Accessing the Glory of God

Messages for June 2017: Our Month of Glory

Message for Sunday the 25^th of June, 2017 (Badagry Church only)

Theme: Positioning for the Glory of God

Topic: Accessing the Glory of God

Introduction: We have used the last three sessions to look at How to reflect the glory of God. Today, we shall begin to conclude the theme for this month by looking at accessing the glory of God. Our main interest here is to get an understanding of the steps we can take to gain access to the glory of God. In other words, how can we come to a place where we can be effectively positioned to reflect the glory of God? The following are therefore steps we can take to get to the place where we can be effectively positioned to reflect the glory of God.

1.     Take advantage of the offer of Salvation and get born again so that you can become a member of God’s family. No person can effectively reflect the glory of God without first becoming a part of God’s family through the new birth experience. This is because sin cut man off from God and therefore man died and fell short of the ability to draw anything from God enough to reflect His glory. Man was first planted in God from where his living was drawn. When man sinned against God in Adam, that experience of man was terminated and man became blind and scared and an insecure wanderer on earth without hope and without God in this world. God in His mercy sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ who through his death, burial and resurrection brought man the offer of salvation and if anyone takes advantage of that opportunity, they were saved and restored to the previous relationship man had with God and more. See Rm.3:23; Rm.6:23; 1Cor.15:21-22; Eph.2:6; 2:12, 19; Jn.3:16-19 and Gen.3:15.

2.     Live a life of gratitude to God especially for your salvation: We are told by the Psalmist in Ps.92:1-2 that it is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord. Therefore not to be thankful is a bad thing. Why is it a good thing to be thankful? I believe the reason is obvious because man without God is hopeless and therefore in constant fear and intimidation and under the oppression of the devil. The only mission of the devil to mankind is to kill, steal and destroy. See John 10:10. On the other hand, Jesus came to give us not just life but life in abundance. When we get to know him, we will receive eternal life and thus be able to walk with God, hear His voice and cultivate a personal loving relationship with him because eternal life is actually a relationship and experience with God; it is not a destination as some people think. For all these we should be very grateful. Gratitude proves that we are positioned to receive more from God and God would always oblige us and never disappoint us. If we are thankful, it protects us from entertaining vain imaginations which lead to a life of vanity and consequently enmity with God.  See Jn.10:27-28; 17:1-3; Ps.100:4; Rm.1:21. To be thankful to God is a commandment that we must keep if we are to really be positioned to reflect His glory. See Col.3:15 and 1Thess.5:18. Also, understand that thanksgiving is the key by which we can gain access to God’s presence where His glory dwells. If we abide in His presence, over time, we would just manifest His glory like Moses did when He spent so much time in God’s presence that He so reflected His glory that natural men could no longer look at him for the blinding light that the influence of God’s glory on him brought about. See Ex.34:29-35.

3.     Embrace the mystery of praising God: we are told in Ps.22:3 that God resides in the praises of His people. When we praise His, we bring down His presence with which comes His glory. All who have engaged this mystery with the right heart have been really specially blessed by God. When praise ascends to God, He responds to it by coming down Himself to receive it. He does not send the angels in answer to praise; He presents Himself to receive it. When God’s presence comes on the scene, Ps.114:1-8 gives us an idea of what happens. The presence of God puts a stop to every opposition of the enemy against us and enforces our victory and rest. See 2Chron.20:1-24. Finally, the presence of God is the release of His glory into a place and the life of a person. When this happens we can enter into a realm of unspeakable joy full of glory. This is a realm of walking in divine energy where we would serve God tirelessly and experience rest on all sides. See 1Pet.1:8; Ps.16:11 etc.

Sustaining the glory of God: Whereas it good to be well positioned to reflect the glory of God, it is even better when this becomes a constant in our lives. In other words, we must go the extra mile of retaining the glory. What is required of us if we are going to retain the glory of God?

1.     To sustain this grace of effectively reflecting the glory of God, we have to first make a commitment to living a life of purity. God is Holy and therefore anyone who is going to keep reflecting His glory must be Holy to do so. What does it mean to be holy?

To be holy is to be wholly all you are seen by others to be. In other words, your private life and your public life must match. What you say and what you do also must match. You cannot say one thing and do another. You must be the whole of what you say you are. In other words, you are also a doer of your word just like you are a doer of God’s word. This is referred to as personal integrity.

How do we grow into maturity in wholeiness?

In 2Cor.7:1, we are told: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” To have a clearer understanding of what the word is saying here, let us see what promises Apostle Paul is referring to here.  A look at the preceding verses in 2Cor.6 reveals to us that God was calling His Church at Corinth to a place of separation from the wrong company and a decision and action for purity as a condition for being received by God as His sons and daughters. When God acknowledges you as his son or daughter that confers divine royalty on you and grants you access to all of the graces of God that ensures you are established in faith and fulfill your destiny. See also Jas.1:21.

2.     Also the Psalmist gives us a key to living this life as the fear of God which the word of God recognizes as the beginning of wisdom and that to really be a person of understanding, one must depart from iniquity. See Job 28:28 and Ps.19:9; 25:14; 34:7; 96:9 and 111:10. Please understand that the fear of the Lord is a choice you make. It is not a gift; it is decision based. For instance Lucifer was in the presence of God and walked in the midst of the stones of fire yet he could not endure because he lacked this essential quality of the fear of God. What enables you to build legacies and maintain sustained relevance with God is the fear of God. The fear of God is actually the desire to always be in God’s presence and do everything required to not lose His presence.

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

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