Soar Conference 2026 House On The Rock Enugu Nigeria by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Meaning of Glory

The word glory is translated from many Hebrew and Greek words, but two of them matter for this discussion. The first is the Hebrew word kabod. It means honor, respect, distinction. It describes importance. As an expression of glory, it is an attempt to measure the worth of a person or a thing, and it causes praise to spring out from the knowledge of that worth. When glory is described with kabod, we are talking about a measure of the worth or value of a person, and it results in praise or worship.

The second is the Greek word doxa, which means to make the dignity or the worth of a person known and acknowledged.

The glory of a thing is a description of the distinctive difference, the unique features or qualities in that person or thing that make it desirable, or worthy of admiration or worship.

To speak of the glory of a watch, you will have to examine what material it was made of and what features it has. To speak of the glory of a phone, you will have to find out the credibility of the company that produced it, the features and applications it carries, its speed, its capacity, its processing power. In the same way, when we talk about the glory of God, we are talking about the various components in God that make him God, that make him desirable, that make him admirable, that make him worthy of praise and worship. To really understand glory, we have to break down the attributes of God one by one and investigate them.

• The wisdom of God is an expression of his glory.
• The power of God is an expression of his glory.
• The goodness of God is an expression of his glory.
• The mercy of God is an expression of his glory.
• The intelligence of God is an expression of his glory.
• The invincibility of God is an expression of his glory.

The glory of God is a word that aggregates every attribute in God that makes him worthy of your worship, worthy of your loyalty, and the most valuable personality in your life. So when we read Habakkuk 2:14, we are not just talking about some misty cloud resting as it did in the Old Testament. That is only a visible expression of his shekinah.

Three Levels of the Presence of God

There are three levels of the presence of God in terms of the experience of his presence.

1. His omnipresence. His ability to be everywhere (Psalm 139:7). Omnipresence is one of the attributes that define God which he did not share with man. When God says we are partakers of his divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), we are not partakers of every dimension of his nature. There are certain dimensions of God's nature that are exclusive to himself.

   • God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. Man is not omnipotent, omnipresent or omniscient.
   • God is self-sufficient. Man depends, even biologically, on his ecosystem for survival. God does not look to any external resource for his sustenance.
   • God is eternal. Man is eternal in terms of his spirit scope, but as far as our work on earth is concerned, we have something called a lifetime, from the time of arrival until departure. That terminology cannot be used for God. There is no such thing as a lifetime for him (Revelation 1:18).

2. His Emmanuel dimension. His presence with believers gathered together (Matthew 18:20).

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3. His shekinah. His visible, manifest, feelable, relatable dimension of presence. God reveals himself in his glory in a way that everyone knows he is present, with visible expressions of that glory like healings, miracles, impartations, encounters and interventions.

Our focus on glory is on the shekinah. Shekinah glory means manifest presence.

The glory of God refers to the manifest presence of God alongside the resources that come with that presence.

When God shows up in the midst of his people or upon the life of a man, he comes with resources: the power of God, blessings, angelic presence, wisdom, supernatural manifestation. These are called the riches of his glory. When a politician or a person of renown walks into a meeting, he comes with an entourage. If a governor came in his official capacity, there would be people you did not invite who come in honor of his presence. That is how the glory of God is. Every time you hear glory, think of the manifested presence of God together with all the riches and attributes that come with that presence.

What You Need to Know About the Glory

1. The glory of God is revealed through men in weights and measures

   2 Corinthians 4:17. The manifest presence of God can rest upon a man, a territory, a business, and it is revealed in weights and in measures. We can all have the same eternal life, but the glory of God as an operation of the Holy Spirit bringing his manifested presence to an individual comes in weights and in measures. This is the weight of glory. So the glory of God as an expression of his manifested presence rests upon men in weights and measures.

2. Your level of dominion in experience depends on the weight and measure of glory upon you

   Dominion in the kingdom depends not just on the will of God, and not just on being born again, but on the weight and level of glory upon you. Two believers can love God sincerely, yet the disparity in the quality of their Christian life, and in the excellence of the revelation of the life of God through them, is not dependent on the love of God. It is dependent on the weight and measure of glory upon them.

   • The karat illustration. A 17 karat gold and a 21 karat gold are both gold. If everyone who has gold stands, all of them stand. But in refinement, quality, value and worth, one excels above the other. We can all say we are carriers of the glory, but when you stand before challenges, before demons, before life, the difference will show.
   • The same words, different results. Two believers can say, "Rise up and walk in the name of Jesus." For one, a miracle happens immediately. For another, it looks like God did not hear. The difference is not the love of God. It is the weight and measure of glory.

3. The Holy Spirit is the conveyor and the revealer of the glory of God

   When the Bible speaks of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord being seen and recognized, that is exclusively the ministry of the Holy Spirit. When you find a man who has hosted the glory of God in an unusual dimension, that man has been in proximity with the Holy Spirit. Whether it is manifesting the power, the wisdom or the capacity of God in the spirit, extraordinary manifestations of the glory in and through a life are credited to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

   Spirit of God, reveal the glory of the Father in and through my life.

Why Many Believers Do Not See Results

Many believers want to live an excelling Christian life, want to experience all that God has in store for them in Christ and want supernatural possibilities, but not many have studied the glory of God or understood the power invested in it. Behind every prayer request, whether financial, health, promotion or fruitfulness, the answers are sorted in the glory. If you do not understand the dynamics of the glory, you become an ever needs-driven believer who eventually gets frustrated, because it seems you are not able to see God manifest in your life. Behind our desire for anointing and for greater exploits in the kingdom is the glory of God. The measure of the glory of God is what we call hosting God.

The life of God does not increase or decrease. What differs is the weight, the potency of the investment of the Holy Spirit resident within a man, and that difference controls the extent of your exploits in the kingdom. When you read that believers shall lay hands on the sick (Mark 16:18) and you try it and the sick are not healed, it is because there is a measure of glory involved.

The glory of God is like currency in the spirit.

The person holding one thousand naira is holding money. The person holding one million is holding money. The person holding one billion is holding money. The difference shows at the point of purchase. The man with one thousand stands before a house worth three hundred million. He has money, but it is not enough. The man with one billion does not need to fear. There are certain fears that will die when you grow to hold certain levels of God's glory. Many believers say, "I have God, I am born again, I have the life of God," but they do not understand the dynamics of the glory. They stand before situations that the glory they carry cannot solve, and they are disappointed.

• The candle. The fire from a candle cannot cook a meal for ten thousand people, but it is fire. It cannot turn darkness to light in mass.
• The generator. A 4 KVA generator cannot power a three-bedroom flat because the capacity is too small for the appliances. Bring in a 500 KVA generator and it is child's play. Certain doors do not open because the weight of glory you carry is too small, not because they cannot open.
• The crusher. A heavy-duty steel crusher squeezes a car in seconds and is not threatened by anything. Every challenge that refuses to be crushed is because the spiritual machinery sitting on it is not strong enough.
• The magnet. There are magnets that pick up cars regardless of weight because of the level of magnetic power. Believers who carry the glory of God have a spiritual magnetic property. Favor, helpers and lifting are drawn to them once they step into a territory. There is a pulling effect. The glory of God can pull the right people to a church, to a business, to a vision.

The glory of God is not for preachers alone. God is searching for vessels he will fill himself with, and when you are full of God, everything around you begins to look like heaven. A mother can carry the glory of God. A father, a politician, a student, a businessman, a professional can carry it. The difference will be what happens when you speak from the glory.

The impact of what we do is not only about what is done, but the realm from which it is done. Two people can raise the same song. One song has no effect, but before the other is done, the power of God rests on men and people are having visions and encounters. Two people can speak the same blessing. One has supernatural testimonies by the next day, and the other produces nothing. The difference is not what was said. It is the realm of glory from which the word was spoken.

Beyond having a correct sermon, beyond being doctrinally sound, beyond being intelligent, beyond linguistic prowess, your real advantage is the glory of God that you carry. When you speak from the glory, do business from the glory and interact from the glory, you produce God's dimension of results. Intellect has its power, but when we overdepend on it and do not understand the advantage the glory brings, we keep proposing intellectual spiritual things and wonder why they are not producing results. Acts 10:38. Why does the Bible use the expression "how God"? It means look at the weight, look at the extent to which the glory of God was invested in Jesus. On account of the richness of that investment, he went about doing good, and he spoke as if Satan did not exist.

Your assignment is to stay, carry the glory, and let the glory do the job. When you do not have the glory, you want to do the work the glory should do, and that is where profitless labor comes.

Five Platforms That Grant Access to the Glory

Whenever you see a man carry the weight of God's glory, manifested as wisdom, favor, supernatural power or divine possibilities, that glory came through one of five platforms.

1. The prayer platform

   The ministry of prayer was not designed only to table needs. A major part of it was the edification process that enlarges the vessel and attracts weights of glory. Prayer is a spiritual magnetic system. It draws weights of glory to a man's life. When a preacher or a businessman prays as a lifestyle, and not just in a period of fasting, one day becomes one week, one week becomes one month, one month becomes one year, and every day you are building your spirit man. It does not yet appear what you are becoming, but you are enlarging, unknown to you. The Spirit of God rests upon you like a hen resting upon eggs so that another life will be produced.

   • Most people pray only to show before men that they are not carnal, like the Pharisees. Prayer is beyond an instrument of show. It is an incubation room where you are enlarged and attract weights of God's presence and glory.
   • There is a dimension of prayer that gives you (James 4:2). Many of us only understand the dimension of prayer where we get things. We are not interested in God's presence, we are interested in the interventions that come with his presence.
   • There is a dimension of prayer that shows you (Jeremiah 33:3). Some are interested in knowing their future without growth, so he will show them things to come.
   • There is a dimension of prayer that makes you (Luke 9:29). As Jesus prayed, he was not given anything. That prayer is not to receive things, that prayer is to be made. This is the most powerful dimension of prayer, the dimension of koinonia, like the potter and the clay. There are no prayer points, only hunger and desire, submitting yourself like gold and silver to be refined.

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   In that place there is a stretching and enlarging, and then the glory is poured upon you in measures. You may not realize what has happened until you come out. Moses did not know the glory had rested on his face (Exodus 34:29-30). He just stayed, and when he came out, they covered themselves. The difference between any two believers is not the will of God or the love of God. It is the discipline to take advantage of the grace of God and submit to these glory platforms.

   Let there be a quickening, a stirring of your inner man. Let there be a stretching, an enlargement. It is time to do business with God at a deeper level.

2. The word platform

   There is a dimension of the revelation of God and his glory that is hidden in scripture. As you give yourself to the discipline of study (2 Corinthians 3:17-18), the intelligence of the kingdom comes, because glory is his presence plus all the dimensions captured in his presence, including his intelligence.

   • If you stay with the word of God, it does not matter whether you are educated or have been exposed. There is a level of intelligence you cannot go below. I do not only mean academic intelligence, because there is a dimension of interaction with the Holy Ghost at a spirit level and also at an intellectual level. Those given to the ministry of the word, with or without secular education, speak with coherence and intelligence, because there is a dimension of intelligence that is an impartation (Luke 24:45, 2 Timothy 3:15).
   • Jesus told the two men on the road to Emmaus that they were slow to learn (Luke 24:25-27), and he pointed to the scriptures as testifying of him (John 5:39).
   • The danger of the prayer channel alone. Your spirit will be enlarged, but you will not have the intelligence to discern which spirit is which. You will say "speak, Lord" to any spirit, because you lack the doctrinal balance to know the voice of God and to discern error. The Holy Ghost will slip through your yieldedness, and the devil too, and you will say yes to both God and familiar spirits.
   • You will never find in scripture where you are given the choice to pray or study. It is always together. See Acts 6:4 and Acts 2:42.

3. The worship platform

   Not many believers are worshippers, and by worshippers I do not mean singers. There is a dimension of intimacy with God to which only worship attracts the glory of God. It is an art that has been lost in the church. We seem to have traded worship when we became prayerful. We pray but we do not worship. There is a dimension of worship (Psalm 100:2). One of the evidences of being filled with the Holy Ghost is worship (Ephesians 5:19). While you are worshipping, that shekinah rests on you (Psalm 22:3), and you may not even know what is happening to your spirit man. There is a quickening.

   • One way you will know you have received the glory in worship is that you eventually receive a new song, even if only one part of it. It is good to sit down to compose songs, but it is better to receive them where there is a synchrony of your spirit with the worship in heaven. That is how people receive songs that do not die. A line of that song stays on the spirit of the hearers and does the work of the glory.
   • When you get into the realm of worship, you have also gotten into the prophetic dimension of the glory. See 2 Kings 3:15 and Psalm 49:4 on the minstrel and the harp. Sometimes you combine prayer and worship, and the Lord will show you the next ten years and tell you the way out of a business that will die.
   • You can be driving to work with the devil trying to tamper with your emotions, and you are singing to the Lord a new song.
   • If you do not understand the glory, you will think time spent in God's presence is wasting time for productivity. Every time you stay in his presence, you are redeeming years of waste. There is time redemption in his presence. One blessing that comes from the glory can sort your finances forever.
   • There is a place for productivity reasoning, but there is a place where you come with the glory, and it marinates ideas from heaven and brings them into your spirit. A CEO deliberating on taking a company to the next level can execute one idea from that place that brings billions. Elijah received the instruction for the next level of his survival by staying in the glory (1 Kings 17:2-9).

4. The obedience platform

   Leviticus 9:6. Do not forget that scripture for the rest of your life.

   You cannot host God carelessly. If you can host a festival that well, think of all the arrangement that goes into it. You must also know how to host God. Many do not know that obedience is a way of increasing the measure of the glory of God in your life. It is not just prayer, not just the word, not just worship. Obedience is an amplifier of the glory of God upon a man. Every time you walk in obedience, you are making a deposit in the spirit. Obedience opens the heavens, releases the glory and increases the glory upon the life of a man.

   • The tabernacle. The Lord told Moses twice to build according to pattern (Exodus 25:40). When Moses had done everything, the glory rested upon the tabernacle and the priests could not minister (Exodus 40:33-35).
   • The proof of love. There are many prayerful believers who are disobedient. The real proof of love for Jesus is not just singing or fasting, it is obedience. John 14:21 and John 14:23 are the secret of encounters. When you want to see the glory of God in your life, you must be honest to do what he says to do.
   • The wedding at Cana. In John 2:1-11, the glory was manifested as a solution that took away shame. The servants were told to fill six pots with water and, without tasting or verifying, to take it straight to the ruler. It was a great risk. They could not obey unless they trusted God to show up. As they went, the miracle happened. One wine was manufactured by the normal process of fermentation, but the other was produced by the glory, and it shows the disparity in excellence. John 2:11. This was not the only miracle, but it began the series of miracles.
   • The doing grace. You must obtain something called the doing grace (John 13:17). You may know about prayer, the word, and the power of diligence and productivity and not be doing them. It is not just those who have the knowledge, it is the practitioners: preachers who are practitioners, businessmen who are practitioners. The glory follows doers, not just knowers. The glory follows obedient people. If he says pray, pray. If he says fast, fast. If he says study, study. If he says flee, flee. If he says love, love. If he says forgive, forgive. You may look like a fool obeying God, but you will be a carrier of the weight of his glory.
   • Offense short-circuits the glory. If you disobey the law of forgiveness, offense will short-circuit you from carrying the glory. That is what happened to John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11). He was the greatest of all the prophets, but offense stopped him from finishing well, and he died at the request of a young girl (Matthew 14:6-11). How can the greatest prophet become a birthday gift?

5. The sacrifice platform

   Psalm 50:5. Keep your offering first. I am not talking about money, I am talking about your life. Money is too small to be described as sacrifice in this discussion. You are that sacrifice (Romans 12:1). When the Bible talks about sacrifice, this is the realm in the spirit called Galatians 2:20. There is a dimension of glory that cannot rest on a man who is still alive to self, to the flesh and to fleshly impulses. This dimension demands death to self and consecration.

   • Consecration has two connotations. The first is abstinence from evil, sin and lust. The second is devotion, commitment unto. The body of Christ focuses only on abstinence. You can abstain and still not be fully consecrated. A truly consecrated believer has grace to abstain from evil and grace to be devoted unto God.
   • Jeremiah 29:13. It is with all your heart, not some, not part.
   • Those who carry this dimension are looking for him. They are not just looking for breakthrough or anointing. There are those who love his breakthrough and his power but do not love him. If someone came to your house, bypassed you, went straight to your kitchen, ate and left, and kept doing it every day with sweet names, you would know it is for his own interest. That is how it is with Jesus Christ when we call him all kinds of names and want only what he can supply. If you say, "I just need a job, I need a wife, I need money," he says, "Is that all you think I am able to do?" But those who say, "Lord, I have needs, but compared to them, I want you," he can instruct a destiny helper to bless them not just once but for a lifetime.
   • Those God will use in the end time are visionary people who are willing to shift their vision to demonstrate their love for him. I have plans and goals, but I love him more than them all. One of the biggest secrets is that I love him and there is nothing I cannot give him.

   The more you stay invested in him, the more his glory keeps resting. God is saying, "Give me time and I will give you my glory. Give me you."

   The price for all of God is all of you. The price for all of God is not your offering, not your tithe, not your brain, not even your service. It is all of you when you die to yourself to live unto him. This message is not meant to show a celebrity preacher, an anointed preacher or a successful person. It is meant to show what death can do. There is a relationship between death and glory (John 12:24). A man must die to his ambition, to the flesh, to lust, to pride, to competitive jealousy. Isaiah 6:1. In the year pride dies, you see his glory. In the year flesh dies, in the year jealousy dies, in the year hatred dies, in the year offense dies, in the year the appetite for competition and outshining dies, you see the glory. There is a dimension of glory you will not see until you die. The Lord said, "Son, if you will let men see me, there is nothing I will not give you," and the response was, "Let me decrease so that you increase" (John 3:30).

Prayer for the Carrier of the Glory

Do not say, "I am a man of God." Cry before your maker and say, "Fix me, Lord." There are lots of spiritual activities in many lives, but there is also pride, flesh, unforgiveness and overestimation of self. Let there be a purging that gives space for more of his glory. This is for a preacher, a leader, a businessman, a politician, a father, a mother and a student.

The glory desires to rest upon you. God wants to show up the more in your life, to reveal his power, his wisdom, his excellence, his creativity and his intelligence. He is crying that you tap into the prayer platform, the word platform, the worship platform, the obedience platform and the sacrifice platform, and that you become a living sacrifice.