GLORIOUS APPEARING OF CHRIST
GLORIOUS APPEARING OF CHRIST
July 12, 2026, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Col. 3:4: When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory.
The greatest desire that Christ expressed in his prayer was that his people might be with him to behold his glory. Jn. 17:24: Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold my glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
Only a sight of his glory, and nothing else, will truly satisfy God’s people. A believer, magnetized by the love of Christ, will always be restless until he or she comes to Christ and beholds his glory. Once we have tasted his glory, nothing else will satisfy.
The Lord’s Presence as the Angel of the LORD occurs 635 times in 79 verses. It is His appearing to mankind in the Angel of His Presence.
The Angel of the LORD in the Old Testament is Jehovah. In the New Testament the visitation of the Angel of the Lord is inclusive of God the Messiah.
By visitation, Christ is called the Angel of the Lord, the Angel of the covenant, (spoken of God (Jehovah) and the Messiah) and the Angel of His Presence (Isa.63:9), Angel of God (Theos).
“I am confident the time is at hand when our Lord will arise in the midst of the Church with eyes as a flame of fire with feet as of polished brass, with a sharp two-edged sword proceeding out of His mouth…to cleanse and purge and prepare His people for His Appearing.
God wants a habitation for Himself ... not of wood or stone. He had all that centuries ago and found no delight in it. How do we prepare our hearts for His Appearing? Christ is coming for a glorious Church, a spotless Bride. Has the Bride made herself ready? Our High Priest will continue to intercede for His own, until He has prepared a people who are "called, chosen, and faithful.” And the ministries He has set in the body are only valid if they are hearing and speaking from the heart of our High Priest in the heavens. His true prophets will always seek to turn the hearts of the people from their evil way (Jer. 23:22).
People ask me if I believe in the Rapture. I say, “Yes,” because I have been raptured by the Spirit into Heaven. Do I believe in a physical rapture, “Yes” because Enoch and Elijah were both raptured into heaven and never experienced death. Even though death is quite general, God was free to reach down and translate Enoch, “that he should not see death” (Heb. 11:5). Nor did it prevent the LORD from catching Elijah up in a whirlwind. God is free and able to do as He will with His own. Who are we to debate such knowledge, if God in mercy and love imparts His resurrection life in some before the last day? I will never debate anyone over the rapture, mid-tribulation or post-tribulation. I consider debating the Word of God to be vanity of religion. If anyone asks me what my understanding is according to my spiritual journey, I will gladly share my convictions, but debate, no never.
When John came on the scene to prepare the hearts of the people for their Messiah, he was a Voice in the wilderness, and his message was a message of repentance: “The Messiah is coming on the scene! Repent, change your covetous ways! Give to those who are needy! Be satisfied with your wages! The King is coming!” Many of them repented whose hearts were open. But like today, many of them were consumed with curiosity, and they would ask: Are you Elijah? Are you that prophet? Who are you anyway? The Pharisees want to know. But His answer was clear and concise: "I am the Voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” He was just a Voice, but in such tune with God -- that it was a clear sound from Heaven. God’s prophets do not spend their time answering questions as to how, and when, and in what manner He will appear. God’s message is: "The Lord of Glory is coming ... Prepare your hearts to meet Him!"
Tit. 2:13: Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
God Most High overshadowed the whole process related to His coming, with very diligent foreknowledge and wisdom, and put it all together. It was all according to scripture, and every detail of His Appearing was prearranged and known of God -- but no man could have put it together before it happened. And yet from the highest in the political and ecclesiastical realms, to the humblest and lowest of His servants… the whole scenario was carefully overshadowed and made manifest in the earth in the day of His Appearing as a man-child born of a virgin.
Throughout the Bible, we read of the Angel of the LORD appearing.
The seventh day of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was the Feast of His Appearing. The Feast was observed at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple as a type and pattern of the Glory of the church. When the feast was observed in the days of Zerubbabel’s temple, we have a type of the restoration of the Church to her first Glory.
There is no question that one day the Lord shall himself descend from heaven with a shout…In a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet call shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. (1 Cor. 15:52).
While we are waiting for the glory of His Second Coming, there is a resurrection even now. Through visitation, Jesus has appeared and continues to appear to His Church.
Through prophetic ecstasy our spirit can be raptured into His Presence. We who are alive in Christ, have been resurrected from the walking dead. Restoration glories are being restored to the Church.
In Exodus 3: 2-6, we read how the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. This fire was a living representation of the presence of God in the person of the Son.
The fire represented his divine nature which is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). The fire also pictured his present work which is to deliver his church out of fiery trials. This fire was in a bush, but the bush was not destroyed. God dwelt in the bush (Deut. 33:16). The fire in the bush was there only temporary and a type of him in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Col. 2:9). The eternal fire of the divine nature dwells in the bush of our frail nature, yet our frail nature is not destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar’s fire could not consume the three Hebrew children because God’s angel of the LORD was in the fire who looked like the Son of God. The fire had no power over them. The power of the Son of God “quenched the violence of flames.”
Moses was amazed at the marvelous and wonderful sight of the burning bush. But if the sight of the burning bush was so wonderful, how much more wonderful is the reality in Christ Jesus. Moses was told to take off his shoes. By this reverence, we cast off the walk of our flesh so that we may behold this glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father.
Ps. 4: 3-6: Sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah. The Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him…Many will say, who will show us good?
The psalmist says, Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us. The light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is the only good which will satisfy me and it is all that I desire.
As we diligently study the Holy Bible, all scripture reveals the glory of Christ. In John 5:39, Jesus tells us to search the scripture for it is a revelation of Him. (1 Pet. 1: 11-13).
There are three ways by which the glory of Christ is presented to us in Holy Scripture:
1. By direct descriptions of His glorious appearing and incarnation.
2. By prophecies, promises and clear instructions concerning Him.
3. Through divine worship in the Old Testament to reveal the Glory of Christ.
His personal appearing to Isaiah was to show forth his glory, when he saw his glory, and spoke of him Jn. 12:41. Isaiah received a visitation of the glory of the divine presence of Christ by vision seeing a train of all His glorious graces. What Isaiah saw was so glorious that even the seraphim could not bear to look at the sight, how much more glorious is Christ himself openly revealed to us in His gospel!
Then there is the excellent glory which his three disciples saw on the Mount of Transfiguration of which Peter speaks (2 Pet. 1: 17-18). There, God, the Father, gave Christ honor and glory which all those who believe in him can behold by testimony of the Scripture.
From the throne of his majesty, by audible voices, by visible signs, by the opening of the heavens, by the descent of the Holy Spirit on His person and as the Body of Christ, we are able to meditate on His Glory, and experience the Angel of His Presence.
He invites us to fellowship with him in beholding his glory. To show us how near he is to us, we are told that he stands at the door and knocks, ready to enter our souls and have communion with us (Rev. 3:20). He is always accompanied with the glorious train of his graces. We cannot boast of knowing Christ, if there is no evidence of his grace in our heart and life. Just as Christ in us is the hope of Glory; when we are in Him, we are in Glory; in that place, he is the life of present grace.
Col. 1:27: To whom God would make known what the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles is, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Col. 3:4: When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory… that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him…
As we behold the glory of Christ, our hearts are filled with admiration, adoration, and thanksgiving. When he comes again, it will be to be glorified in his saints, and Christ to be admired in all who believe (2 Thess. 1:10).
Because he became flesh and is now exalted in a fullness of all divine perfection far above the glory of angels and men, believers shall also have a glorified nature when he shall appear; we shall be like him (1 Jo. 3:2).
There has been a general misunderstanding of the Word of God throughout Christendom concerning the truth of the coming of the Lord. It seems clear to me that the LORD’s coming is a spiritual visitation in the midst of His people, as well as a literal and bodily visitation. James 5:7-8: associates the bestowal of the latter rain with the “coming” of the LORD; Be patient therefore, brethren unto the coming of the LORD. Behold. The husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it until he receives the early and latter rain. Be also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the LORD draws near. The truth concerning the latter rain is established between two statements concerning the coming of the LORD.
The Lord gives us insight in his parable of the fig tree.
Lk. 21: 29-30: Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.
Now, if the fig tree is the nation of Israel as this metaphor reveals, it follows that “all the trees” are the other nations. What does this mean? The trees shooting forth? Jesus tells us clearly what it means. So, likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is at hand (vs. 31).
The Church is being robbed of her glory in not knowing that there is rapture for her even now, and there is resurrection for her now while we wait for Resurrection. I do not preach to you that which I have read and studied. I preach to you what I have been shown by vision and then discovered in the Holy Writ as I search the Scriptures.
I believe the parable of the Ten Virgins is not just about a physical rapture of the wise who have their lamps filled with oil and their lamps lit. I believe it also applies to our day of visitation when there is an invitation to the Bridegroom’s chambers.
There is no doubt that God holds many secrets for future revelation concerning the order of events and the nature of the resurrection. But in this, we are confident before this cherished rapture or resurrection takes place, there is to arise a group of overcomers who shall appropriate even here and now their heritage of Resurrection Life in Jesus Christ. God has placed His Only Begotten at His own right hand in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:20). We are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
There Christ shall remain in obedience to the Word of the Father, until there arise a people who shall go in and possess their heritage in the Spirit, and conquer over all opposing forces of world, flesh, and Devil. These saints will reach out and appropriate here and now in their earthly temples the very Life of Christ of entering into their heritage in the Spirit; of participating in the Melchizedek priesthood and kingdom; and of living the spotless, immaculate life of the Son of God Himself in virtue of his abiding presence within. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (Eph. 4:16).
The exaltation of his human nature in union with the divine nature is far above the whole creation in power, dignity, authority, and rule. The glory of Christ in his exaltation is made more wonderful by the full revelation of his own divine wisdom, love and grace in his mediatory work and redemption of the church. This is the New Jerusalem which shines forth in all its brightness to the eternal joy of those who behold him.
One of the most glorious facts of Scripture is that the Resurrection and the Life is not a mere historic event to take place in the distant future – but the Resurrection and the Life is a Person, even the Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in our hearts.
How he yearned over Mary and Martha at the tomb of Lazarus and sought to inspire faith in their hearts to believe in Him. “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection… I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God…but all the time Jesus was wanting them to believe that He is the appropriation of Divine Life here and now. Their faith was that Lazarus would rise at the Resurrection. Jesus replied, “I am the Resurrection and the Life…he that believes in me though he were dead, yet shall he live…whoever believes in me shall never die. Not one of us has believed it experimentally, or Divine Life would be surging through our beings. But the promise is there, nevertheless, even though we all disbelieve it. Enoch believed it and did it. So did Elijah. And so shall the sons of God. The Word of faith shall grip their hearts, and they shall reach out and appropriate the Resurrection and the Life even now in this life.
The glory of Christ was represented and made known under the Old Testament in his personal appearances to the leaders of Israel in their generations. He appeared to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, Ezekiel, David, Solomon and to others. After His resurrection, He appeared to His disciples in the upper room, at the seashore, on the road to Emmaus, to Paul and many more. He has appeared to me multiple times.
He gloriously appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law (Exod. 19). This is described by the psalmist; and applied by Paul to the ascension of Christ following his resurrection.
Ps. 68:17: The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels; the LORD is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.
Eph. 4: 8-9: When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men…He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.
The people were terrified when the law was given because of God’s holiness and awesome power on the mountain. Jesus Christ fulfilled perfectly all demands of the same law which brought life because He procured pardon and righteousness which he gives freely to his people.
There is a mystical Union of the Glory of Christ with His Church.
The glory of Christ in this union is unique and is a mystery. The mystical union of Christ with his church was only after he suffered for her, for it follows the conversion of men to him. It is by faith that we are united to him. Until that union with him has been wrought in us, we have no mystical union with him. He is not a head or husband to unregenerate, unsanctified unbelievers. Such was the state of the whole church when Christ died for us (Ro. 5:8; Eph. 2:5).
2 Co. 11:2: I am jealous over you with godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
So, in the work of redemption, it is the church which is to be redeemed because she is to be the spouse of Christ. This made possible the actual union between Christ and his church. Behind all that Christ died and suffered for the church, there was a supreme act of the will of God the Father, giving all the elect to him, entrusting them to him, to be redeemed, sanctified, and saved.
Because of this union, Christ is glorious in the sight of God, angels, and men. In Christ both the justice and mercy of God are glorified.
Lord Jesus, take us from glory to glory that we may behold you in the beauty of your Holiness.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
www.eastgate Ministries.com
Scripture from K.J.V. and N.K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of The Glory of Christ by John Owen (1612-1683) Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors George H. Warnock, Feast of Tabernacles; preached by Pastor Sissom, June 17, 2026 at Light Up America Conference.