Get To the Glory

Do you know what the prize of being a Christian is? It is the Glory of God. This is not a subject that is covered sufficiently in the mainstream church, but it's one that in the coming days, I believe, will literally consume those who have been chosen and prepared for the next Kingdom Move of God. The days of Christians simply setting their sights on going to Heaven when they die are over. If you look at it realistically, the prospect of going to Heaven after we physically die has not served as a major source of motivation in regards to fueling Christian commitment and sacrifice. Why? Because God did not intend man to live strictly within a "hereafter" context (even though this context is important when appropriately applied) but in the here and now with an Eternal perspective. This Eternal perspective consists of The Glory of God. And what we want to do as believers in Christ and children of God is to Get to the Glory.

The Glory of God is the Manifest Presence of God. It is also the atmospheric reality of Heaven. Just as you need oxygen to exist on earth, The Glory of God fills the very atmosphere of Heaven. When God created humanity and placed him in the Garden of Eden, he lived in the Manifest Presence and Glory of God (Genesis 1-2). This is hard for us to conceive because all we've known is the reality of Fallen Man and Sinful Creation. But needless to say, this is not the Divine Will of God for the earth. We know that humanity existed in the Glory of God before Adam's act of disobedience because the scripture says that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God (Romans 3). The rationale is that if there is no sin, there is no fall and consequently, the Glory of God is still in tact for God's creation and humanity. The Blessing is that Jesus died to redeem, restore and renew this Original Glory that God had given to man (1Corinthians 15). But it's not going to be given to us on a silver platter just because we've accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. We must work and we must stretch to Get To the Glory.

When Jesus was ministering to His disciples on the Emmaus road after His Resurrection, He said to them, "ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His Glory?" (Luke 24). The key to getting to the Glory of God is Suffering. This is a challenge for many human beings, even Christians, because we've been conditioned to be so "pain aversive". Of course this is natural, but it's not Supernatural. As a matter of fact, when Jesus was trying to convey to the disciples about His Mission of Crucifixion, Peter tried to dissuade Him from this course, and his actions were categorized as "satanic" (Matthew 16). Why is this important? Because saints, as the church and as the Body of Christ, we are not going to be able to change the world nor sustain a Move of God, if we're not acclimated and oriented towards suffering for the cause of Christ. This Suffering will entail physical, mental, emotional and spiritual suffering. We can't continue to run from the Call of the Cross. Peter said that this is what we are called to (1Peter 2). But our motivation and incentive for bearing our Cross and suffering like Christ should be the same motivation and objective that Jesus had: to Get to the Glory.