By Ps Daphne Yang
Isaiah 40:5 tells of the glory of the Lord which shall be revealed, and that all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Glory is difficult to define in our understanding, but it can be described as magnificence, grandeur, God’s special presence revealed in the pillars of glory and of fire or the glory that filled the tabernacle.
The Hebrew term for glory is “kabod” while the Greek term is “doxa”. The former means weight or heaviness and translates to us the picture of honour, exalted or dignified while the latter means praise, fame or repute.
God’s glory is both intrinsic and extrinsic and it belongs to Him alone. He communicates His glory through His works of creation, providence, redemption and final consummation.
He fills our spirit with the fullness of His Spirit – filling man who is fallible and who will eventually pass away. Therefore, James 1:10 calls for the rich to take pride in their humiliation.
His glory will crown the heads of the sons of God and His knowledge will fill the earth. This glory is not of us, it is of God. This glory is manifested in all His attributes and it never passes away because it is eternal.
When we repent, our focus is set on Jesus and the veil of our heart is removed, and we can behold the transforming glory of God.
Our mind serves the heart to fuel truth, yet it is the hardness of man’s heart which blinds the mind. Ephesians 4:18 describes it as, “having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”
If the heart does not change, the mind cannot do its work. The issue of the hardness of heart leads to the ignorance of the mind but when we repent, our focus is set on Jesus and the veil of our heart is removed – “Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16), and we can behold the transforming glory of God.
We can’t love with the heart what we have not received with the mind. Therefore, the work of the mind needs to rightly know that God is absolutely essential!
When we have an image of a false god and if we don’t receive God’s revelation of Himself, our image of God will embrace something other than who God declares Himself to be. When this happens, something is fundamentally wrong with our thinking.
Moses asked God to show him His glory, and God said that His Glory is His Goodness. “And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.” (Exodus 34:6)
Paul exhorts us not to “despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4)
God has called us to be His ministers of the New Covenant – to reveal His glory, we’re to showcase His compassionate and powerful love to a world in need.
We’re in a time of increasing darkness on the earth and at the same time there’s an increase in God’s glory revealed through His servants. God has called us to be His ministers of the New Covenant – to reveal His glory, we’re to showcase His compassionate and powerful love to a world in need.
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.”
(Isaiah 58:6-8)
When God’s mind is manifested in us, His glory will be made known to the world through our lives and words!
Though God is invisible, His very essence is expressed through us to all the earth! The Lord Himself said, “but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.”
(Numbers 14:21)
God’s glory and presence were not found in the outer court. He bypassed the outer court and the holy place and went straight into the holy of holies.
The Lord came to His people Israel, and He dwelt in the holy of holies. The Lord has come to us, and we’re not a tent, a tabernacle without the presence of God, without life!
The purpose for the tabernacle was that God might dwell among His people; to speak to them, to reveal Himself to them, to lead and to guide them. Without His presence, the tabernacle would have failed to serve its purpose.
When He gave His Holy Spirit to us, He came into us. The tabernacle of God is with men and He has given us
His life and His mind. The Lord’s residence in us fills our most holy place with His glory!
Ephesians 2:21-22 confirms that when we are in Christ, “the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our dwelling place; we are His holy temple in the Lord. Let’s submit our lives to all His dealings and our obedience to His commands that we can be conformed to the image of Christ.
For God has given us all that is needed “to attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs
to the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)
The beauty of the Lord’s plan is for His glory to be multiplied and magnified until it is manifested throughout all creation. This will be brought to pass through His body.
Jesus said, “The glory which You have given Me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” (John 17:22) Jesus revealed the glory of the Lord by being the exact representation of the Father. He said,
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
All creation is groaning with us. When we look at the world with the tension and unrest, we begin to understand its groaning. This groaning increases as it enters the birthing canal, and it will not cease until it finds fulfilment when the glory of God is revealed in His sons.
The prophecy in Isaiah 40:4-5 gives us the requirements that must be met for the glory of the Lord to be revealed. “Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
God is calling us again today, not yesterday, not tomorrow or another day. Today, God is preparing His dwelling place in us. He’s making us into heavenly creatures while we’re still in this body of flesh. May we embrace the knowledge that God desires to bring many sons to glory!