The Weight of Glory
I've seen such a clear demarkation of a subset people within the church that have been through the fire in the past few months and years. For many of us, there are multiple areas of life in which we have never felt so stretched – and they are being stretched beyond what we’ve ever experienced, all at the same time. We're in a season of acceleration prophetically. It is going to be such a beautiful thing when we see the accelerated blessing and breakthrough that we're paying the cost for but so far we've been paying an accelerated cost.
For those of you who have been in the nonstop fire, I want to encourage you. Not everyone has submitted to the fire. Some have compromised, and in this season in which God has been pressing on the things He needs to deal with, some have squeezed out from under His pressing, maybe casting blame elsewhere to avoid seeing the broken things God wanted to heal. But if you are one of the ones who has been in the fire, that means (1) that you told God, “Yes,” letting Him into the deep places to do the healing and refining. And because you’ve told God “yes,” (2) He has been preparing you. He’s been purifying and refining. He’s been increasing the capacity in you to hold the glory that is coming. Unhealed hurts and fleshly defense mechanisms take up room inside of us that would otherwise be room for glory. God is getting ready to pour out His glory on His church in a powerful way and so He has been making room in us to hold it.
Unequal Capacity
This glory that is coming is not going to hit equally, because not everybody has equal capacity to hold it. Not everybody has been submitting to the fire to equal degree. If you are someone who has been through fire, the proportion that you have been submitting to the Lord’s process is proportional to the glory that you’re going to be able to hold.
What does it look like to submit to fire?
(1) Purifying impurities. There are ways we deal with things that are malfunctions and God is dealing with the malfunctions. Coming out of agreement with lie is a huge part of that. Tearing down strongholds takes work. When you’ve been believing a lie for a long time, the lie actually feels safe. The way to break a stronghold is to speak the truth out loud enough times until you believe it. Strongholds cannot be cast out. Deliverance ministry will take care of the demons that live inside the stronghold. But the stronghold itself no one can cast out for you. You created the stronghold, so you have to tear down the stronghold. We create strongholds brick by brick by speaking and believing lies, and the only way to tear it down is by brick by brick speaking the truth until we believe it. This is the process of submitting to the fire, renewing our mind, and submitting to the refining.
(2) Testing our response. The Lord has been pressing on the things He wants to heal but also at the same time, the enemy has come in with exhaustion and fear and anxiety and betrayal, and even trying to overwhelm us with the burden of the Lord in a way that makes us feel it is dependent on us instead of dependent on the Lord so we grow weary. But even the things that are from the enemy the Lord has been using to further accelerate the testing process in us to see how we respond to the pain, to the betrayal, to the people we’ve ministered to that have turned on us, to the people that should be covering and protecting us but are not doing so – because pain actually has to be stewarded. Jesus stewarded pain well. He could have jumped off the cross, but He didn’t. When we steward pain well, it accelerates our growth and maturity in the Lord. Every pain, every heartache is an opportunity either to choose offense and bitterness which strengthens our flesh, or to choose to submit to Jesus and the suffering He’s asking us to carry, which is an opportunity to kill the flesh.
“God, Hold me”
I know so many have been hurt in the deepest way possible by those closest to you. I have had moments over the past few months of the deepest pain and moments in which I have cried harder than I ever have in my life. But in those moments, I’ve pressed into the Lord and told Him that I want to steward the pain well. I don’t want to run to the fleshly defense mechanisms of anger or bitterness or offense. Those defense mechanisms could ease the pain temporarily by shielding from the pain – but those are temporary Band-Aids that don’t actually heal. And in those moments, we press in with the Lord and say, “Help me stay pure. Help me not run to anger, or to bitterness. Anger is not my comforter. Bitterness is not my comforter. Control is not my comforter. Taking matters into my own hands is not my comforter. YOU are my comforter. I’m going to let You be my comforter and I’m going to submit to the process of the pain.”
When I let God hold me, it keeps my heart from going to the places it shouldn’t go: to the bitterness, or anger, or tapping out and giving up. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter and He is really good at His job, but we have to let Him do it. The flesh is a Band-Aid that covers it up but doesn’t heal the wound. The Holy Spirit heals.
Judgment at the House of God
“Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing… If anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner? Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God are to entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. (1 Peter 4:12, 16-19).
Judgment begins at the house of God. God is not so much judging us, as He is judging the things that are holding us in bondage. He is judging the things that are keeping us back from our destiny. He's judging the lies we believe. He’s judging the unforgiveness. He's judging the victim mentality. He’s judging the trauma. He's judging the independent spirit. He's judging the pride. He's judging the self-sufficiency. He's judging the orphan spirit: that tendency to run, to escape.
When God comes after these things, it can feel like you’re dying. Some have been so in bed with a lie, that when God judges the lie it feels like you’re dying. Or some have been so in bed with unforgiveness that when God comes after the unforgiveness it feels like you’re dying. But this is the good kind of death, the good kind of judgment! This is God raining judgment on the things that are holding you back from your destiny and keeping you in bondage.
Let the unforgiveness die. Let the bitterness die. Let the lie die. Let God kill the part of you that is offendable. As Christians, we should not be offendable. The part of you that is able to take offense is supposed to be dead; it is supposed to be crucified with Christ. Let God kill that thing that is supposed to be dead anyway.
God is setting your destiny free. Freedom comes at a cost. It comes at the cost of vulnerability, letting God into the deep places. It comes with the cost of pain; it is painful to heal old hurts. It is painful to peel off the fleshly Band-Aids of bitterness, pride, and unforgiveness. It is painful to dig in with the Lord and expose the old wound to get healed but it is worth it. Nothing compares to the freedom of Jesus.
The Weight of Glory Outweighs the Weight of Affliction
There has been a cost of being misunderstood, the cost of being ridiculed, the cost of betrayal, the cost of trusting God with finances, the cost of surrendering family, the cost of doing things not the way you wanted to in favor of God’s way, the cost of being betrayed by the people you laid down your life for. But the reward is freedom.
Not everyone has been submitting to the fire the same. Those that haven’t might look like they are fine on the outside, but the reality is they are still in bondage because they haven’t been letting the Lord free them from those chains. We are in this shifting season and as hard as it has been to be in the fire, my heart actually is breaking right now for the people who haven’t been going through the fire because I know they won’t be able to steward the weight of what God is about to pour out.
The weight of glory has to outweigh the weight of affliction (2 Cor. 4:17). The more you’ve been surrendering to the process, submitting to the fire, submitting under the mighty hand of God, the greater the weight of glory you’re going to hold.
We are right around the corner, Church. Glory is coming.
Prayer: God, we want to be able to hold and steward the glory that You’ve ordained for us. We don’t want to miss out. We want the full portion of the glory You’ve designated for us. We submit to the process and we say “yes” to Your process. God, thank you for being the God of justice who makes sure the weight of glory outweighs the weight of affliction. Thank you for being the God of retribution and redemption. We decree it and proclaim it. Thank you, King.