Splendor of God

"Splendor of God" – Ephesians 3:20 The dwelling place of God. Is God the dwelling place of your life? (Ephesians 3:20). To God be the glory, then, by His efficacious power. So, what does it mean to live for God's glory? The verb "glorify" means "praise, honor, and glory to God." God created man for this purpose, therefore, "there is no greater duty for every creature than to glorify God, to live by Him and for Him. Let go of your self-centeredness (see the world only from one point of view, your own) to live for the glory of God.

I. If you have His glory, you live for God.

A. The life of glory is essentially the experience and expression of divine nature.

1. God has brought us to Himself, that is, "to share His nature."

2. That means we will think, feel, speak, etc., "as God does."

3. We will share His experience through intimate fellowship. We have been made partakers of divine nature.

4. This truth is at the heart of our call to partake of God's glory.

5. You decide, you live in your flesh or in the glory of God.

6. Glorifying God means that we praise Him with absolute satisfaction knowing that our destiny "is God's plan" for us now.

7. The word glory speaks of power, the power, and honor of God.

8. That shines from His being.

9. God's presence is different because He is everywhere (Psalm 139:1-18).

10. (Exodus 24:17) The cloud of glory covered the top.

11. Then, at God's invitation, he climbed to the top and entered the cloud, where he stayed for the next forty days and forty nights.

12. (Exodus 31:18) Under the cloud of glory the Lord gave Moses... two tablets... of stones carved with the Law of God, that is, the Ten Commandments, under the glory of God.

13. (Exodus 40:34) His glory is manifested when God is present doing great things and God leaving His glory to give it to man.

14. Then "the cloud of glory descended upon the tabernacle" and "filled it in such a way" that Moses could not enter.

15. This cloud of glory would accompany the people on their pilgrimage.

16. They should move only when the cloud of glory moves.

17. When it stopped, they should also stop.

18. (1 Kings 8:11) That is why it was only when the priests had gone out that the Shekinah took possession of the place in the cloud that covered not only the Holy of Holies, but the entire temple, so that the priests who were there to burn incense on the golden altar "could not remain there."

19. (Luke 2:9-11) An angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, and a bright light "surrounded" them with its brightness.

20. When they were filled with fear, the angel encouraged them and told them the news.

21. It was good news of great joy for all the people.

22. On that blessed day, in the vicinity of Bethlehem, "a Baby" had been born.

23. And this baby was "a Savior," who is Christ the Lord.

24. He is the Lord; God manifest in the flesh.

25. They were greatly afraid of so extraordinarily supernatural.

26. Heavenly visits are to reach us as we are prepared and watchful.

27. (Acts 7:55) When Stephen heard about Jesus in heaven, at the right hand of God.

28. Stephen gave public testimony that he saw the heavens open, the mob refused to listen to him anymore; They began to scream fiercely, threw themselves at him, dragged him outside the walls of the city and began to stone him.

29. To see the glory of God, great stones were placed on Stephen and no flattery and less applause.

30. They were not pleasures, flattery, positions, good voices, great ministries and much less ambitions, they were stones. (38).

31. He saw the glory of God, but in the form of death.

32. (2 Corinthians 3:18) Brethren, we are changed. Have you changed?

33. In the Old Covenant, only Moses was allowed to see the glory of the Lord.

34. Under the New Covenant, all of us have the privilege of looking to the glory of the Lord.

35. Moses' face had to be veiled (covered) after he finished speaking to the people, but we can have "uncovered faces."

36. We can keep our face "uncovered" by confessing and forsaking sin, being totally frank with God and with ourselves.

37. Someone said: we must "let fall the veils of sin, of the pretense of all hypocrisy, of false appearances, of every attempt to accommodate oneself to the taste of every halfmeasure, of every 'yes, but no'."

38. The next step is to look "as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord."

39. The mirror is the word of God.

40. As we access the Bible, we see the Lord Jesus revealed in all His glory.

41. We do not yet see Him face to face, but only as He presents Himself in the word as a mirror.

42. Here we have in a word the secret of Christian holiness: to occupy ourselves with Christ.

43. Not to occupy ourselves with the self: "this only brings defeat."

44. Not because we occupy ourselves with others: this brings discouragement (depression, dejection).

45. But by occupying yourselves with "the glory of the Lord", this is how we become more like Him. Amen