is both starting point and goal to every movement in which are the elements of permanent progress. Wherever the Church has been aroused and the world’s wickedness arrested, somebody, somewhere has been praying.”
— Dr. A. T. Pierson
Scripture:
What a beautiful home, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies! I’ve always longed to live in a place like this, Always dreamed of a room in your house… how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!
Psalm 84:1-2, 5-7 (MSG)
Then GOD will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.
Isaiah 4:5-6 (MSG)
The Threefold Presence of God:
1. God’s _____________ Presence. (I believe it!)
2. God’s _____________ Presence. (I sense it!)
3. God’s ____________ Presence. (I see it!)
Scripture:
After this, the man brought me back around to the east gateway. Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel appeared from the east. The sound of his coming was like the roar of rushing waters, and the whole landscape shone with his glory.
Ezekiel 43:1-2 (NLT)
When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated—the silver and gold and all the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of God’s temple.
2 Chronicles 5:1 (NIV)
The Treasures of the House of God
Facts about Solomon’s Temple:
- According to the Illinois Society of Architects (in 1925), the cost of Solomon’s Temple at existing values of the time would have been about $87,000,000,000 (87 billion).
- According to Vallapardus, the talents of gold, silver and brass in construction were worth $34,399,110,000 (34 billion). The worth of the jewels is generally placed at a figure usually as high.
- The vessels of gold, according to the historian Josephus, would be valued at 140,000 talents. When reduced to coinage in 1925, according to Chapel’s Reduction Tables, the total would equal $1,876,481,515 (1925).
- The vessels of silver, according to the same authority, would cost even more: $3,246,720,000.
- The priests’ vestments and robes of the singers were worth $10,050,000.
- The trumpets alone were worth $1,000,000.
Additional Facts about Solomon’s Temple:
To the above, we must add the costs of building materials, labor, etc.
There were:
- 10,000 men hewing cedars
- 70,000 bearers of burden
- 80,000 hewers of stone (stone cutters)
- 3,850 overseers (managers)
- A total of: 163,850 laborers.
…All of whom worked for 7 years and 6 months. In 1925, this cost was estimated to be $344,385,440.
Concluding Facts about Solomon’s Temple:
- The materials other than gold, silver and jewels were valued at $12,726,685,000 (12.7 billion U.S. dollars).
- The total value today would be 12 times the value in 1925 of 87 million USD or approximately 1,044,000,000,000 (over one trillion U.S. dollars).
Note: One trillion dollars is equal to one million million. Thus it would take one million people, each with one million dollars, to equal a trillion dollars.
The Temple Was Extraordinary… But Something Was Missing!
Dedicating Solomon’s Temple
Four Defining “Manifest Presence” Moments:
First Defining Moment
The _______ of God’s _____________ is brought in.
Scripture:
The priests then brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim.
2 Chronicles 5:7 (NIV)
Second Defining Moment
The _________ are _______________ before ______.
Scripture:
The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated themselves, regardless of their divisions.
2 Chronicles 5:11 (NIV)
Third Defining Moment
The ________________ are ___________ in _________.
Scripture:
The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang: “He is good; his love endures forever.”
2 Chronicles 5:13 (NIV)
Fourth Defining Moment
The ___________ is _________ with the _________ of God’s _________.
Scripture:
…Then the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.
2 Chronicles 5:13-14 (NIV)
An Observation:
God’s __________, when it comes, will _________ everything _______ out of its way!
Making Room for God’s Glory
A Personal Case Study
Nine Results of a Revelation of God’s Manifest Presence in Revival
Taken from A. Skevington Wood, British Methodist Scholar
Scripture:
This prayer was sung by the prophet Habakkuk: I have heard all about you, LORD, and I am filled with awe by the amazing things you have done. In this time of our deep need, begin again to help us, as you did in years gone by. Show us your power to save us. And in your anger, remember your mercy. I see God, the Holy One, moving across the deserts from Edom and Mount Paran. His brilliant splendor fills the heavens, and the earth is filled with his praise! What a wonderful God he is!
Habakkuk 3:1-3 (NLT)
1. An ______________ awareness of ______.
2. An _________ sensitivity to _____.
3. A ____________ concern for the __________.
4. An _____________ concentration on ___________.
5. An ______________ standard of ____________.
6. A _________________ loyalty to the ___________.
7. An ___________ realization of ________.
8. An _____________ zeal in ________________.
9. A __________ for social __________.
The Real Victory!
“The great people of the earth are the people who pray. Prayer isn’t the only thing, but it is the chief thing. All spiritual victories are won beforehand in prayer. Christian service is merely gathering up the results of prayer.”
— Dr. S. D. Gordon
