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Glory of God


Ephesians 1:17
We are continuing to discover Paul's heart for the Ephesians. His heart is revealed by what he prays for the believers there in Ephesus. Paul began his prayer by thanking God for the believers. Today we will be seeing that Paul is asking God to give them wisdom and revelation to know God better.

Have you ever tried to understand someone and get a sense of that person's thinking and his/her heart? Paul gives us a glimpse of his heart here in his prayer when he lets us in on how he feels about God. He makes reference here to God - the father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the one who is the father of glory.

Paul puts together the set of words describing Jesus. He adds Lord and Christ to the name Jesus. Jesus is his common Hebrew name. Christ mean anointed one and has the meaning of one who is King of all. Lord is a descriptive word indicating the place Paul has put Jesus in his life. Many people believe in Jesus as a man who lived about 2000 years ago - although some even question that. Christ show a sense that Jesus was the promised Messiah in the Old Testament and thus He was anointed and became king of all the world. Lord is telling others that Jesus not only is a historical figure but the guide and ruler of our lives. Is Jesus really Lord in your life? Have you put Him in control or are you trying to live your life with out our wonderful savour who forgives our sins and gives us peace, joy and happiness when we allow him to be in command of our lives.

We live in troublesome times and without a strong leader guiding us we would really mess up our lives. We are live ships in the midst of a storm. Without Jesus as our pilot we would surely run into the rocky shoals where we would crack up or on to the sandbars which would beach us and our lives would be destroyed. When you ride a horse there is a bit put into his mouth to direct the horse where you want to go. When you pull on the reins to go one direction the horse responds. If he does not respond you pull a little harder. The bit directs the horse but sometimes the horse does not want to go the way the master directs and so the master puts pressure on the horse to go the direction which He wants to go.

I have looked at the life of people who want to take command of their own lives. There is usually suffering, hurt, frustration, and pain because they are not following the Lordship of Jesus. Have you given over every area of your life to the control of Jesus. Can you really call him your Lord or Master?

I am intrigued by Paul's sense of the greatness of God. Paul calls him the glorious Father. How would you describe God? I am not sure that I would use the term Father of Glory but we see from scriptures how glorious God is so that no man can look on God.

Moses when he spent time with God reflected the glory of God. Exodus 34: 29ff "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord." When Moses was with God, God's glory rubbed off on him and his face shone. His face was so radiant that when his brother, Aaron and other leaders saw him they ran away. Moses reflected the glory of the Lord just like the moon reflects the brightness of the sun. Do you reflect the glory of the Lord? Our faces may not shine with light like Moses' face did but our faces will reflect joy and peace that only God can bring.

When Moses had finished the Tabernacle in the desert we read in Exodus 40:34, 35 that a cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. " What an awesome sight that must have been. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 3:16, 17, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple." Here Paul tells us that we are the temple of God and his glory is to shine from us. Are you allowing God's glory to shine from you? Is your life reflecting the character and greatness of God?

In 2 Chronicles 7:1 - 3 we see God filling the temple Solomon built for the Lord with his glory. When the people saw the glory of God, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshipped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "He is good; his love endures forever.' Have you every see the glory of the LORD? Have you ever sensed God's presence and understood God's goodness and his love.? Do we really think about all the wonderful things God has done for us and how He has sown us his mercy? When we really get an understanding of God's greatness and His glory we too will fall down on our faces before an almighty, an awesome God.

Isaiah met God in the temple as we read in Isaiah 6: 1 - 7. When his saw the Lord and the angels, he cried out in verse 5. "Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." How would you feel if you saw God in his glory? Some day every one of you will see God. What will your response be on the day of Judgement before God's mighty throne. Will you grateful that you spent time getting to know God and serving Him or will you hang your head in shame because you neglected or rejected the Father of Glory.

When we see the glory of God we will not want to keep that experience to ourselves but it will excite our total being and we will want others to know about this great and wonderful God that has shown him glory to us. That is why Paul here prays that the Ephesian believers would receive the spirit of wisdom and understanding so that they may know him better.

How many of us think we know God well? One definition of wisdom is "seeing life from God's perspective". Can we view the events in our life from God's eternal perspective? Many of us can only see life in the now and do not make wise decisions based on God's eternal perspective. We are only concerned about pleasure for today and seldom think about how our actions will affect us 2 years, 5 years, 50 years or 100 years from now.

Jesus promised his disciples that after he would leave he would send the Holy Spirit to guide them and direct them. Stephen in the book of Acts was a man that was filled with the Holy Spirit and with wisdom. As we get to know God better and better, as we get to understand the Word of God, we will be filled with the spirit of wisdom. Jesus said that we would be able to stand before kings and rulers and give an answer to the most learned. The scribes and pharisees where amazed at the wisdom with which the disciples spoke. They realized that it was because they had been with Jesus that they were able to speak with such authority and wisdom.

We too can become wise if we meditate on the word of God and make it our most important book and guide. Paul's prayer is that the believers would use their wisdom for getting to know God better. Do you spend time getting to know God and his awesome power. If we learn what is in the Bible and live according to that knowledge our lives will be blessed. The bible tells us that if we meditate on the Word of God we will become wiser than all our teachers. As we understand God's ways and thoughts which are so much higher than the thoughts and ways of the world we will be able to live a joyous and happy life.

Ephesians