The word “shekinah” is not a Bible
word but is a noun based on a Bible word. The word in the Old Testament is the
Hebrew word shakan, and it means to
dwell. Often a verb was converted into a noun by adding a suffix and then
shortening up a vowel. So we have the noun which came into being to describe
it, shekinah. However, the next word
is a Bible word, kabod. Its
equivalent in the New Testament is doca, “glory.” The shekinah
glory is a technical word used to describe the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ with Israel as the God of Israel. Romans 9:4 adds to this: that the
Jewish heritage included the Shekinah glory.
The seven principles related to the shekinah glory
We live in the Church Age, a
dispensation which is unique. It is the dispensation of the royal family of
God. After the Church Age is the resurrection of the Church, then the
Tribulation, the second advent, then 1000 years of perfect environment on
earth, followed by the end of history, the point at which we get the new
heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, the satellite city. Then we have
the fact that there is no temple in the eternal state because the sacred
building is present and visible to all in the eternal state. The temple is the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one time in history when there is no temple,
no sacred building, and that is the Church Age. Therefore we live in the most
unusual of all dispensations.
1. The Shekinah glory in Israel was
the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the holy of holies, Exodus 25:21,22; Leviticus
26:11,12; Psalm 99:1; Hebrews 9:6.
2. At the first advent and the
incarnation there was a change. The Shekinah glory changed residence. Our Lord
Jesus Christ came to the earth as the God-Man, undiminished deity and true
humanity in one person forever. The Shekinah glory resided in the prototype
divine dynasphere, “The word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”
3. 2 Corinthians 3:17ff, the first
word starts out by telling us that God the Holy Spirit is deity, kurioj refers to deity. “Now the Lord is the Spirit [the
Holy Spirit is God]; and where the Spirit of the Lord is,” He indwells the body
of every believer, so when the believer enters gate one of the divine dynasphere
the Holy Spirit controls the soul. We call that the filling of the Holy Spirit,
that is the power gate. There is a reason why God the Holy Spirit indwells the
body of ever believer, “there is freedom.” Never before in human history did
God the Holy Spirit ever indwell anyone. The freedom here is the freedom to
execute the protocol plan of God inside the divine dynasphere, Galatians 5:1. 2
Corinthians 3:18 adds: “But we all, with an unveiled face,” the story of the
ritual modus operandi of
the
Age of Israel is one of veils. Moses put a veil on his face when he went up to
the Mount Sinai to receive the law so that the people could not see the
tremendous glory that shone on his face from being in the presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ as the God of Israel. There was a veil in front of the holy of holies,
no one was to pass that veil on pain of death. The veil was used constantly to
indicate that that was a ritual dispensation and that doctrine was learned
through ritual function, but the ritual is gone because the Shekinah has
departed from all the ritual systems. The Shekinah glory came in the flesh and
dwelt in the prototype divine dynasphere. That changes everything. That is the
reason why for the first time in all of human history God the Holy Spirit
indwells the body of every believer as of the moment of salvation. That means
something else: that we can be filled with the Spirit, and that one of the 40
things that happens to us at the point of salvation is that we not only receive
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit but we enter into the divine dynasphere and
once we do the veil is removed. We live in a dispensation with no veil. There
is no veil except negative volition toward doctrine, the veil over the soul,
“looking into a mirror [God’s Word and the function of gate four, the momentum
gate, to produce a reflection] the glory of God,” we look into the mirror of
gate four not to produce our reflection but to produce the reflection of the Shekinah
glory who also indwells us, “are being transformed into the same image,” life
in the divine dynasphere reflects the glory of God. Being transformed into the
same image means the protocol system transfers the believer of the Church Age
into the reflected glory of our Lord, that is the Shekinah glory. In other
words, the life in us shows on the outside as we gain momentum from gate four
of the divine dynasphere, “from glory to glory,” the first “glory” is the
humanity of Christ indwelling the prototype divine dynasphere during His life
on earth. That was the Shekinah glory coming in the flesh, that was Immanuel,
“God with us” prophesied by Isaiah. Then we have the operational divine glory
and the second “glory” is function of the believer only inside the protocol
system, “to glory, just as from the Spirit of the Lord,” the ministry of God
the Holy Spirit in the protocol system, gate one of the divine dynasphere.
4. You should now reach some
conclusions. The first conclusion demands that we understand three things: In
the dispensation of Israel Jesus Christ the shekinah glory dwelt in sacred
buildings; at the second advent the Shekinah glory came personally to Israel
inside the prototype divine dynasphere so that Israel could see the humanity of
Christ and draw conclusions that this was the God-Man, this was the Messiah for
whom they were waiting; for the first time in human history both God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit now indwell every believer, each having a separate
purpose. The Holy Spirit indwells to make the believer’s body a temple fit for
the occupancy of the Shekinah glory, and Christ the Shekinah glory indwells to
produce that glory in us as the royal family of God.
5. The Holy Spirit indwells the
believer as part of the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. The protocol
plan of God is based on the fact that all ritual is canceled, that all ritual
had to do with sacred buildings. There are no scared buildings in the Church
Age even as there will be no sacred building in the eternal state, the new
Jerusalem, the satellite city above the earth. The Holy Spirit indwells the
believer as a part of the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. And since
the Shekinah glory dwells in sacred buildings, and since there are no sacred
buildings in this dispensation, the body becomes the issue. Your body is
therefore occupied by God the Holy Spirit who makes it a temple for the
residence for the Shekinah glory. The fact that you are indwelt personally by
God the Holy Spirit and indwelt personally by Jesus Christ means that there is
a way of life which is greater than anything which ever existed before and
demands a greater personal responsibility than has ever existed in all of human
history with regard to anyone, believer or unbeliever. On your shoulders rests
the responsibility for the perpetuation of the client nation.
2 Corinthians 6:16 says, “We are the
temple of the living God.” Why? Well, we have a paraphrase from the Old
Testament and the Shekinah glory: “Just as God has said, ‘I will dwell in
them’.” When did He say that? In the Old Testament. He said that He would live
in the holy of holies; now, He lives in us, “I will dwell in them and walk
among them,” that was Israel, but Israel is no longer a client nation, this is
the times of the Gentiles and this is the times of the royal family of God. And
whether a client nation survives or not depends on the daily decisions of
believers and no one else. It is because the body of the believer is the temple
that a new protocol system is designed by God to replace the ritual system of
the tabernacle and the temple in Israel.
6. Our Lord prophesied on earth when
the shekinah glory was in the prototype protocol system. When the Shekinah
glory indwelt the prototype this is what the Shekinah glory said in prophesy,
John 14:20, our Lord prophesied during the first advent that He the Shekinah
glory would indwell every believer in this dispensation. You are not only indwelt
by the Holy Spirit you are indwelt by the person of our Lord Jesus Christ: “In
that day [the Church Age] you will know that I am in the Father,” Jesus Christ
as eternal God is coequal and coeternal with God the Father, and that means
that they have identical essence though they are two separate and distinct
persons, “and you [believers of the Church Age], and you are in me [positional
truth, the formation of the royal family of God through the baptism of the
Spirit], and I in you,” that was something that was the most difficult of all
for them to understand and it is the most difficult thing for believers to
understand today - the indwelling presence of the Shekinah glory, the
indwelling presence of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Shekinah glory in every
believer in this dispensation.
7. Therefore, the necessity for the
new plan of God, the protocol plan in the divine dynasphere. This is the fact
that every believer be indwelt by Jesus Christ the Shekinah glory calls for
something by way of a plan for believers that never existed before. God has a
plan for your life and it is like something that never existed in the Old
Testament. It is superior to everything in the Old Testament. Those who
believed in the Old Testament are called “family of God” but you and I as
believers are “royal family of God.”
Colossians 1:27, “To whom God
decreed [or purposed] to make known what is the wealth [not riches. Wealth is
invisible; riches are very visible] of the glory of the mystery,” the
indwelling presence of the Shekinah glory, “in the Gentile [believers], which
is Christ in you, the confidence [or hope] of glory.” Only the divine dynasphere
contains the machinery to glorify the Shekinah glory.
Verse 28, “Him we teach, warning
every man [about living in the cosmic system] and teaching every man in all
wisdom [teaching the mechanics of the protocol system], that we might present
every man [believer] mature in Christ.”
Verse 29, “For this purpose I also
labour to the point of exhaustion, competing according to his game plan [the
protocol system, the divine dynasphere], which is operational in me [inside the
divine dynasphere].”
Romans 8:10, “In fact if Christ is
in you [1st class condition: and He is], though the body is dead [because of
the sin nature] because of sin [the sin nature], on the other hand the Spirit
[God the Holy Spirit] is life because of righteousness.”
2 Corinthians 13:5, this approaches
it from the standpoint of the privacy of the believer’s priesthood.
“Test
yourselves [only you can determine your status] to see if you are in the
doctrine [also used here for the divine dynasphere]; examine yourselves,” only
the individual believer under the privacy of his own royal priesthood can
determine whether he is living in the protocol system of God or in the cosmic
system of Satan, “Or do you not know this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ
[the Shekinah glory] is in you, unless indeed you have failed the test?” If you
don’t know that, you have failed the test. The believer fails the test through
ignorance of the Shekinah glory, ignorance of God’s protocol system, ignorance
of the divine dynasphere and even ignorance of the enemy, Satan’s cosmic
system. You have to know something to test yourself.
Philippians 1:20, the testimony of
the apostle: “According to my intense concentration [on doctrine, on Christ]
and resultant confidence, that in nothing shall I be disgraced [life in the
cosmic system], but with all integrity [of the protocol system], even now, as
always, Christ [the Shekinah glory] shall be exalted in my body,” Paul is
saying he passed the test, he was in the divine dynasphere and living there -
“whether by life or by death,” Christ indwells Paul. Paul cannot see the
indwelling of Christ except as he looks into the mirror of the Word of God and
gets the reflection of the Shekinah glory. But once he dies he is absent from
the body and face to face with the Shekinah glory. For those who are living in
the divine dynasphere life is wonderful and death is even more fantastic
because the Shekinah glory which we see reflected in the mirror of the Word of
God at gate four becomes a face to face proposition the moment we die. That is
why he concludes his testimony in verse 21 by saying, “For me, living is Christ
[the reflected glory of Christ from living in the divine dynasphere], dying is
profit.” Why is dying advantage? Because as long as he lives he is in the
protocol system; when he dies he is face to face with the Lord. He can’t lose,
he is a double winner. He is a winner in time and he is a winner for all
eternity.