Glorifying Jesus brings down the Spirit of God upon us and can effect our emotions. So glorifying God, raising high the name of Jesus, lifting Him up brings down the glory. In the soulish realm of much of Christendom, emotions are used to create a feeling and then that feeling is called God. Emotions in and of themselves carry no power. If they are the byproduct of an encounter with God they are a marvelous part of the “experiencing,’ His manifest presence. If they are the primary vehicle for entering into some kind of experience then you have entered the soul and not the Spirit.

Christendom is awash with this. Little men and women dancing and twirling and calling it freedom and then marveling at the “move of God.” So many generations have passed for whom the shades of grey have become to them the light of heaven. And if that light indeed be darkness, then how great the darkness? The manifest glory of God will ruin you for life. The changes in you will be profound. The weight of the glory of God will silence you. The majesty and the glory will cause you to be awestruck. You will not dance and scream and shout like you were at some rock concert with the lights tuned low and the volume set high and smoke machine creating a counterfeit atmosphere.

God help us as we drown in the mediocrity of a dying generation of what passes for Christianity. It is amazing that men and women can drown in something so shallow. It is further amazing when this kind of shallowness can rise up and take us down into the endless depths of our own souls. There is but one escape for those caught up in this and the time is drawing short. Find Jesus. Cry out to Jesus. Lift up the name of Jesus. Glorify Jesus. Exalt Jesus. Reject everything else until you have found Him. Whatever distracts you or your gathering from this, get rid of it. Get rid of your “professional worshipers.’ So many of whom are merely living out their dreams of secular success vicariously through the platform that you have allowed them to ascend among you. Let Christ arise and His enemies be scattered, let Christ let Christ arise!

Rom 5:3  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 

We see that we are called to glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Can you imagine that? He glories in his suffering because of what he knows that it is producing. It is producing the very elements that we need to endure and overcome. We are being shaped by the Lord. Resigning our lives into His hands is our reasonable service. A superficial faith cannot abide the thought of suffering or any kind of deprivation.

The notion that one could end up in a dungeon whipped to within and inch of ones lives and yet still be praising God and thanking God and glorifying God in the midst of all of it rather than begging God to be relieved of our circumstances is an offense to many. Paul says that the power of God rested upon him as he gloried in his infirmities in 2 Cor 12:10. By the grace of God, His strength is made perfect in our weakness. This is why Paul would rather glory in his infirmities. He was so sold out to the notion of glorifying God that no matter what it took, then he was ready for that. This is the high water mark for us saints. To follow Jesus in such a manner is to have totally abandoned the flesh. Push on in deeper saint, may we decrease and may He increase.

1Pe 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

None of us enjoy suffering. That is something that we all have in common. We often go to enormous lengths to avoid suffering. It is our natural state. Yet here we see that in the process of being sanctified, there is indeed suffering to be dealt with. How we deal with that suffering is a vital part of the sanctification process. We cannot hate it, we cannot fear it, we cannot run from it and we cannot battle it. Yet that is what most of us find ourselves doing in many situations that come our way. We have to remember that we are not natural men brothers and sisters, we are supernatural. One pastor said that your salvation is either supernatural or superficial. The word superficial is defined as “existing or occurring at or on the surface.” Suffering goes deep beneath the surface. There are many things that we can replicate in a superficial manner, being at peace in the midst of suffering, having great joy despite our circumstances is not one them.

And so if we are truly interested in moving in the deeper things of the Lord, becoming more like Jesus, then our attitude to suffering must bend towards rejoicing in it. It is a difficult arc but then the road is narrow we are told and few their are that find it. Rejoicing in victories is one thing, but to rejoice in seeming defeats, at least as the world would view as defeats, is quite remarkable and supernatural. Who rejoices in the depths of a dungeon? Who glories in their infirmities? Who is overjoyed when they are counted worthy to enter in the sufferings of Jesus? The man and the woman of God. And with this there is a power that rests upon them. A power that few people know much about. Who desires this kind of power that 2 Cor 12:9 speaks of? Not many do brothers and sisters, not many. Let us be counted with the not many, with the few, that God Himself may be glorified.

2Co 2:14  Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. 

Do you walk in triumph? Do you diffuse the fragrance of His Knowledge in every place? If you have not experienced the knowledge of His glory then how can you radiate and reflect and diffuse the beauty of His presence and the manifest glory of who He is? If you have not stood in the manifest presence of God and been ruined for the things of this world from that encounter then how can you effectively share the reality of Jesus in your life? Those whose hearts are veiled to this knowledge of His glory, who have not yet stepped behind that veil and experienced the glorious majesty of His presence cannot walk in the life of Christ that flows from that place.

The reality of God is manifested in His reality manifested in us. We broken vessels, broken from the things of this world, are changed in fundamental ways by His hand and by His glory. And this is the triumph in Christ. In Christ we are more that conquerors and that living reality, the reality of it seen in our changed lives is the victory. The knowledge of Jesus means the intimate reality of our relationship with Him. By this intimacy, by this “knowing Him,” then and only then are we a sweet fragrance to the world. Are you a sweet fragrance to the world? Can others, by their encounters with you, breathe in the beauty of the Lord? Most importantly are we, the children of God, a sweet smelling fragrance of Christ to our heavenly Father?

Isaiah 63:14 As the beast goes down into the valley and the Spirit of the Lord causes him to rest. So you lead your people to make yourself a glorious name.

When you follow Christ into the valley the world will be changed but do not think you were called to change the world, you were not. No, brothers and sisters, we were not called to be world changers, we were called to live a transformed life. We were called to have our own lives transformed and in that transformation the world is changed as a by-product of our primary purpose. Our primary purpose is glorifying God by our own lives. Focus on changing the world and you become a humanist, Christendom is all but lost today to humanism.

We are not called to alleviate the sufferings of the world beyond giving to the poor. We are called to be salt and light, a city set on a hill. If you clothe the naked but share not the love of Jesus then what have you gained? If you visit the prisoner and leave the prisoner a captive then what have you gained? It must always be about Jesus and if not, then one can join the ranks of the social services.

Jesus walked through the valley and it led to the high hill of Calvary. And from that momentary lofty place, we meet Jesus and He asks us to return to the valley. He is not asking us to do what He would not and did not do Himself. He came from the glories of heaven to walk in the pain and suffering of the valley. And in this moment of transfiguration, where we encounter the living God in the high place, we decide to die to ourselves and follow in His footsteps.

Lord give me a heart that even when I am persecuted for righteousness sake, I still go on loving this world. Give me a heart that even when men say all manner of evil against me that I rejoice and am exceedingly glad for your sake. Let me be the salt of the earth. Change me so that I will be a city set on a hill and all those who travel through the valley will be comforted when they see the light that is in me.

And mankind will glorify God when they see what marvelous works He has performed in you. A willing servant to God and a free man and a free woman. Free to glorify God in heaven for all His marvelous works in and through you. It is your work in your children Lord that is a witness to your power. Let us not be ashamed of your work in us rather let it be known to all who would hear that this is your power, the Gospel, the power of God unto salvation. We were called to be witnesses, let us be witnesses and expressions of your power, the power to transform. Let us rest in that,

1 Cor 15:57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” There are many kinds of death just as there are many kinds of victories. There is of course physical death and for those saints who “have the victory,’ then every aspect of death’s power, fear and dread and darkness are swallowed up by the life of Christ. For we know that because He lives then so shall we. The darkness of this world shall be swallowed whole by the light of Christ that is brighter than a thousand suns. Let all you suns of the universe hide yourselves in shame as mere candles in the wind when my Lord appears.

And because we “know” Him we have already been touched by the glory of His light. Can you feel it’s glow even now deep within your heart? It burns at the center of who we are. There is life in this light of God. There is power and there is victory and because there is we can say with full authority to death- where is your sting? Oh grave where is your victory? You have been defeated and you have been swallowed whole. The victory belongs to Jesus. His very life is our victory and His eternal throne means that out victory is eternal.

And therefore if death has been overcome and we ourselves have died to this world then we are now alive to walk in His Kingdom. And in this Kingdom we walk in victory. In every situation we have something that belongs to Jesus and was created by His very life. The light of Christ. It overcomes every darkness saints. When you apply this light to whatever battle that you are in you will find the victory. There is victory in the glory. Just as the glory of God fills all of heavens chambers that are vast beyond imagination, then it also fills you. His glory is your victory. For it’s release from your spirit lights up the darkness of every corner of your soul.

Victory. That is what you have today saint. It lies within you for the Lord rules and reigns in your heart. You are a single tear drop away from His glory. No matter your situation today saints, search, like the deer, for the waters of life, the glory and the victory that lies within you. There is a fountain, an eternal spring and its waters have life and they have been prepared for your use. Desperation is often the key that opens the door of humility revealing the source of life and victory. Jesus is the life and the light , the watererbrooks, the eternal springs and the glory and the victory.

Phi 2:5 For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

And so Jesus, being found in the likeness of man, humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. How many of us know that when a friend or a family member is dying or seriously ill, then we gather around them and comfort them? There are also doctors and nurses to ease their pain. This is not so when we are dying to the flesh.

There will be an agony which we have to deal with alone. The comforts and sympathies of this world do not help us when we are dying a spiritual death, in fact it is quite the opposite, it tends to prolong the process. When you hear “there , there,” when you are in the midst of a great struggle, from well meaning people you will not be comforted. The comfort there, in your spiritual dying, is the discovering that when God is all you have, God is all you need. The cross is not comfortable, it is the very opposite of comfort. It’s not just a dying, its the dying of the cross. A suffering of loss.

Yet in the midst of dying to ourselves we are called to life, spiritual life. In the seemingly endless paradoxes between life in the spirit and our life on this earth we are called to have the mind of Christ and have the life of Christ in us. It is in the midst of dying to our flesh that we find the hidden treasures of life in the Spirit. The gross darkness of the death of the cross reveals the life and the light of Christ in us. This is the crucified life and we find it as we humble ourselves and take on the form of a servant and walk in obedience to our heavenly calling. Will you walk in the life of the Spirit today?