G L O R Y

It is important that we understand this teaching since its importance is almost beyond our understanding. Let’s first look at a dictionary definition of glory.

GLORY -- exalted honor, or praise. Adoration, praise, and thanksgiving offered in worship.

Secondly, we will look at the Lexicon definition of the word ‘glory’ and ‘glorieth’ as it appears twice in I Corinthians 1: 31.

GLORY and glorieth -- to speak loud, be loud-tongued, boast or vaunt one’s self.

We are going to study the lexicon definition of the word glory. The Lexicon is a definition of words that are used in the Bible and in biblical times. Have you ever heard of a loud person who boasts about himself in a loud manner or with a loud voice? I am sure that mostly all of us has met a person like this at some time in our lives. These persons are looking for glory for themselves. Now, of course, we are going to look at what God’s Word says about this subject. We are to adhere to what God says and not what man says.

That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. -- I Corinthians 1: 31

There were a number of times when I used teach the Word of God in home fellowships. People would come up to me after the teaching and say, “That was a great teaching”. This also happened to a friend of mine who found himself in the same position as myself. I believe it was this friend in the Ministry, that said to me “Give the glory to God.” What he was saying to me is something that we all should learn. We are never to seek glory which is also praise or adoration, for ourselves. Why did I mention what happened to me in some fellowships? It is very simple, but extremely important. It was God Almighty who worked in my heart to teach in a manner that was very pleasing to the other believers. I deserved no credit whatsoever for the teaching. God would tell me what to teach many times even if I could not be prepared for that particular fellowship. Do we understand this completely? I never did want and I still do not want glory. If you take these teachings are great and really bless you, it is okay for me to take a compliment. But I know in my heart that the person giving me the compliment should know that God Almighty gets the glory and all of the glory. Let’s go back to I Corinthians 1: 29 and again we will see that God practically duplicates what He said in verse 31.

That no flesh should glory in his presence. -- I Corinthians 1: 29

It’s so simple, isn’t it? Every man is made of flesh and God says that no man should glory in his own presence. Now God practically repeated what he said in verse 31. I have taught you from Genesis that if God says something twice, it is absolutely established. With some research, I found out that God says this more times than twice and we are going to look at that.

Before I go any farther, I want to give you a real life example of something that recently happened to me. This subject of glory almost instantly came to my mind, so let me tell you this true story. I very much look forward to it to let you know just how many counterfeits there are out there who are supposedly teaching the rightly divided Word of God.

A so-called believer wrote to me not too long ago and he was all excited and he said to me that my teachings were awesome. In the first place, he may have been trying to be nice to me, but I realize that he didn’t completely understand the source of my teachings. But he went on raving about how great the website was. He went ahead and got in contact with another person who left the Ministry - the same Ministry that taught me God’s Word. This person has betrayed the Ministry and became nothing but a serious, well deceiving, counterfeit. He has many people following him in the Western part of this country. He tears down the Ministry that probably saved his life and taught him everything that he knows. This person who was supposed to be a great leader, told the person that wrote to me that he had never heard of me. That person, like a puppet, relayed the message back to me in a letter and he said no one ever heard of you. WHAT A JOKE. You see, I do not care if everyone in the whole world doesn’t know who I am. I only care that you get to learn the rightly divided Word of God from a true and honest believer. The group that he was studying with – they only want glory. That’s all they care about. In the ministry I studied with, many of the people who were in leadership positions were mainly seeking glory. They had all kind of pet names for each other. I remember in my own state, the leader was called the Duke. They all decided to guess at sections of the Word of God that they were taught rightly before they left the ministry. And here I am sitting here by myself without even an email that you can reach me. And I am completely satisfied with what I do because God Almighty directs me and gives me true revelation for everything that I do. I do not want glory. What the heck can I do with glory? But when you’re on a head trip, glory means everything to you. It is a well disguised counterfeit sent to people by the god of this world and that is Satan. Did I react to this so-called believer’s remark that no one ever heard of me? No, I did not. I did not react in a manner that the devil wanted me to. I simply never answered him again and I thank God that he never wrote back.

I thought this was a very good example of this subject of glory because it happened to me. Be careful that it doesn’t happen to you. You make sure you give God the glory for every single great thing that happens in your life. Let’s get back to the Word and take another look at a Scripture in Corinthians which might surprise you.

But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. -- II Corinthians 10: 17

Holy smokes! Gee, God must have made a mistake. Well can you imagine that? There is no mistake – not at all. God is saying almost the same thing that He said in I Corinthians 1: 31. Glory to God. God does not make mistakes. He is perfect. I just try to imagine what great importance God is putting on this principle of glory. Again, He says almost the same thing that He said in chapter 1 of I Corinthians. There is a great second lesson to be learned here that not only pertains to glory but to the fact that when God repeats himself over and over again, He is trying to show you the importance of a principal. Repetition is a figure of speech.

I’m going to have to go to a similar subject pertaining to television preachers. You notice all of them are all dressed to kill. That’s a good thing.

Let all things be done decently and in order. -- I Corinthians 14: 40

However, there is one woman who has special tailor-made clothes just for her television shows. This is out of order and takes a principal to an extreme. Extremes are not of the true God. And just in case one Lear jet breaks down on the way to her meetings, why she has another one. So guess where your tithes are going when you give to so-called ministries like the one I just described. There is a young man who also teaches on the television to a very large auditorium of idiots. He has so much zeal when he teaches that he gets everyone all excited. But that person wants only one thing, and that is glory. And so does the woman with the 2 jets and tailor-made suits. He and she wants glory. This is a touchy subject because some of you might be saying, well what’s wrong with that? It’s going against the Word of God where God says that He is to get all of the glory. So make up your own mind and don’t argue with me because it is not possible for me to argue truth. I can only witness to it and that is what I am doing right now. I try to give you real life experiences that you may be familiar with so that the teachings will hit home and you will apply what you’ve learned.

You’ll very seldom find a manager in a high position that is not seeking glory. It is the humble person who reaches a high point in a company – that is the person that you can talk to and will relate to you. One more thing. I want to prove this point to you. I had a sergeant of our local police department come to speak to me about something one time. This man was such a gentleman that it just blew me away. He had a suit and tie on and he was giving me some good advice about not reacting to what the damn devil was throwing at me. We had a great talk for at least an hour and he taught me a great lesson. But when he was leaving, I looked at him and I asked him a question. I said to him that I cannot understand how such a person like himself was only at the rank of a sergeant after spending about 30 years with his police department. He looked at me and he smiled and he said, “That’s because I’m a nice guy”. That man did not care about glory. He cared about doing his job correctly and treating people equally. I never forgot what he taught me and that was NOT TO REACT to evil.

Even the mystery which had been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. -- Colossians 1: 26, 27

I believe that there are many people who do not understand this mystery that God kept secret. God did not even tell Jesus Christ about the mystery. The mystery is what took place on the Day of Pentecost. God says in the above Scriptures that he would make known to man what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. This great mystery that finally came into fruition on Pentecost was the fact that a body and soul person could now also be born again of the Spirit of God Almighty. Now this person was a threefold being -- body, soul, and spirit. When Jesus Christ walked the face of the earth, he had God’s spirit upon him. When we are born again, we have God’s spirit within us. You can say it in a different way and that is that we have God in Christ in us. That gives us massive power on this earth. It says in the Bible that if Satan ever knew the mystery, he would never have crucified Jesus Christ. Now instead of having one Jesus Christ, everyone who is born again has the same power that Christ had while he walked the face of this earth. The problem today and in most situations is that people just simply do not believe it. So, they walk with very little of this power being manifested in this life and in this world.

You’re probably wondering why I brought these Scriptures up at this point and time in this teaching. It should become very obvious to you, but I will explain it thoroughly. If we can do and accomplish great things as a result of Revelation from the true God, it actually means that we are not the actual person who brings forth great things in our life. It is God Almighty who does these things for us as a result of our believing. At times, I do believe that God will work miracles in our life even if our believing isn’t where it should be. While I am at this subject, I am going to turn to a great Scripture in the book of Ephesians which will help to prove to you what I just said - with a real life example.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, -- Ephesians 3: 20

Can you just imagine how great God Almighty is and how much he loves us? He can and does, at times, accomplish for us things that exceed our thinking. He does this according to the power that works in us. That power is God in Christ in you. You, when you are born again, have the spirit of God within your body. Ephesians 3: 20 has happened to me quite a number of times in my life. I would like to mention a few of those times to you so that I can help you to believe bigger than you ever have before.

To some people, this example may not be very impressive. But to me, it had great importance at this time in my life. I was searching for a certain type of motorcycle. After looking around for a long time, I still did not give up. Some of you will understand this more than others. I was searching for a 650 Triumph Bonneville motorcycle. To make a long story very short, I was in a nightclub in the middle of nowhere. I saw a friend of mine who I actually used to ride with when we were much younger. I said to him, “Hey Jerry, I’m looking for a Triumph Bonneville. Do you think you can help me out?” He looked at me in some amazement and he said to me “I am selling a Triumph motorcycle.” He asked me if I was jerking him around as if I knew that he was selling this motorcycle. I was almost in a state of shock and I said to him, “Jerry, I’m not fooling around. I’m as serious as I can be.” Now here is the point of this story that I want you to understand. I only knew of a 650 Triumph Bonneville. 650 represents cubic centimeters or the size of the motor. Jerry told me that he had a 750 1973 Triumph for sale. We made all the arrangements for me to come, ride the bike, and I purchased the bike as soon as possible. It was like a dream. I customized the motorcycle with a massive amount of chrome and a huge back tire and crossover drag pipes. The bike was in immaculate condition and I loved it until one day, I just got sick of riding -- 25 years. I sold the bike to someone who drove over 20 hours from another state. This person was very fortunate because the year after I sold it, it appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The value skyrocketed and for a long time I regretted selling that bike. I had my heart and soul in that machine. Believe it or not, when I ran against these big Harleys, in a ¼ mile, they didn’t have a chance. The bike was like a rocket with superior handling - the best I ever experienced.

But the point that I want to make as clearly as I can is the following. In 1973, this motorcycle was available in 750 cubic centimeters. I knew nothing about this. So there you see it. God went exceeding abundantly above all that I could ask or even think. I could not think that this motorcycle company made a bigger Bonneville because I simply did not know. I will tell you that when I finally got that motorcycle, I just kept thinking about Ephesians 3: 20 and I thanked God time and time again for what He had done for me. Did you get the last statement? I gave the glory to God and not to anyone else. Not to myself – not to Jerry - not to Triumph. I gave all of the glory to God for what He did for me. This is what you can look forward to when you walk with God and stay in fellowship.

I have given you some examples pertaining to situations that happened in my own life. I have done this because I thought you would be able to identify with and understand the principle of glory more easily. Now we are going to go back to situations and occurrences that took place in biblical times from the Word of God. First, I want you to see how, from God’s Word, the proper way to pray as a result of being a righteous person. This Scripture will also show you the results of accurate prayer.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. -- James 5: 16

We are focusing only on the second part of this Scripture. Let’s do some homework and look up a few words from our lexicon. ‘Effectual’ means to be in active operation. By adding the word ‘fervent’, it does not add anything to the word ‘effectual’. So we are talking about active operation. This is something that most of us miss out on when we pray. We complain that God does not answer our prayers. But that is not really true. What is true is the fact that we don’t take action on our prayers. You always must remember that with God, you act first and then you see. With men, it is usually said that you will believe it when you see it. With God, you will see it when you believe it. A quick example about my own life one more time. I was praying once to God to find a certain type of car. It was quite difficult to find this certain automobile. But guess how long I put my prayer into active operation? I looked for 13 months and finally I found the perfect car I was looking for. We need not to be anxious for anything that we pray for. God knows the exact right moment in time when we are ready for that prayer to be answered. But if you sit around and do nothing, you will never get an answer to prayer. Let me stress the most important part of James 5: 16. This righteous man presents his effectual fervent prayer to God – he is not at all looking for glory.

Now I want to stress one more part about the above Scripture and that is the word ‘availeth’. The simple meaning of this word means to prevail. You will prevail when you present an effectual fervent prayer to God Almighty if you are a righteous person. Remember, God always has a condition. He is a respecter of conditions and not persons. A righteous man’s prayer will prevail. It is a prayer that is mighty and powerful.

You may wonder why I have brought up the next example. Many times, comparison and contrast is an excellent method of teaching. We are now going to look at a prayer that is worthless. And what are we talking about during this whole teaching? We are talking about glory. This example will show you a person or persons who pray to God only to get glory. They pray only to be seen by people and to get attention called to themselves. Let’s go to the record in the Gospels.

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. -- Matthew 6: 5

There you see Jesus Christ giving you an excellent and accurate representation of how certain people pray. They are only looking for – well you know by now, they are looking for glory. They pray where everyone can see them even in the corners of the streets so that they can be seen by men. There prayer will not avail at all. They are not righteous believers but glory hunters. They only care about how many people see them pray. This is the opposite of the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. Now, Jesus Christ instructs us in the next verse as to how we should pray and where.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to the Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. -- Matthew 6: 6

On your own, you should read the next few verses which talk about prayer. And I must say that Jesus Christ was the best teacher that ever walked the face of this earth. Look at the way he compares and contrasts the righteous prayer and the unrighteous sinner. I have to laugh to myself when Christ says in verse 5 that those people who pray in such a sinful manner - they will get their day. What a person gives out always comes back to them. There is no escape from this law of God Almighty. Now in verse 6 Jesus Christ turns the situation right around. He says when you pray, enter into your closet. He wanted to stress this point so bad that I honestly believe he was making up a figure of speech. We really don’t have to get into a closet to pray, but he was making a point. Shut the door and then pray to God who is in secret shall reward you openly. Man, what a fantastic verse. How I wish I could’ve only been there just one time to hear Jesus Christ teach the Word of God. Can you imagine it?

Well, I think we covered the subject of glory about as best as we could. You see, revelation is nothing to brag about and it’s not for glory. But I simply believe that God tells me when to put on the brakes. I hope you enjoyed this teaching and I only care that it reaches one person who will adhere to this principle of glory. Glory is for God Almighty and for Him alone. I find it an honorable privilege to be able to teach you God’s rightly divided Word. And I don’t care if no one knows who I am.

Take care and God bless. Remember, you are God’s best. Apply these principles and live the more than abundant life because the world has nothing at all in store for you but to steal from you, to destroy you, and also if possible, to kill you. The true God has every positive DREAM just waiting for you. And all that you have to do is one thing – BELIEVE.

Even so faith [pistis - to believe] if it hath not works [action], is dead, being alone. -- James 2: 17

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