The Glory of God

​“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;”
(John 17:22)


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“The glory”. Do we really understand what the glory of the Lord is? Unfortunately I don’t think we do. Both the Hebrew and the Greek word used for glory mean to bring dignity, show majesty, demonstrate the divine attributes or character, to show honor.  Jesus was the brightness of the divine character of God. He demonstrated God’s character, His glorious moral attributes, His excellence, His perfection, His divine majesty and holiness and the power of God.  (John 11:40; Romans 6:4, 9:23; Ephesians 1:12, 14,18, 3:16; Colossians 1:11; 2 Peter 1:4)


Glory is NOT gold dust and feathers falling from the sky! Seriously, find one place in Scripture where this occurs. It also is not shouting that “God is in the house!” and getting everyone stirred up by the praise team. Praise and worship are FOR God, not for us. The enemy can be a great imitator and deceiver. Abba Father, we come before You now and lay down our preconceived ideas and expectations at Your feet. Lift up our eyes to the heavens and open our hearts to truly worship You in spirit and truth! Guide us in Your word that we may truly see Your glory in this earth and will be willing vessels for Your use that others may not only see You but be drawn into Your presence and give their lives to You. This we pray in the blessed name of Your Son Jesus Christ, Amen!


Lazarus has died. Both Mary and Martha are grieved but Martha is also angry as well as hurt. Both women believed Jesus to be the Messiah but they were not in the same place spiritually. Our closeness with the Lord Jesus Christ will make a very distinct difference in how we perceive things. Martha was on the attack, Mary was sitting quietly in the house mourning. When Jesus arrived four days after Lazarus’ death, Martha ran out of the house to meet Him and let Him know how disappointed she was that He delayed coming when He was summoned; if He had come when they sent for Him she knew that Jesus would have healed Him, now it was too late. Wow, she let Him know exactly what she thought, didn’t she? Ever been there? Angry, confused, powerless? Looking for something or someone to take out your frustration on? This seemed to be the state of Martha much of the time. Remember when Jesus came to their home to visit? She literally verbally attacked Him and told Him to tell Mary to get into the kitchen to help! Jesus response to Martha is also for you and me, “But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’” (Luke 10:41-42) Martha was “worried and bothered by many things”, so many things that her state of mind was one of anger and resentment. She totally missed out on the blessing that the Messiah, the divine representation of God sat in her living room! Mary on the other hand always sat and listened to every word that proceeded out of His mouth so her heart was calm and in fellowship with Jesus. This showed in her demeanor at the death of Lazarus. When she approached Jesus she fell at His feet in submission and reverence. Yes, she was confused and hurting and also stated that she knew He could have healed him, but there was not the anger and resentment.

There are two words in this account, actually it is the shortest verse in Scripture, that are probably as misunderstood as the glory of God. “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35) It is only through the Holy Spirit can we receive revelation. Was He weeping because Lazarus was dead or His friends were sad? No! Our translations have misled us in understanding the mind of Christ here. Most transcriptions say He was “deeply moved in spirit” when it actually should be translated that He was “deeply troubled in spirit”. Why was He troubled in spirit? They had all given up hope! They only believed if He was present with them He would have stopped the illness (yes they believed in healing). But the thought of Him raising Lazarus from the dead was never even considered! He was deeply troubled over their unbelief! There is also a great lack of spiritual maturity and trust in God but that is for another devotion.


Even when Jesus went to the tomb and commanded that the stone be rolled away, Martha was right there arguing again! She reminded Him, again, that Lazarus had been dead four days and, in case He hadn’t considered that information, he would stink! Her attitude and behavior seem to be getting worse with Jesus there, not better. We have the explanation right here in the Scripture. There is a significance to the number “four”. It represents the world, so in this situation we see that Martha is thinking through the natural mind, in other words she is worldly minded, not Christ minded. The number four tells us that the whole world thinks one way but those of Christ should be of another mind, the mind of Christ! 


I am so thankful that Christ proceeds with His plan in spite of His people! He will not allow the glory of God to go unseen when His Father has sent Him to reveal His glory to these unbelieving Jews, or to you and me today. We cannot control God, no matter how hard we might try, He is the One in control and I am so thankful for His sovereignty. He knows what we need more than we know what we need.


So Jesus does not allow Martha’s protests to control the situation. “Jesus *said, ‘Remove the stone’...” (John 11:39) “Jesus *said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’” (John 11:40) Can you imagine being there? I imagine you could have heard a pin drop! The silence would have been terrific at His rebuke for it was apparent that they had not listened to His words, nor did they believe He was the Messiah. (Remember that some thought He was a prophet, others said He was a teacher but not many truly believed He was God Incarnate!) 


“So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.’” (John 11:41-42) Read these words carefully again. Jesus was giving all the glory to God. He was submitting Himself to His Father and demonstrating how He never did anything on His own initiative, He only did as His Father directed. “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” (John 14:10) 


We also see God’s grace being magnificently given! Jesus wept, He is so troubled at the people’s unbelief. Why? Because unless they truly believed in Him as the Messiah they were not going to inherit the Kingdom of God for eternal life! Jesus was not on a power trip, His heart was breaking for His people. He doesn’t desire to see any go to eternal hell. His words were proclaiming that the power of the Almighty God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was in their midst and about to reveal His glory. Jesus was demonstrating the character of God and acknowledging God’s presence.


“When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth.’ The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus *said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’” (John 11:43-44) Can you imagine the stunned people standing there seeing Lazarus alive? I imagine many were speechless and convicted because the Word tells us that many who had been with Mary (she showed God’s glory in her demeanor to those around her) believed in Him. But there are always some who are so hard of heart that they will not believe. These ran to the religious leaders to report what Jesus had done. Unfortunately their testimony wasn’t to give God glory, it was to condemn Him to death!


‘Unbind him, and let him go.’ We are all so bound up in worldly matters that we become captives to wrong thoughts, actions, motives. We need Jesus to “unbind us”, set us free! Scripture does not tell us anything personal about Lazarus except that he was a friend of Jesus. I believe this is intentional. This account applies to you and me in a very personal way. We can’t escape “living in the world” right now in our physical bodies, but that does not mean that our thinking, our actions, our lifestyles should be the same as the world’s. “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1) 


Read over this account again and begin to count all the ways that the glory of God was seen. Allow the Holy Spirit to begin to open up the understanding of your spirit that you can begin to experience the revelation of Scripture that can only be received through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Let’s look at a few verses in Ephesians that the Holy Spirit gave to the Apostle Paul in which to teach us, exhort us and transform us according to the plans of God and to bring glory to Him. “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:16-21) 


“According to the riches of His glory…” What are the riches of His glory? His divine character and His power! God is sovereign and perfect; we are neither. But in Christ we have the fullness of the Godhead (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and are seated at the right hand of God. We are heirs of the King, King Jesus! As a member of the royal family we possess special attributes and character traits. We walk so as to bring honor and glory to our family! ”Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1) 


There is no way we could ever accomplish any of this on our own. The words of the Apostle Paul states this better than I could ever try and explain it! “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:3-14)



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Abba Father, we come before You today asking You to teach us how to truly worship You in spirit and truth. Help our unbelief and cause us to keep our eyes on You. Continually remind us to have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying and to respond in surrender and love to Your ways. Thank You that You have separated us from the world and that You have come to abide in our hearts and teach us to abide in You in all our ways. May we be as the Apostle Paul pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). 

You are truly my All and without You I am lost and I am nothing. Forgive me for falling short of Your glory. Thank You for forgiving me and lifting my head so that I can continue to move forward in You. Thank You for setting me free through the shed blood of Your Son Jesus Christ. My heart longs for the day in which I can physically be with You, but until that day, thank You for being my constant companion leading me on the narrow road. I love You with all my heart. This I pray through the blessed name above all names, Jesus Christ! Amen.
“The glory”. Do we really understand what the glory of the Lord is? Unfortunately I don’t think we do. Both the Hebrew and the Greek word used for glory mean to bring dignity, show majesty, demonstrate the divine attributes or character, to show honor. Jesus was the brightness of the divine character of God. He demonstrated God’s character, His glorious moral attributes, His excellence, His perfection, His divine majesty and holiness and the power of God. (John 11:40; Romans 6:4, 9:23; Ephesians 1:12, 14,18, 3:16; Colossians 1:11; 2 Peter 1:4) Glory is NOT gold dust and feathers falling from the sky! Seriously, find one place in Scripture where this occurs. It also is not shouting that “God is in the house!” and getting everyone stirred up by the praise team. Praise and worship are FOR God, not for us. The enemy can be a great imitator and deceiver. Abba Father, we come before You now and lay down our preconceived ideas and expectations at Your feet. Lift up our eyes to the heavens and open our hearts to truly worship You in spirit and truth! Guide us in Your word that we may truly see Your glory in this earth and will be willing vessels for Your use that others may not only see You but be drawn into Your presence and give their lives to You. This we pray in the blessed name of Your Son Jesus Christ, Amen! Lazarus has died. Both Mary and Martha are grieved but Martha is also angry as well as hurt. Both women believed Jesus to be the Messiah but they were not in the same place spiritually. Our closeness with the Lord Jesus Christ will make a very distinct difference in how we perceive things. Martha was on the attack, Mary was sitting quietly in the house mourning. When Jesus arrived four days after Lazarus’ death, Martha ran out of the house to meet Him and let Him know how disappointed she was that He delayed coming when He was summoned; if He had come when they sent for Him she knew that Jesus would have healed Him, now it was too late. Wow, she let Him know exactly what she thought, didn’t she? Ever been there? Angry, confused, powerless? Looking for something or someone to take out your frustration on? This seemed to be the state of Martha much of the time. Remember when Jesus came to their home to visit? She literally verbally attacked Him and told Him to tell Mary to get into the kitchen to help! Jesus response to Martha is also for you and me, “But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’” (Luke 10:41-42) Martha was “worried and bothered by many things”, so many things that her state of mind was one of anger and resentment. She totally missed out on the blessing that the Messiah, the divine representation of God sat in her living room! Mary on the other hand always sat and listened to every word that proceeded out of His mouth so her heart was calm and in fellowship with Jesus. This showed in her demeanor at the death of Lazarus. When she approached Jesus she fell at His feet in submission and reverence. Yes, she was confused and hurting and also stated that she knew He could have healed him, but there was not the anger and resentment.