David Herzog. Glory Invasion: Walking Under an Open Heaven. Shippensburg PA: Destiny Image, 2007. E-book.
Glory Invasion is a book of Christian teaching interspersed with testimonies as examples to illustrate. It contains a brief preface by Sid Roth and another by Mahesh Chavda. Endorsement by two such figures tell this reader that this book should not be lightly dismissed.
The basic premise of teaching is very simple. Romans 10:9-10 tells us that if we acknowledge Jesus is Lord and believe God raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved. So we are told that Jesus’ disciples received the Holy Spirit when they saw Jesus after He rose from the dead. (See John 20:21-23)
It has also been typical Holiness, Pentecostal, and Charismatic teaching that Acts chapters 1 and 2 show us that beyond this the disciples would receive power to be Christ’s witnesses “when the Holy Spirit is come upon you.” (Acts 1:8) This is commonly taught in churches around the world.
Herzog notes a third step, if you will. In the fourth chapter of Acts, the disciples pray for God to manifest His glory for healings and miracles. (See Acts 4:30) So he emphasizes that most Christians need to seek and pray for God’s glory to come down so the believer can, as the subtitle suggests, “walk under an open heaven.”
Glory Invasion stresses that this is not merely a matter of God sovereignly pouring out His Spirit. So Herzog writes that “Most of us are stuck in Acts 2.”
There are testimonies and Bible teachings that support this idea. He notes the various miracles performed by Elijah and Elisha as well as the apostles. It includes a discussion of miracles from a perspective of science, perhaps slightly updating C. S. Lewis’s Miracles because we know a little more about physics than we did in Lewis’s day.
Herzog observes that so often we do not ask for things. Even for something as simple as dreams he writes, “I receive more dreams when I ask Him for them than when I don’t. Ask and you shall receive.” (569, see Matthew 7:7-8)
He states that God’s glory “only comes through intimacy with Him, a close relationship, and times of waiting on the Lord.” (642)
He pints out that Acts 4 also says that no one in the early church lacked any necessity (Acts 4:34). Providing for those in need means “sowing.”
After you have been faithful to sow sacrificially and then purposely reap what you sowed, you can enter the next dimension of reaping where you did not sow. (891)
Glory Invasion also reminds us of what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit. We know when the wind blows even when we do not see it. It is the same when the Holy Spirit is moving. (See John 3:8)
Like many evangelicals, Herzog emphasizes the importance of supporting Israel. He see the restoration of a Jewish state in the Jews’ original homeland as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. This is in line with traditional Christian teaching that such a restoration and a large-scale conversion of Jews to Jesus followers is a sign of history’s end. (Think even of secular works like Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” or Philip Roth’s “The Conversion of the Jews.”)
There is more here. Now that we have read it, let us begin to act on it. Be not afraid. Amen.