From Glory To Glory

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 3:18

What does it mean to be transformed? I first think of a butterfly who transforms from a not so amazing pupa to caterpiller to butterfly. But let’s break down this entire scripture bit by bit and see what we come up with.

BUT WE ALL : That’s us! He calls us into His Royal Priesthood. 1 Pet. 2:9 We are His people, called by His name. He calls us Special, Holy, Chosen! That’s US! Just accepting that as our new identity is a huge deposit to receive and start living from.

WITH UNVEILED FACE: He has removed the veil between us through His sacrifice on the cross. He allows us to SEE HIM and know Him and know His ways. He speaks INTO us and sometimes He skips the mind. He allows us to SEE Him and His character so that we become like Him through our worship. The unveiling is a sort of preparation for worship.

BEHOLDING AS IN A MIRROR: We should expect to become more like Him as we come into His presence with an unveiled face. He is our mirror. Everything changes when it beholds Christ face to face. We become more like who we spend time with. I can SEE myself as He sees me when I come into His presence. He imparts and deposits more of Himself into us each time, so that we can do what He calls us to do next.

THE GLORY OF THE LORD: This is the whole point! This is the destination of our service to Him as a Priesthood. This is the destination in present day worship services. To experience the Glory like Moses when God hid him in the cleft of the Rock (Christ) and then moved His hand so that just the back of Him could be seen. The Glory of God overwhelms us and His mercy allows to glimpse and receive. Most of the time our worship service is designed with US in mind instead of Him. We find ourselves as consumers, critiquing We don’t allow Him to participate in our worship or even expect a response from Him let alone invite His Glory (His presence) to linger, to move, to rest, to take His rightful place and to speak.

ARE BEING TRANSFORMED INTO THE SAME IMAGE: This is our purpose. To become like Him and less like me. I always find it wonderful that the word is BEING. It’s a present and future tense. The Greek verb is metamorphoo. (where we get metamorphosis) This is ongoing right now (not just past, not just future). It is something God is doing to us, not something we can manufacture. It is a real and active process, not wishful thinking. So when we come into His presence He moving us, changing us, teaching us, correcting us, showing us, emptying us so that He can infill us with more and more of Him. An ongoing sanctification process that I believe is the exchange of me for Him.

FROM GLORY TO GLORY: This ongoing process gets better and better as we not only become like Him but also recognize, appreciate and embrace the process instead of resist and fight for “our rights”. We surrender to and lean into the process. He is our King – we are here to serve Him and to BECOME His Bride – spotless, without blemish – thus the need to become less of me and more like Him.

JUST AS BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD: He confirms our participation in an ongoing Spirit-led transformation. We behold – He transforms! We submit ourselves (willingly) as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). We make room for His response to our Praises and allow Him to directly respond by His Holy Presence, purifying process, trusting He is rebuilding, restoring and redeeming us piece by piece.

Lastly, when we come to worship Him we should follow His format rather than our own.

1. “Carry” or BRING our sacrifices to minister to Him – it’s not just the worship team’s responsibility. BUT WE ALL… meaning ALL have a part of the ministry to the Lord in worship.
2. MINISTER TO THE LORD. We’ve created a system where we punch a card and expect to get what we want from church. We even hear things like, “I just didn’t feel it today” , “I don’t like that song” “the drums were too loud” ” I like this not that…”
   Our perspective should be to come into the house to bring our worship and sacrifices according to His expectations and His design laid out in scripture, rather than ours. This will take a reform – a reset! And I believe it’s coming soon!
3. RECEIVE His RESPONSE. We should allow time and expect participation (a revealing of His presence). We need to reform our church systems to listen and allow time for His response to our worship. He wants to actively participate so that He can deposit and release us, transform us.
4. BLESS and RELEASE Others. This allows us to complete the 5 Fold ministry of the church. Ephesians 4:11–13 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, **to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Then we can Bless and Release others…we can transform our families, our work, our cities and nations. This is our priestly work and service He calls us to.

Good News Coach, Lisa Creed – Providing Life, Business and Freedom Coaching & Prophetic Worship Training.