glory – James G. Owen, Author

God Gives You Grace to Reach Your Destiny

by James G. Owen

Grace is not messy, and this word implies being disorderly, confusion, and untidy. Grace is orderly because everything we see in nature is orderly. In fact, grace is clean, pure, and planned. Grace is a gift that is freely given by our Creator because he loved us so much to provide a way out of imperfection caused by sin, and a path to escape the second death which is eternal damnation. The gift of Grace is undeserved because Adam and Eve chose to disobey and sin entered all creation, and the result is a curse that runs through the generations of mankind.

Jehovah, God our Father and Creator loved us so much that he was merciful on mankind and provided grace. Instead of letting us remain in an undeserved state he chose to bring us into an unmerited state of grace because in his redemption of mankind grace would perfect us to a higher plane by which we were created, a return to the original state of man in his image.

Grace is more than unmerited favor. Grace is a ladder to higher spiritual growth and brings us to a point where we are used in the defeat of Satan by means of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You see, grace in the Greek is charis, a blessing and blessings from out of his kindness towards us. Grace is an operation, a process. From the beginning of forgiveness and becoming born again (our soul is saved to attain eternal life) grace takes us to sanctification in which we are cleaned up being readied to serve to spread the gospel to the world to win souls to become disciples of men. Next, we are brought to the level of receiving a spiritual gift, and our spirits will display to people the fruits of the Spirit, which is how people recognize us as disciples of Jesus because the Spirit will bear witness.

Grace grows from just unmerited favor to charisma which is Greek for the Holy Spirit action of emboldens people to be able to witness to people, and will show its power, Dunamis in meeting needs of the unsaved. Charisma also leads the person to work in spiritual gifts as I have mentioned above. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-11,

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord.And there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all.But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal. For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit: to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discernings of spirits: to another divers kinds of tongues; and to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will.”

After the distribution of the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit these gifts we find they will be administered through the five- fold evangelistic ministries. They are found in Ephesians 4:11-14.

“And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; ^for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”

As we grow spiritually, we will become more experienced in our ministerial work gaining wisdom and knowledge. Also, through the times of trials and temptations in overcoming them we are brought to a higher plane of grace. He moves us higher each time we overcome, thus perfecting us to serve in greater capacities.

Within the spiritual gifts and the ministries are the fruits of the Spirit that will display themselves. The gifts of the Spirit are:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

God has brought us on a journey from salvation and forgiveness to working in his kingdom to win other souls from the enemy that were to be destined for destruction. He has brought us to full fruition in the operation of grace so that we can meet our destiny. God is working to bring all things to an end and is saving those people who accept him as Lord and King. For it is Jesus who is the head of the kingdom and will be eternally on his throne. He is reigning now and sitting at the right hand of Power.

Notes:

1. Scriptures used as been taken from the American Standard Version and the King James Version, Public Domain, BibleGateway.

2. Greek 5486 charisma, Biblehub.

3. Greek 5485 charis, Biblehub.

4. Merriam-Webster Dictionary for definition of messy.

How God’s Glory Interacts with Man in Man and How Man Benefits

Being a Pentecostal all my life, I have come to understand how God interacts with man within man by his Holy Spirit. Man is the temple of God in which he comes to dwell, and there is no other temple that he desires. This interaction of the Holy Spirit within the temple man is an intimate relationship enabling man to hear God’s voice and to use man’s five senses to know God’s presence. It was about two weeks ago before the churches and other public places was shut down that I was at an eldership meeting when the presence of the Holy Spirit came into the building. The fire of God was present, and people could feel the heat from the fire that an angel was dispersing through the people. I went to get in line to be prayed for and I could sense and smell the presence of the Lord. This is not a first-time experience for me as I have encountered the fragrance of God on other occasions by prayer in my own home.

Within the works of the Holy Spirit there is pleasure as God gives joy, peace, and strength to the people, and may express himself through man in the form of laughter, dancing, or just by praise from the person receiving a blessing, or a need met. Listed below are some thoughts I had while reading Psalm 111 during my studies of last fall.

“For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14 KJV

^“His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever.

He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.” Psalm 111:3-4 KJV

“God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.” Psalm 89:7 KJV

Praising God opens door to his work and his glory. His glory is pleasurable, honorable and righteous.
His works are eternal.
His works set as a memorial (altar). Man will remember the work or the miracle. His works are a witness of himself.
As God works, man can see the works of God.
His works are founded in truth.
His judgement is a result of the truth.
His word is assured, set, and never changes.
His word sent redemption, salvation, deliverance, and healing by his work on the cross.
Reverence. The fear of God knowing he has all power to do as he wishes with his creation. Reverence creates wisdom and understanding resulting from innate knowledge.
The door is opened to the fullness of understanding his word.
God never forgets his covenant to man.

In Conclusion, God also interacts with man through covenants. His interaction of man we can see as we study those covenants of the Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Davidic, and the New Covenant. All of these covenants show the glory of God in his promise of a messiah to Eve, his promise of never destroying the earth again by a global flood as we see his rainbow in the sky after a rain, the promise of a blessing to all nations through Abraham’s seed, and that seed that will bless all nations is Jesus. The interaction with man through the Davidic is the promise of a king to rule over a new Earth and Universe that is an everlasting kingdom where sin is not even known, no evil, no danger, and that the Earth is another Eden. This is the messianic era that is future after all things are set under Jesus’s feet. God’s glory is to interact with man in man by saving men, women, and children who want to be with the Lord eternally, obeying him, interacting with him through his Spirit knowing he is a good, loving, and gracious God.

Notes:

All scripture used was taken from the King James Version, Public Domain, Biblegateway.

The Glory Shield

In the year 2019 in about the early Fall I believe, my pastor prophesied over me that God wanted me to write a book on the Glory of God. Soon after this prophesy, I began the study on the glory of God. My studies went into the hundreds of scriptures seems like and I sat and listened to God’s voice. I have several pages in my diary type notebook on this subject. Since I have done the study, I have not started on a book but began on other studies. As we are currently in a pandemic, I thought I would begin to share my thoughts, what I believe God has laid on my heart. I will do my best to relate to you these thoughts and lay out my heart to you. Now more than ever this study is needed to impart to the people. As devotionals go, they are small chunks of study in scripture. Small chunks that we can chew on during the day as we work, stay at home doing chores, or whatever we want to fill our days. I will give two chunks to think on and I do suggest and invite you to investigate the scripture I will give, and to think for yourself. To think as we read scripture is vital and then stopping to meditate and reflect on what we read because during this time God may lay something on your heart that is pertinent to your personal life.

First, let’s investigate Psalm 104:1-3.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:

His glory is described in these three verses as honor, majesty, and light. To expound on these three aspects of his glory would be to define them. Honor is seen has having a good name. God in his attribute’s integrity is what comes to mind, and purity. His manner and ways show perfection as well. In majesty he is sovereign, supreme, and has dominion over everything. His sovereignty is stated in his name, and that name is I AM. The I AM is described many times in the book of John and is his son Jesus. There is no other God. He is all there is, and he was at the beginning and will be at the end. He is everlasting. He is light, and this is the way glory has been taught from the pulpits. His light radiates and permeates everything, and he is everywhere at the same time. Our God is awesome and a big God. He controls everything and his glory is seen everywhere we look on earth. In this scripture his light reflects from the surface of the water. Even his light was seen through his son Jesus. His glory is everywhere!

Secondly, his glory is a shield. In Psalm 84:11 this is what he says to all men.

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

In his shield of glory is light. He imparts his light through his grace, in unmerited favor to us, and he provided salvation to us through a man that was promised to us as a messiah in Genesis 3:15. This salvation came to us as a messiah for all mankind to believe upon him that he is able to forgive sin, and to conquer death. Death being the result of sin. He gave us grace and salvation because of his love for us.

He is a shield for those who know him, who know his son Jesus. A protector in time of trouble just as Psalm 3:3 says,

“But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.”

Through his wisdom, and glory he imparts to us knowledge of a shield of faith. It is in Ephesians 6 that we come to the knowledge of the shield of faith and the armor that we must put on everyday to fight life’s spiritual battles. During my study I looked at the Greek word for faith. Pistis which is found in Strong’s Greek lexicon as SG 4102 defining it as persuasion, to come to trust, having confidence, a guarantee, a revelation, and a reflection of the redeemed. What do you think when you read this definition? God tells us to enact our faith and that through his son Jesus’s name that we defeat the plans of Satan because we believe and have the confidence that what we spoke will come to pass. It is a demonstration that we have placed our trust in God. Sometimes when we enact our faith we will prophesy, give exhortations to encourage others, and having faith shows that we are his children.

As I studied on this last year, this is the thought that came to me on a Sunday morning. That thought is that his shield that we pick up is part of his glory. I saw this shield as a diamond shape with four points. At the top was his name, that is Jesus. To the right was power, to the bottom of the diamond I saw His light which incurs life, knowledge, wisdom, and these four aspects gave us the courage and strength to stand, to endure, knowing that the battles we face the victory has been assured because of our trust and faith in him. On the left part of the diamond I saw authority, and in my notes, I have 2 Corinthians 1:24, which is:

“Not for that we have dominion over your faith but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.”

It is by our faith we find the courage, strength, and trust to endure anything that we will face now in the times we are living and in the future.

In conclusion, I have given you a lot to think on. Sit and read. Pray and let all this sink in and let God speak to your heart. Tell him what you need. Tell him your heart. Ask him to give you everything you need to pick up the shield of faith and glory. Ask him to protect you and walk with you. He will go before you.

Notes:

All scripture used was taken from the King James Version, Public Domain, Biblegateway.

Strong’s Lexicon of Hebrew and Greek.