THE ROAD TO GLORY

 Sylvia Pearce

“…The sufferings of this present world and not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

Since everything works together for our good (Rom. 8:28), then even our besetting trials are used by God for your very glory. Paul says that our light affliction which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While outer man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. How can our besetting temptations be the prelude to glory? First, they teach us total resignation and total dependence on Christ, “who is our life” alone. These first steps humble us and prove to us how helpless we really are apart from our union with Christ. Then, they teach us that the devil is always tempting us by drawing us into constant, condemning, self-analyses which finally teach us and prove to us the fruitlessness of self-improvement…i.e. the carnal mind. These struggles give us the knowledge of our own powerlessness to deliver ourselves from evil which is false dependence (Romans 7:23), as well as the powerlessness of keeping ourselves from sin which is unbelief (Jude 1:24). 

All these “fiery trials” “work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (II Cor. 4:17) by branding our consciousness with God’s cleaning fire that trains us and proves to us our total hopelessness, as well as our total helplessness, without our complete dependency on the life of Christ…that is,  Christ who is our Life.  We no longer live, it is Christ that lives in and as us (Gal. 2:20).

It is a lie to believe that our time on earth will be solely filled with thrills, prosperity, and self-satisfying happiness.  God always took the great men and women of the Bible through periods of darkness’s with rigorous trials and tribulations before they could finally know Christ’s fullness as them. 

If Paul hadn’t faced both sides of the same coin, how could he have said in Phil. 4:11-13 “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound, everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer.”  Therefore, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Are you aware that he was in prison in Rome, waiting to be beheaded by Nero, when he wrote this Philippians’ epistle?

Paul learned not to be impressed when his outer situation was favorable, or depressed when he faced trials. As Rudyard Kipling said in his famous poem “IF:”

“….If you can dream, and not make dreams your master, If you can think, and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same, then the world is yours and everything in it.” 

Paul was “a sacrifice of praise” to the Lord, a “royal priest,” and “more than a conqueror,” and so are we all, as we trust the indwelling Christ to be our breath, our being, and our very life.

WHICH WAY TO GLORY

Ok, you might agree that our besetting sins and temptations pave the way to the golden road of glory, BUT how does all this negativity in my life get turned around to God’s redemptive positive? Let us look at some hidden principles laid out for us in the Old Testament.

Moses at the burning bush: The common bush was ablaze with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. Curious! Could it be that the bush actually represented Moses burning with the Love-fire of God’s Wisdom?  He was being commissioned and anointed with the blazing fire and power of the Holy Spirit.  God was going to use him, but God’s fire is love-fire so it didn’t consume him. Later, in Moses’ experience, Glory’s love-fire appeared as a protective pillar of fire by night, and a guiding cloud by day.

Now how was he to confront his powerful enemy and release his brothers who were enslaved under Pharaoh’s captivity? The first thing that Moses had to learn was that “the lame,” not the strong, “take the prey.”  His stammering speech was never the point.  It was like God to call the unlikely Moses who probably stuttered and couldn’t speak well at all.  (Weakness is always the prerequisite to God’s strength as it gives way to His miraculous power.) God mightily uses the weak vessels that He carefully chooses.

But then, how were the Children of Israel to know that it was God who sent Moses to deliver them? What was God’s name, anyway?  God told Moses, “Say, I Am that I Am’ sent you.” Hum…The “Self-Existent One” sent you, Moses.  What could that mean?  I believe that God was imparting to Moses His very own “Shekinah glory,” causing Moses to know that the Great “I AM” (Spirit) was in union with his little “I am” (human spirit). The marriage of two spirits became incarnate into one flesh. 

The next problem was how would he operate, and by what power could he accomplish this commission?  By this time Moses knew that there was no way he could offer any help of his own to accomplish this tremendous task.  He had learned his lesson well.  Powerless, Moses knew very well that he had to derive his strength from someone other than himself. This was the perfect condition in which Moses’ total insufficiency actually was necessary and thus used by God to impart and infuse His total sufficiency into Moses’ anointed commission.

Moses humbly stood there with only his shepherd’s staff in his hand.  To a King, his scepter is the symbol of authority. But to mere weak Moses, his staff was just a stick. Or was it? The “Voice” commanded Moses’ prompt obedience. “Moses, throw down your staff.”  

As Moses obeyed, the staff immediately was transformed into a venomous serpent. Again, the “Voice” spoke, “Now, pick up the serpent by its tail!”  What?! If Moses obeyed what God was asking him to do, the snake could strike him with a poisonous and deadly bite from behind. It could mean death.  Yes, it was highly risky, but Moses obeyed.  As he reached for the serpent’s tail, immediately his humble shepherd’s staff was transformed into Moses’/God’s mighty scepter of power and authority.  The defeated serpent swallowed his own tail.  Moses got the point.

Finally, Moses knew God’s mysterious ways in which He uses the negative as the source of His power.  Embracing what normally threatens us, defuses the power of the enemy and allows us to reign victorious over the situation.  Now Moses was ready to face his enemy and turn what possibly could be defeat into victory over Pharaoh/Satan’s stronghold, thereby freeing his enslaved brothers.

What can we learn from this curious but simple story?  When we fear and fight what threatens us, Satan keeps us fearfully paralyzed.  However, if we dare embrace the negative and walk into it instead of fleeing or fighting it, we gain the authority over it.  I often say to Satan, “Come on, make my day.”  He flees immediately because he is really a coward and loves to hide in dark places. When I see that the threat is “only Satan,” he’s the one who fearfully flees.  He has no legal rights to me.  Christ living as me gains the victory which always denotes Satan’s doom.

Another simple illustration is seen in a child’s sling shot. The pull of the negative backward tension is totally necessary for the success of the positive thrust. The power of the positive is hidden in the tension of its negative counterpart. No negative-no successful positive. But, then how do we let go? Letting go of the negative tension is simple and manifests as we, “in all things give thanks” to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Another example is found in Numbers 21:5-9.  The children of Israel were in the wilderness complaining against God for their hardships as well as His provision of manna for their food. As a chastisement for their unbelief, He sent venomous serpents to bite them. They cried to Moses for help.  God told Moses to put a brass serpent on a pole.  If the Israelites would dare look up at the serpent on the pole (the symbol of the Cross where Satan was defeated), then they would live. However, if they looked down at their fatal circumstances, they would automatically die.  See how faith is always so simple? But so often it is missed just because of its child-like simplicity.

MOSES ASK? “SHOW ME YOUR GLORY”

After fleeing from Egypt, the children of Israel, in Moses absence, made a golden calf (glorifying Satan’s bestial-life) to worship and sinned a great sin against the Lord. Moses went before the Lord to plead for forgiveness, making atonement on behalf of the people of Israel. He met The Lord face to face as if they were friends (Ex. 33:11). By then they were friends, because Moses demonstrated the very character of God by offering himself as a sacrifice for the people. “If thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written (Ex. 32:32). Then Moses pleaded with the Lord and asked, “Show me your Glory” (33:18). God showed Moses the back part of His Glory, for fallen flesh cannot actually see God’s Glory and live. But after that time, the Lord told Moses, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee REST” (33:14). There is no wisdom, guidance, or rest without Glory’s abiding presence.

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