Unity & Glory

Rom. 15:⁶ “In this unity, you will share one voice as you glorify the one True God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, our Liberating King.” (Voice]

If in the few hours He had left, Jesus thought it important to pray for unity in the Church, then it is worthy of focus. What I say to my friends, my colleagues, my seniors in ministry is that, ‘we do not have to agree on all the minors. Do we agree on the majors such as: Is Jesus the Son of God? Did He die for your sins and my sins? Do you believe in the absolute faith in Him and Him alone? Do you believe in the authority of scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit? If you do, then you are my brother, you are my sister. The problem is we major on minors a lot of the time. We just focus on the things that are negative.

In God’s Favourite House, and I believe this should be the same for every church, we want to be known for the things we are for and not for the things we are against. We are for changed lives, we are for the power of the Holy Spirit, we are for people entering into their destinies, that is what we are for. We do not want to be known for what we are against. Some churches are against covering of hair and that is all they are known for. I do not think that is what God has called us to be and do. Ps.133:^1-3 “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.” (NIV].

The third thing Jesus prayed for is Glory. John 17:¹ “After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you.” (emphasis added). This is what I call the glory confusion in the church. There is a lot of glory confusion; people do not really understand God’s heart concerning His glory. Lack of understanding; they do not say it, but people sometimes prefer shame because they feel the glory is the Lord’s and they are so unworthy. But Jesus is saying, ‘Father for me to give You glory, You need to give Me glory, so I can return the glory to You.’ When we say, ‘we give God all the glory’, there must have been something that God has done that is glorious, right? Unfortunately, some people are afraid, they are in bondage. ‘I do not want to touch God’s glory.’ Of course, you should not take God’s glory; are you crazy, why would you even want to do that?

However, I want to give Him glory, I want my life to give Him glory. I want to reflect His glory and I want to take the glory and give it back to Him. Because as the song says, ‘no man on earth should give glory to himself, all the glory must be to the Lord.’ You can sing that song with understanding and you can sing that song from a place of shame. Your life must be glorious before you can return that glory to God, before you can give God glory. Everything we give to God; He first gave to us. There is nothing we have that we did not receive from Him.

Prayer: Father, may the unity of the Church bring glory to Your Name, in Jesus Name. Amen!