Men Whose Eyes Have Seen the King # 6

2. The Impact of the Presence of the Lord Jesus

And do you notice how Peter describes this? "We were eyewitnesses of His majesty" - His majesty. Is not the need for the impact of the majesty of the Lord Jesus upon this earth? It should be. Again, he says: "We made known unto you the Power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ ..." I am sorry they have not translated that word thus: they have put "coming". Of course, the word is very frequently related to the coming again of the Lord Jesus, but the word itself cannot be isolated to that. The same word is used of the apostles, when they came into a situation. It is the same word, whether the "coming" or the "presence" of His majesty. Yes, that is the issue. The power, not as abstract and unrelated, but the power of His presence in His majesty - that is the holy mount; that is the high place; that is what the world needs.

Let me use the word again - "impact!"  If it should be ours to see the King in His glory; if it should be ours to catch a fresh glimpse of the glorified Lord, that is going to answer the cry and the need for impact. And conversely: there will never be an impact until we have seen Him as the glorified Lord. He is the answer to every need, and a vision of Him as exalted and attested by Heaven will bring new impact into our lives, into our ministries, into our churches, upon situations. Does not your heart cry, as mine does, Oh for a recovery of the Church's impact upon this world! And this is none other than the impact of the majesty of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, we know that that is how it will be when this word is actually fulfilled by His appearing at the end. When He comes, He will "smite the earth with the rod of His mouth" (Isaiah 11:4). The brightness of His presence will be devastating to evil. There is no doubt about it that when that presencing, that "parousia," takes place, there will be an impact. We cry for that; we pray for that. But the word is used not only of that, but in other connections, on different occasions. The same word, exactly the same word, as is used for the coming again of the  Lord Jesus, is used of apostles coming into a situation, or being present there. It is used of the Lord Jesus too in this motional sense. He came, in that sense, on the mount of transfiguration; it was His presencing in glory. Again and again He presenced Himself, and every time there was impact - all pointing to His final great presencing in glory. It is interesting, is it not, that Peter uses for the event on the mount of transfiguration exactly the same word as he uses for the coming again of the Lord at the end - the presence of the Lord.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 7 - "The Present Need")