Glory to God in the highest heaven,
Luke 2:14, NIV
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.
I SO want to write and talk about God’s glory in this season. My heart is full and I want to share a testimony. I have witnessed so many things that have shown me His love and His power this year. I am a good listener and I have compassion for people that are hurting and stuck in life. That’s what I do! So, I get it, I know there are hard things happening. I am in the midst of life with many people, in the trenches with them battling it out. But I want to say that we battle from a position of victory! Yes, we have the victory and God is bigger than any Goliath we face.
“In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers…”
2 Corinthians 11:26.
Paul went through many perils that were extremely dangerous (that’s what peril means), however, he and his companions exercised authority in the Spirit and went on courageously. They did the hardest things, things that seemed beyond their natural selves. Yes, God will allow or put us in places even, that we have to do things that seem so hard. Yet, we listen for His still, small voice, leading us on. It is what makes all the difference! The voice of God and His leading me like a gentle shepherd is what I rely on. It stops me in my tracks and calms all my fears. When I don’t know what to do and life is pressing in on every side, I need to be quiet and get into a place of communion with God, with the Holy Spirit.
In the book of 1 Kings, there is the account of the building of the temple and also the detailed work of the things that were put specifically in the temple of God. In chapter 8, it tells about Solomon assembling the people. The priests specifically brought the ark of God into the temple, into the Holy of Holies.
“Now it happened that when the priests had come out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the Lord’s house, so the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory and the brilliance of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house.”
1 Kings 8
There are times, I can’t “stand to minister”, but I am overcome by the Spirit and the glory, the brilliance – of His presence and what He is doing and showing. This is the blessing and the promise that we get to experience every day as a blood-bought child of God! His presence and His power in our ordinary, every-day life! Sometimes when the Spirit of God comes on me in power and glory, I shake uncontrollably. It for me is many times a sign that God is moving and showing me something. Psalm 63:1-5 reads:
1 You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
Like King David in Psalm 63, may we look for His power and glory in the sanctuary. Our hearts are His sanctuary, Christ indwells us by His Spirit now. Remember, He said when He left that He would not leave us alone, but that He was sending His Spirit to indwell us. Do you believe that the Spirit of glory and brilliance lives in you, like in 1 Kings 8? Or do you seek God in your own worship times and prayer times early in the morning, and see His power and glory? God wants to lead us in all the dangerous places that He allows us to be, by His Spirit, and He will speak and He will show us the way to live and model victory! You can have victory in those places that are causing you angst, that is causing you to want to run.
- Get alone with God and seek Him in the middle of your life experiences. Wait there a bit and be honest and be quiet before God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to forgive you if you have not acknowledged Him and have ignored or disbelieved that He was with you.
- Ask the Spirit of God to comfort you and to show you what He wants to. Receive it and wait for the knowing that will come. Trust that what you hear is from the Spirit and not yourself.
- Thank the Holy Spirit for being near and for showing His power and His glory. The Holy Spirit is a person. He is the Spirit of Jesus that Jesus sent for you to know and to love and to listen to on this earth.
- Go there with the Spirit often. All-day long as you have want or need to be with Him. Be blessed in His glory and brilliance!
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23, NIV
