Questions and Answers

04.23.20

Recently I saw a facebook post of a dear friend saying that her five year old grandson asked her to explain the “Glory of God.” Immediately, I thought of the countless times my children have asked me complex questions that I didn’t know how to simplify. I struggled to try to come up with my own answer. I heard the whisper of the Holy Spirit, “If you can’t teach it, do you really know it?” I was humbled by the thought, but empowered knowing that I have a relationship with the greatest teacher who ever existed. I repositioned my heart in that moment from a place of pride trying to come up with an answer that I clearly didn’t have, to a posture of asking for the answer.

In Luke 11:13 the Bible says, “If imperfect parents know how to lovingly take care of their children and give them what they need, how much more will the perfect heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit’s fullness when his children ask him.” (TPT). God longs to give us the answers to our questions and needs, but the motive behind our question is incredibly important. The Greek word used here for “ask” is the word aiteo. It means, “to ask, beg, call for, crave, desire, require.” (Strong’s Greek Lexicon). It’s not just about asking a question with your lips, it’s about a longing or a hunger in your heart to receive the answer. If we ask with a humble heart, we will always receive a reply.

Many times the problem with our asking is that we aren’t actually looking for an answer, what we really want is an excuse. An excuse to stay the same, an excuse to continue in sin, or an excuse to justify self-pity. God will never give us those types of answers, because He knows that they will not improve us. They will only hold us back from the abundant life of joy, peace and love. He has our best interest in mind. Often times He waits to reply until our heart is positioned in the right place. This ensures that we will not rebel against the answer, but instead receive it in a way that will catalyze true transformation in us.

I began to ask the question, with the intent of listening to gain greater understanding, “Holy Spirit, what is the Glory of God?” Immediately, I saw a picture of myself in my living room. In one instance, I saw the Lord standing across the room from me. I looked over at Him and longed for Him to come close. I beckoned Him to come. In an instant, Jesus was holding me tight. I could feel the warmth of His touch. His love radiated through my being with a sensation of purifying fire. The Holy Spirit spoke to me saying, “The Glory is My touchable presence. It’s like the difference between a person being across the room and a person embracing and holding you!”

God is always with us, always in the room, always watching, always waiting to draw near. He desires us, but He also desires for us to desire Him back. So if we want His glory or His touch, it requires us giving Him permission! He gave us free will because He wanted us to have a choice. Let’s face it, would it really be love if we were forced to choose Him?

We give God permission to come close by living a lifestyle of repentance. He can only touch what’s been purified. Impure things are immediately cast out of his presence by the nature of His holiness, an aspect of Himself that cannot be changed. It’s simply who He is. To be Holy means to be “set apart” or “free from defilement! This holiness separates the clean from the unclean, the righteous from the unrighteous and the love from the fear.

1 Peter 1:13-16 says, “So then, prepare your hearts and minds for action! Stay alert and fix your hope firmly on the marvelous grace that is coming to you. For when Jesus Christ is unveiled, a greater measure of grace will be released to you. As God’s obedient children, never again shape your lives by the desires that you followed when you didn’t know better. Instead, shape your lives to become like the Holy One who called you. For Scripture says: “You are to be holy, because I am holy.” (TPT).

Often times, when we aren’t repentant, God keeps His distance to give us the chance to reposition our heart in repentance later. If we are touched by His glory without proper consecration, we ourselves will be separated from God because we have refused to untangle ourselves from sin. Living in this unrepentant sin or iniquity causes us to become one with the sin, therefore we cannot stay in His glory.

Think about it, when the world wants to justify themselves, it begins to define people by the sin they are living in. “I’m an alcoholic” “I’m OCD (behaviors that obsess over being in control)” “I’m homosexual.” People cling to a diagnosis as something that gives them permission to continue in their behavior, as if they had no other option. They say things like, “It’s not my fault because I was ‘born’ this way.” Unfortunately, this is only a half truth.

The greatest lies always start with some small piece of truth. We may have been born that way (because we were born into a world of sin) but God longs for us to be born again! Can I help you get free? You are not defined by your temptations! Even Jesus was tempted and I never heard Him say, “I’m a glutton” simply because the Devil tempted Him with bread while He was fasting! Instead He replied with the Word of God, which is the only thing that can truly define us!

There is no condition of the flesh or area of weakness that cannot be resolved by entering into the sacrifice of Jesus. This rebirth of salvation means we don’t have to be defined by our sin, but can be separated from it! If we are properly consecrated through repentance, this act of positioning our heart causes the sin to be separated from us instead of us being separated from God. God adores humility because it allows Him to come close to the ones He so deeply loves without the risk of His holy nature casting us away from Him.

Let me reiterate the beauty of grace, it is not our job to obsess over changing our actions or behaviors, that is the job of the Holy Spirit. Our only job is to stop justifying our sin and start living in a posture of humility and repentance by staying in constant union and connection with Him. The fruit of holiness and transformation will naturally be produced by our abiding in Him. You can pinpoint just how well you’re abiding in Him by the amount of time that can pass without you thinking of Him. To abide is to be consumed by the thought of Him. It’s about never allowing your thoughts to come off of Him! I challenge myself to never let a moment pass without acknowledging my desperate need for Him. The more I do this, the more I am refreshed by who He is!

“And now you must repent and turn back to God so that your sins will be removed, and so that times of refreshing will stream from the Lord’s presence.” Acts‬ ‭3:19‬ ‭(TPT‬‬)

Here’s some more exciting news for believers! You can repent on behalf of others! This is called intercession. Our intercession, gives God a window of opportunity to intervene in someone else’s life. It momentarily consecrates them enough for God to get their attention, so that they will then choose repentance for themselves. Once they have been exposed to the glory of God, they will often be willing to humble themselves because they’ve experienced His better way of living, His greater joy, His abundant fullness! I believe every salvation, every God intervention, every revival has be preceded by the intercession of the saints. If we want the glory to come, we must have a heart of compassion that is willing to repent on behalf of the world around us so that His glory with be a blessing and not a curse to them.

The word for glory in the the Hebrew is kabad and it means, “to be heavy, to be weighty, be grievous, to be hard, be rich, be honorable, be glorious, be burdensome, be honored.” (Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon). So here’s the question most people will ask looking at this definition. How can something be both glorious and grievous? Both severe and sweet? As I meditated on this the Lord showed me a vision of a treasury filled with gold bricks! As soon as I saw it, I thought: Wow! It’s so beautiful! I can’t even imagine how much this would appraise for! It’s sparkled as the light from His glory shined upon it!

The Lord asked me, “Would you like to have some!” Of course, I responded, “Yes!” Suddenly, the vision shifted. I found myself on earth, looking to the Heaven’s. I realized this treasury of Heaven was over my head, suddenly the thought of the Lord showering me with these heavy and weighty bricks of gold caused me to tremble with the fear of the Lord! If I tried to obtain the glory and the abundance of God from a worldly position of pride, its weightiness will would actually kill me! I suddenly had a new revelation of how something can be both glorious and grievous. The glory is like that gold. If we try to obtain it from the wrong position, what was meant to be provision (communion with the bread of life), becomes our destruction.

I spoke to the Lord and cried out, “How do I obtain it from a Heavenly position?” The question off my lips was not just lip services but from a heart of humility. Jesus appeared to me, His beauty far surpassed the dazzling gold, making it look dull in comparison. I heard the Holy Spirit whisper, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew‬ ‭6:33‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). I stepped into Jesus as if He were a suit for me to wear. As I did, the realization of my God given authority consumed me. The moment I humbly surrender to His strength, is the same moment I become an heir to the greatest reward of Heaven which is union with Christ.

When I stepped into Him, I was transported to my “seat in the heavenlies.” The Holy Spirit whispered again, “You can take whatever you need from this place as long as you stay ‘seated with Christ.’” The value of gold is not really about the idea of hoarding gold itself. The value of gold is in the fact that is serves as a way to provide for my needs and the needs of my family. There is nothing we need more than Jesus, so the moment the gold becomes more important than relationship with Jesus is the moment it loses its true value.

“Don’t keep hoarding for yourselves earthly treasures that can be stolen by thieves. Material wealth eventually rusts, decays, and loses its value. Instead, stockpile heavenly treasures for yourselves that cannot be stolen and will never rust, decay, or lose their value. For your heart will always pursue what you value as your treasure.” Matthew‬ ‭6:19-21‬ ‭(TPT‬‬)

Earlier this week, in a time of worship, I could not get away from singing this verse in Isaiah‬ ‭60:1-5‬: “Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. “Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.” (‭NKJV‬‬). The only answer that can shed light on the truth is Jesus! Receive your answer today by positioning your heart in humility and staying in that position no matter the cost! God longs for us to encounter His glory, but first we must consecrate ourselves so that the weight of glory that was meant to cleanse us and give us abundance, does not crush us.