Shekinah

Shekinah (Shawkanaw) Hebrew root “Shakan” = to reside or permanently stay; abide, continue; dwell; have habitation, inhabit, lay, place, (cause to) remain, rest, set (up).




In a recent article in Zion’s Fire, by Kevin Howard, I was riveted as I read about the Shekinah glory as it is described in Scripture. I have read similar things before, but this time a fresh revelation of it seemed to penetrate my Spirit (dividing between the “soul” and the “spirit” as described in Hebrews 4:12).


I believe for many of us who are followers of Jesus, this longing for Heaven is being felt more keenly in the midst of a world turning rapidly toward evil. It may be my age. With much of my life behind me, this thing called “eternity” which is engraved upon my heart, is becoming more pronounced. But I hear this same longing in those much younger than I. I believe we are nearing that time and as Hebrews 10:25 tells us, we must not forsake the assembling of ourselves together to encourage and edify one another “especially as the day draws near.” That last line is not just tagged on—it carries great weight. We need each other. Please hear this: We Need Each Other! We are fellow sojourners in a foreign land and we are coming to a time when we will find comfort and support in our fellow sojourners.


This passage of scripture, using the original Greek meanings of the words may read more like:


“Let us not leave behind in some place, desert or forsake the complete collection of the body of Christ—meeting for worship and gathering together for the purpose of calling near, inviting, invoking, beseeching, comforting, intreating and praying for each other, and more and more as the period of the age of judgment is approaching.”


As this picture of bedraggled saints clinging to one another as darkness approached, was painted vividly before my eyes, I was drawn deeper into a place of holy awe as the image of the Shekinah began to sketch itself out onto a canvas before me. Artists begin a canvas with a rough sketch and then paint in areas in patches of color, leaving the details for last. On this canvas, the sketches that God painted through the writings of Old Testament prophets and poets and through the little "pictures" of Himself through events and people, were but line drawings of what was to come. Perhaps it is time we gaze at the painting again to see what fresh insights He has for us “as the day draws near.”


King David passionately exclaimed , “Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour (His glory) dwelleth” (Ps. 26:8). He was referring to the holy Temple, the place of God’s glory. The Temple stands alone. God’s glory sanctified the Temple, made it holy, and set it apart from all other buildings in history.


The meaning in Hebrew of the word “glory” is Kavod. It is related to the Hebrew word which means “Heavy.” The word is used hundreds of times in Scripture. His glory is His weight. It is everything about Him which impresses His creatures, and gives Him influence and honor with them. The Bible commands us to glorify or give glory to God. The psalmist equated this to worship, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Ps. 29:2). When used as a verb, glorify means "to assign weight to something. To give honor, respect or praise or to recount what impresses a person." Glorifying God is the very heart of worship. It is telling God what is weighty and impressive about Him and why He is so worthy of devotion and praise. “The word ‘worship’ has lost its clarity, but the word from the Old English was ‘worthship.’ Some would define worship in man-centered terms; whether they sensed God speak, felt a heightened sense of emotion, or utilized a certain music style or posture. But Biblical worship by definition always focuses on God’s worthiness. This is Biblical worship. The Westminister Confession of Faith states: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Man was created to glorify God.”


Throughout the Scriptures, God manifested His glory in the form of fire, described as a glory-fire column of both fire and smoke. As fire, it radiated light. As a dense cloud of smoke, it was dark and billowed with movement. God was in both." Thus, in times when I have experienced the radiant light of Jesus, felt His presence and heard from Him, I have been in that column of light; glory-fire. However, and more importantly, when I have experienced a time of dark billowing smoke, not hearing from Him, not feeling His presence, and feeling He was not hearing me, I was still in the presence of the glory fire, the column of smoke—it just looked and felt different, but the light and the dark are the same to Him. (If you don’t believe me, check out Ps. 18:11 “He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies”; Ps 88:6 “Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps”; Ps 88:18 “Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness”; Ps 97:2 “Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne”; Ps 139:12 “Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.”).


Darkness and light are both alike to Him. He is in both. God is in this. He is in the good times, the times of blessing and refreshing; and He is in the times of shadow and storm.


“The glory of the Lord blazed with fire. Its fire was enfolding, drawing tightly back into itself instead of fanning out. This swirling, fiery cloud flashed with interior bursts of lightning. It was surrounded by a brilliant halo of light which lit up the sky.” Ezekiel saw God’s glory approaching and saw more of its terrifying detail with winged beings, “lightning and fire flashing between them above a bed of red-hot coals and the light source at the cloud’s core—the Lord, in the form of both man and fire, sitting on a stunning sapphire-blue throne, brilliant light emanating from Him and a bright rainbow encircling His throne.” Ezekiel fell to the ground at the sight. “Shakah”, the true meaning of worship—“fall face down.”


"The glory-fire was a living person. It was more than elemental fire or smoke. The glory-fire was divine in nature. The glory-fire was a separate person of the Godhead. The glory-fire was the visible sign of God’s presence.


“The meaning of the glory-fire was so evident that post-biblical rabbis simply called it the Shekinah (dwelling) glory. That is, the Shekinah glory indicated the dwelling of God’s presence in their midst. Shekinah is derived from the root verb “shakan” (to dwell, abide, rest upon) and is related to the Hebrew word for Tabernacle (mishkan), dwelling place. Literally, the Dwelling Glory (Shekinah) dwelt (shakan) in the Dwelling Place (mishkan) or Tabernacle. The Shekinah always signified the dwelling of God’s presence. The Targum Onkelos, an ancient Aramaic translation of the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, substituted the word Shekinah everywhere the term ‘my name’ occurred in Scripture.


“In Numbers 6, God gave Aaron and his sons a benediction by which they were to bless Israel. In this blessing, He alluded to His Shekinah glory: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you: The Lord cause His face to shine upon you’ (Numbers 6:24-25). This shining of God’s face is seen elsewhere in Scripture as well. 'Presence' and 'Face' are the same word in the Hebrew (panim). To be in one’s presence is to be before his face. The Shekinah glory was God’s face upon Israel.”


The Shekinah was manifested at the birth of Messiah in the announcement to the Shepherds and the star of the wisemen. The star was the Shekinah, not some alignment of planets—it moved and led them as they traveled. The Shekinah was seen in the transfiguration as Jesus changed in appearance so that He radiated as the sun. God spoke from a bright cloud (the Shekinah) at the same time. The meaning of this was not lost on the Gospel writers; John wrote “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). After His resurrection, as He overlooked the Temple from the Mount of Olives, a “cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). The cloud was the Shekinah.


Ten days after Jesus ascended in the Shekinah, after He had instructed the disciples to go back to Jerusalem and “wait,” the Shekinah fell upon them in tongues of fire. It not only fell on them, it entered into them. The New Covenant, promised—sketched out upon the canvas as a rough sketch to Ezekiel and Jeremiah and others--that one day through the indwelling of His Spirit, God would put His law “in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” so that a future generation would be indwelt and empowered for righteousness by the Spirit of the Living God dwelling within them. The Shekinah—the Glory Fire—the Tabernacle—would now be in us.


Does this not bring to life Colossians 1:26-27 “… the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in [in=fixed position in place, time or state] you, the hope of glory.”


The Shekinah is in me. He is in me in a fixed position in place, time and state and I am in Him in the very same way. There is no separation between us. Romans 8:38-39 are true—there is nothing that can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus—not even I myself can separate Him from me or me from Him.


The painting was near completion, all the drawings, sketches and color samplings ended up to be the Shekinah hanging on a cross—but the real completion—the unveiling of the finished product—was the Shekinah bursting out in that light energy from the depths of hell and then descending upon a bedraggled group of frightened believers who had no idea what was to become of them, but who obediently sat waiting as their Messiah had instructed. The Shekinah fell onto them and entered into them, coming in waves and waves of radiant flashing, fiery light to a “fixed position in place, time and state.”


What is our response to such things? Christ, the Shekinah of Old Testament mystery, dwelling in me! I fall face down in worship. I give up my right to have things my way in this temporal place on this fallen planet. I volunteer to walk in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus agreeing with His will for my life and my plans and my future (even the areas of ministry and service I thought He had called me into). I agree to “abide in Him and He in me” (John 15:4). That is all, really: To worship who he really is; to agree with Him and surrender; and to abide in Him.


Really! That is the Life. He is the Life. His Life is in me. His “glory-fire” is in me. His glory-fire will shine out and emanate from within me.


Imagine that, meditate on it and most of all—believe it! And then remember Hebrews 10:25 and realize the connection between this little bedraggled band of Christians huddled together as the world grows dark and the original little band of Christians huddled together in that upper room waiting for something they knew not and remember, that the same Shekinah glory that entered into them is now in us. Jesus had “breathed” on them and given them the Holy Spirit before He ascended into Heaven. They had the Holy Spirit. Now they were going to be transformed from the inside out by the indwelling Shekinah, the glory-fire of the Holy Spirit. Our instructions are the same:


Ro 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.


Ga 5:5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.


Joh 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.


Jas 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.


Wait.