Guillermo Maldonado. The Latter Glory of God Revealed. Destiny Image, 2024.
Many years ago when I was single, two older married friends of mine were reading a book titled What Wives Wish their Husbands Knew about Women. It was a big seller back then. The wives of both men were delighted that their husbands were reading the book. Both of them noted some very positive changes in their relationships as their men read the book.
However, about six months later, their husbands’ changes were less profound. No, they did not go all the way back to their behavior before they read the book, but people get set in their ways fairly early in life, and it is hard to maintain significant changes. It was more like three steps forward, two steps back.
I realize that over the years I have read and reviewed many books on the Christian life. Some had an immediate impact on me. I may have written that I would not mind re-reading one or two of them again. Have I done that? No. In the overall scheme of my life, those books mostly did not change things that much because for better or worse I am a creature of habit like most of us. Right now, my prayer is that The Latter Glory of God Revealed will effect a change in my life.
As I began reading the first chapter, I sensed the Holy Spirit moving. That usually does not happen when I read a book, even a profound Christian book. This book is a combination of a few testimonies and some interesting Bible studies focused on the glory of God. The author states his goal in the subtitle: How to Walk Under the Blessing of the Glory Cloud.
Any reader of the Book of Exodus has a basic understanding of what is meant by the glory cloud. During the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt to Canaan, they were led by a cloud. The cloud contained the manifest presence of God. After the Tabernacle was built, the cloud often remained in the Tabernacle. The presence of God not only led them, He protected them, healed them, gave His Spirit to some of them, and sometimes judged them. Moses was especially close to the Lord, and we are told that he and the Lord spoke face to face.
Pastor Maldonado shares that he has had similar experiences of the presence of the Lord—His glory—in his Miami, Florida, church and in evangelistic meetings he has witnessed worldwide.
He notes that “The cloud was the means of transportation Jesus used to leave this earth and the one He will use to return” (200, see Acts 1:9 and Revelation 1:7).
In one sense, his teaching is very simple. Christian believers have the Holy Spirit living in them, so it becomes a matter of making His presence known. He notes the need for repentance and receiving wholeness from God through Jesus.
The problem in many cases, he writes, is that the “glory has departed.” That is called ichabod (literally “without glory”) in Hebrew. Prayer and fasting are critical. One chapter is titled “Bring Back the Chabod [glory] to the Church.” Acts 3:21 speaks of God’s desire to bring the “restoration of all things.” That includes the glory of Eden before the Fall.
When God’s glory comes, miracles happen. Maldonado speaks of many people coming to submit to Jesus even in countries where another religion is the majority. He bears witness to healings, creative miracles, and reconciliations. These are all things that God wants and that His power brings about.
The glory—the person of Jesus Christ—is the realm where all things happen easily. We do not have to strain, stretch our faith, or fight unbelief. It is where we rest to see God at work. The Father’s plan is for you to have a daily encounter with His glory and rest in Him. God is leading the church in this end time megacycle. (127)
Yes, the book teaches quite a bit about rest and resting in the Lord. “If you want to see the glory of God, do not fight against change; fight against stagnation.” (152)
The book also warns against limiting God. Much of the time we do not expect much from Him. “His name, ‘I Am,’ carries with it the prohibition to limit Him. If we limit Him, we are definitely telling Him that He is not God…” (193-194) As J. B. Phillips might say, then your God is too small.
In the Old Covenant, God lived in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. But God’s plan is to have believing people as His Temple, as in I Corinthians 3:16. “God designed man to be the only living being who, wherever he goes, carries and manifests His glory” (212).
When Jesus said he would be giving power to His people to be witnesses for Him and to Him on Pentecost (see Acts 1:8), Maldonado says that Jesus was saying, in effect, “I give you My glory and My power to prove that everything I have said is true, that the kingdom of God has come, and that I am the Christ” (220).
Yes, let us indeed be Christ-bearers. Let the glory come. Come, Lord Jesus. And let us pray that in, say, six months from now, the glory will be even heavier and God more glorified.