Jesus spoke of this glory in John 17:22, when He said, “I have given them the glory that You gave Me that they may be one as we are one.” When we become Christians, we undergo a spiritual transformation…a invisible process, a metamorphosis if you will, where our very character is changed. And by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit we become a mirror, reflecting Jesus to others. But you’ll also notice that this Scripture says we are “being” transformed with “ever-increasing” glory…which means His work in us will never be completely done until that day we meet Him face to face.
Tag: spiritual enlightenment
II Timothy 1:7 ” For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
As a Believer, you have been given the Spirit of adoption and strength. No longer are you an orphan, fearful of tomorrow. No longer are you a slave to anxiety or dread, for you have been embraced by your Heavenly Father…taken in as family and becoming a joint heir with Jesus.
Revelation 22:5 ” There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.”
The OT prophet Isaiah spoke of this illuminating glory to come in Isaiah 60:19, ” The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.” There is coming a day when God’s Kingdom will be set up here on earth…His truth and glory will pierce through all darkness, bringing into the light all sin and deception. On that day, the Lord Himself will become our light, and all evil will have to flee.
II Corinthians 6:14 ” Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? “
If you’ve ever seen oxen yoked together…you’ll see one thing quickly…they must move together as one. The yoke forces them to move in the same direction, even if they don’t want to. This hitch they are joined together by suddenly becomes a burden as they both pull in opposite directions. When we are unequally yoked with unbelievers, it soon becomes a wrestling match of the wills…a match between light and darkness…truth and deceit…with no one winning.
Ephesians 1:18 ” I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.”
For many of us, we are riding on the shoulders of those who have come before us. Maybe it was a Grandmother, Great Aunt, or Great Uncle that were so influential in your early years. This someone, whose strong Christian walk stirred your own soul and formed early on your ideas of just who God was, became a shining example of His light and truth to you. And as they walked the walk and talked the talk…that assurance of who God was and His matchless power and authority became more real every day.
II Corinthians 10:5 ” We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
When we’re going through a time of spiritual confusion…there are only two ways we can go. We can argue or chose to obey. We can spend our time trying to reason and debate our way out of the disconcertment in our life…or we can yield and submit ourselves to the authority and supremacy of God. You can’t think your way out of spiritual confusion…the only thing you can do is to obey what God places in front of you…step by step, day by day. For Christ demands unquestioning obedience from us, even when the way is shadowed.
II Corinthians 4:6 ” For God, Who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
As I John 1:5 states, “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” When we walk from darkness into the light of Christ, we are transformed…and we become enlightened. Gone is our old self, for now we can understand the light and truth of the Gospel. No longer to be trapped in the darkness, this new knowledge of God now resides in our heart…and the glory of God shines forth as there becomes less of us and more of Jesus in our life.
I Corinthians 12:12-13 ” The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”
Here Paul is comparing the human body with the body of Christ…the Church. Just as the many parts of the human body work together in complete harmony…each with its own unique purpose, the body of Christ – the Church and its many parts need to come together in like-mindedness also. And just like the human body, one part cannot work in isolation from the rest. That would be like one Sunday morning your heart getting up and deciding not to be part of your body that day! You may think that your presence at Church doesn’t matter…but it does…the whole body suffers when one part is absent.
John 3:19 ” This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”
In this verse Jesus so wisely observed the world’s value system both then and now. For what we treat as precious and dear, are what we value. Are they things of virtue and truth, or things of sin and wickedness? Jesus came into the world to shed illumination on our spiritual darkness…that we love evil rather than good and falsehood rather than speaking the truth.(Psalm 52:3) He declared in John 7:7, ” The world hates Me because I testify that what it does is evil.” Pray that the spiritual darkness that is enveloping the world may be lifted and banished as we seek the light.
Job 24: 13 ” There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know Its ways or stay in Its path.”
The light of Jesus has come into the world…but men love darkness, (John 3:19-20). They resist God, not recognizing or acknowledging His majesty and the gift of salvation He offers. He calls all of us to be children of light…for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. (Eph. 5:8-14).
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