Report by Pastor Louisa Loong

Are you tired of ‘doing’ ministry? Has ministry become a ‘survival course’? Do you feel destitute of the ability to help people or to build the Kingdom of God? Then, you need the ‘Glory of God’! This was the theme of the ECCM Camp 2010. And we had no better expositor of this subject than Frank Hultgren, whose life is passionately devoted to seeking the Glory of God!

In Exodus 33:12-23, Moses asked God to show him His Glory. God’s answer was to pass before so that Moses could only see the back of God. From this, Frank defines for us that the Glory of God is the manifestation of God Himself. It is God Himself appearing!

Frank shared from his personal experiences of actually seeing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit on different occasions! His experiences inspired us to believe that God very much wants to reveal His Glory to us and that the experience of Moses was not meant for Moses alone but is available to us if we would earnestly seek God above all else (Jeremiah 29:12-13). Moses had been used by God to do mighty wonders, and yet, he hungered for more! He wanted more of God, not more miracles! The question is, how much do we desire God Himself?

God is with us always, but we need to persevere to see the presence of God. Three times, we are told that Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and nights, fasting and praying before God spoke! But so often, we have little time to seek God. We need to change our schedules to pray more. Frank shared how God sustained him supernaturally when he was pastoring (he had a full schedule from morning to night), but was able to wake up at 3am to seek God in prayer! Are we prepared to sacrifice sleep to seek Him?

Matthew 5:8 tells us that those with a pure heart will see God. We need to have a lifestyle of repentance. If we quench the Holy Spirit with our sin (Ephesians 4:30), grieve Him by rejecting prophecy and tongues (1 Thessalonians 5:19-20), or withhold giving (Acts 5), we will not see the Glory.

Hard as it is to enter into the Glory of God because of the weakness of our flesh, we also have to contend with opposition. The enemy would do all to keep us from going to this new level of relationship with God! He may attack our bodies or we may have demonic confrontation. We need to pray and defeat Satan with the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 12:11).

The Glory will make a difference in the way we do ministry. When we minister out of our spiritual gifts, it is still us ministering, in the enablement of God. But when we minister out of the Glory, it is God who is ministering, doing whatever He wants through us. In Acts 5:15, Peter’s shadow healed the sick. The word ‘shadow’ there is the same word as in Luke 1:35, where the Holy Spirit ‘overshadowed’ Mary and she conceived Jesus. The ‘shadow’ there is the Glory of God. Because Peter was filled with the Glory of God, people were healed by God, not because Peter touched them!

Jesus is the personification of the Glory of God and as we take time to behold His Glory, He will transform us into His image from one level to another! (2 Corinthians 3:8-11,18). Then we will see miracles (manifestations of His Glory) in the church like never before. The Glory of God is the only way to take the City, the nation and the nations for Christ! Let’s seek the Glory of God!

Fellowship of Churches at the Camp

Apart from the main sessions, the camp also afforded time for pastors and leaders of the different churches to get to know one another and minister to one another.

We were also challenged by devotions led by Rev. Eu Hong Seng on being ready for the Great and Awesome Day of the Lord, and Rev. Jeremiah Yap on being a Growing, Glorious Church that Rules! Four churches got the opportunity to share about their churches and what God is doing in their midst and had the group pray for them.

Over meals, friendships were developed with new ones and old friendships deepened as we began to share from our hearts, our passions, disappointments and desires for the churches we lead.

If you missed this camp, you missed out! Do work things out so you can be there next year!