Created for His Glory!

We had recently had an "Open Heavens" Conference with Jeff Collins who has ministers all over the world.  The Presence of God was very strong in these meetings as we worshipped the Lord in His Holiness, glory, and goodness.  Jeff made a statement that stuck with me, "we were created for His glory."  The Bible says in Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"  This Scripture is pointing out that the glory of God was the original target and that because of sin we have fallen short.  There are several places in the New Testament where the glory is reiterated as the target, the New Covenant in Christ is where you see further fulfillment of this original target.  In Colossians 1:27 we are told, "to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."  Also in 2 Corinthians 3:18 we are told we are being transformed into the same image as the glory of the Lord, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."  When church people say the word "glory", you picture a waxing eloquently pastor talking about the "The Gloryyyyyy".  I have always wandered, what is the glory?  Then I finally heard a well-known pastor say, "The glory of God is the manifest Presence of Jesus Christ."  This would make sense since the Scripture in Colossians says, "Christ in you the hope of glory."  The glory of God is unique because you don't experience and see everyday on the earth the manifest Presence of Christ to such an extent that it is described as glory.  In the Old Testament when God's glory was revealed in Solomon's Temple all the priests were flat.  In other words there was such a weightiness of His Presence that people were laid flat in worship.  The Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3 indicates that since we are being transformed from glory to glory that there actually higher and higher realms of His glory that we can experience.  In my journey with the Lord I have prayed some dangerous prayers, what is a dangerous prayer you say.  I believe dangerous prayers are the prayers that align with the perfect will of God in heaven but also are tremendously costly personally.  One of these prayers was the prayer of Moses, "Show me Your glory."  I believe my agreement with the Holy Spirit's direction, God's perfect will in Heaven, and praying a very ancient prayer have initiated a costly process of God's Spirit stripping away everything that is not His glory in my life.  From 2 Corinthians 3:18 we see that it is the veils that we put up, our choices of self-protection, self-provision, or self created identities that get in the way of seeing His manifest glory.  In the Body of Christ there are varying degrees of faith, Jesus through gospels encountered varying degrees of faith and never condemned anyone for any level of faith.  It is clear that God works through faith, so when I prayed the prayer "show me Your glory" with any faith I believe that God's Spirit, heavenly angels, and even God working through the circumstances began a process to see this come about.  It was told to Moses that if He was to see the glory of God it would kill him, Moses was under the Old Covenant and could not be completely transformed into a New Creation like we can under the New Covenant "in Christ".  It makes sense that for God to fully show Moses His manifest Presence face to face was for Moses to die because it would be too overwhelming for him.  Now under the New Covenant when God reveals His glory, everything that is not of Him dies.  In Isaiah 6 when Isaiah has encounter (open vision) with the Lord seated on His throne, Isaiah is so undone that he immediately realizes he is a man of unclean lips (sinful).  So sin can't stand in the glory of God's manifest Presence.  It was sin that caused us to fall short of the glory.  After the Conference with Jeff Collins, I was in a Bird's of Prey Demonstration where several different types of falcon where displayed.  In this Demonstration a Peregrine Falcon showed it's flight skills and it's accuracy in attacking prey.  The Peregrine falcon is a bird of prey that attacks smaller birds for prey through a dive that is the fastest in all of Creation, it can dive at a speed of up to 242 mph at a range of up to 3,000 feet from it's prey.  The Peregrine has such stunning speed and accuracy as it dives towards it's unaware prey.  The Lord spoke to me and said that He was giving me eyes like a falcon.  The falcon has to be completely focused on it's prey and tune out all other distractions.  At one point in the demonstration the falcon was supposed to attack a leather bird on the ground but it got distracted, looked for the glove it usually landed on and when it could not find that got distracted by a dog at the other end of the greenhouse.  The eyesight of a falcon is 8x better than a human being.  I had been praying the verse in Ephesians 1:18, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,"  I believe the Lord by saying He was giving me eyes like a falcon, He was enlightening the eyes of my heart to see His glory.  We were created to see His glory (His manifest Presence) and as we do we are transformed into that same image, you become like what you look at.

Pursuing His Glory,
Bret