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God's Glory in Your Life
Numbers 14:10
"But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel."
Throughout the Scriptures you will see the phrase, "the glory of the LORD." When talking of God's glory, the Scriptures are referring to God's presence. You will find that God's glory appeared for several different reasons, some of those reasons are good and others are not so good. The fact is this, God's glory will appear in your life for different reasons. If you are a child of God, then you are to show God's glory to the lost world. Let me show you the three exhibitions of God's glory on a person's life.
First, God's glory is an empowering glory. This is what you should want. You will find God's glory appeared when Elijah prayed fire down from Heaven. You will see God's glory appeared to Moses when he was up on Mount Sinai. Peter, James, and John saw God's glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. In each of these instances and others, God's glory appeared to empower His people to do great works for Him.
This empowering glory is needed in every Christian's life. We will never reach a world for Christ without God's empowering glory. You will never overcome sin without God's empowering glory. You will never succeed in the ministry God has placed you in without His empowering glory. It simply comes down to this, everything in the Christian life needs God's empowering glory in order succeed. You can either do God's work on your own, or you can do God's work through His empowering glory.
Second, God's glory is a punishing glory. In the verse above, you will find that God's glory appeared, not to empower His people, but to punish them. The children of Israel often experienced this punishing glory because of their disobedience. God would have much rather appeared in empowering glory to show His great works through them, but He had to show His punishing glory because they disobeyed Him.
It is not a delightful thing to experience God's punishing glory. Christian, God does not want to have to show His glory through your life by punishing you, but when you disobey His commands, He must show His punishing glory. You may think that you can get away with your sin, but God's punishing glory will appear. You may think that you are exempt from God's punishing glory, but if you continue in sin you will experience it.
Third, God's glory is a departed glory. This is the worst of all three. Samson experienced this departed glory and didn't know it until it was too late. The Scriptures teach us that Samson woke up and went out to do what he had done before, but "...he wist not that the LORD was departed from him." If you continue to ignore God's punishing glory, then you will sadly experience His departed glory.
In which way is God exhibiting His glory in your life? Oh, how you should desire to avoid the punishing and departed glory, and instead experience God's empowering glory. You will only experience God's empowering glory by living right, doing right and by spending time with God in the Scriptures and prayer. God's empowering glory is to do His works. Don't try to do God's works on your own, but do them with His empowering glory on your life. Beg God daily to help you live your life so that you can have His empowering glory upon you.