 Deep Places In God Psalm 42 Lesson 5 Changed Into The Image Of God II Corinthians 3: 18
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Moses desired to see the face of God. To see His Glory. But God only allowed Him to see His back. This was at the writing of the tablets of stone. Time spent in the presence of God, writing the laws in stone was so powerful that Moses’ hair turned white and his face shone so much he had to pout a veil over it as not to blind the Israelites. Now God ministers face to face by the Holy Ghost. As we spend time in His presence, our faces should begin to shine. Unfortunately some people still look into the word with the veil still in place. There’s no understanding, no revelation, no glory.
But, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. There is no veil. With open face, we look at the Glory and are changed into the image of God.
Gen. 1:29 God made us in His image, and He still sees us that way. Adam walked with God. He wasn’t blinded with that glory until he sinned. Before that he walked and talked in the garden with God. He looked like Him, walked like Him and talked like Him. When sin entered in then he no longer could look on the face of God, without being destroyed. Fellowship was broken and God’s friend, was now afraid of Him. We know this because Adam and Eve hid themselves when they heard God’s voice. Do you see why God longs to have fellowship with us? We wants to take us from Glory to Glory. To show us great and mighty things. But we are like the man in James 1. Instead of beholding the Glory of God, we behold ourselves. Being a hearer of the word and not a doer. He looks at himself and his accomplishments and goes on his way and because he has no foundation of scripture, he forgets who he is, and what he is supposed to look like. He’s supposed to look and act like God. If he had let the word do down deep into his heart and put it into practice, he would remember he was a child of God and act like it and God would be able to bless him. Ephesians 3:16-20 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. He wants to strengthen you by His Might, in the inner man. The outward man perishes day by day, but the inward man is forever. We neglect the part of us that is going to live forever. Not only do we neglect our inward man, we neglect Him! He that gives us All Things! He that gave all, even to the death of His son, because he loves us. What else could possibly be more important? How can we possibly be changed into the image of God, if we don’t spend time with Him. Ephesians 5:1 Be imitators of God as dear children. Jesus imitated God. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” He spent much time with God, and He went from Glory to Glory. How do we behold the Glory? By the Holy Spirit. He is our teacher and guide. He leads us to the Father. We need to be his friend and get to know Him too. God’s heart longs for his children. Ever since the fall in Eden, God has sought for a man he could fellowship with and reveal His glory through. We see the men and women throughout the Bible that He used. There are men & women today that He wants to use too. But He can’t get His children to fellowship with Him. If you want to be changed into the image of God, first you must get the image of God on the inside of you. You must be able to see Him and know what He will do. Become His friend, know His voice and know His word. Adam knew God. He knew His voice and what He said. Abraham was called the friend of God. He know God so well, he had no fear to kill his son, because he knew that God would raise him up. Moses knew God. He knew if God told him to do something, he could do it. He told the Israelites that they would never see the Egyptians again and then he raised his staff and knew that the waters would part. David knew God. He told Goliath “This day will I take your head from your shoulders!” And then he did it. Do you know that God that well? Do you know what He said, so you can know what He will do? Can you speak boldly and say “God will do it!” Is His word planted in your heart? Is your fellowship with Him so real that you can see Him? Is His image so real in you and the Glory so real in you that others can see it? Do we have our Sunday faces painted on? Or is our Joy real? Wherever you go people should see the Glory. Even in your own home. Sometimes we can be so wonderful to everyone else and then we get home and act like the devil to your own family. I know situations come up that can cause you to lose our joy, but that’s when we should let God rise up and shine through. If you can’t live it at home, everything else is super fiscal. We need real Christianity! Something we live 24/7. We can’t do it ourselves. That’s why we need an image of God inside of us. How would God react to this? So we can be changed into His image on the inside and outside. It is not instant. But like anything that is worth having, it’s worth working for. God also wants to reveal knowledge of the Glory. II Corinthians 4:6&7 The very God that commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, very gently, by His Holy Spirit, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But guess what? It is not some big secret. We have this treasure, this Glory, right here, in these earthly vessels. The same Glory that would have killed the Old Testament Saints, dwells in us! Why? That the excellency of that Power of that Glory may be of God, and not of us. We have this Power to do whatever God tells us to do we would just tap into it. Things on this earth are temporal. But the things of the spirit are eternal. Let’s draw close to the heart of God. Listen to His call. Come into His presence with thanksgiving and worship before the throne. Give yourself to Him wholly, withholding nothing. Cry out “Change me Lord, into your image. From Glory to Glory, by Your Spirit I pray! Amen!”
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Lesson 1 on Worship
Faith
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