THE CHURCH OF HIS GLORY - Felix Obi

God’s burning desire is for the world to see His glory displayed through the Church of Jesus Christ on earth .(Matt.5: 16). Apostle Paul also highlighted this in his epistle to the Ephesians:

“To the intent that now unto the principalities
and powers in heavenly places might be known
by the CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God”.
(Eph. 3:10)
God’s glory is not a spooky kind of feeling that makes us feel super spiritual. Neither does His glory give us a visible halo over our heads like the “Roman Catholic Saints” to make us look superhuman. Like the way God’s wisdom displayed his glory through his creation, we (the Church) are expected to display to the world, his divine wisdom, power, and a lifestyle of high standards in ethics and morals. His glory must of necessity mark us out from the world, like the “unlearned Galileans” who upturned the world in first century AD. Though uneducated by every standard, they displayed a rare trait of life so sublime:

“Now when they saw the boldness of peter and John,
and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men,
they MARVELLED, and they took knowledge of them,
that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was healed
Standing with them, they could say nothing against it”
(Acts.4: 13-14)

Peter and John, in spite of their lowly socioeconomic status displayed God’s unmistakable glory at the temple because they had been with Jesus in their closet at the upper room. Taking a cue from them, we need to realize that the extent to which we can reflect his glory is directly proportional to the quality and quantity of the time spent in the presence of God.
We rather would wish there exists a short cut, or an apian way of sorts that will take us there without the due sacrifice of time playing its major role as ordained by God. We covet the upper room experience of the 120 that tarried in prayer and worship, but somehow we hardly have tested the rugged stairways that lead to the upper room where there are no sofas to cuddle our weak and carnal spirit man.

However, we need not lose heart on account of the price to be paid for his glory to be displayed in the church. For God long ago promised that his glory will return to the church and this should give us a glimmer of hope. If we look at the state of the church today, we’ll be so disheartened to the point of losing faith in God’s promises as written in his word. Since God’s word is irrevocable and sacrosanct, the Church needs to be encouraged beyond measure in this pursuit of God’s presence and glory.

“And behold, the glory of the God of Israel
came from the way of the east: and his voice
was like a noise of many waters: and the
earth shined with his glory.

“So the spirit took me up, and brought me
into the inner court; and, behold,
the glory of the Lord filled the house.

“And he said unto me, son of man,
the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet,
where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever,
and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile,
neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the
carcasses of their kings in their high places. (Ezekiel 43: 2,5,7)

The prophetic picture that Ezekiel saw is a shadow of the Church in which God’s glory is fully manifest. Through the “Glorious Church”, the whole earth will be filled with the glory of God and no longer will the name of the Lord be dishonoured because of the inglorious lifestyle of today’s church leaders and the general congregation. We may be content with just a flicker of glory which a microcosm of saints display unbehalf of the church today. But God is not content with such embers of glory than burnout easily like stubble. He wants the place of his throne (The Church) to be resplendent with glory, so that the soles of his feet would find solace and a resting place.
This glory of the Church will be so pervasive that the world will have nothing to hold unto as a leeway for discountenancing and rebuffing the sacred things of God again. No longer will they point at the church’s whoredom as excuses for not serving God because; the glory of God in the Church will be palpable and glaring to everyone. The righteousness displayed by the church would overshadow the evil tendencies of the world in which we live in for now that many would loathe the life of sin!
Link to Felix Obi