Part I Here

Part II Here

All Things are Made New

Rev 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

These two verses say the same thing, but speak of them in different dimensions. So what is the mechanism by which all things are made new? Are they recreated, refashioned or merely refurbished? Or, as illumination is increased do you see them differently? After receiving the Holy Ghost, I still had scars. I still had some crooked teeth. And some crooked thoughts. But color must have light for definition. Your world is still in black and white and shades of grey until the light is sufficiently increased, as a on a dimmer switch, as we come to know Him more.

Perhaps traumas of the past are not obliterated, but as we see Jesus with greater clarity, He changes our view of these things. And if what changes our view of these things in Heaven is simply being in the glorious, undiminshed presence of the Almighty God, then it is the same cause and same effect here on earth, just in a lesser capacity since our physical bodies cannot bear the devastating power of His unrestrained Glory. In Exodus 33:18-23, Moses asked God to show him His glory. And God told him “No man shall see me and live”. But God honored Moses’ desire to know Him better. But The Lord had to do three things in order to show Moses His glory, and it was to be only a filtered portion of it. He hid him in the cleft of a rock, put His hand in front of Moses’ face, and revealed only His hinder parts.

And God said to Moses “I will make all my goodness pass before thee”. God was telling Moses that His Goodness was His Glory. And while passing by, He also said some things about Himself. Knowing God is not just about seeing His brilliant Glory; it is about knowing His nature as well.

What makes God such a wonderful God is not solely that He is Almighty, for if He were wicked and unmerciful, being Almighty would simply make unlimited His ability to wreak havoc and misery in the lives of people, as we can be sure Satan would do were he almighty. It is the fact that God is good, coupled with the fact that He is Almighty, that makes Him so wonderful, so marvelous, and so truly Glorious.

God “veils” His glory when dealing with humanity-why? For our protection. His complete presence is fatal to human flesh. But while the natural man cannot bear the overwhelming Glory of God, the spirit man is not so limited. In heaven, we will be fully exposed to His Glory, and it will be overwhelming, but not lethal. And it will overshadow all of the sufferings of this present time. They will still be a part of our memory, but now they will be in correct context; that is, they will be viewed under the greatest level of illumination possible and with a complete perspective that was previously unavailable to us.

So we, in this life, must seek to enter into a greater and greater understanding and a greater revelation of Him. It is what changes us. Praying more will not change us. Fasting more will not change us. Not unless the specifically stated goal and intent of that prayer and fasting is to know and understand Jesus Christ, and we achieve that goal. He will not remove memories of grief and trauma. In fact, it is the tribulations of this life that help us to see how great He is. How do you describe the concept of light without including darkness?  How can you appreciate health if you have not known sickness? How can you comprehend and fully appreciate joy if you have not known grief and sorrow? And what value does peace in your life have without a knowledge of agony or turbulence to contrast it with? How can you know the value of the comfort of a true friend who rushes to your side in your darkest hour if you have not known abandonment and isolation in such times?

So my suffering and God’s Glory actually complement one another; His Glory is more glorious and valuable to me because of the suffering I have known, and my suffering is put in proper perspective and even made inconsequential by comparison to His Glory.

I do not need Him to deliver me of my tribulation and suffering, but rather to use them so that I may know Him more fully.

Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death

You cannot know Him or the power of His resurrection fully, without knowing also the fellowship of His suffering. Suffering gives us a grasp and a perspective that is simply not obtainable by any other means. Why else are we told to rejoice in our tribulations? Not just so we can be made stronger, but because they put is in fellowship with Jesus Christ and enable us to know Him more completely.

No, He will not remove our bad memories. He also may not heal us, or relieve our suffering here. But as Moses asked, He can “show us His glory”. That Glory is Jesus Christ and that Glory becomes my glory when I know Him more and more, and that glory (the knowledge of Him) will cast a new illumination on my life. His Glory will change us and change our view of everything in our lives. – It will make all things new.

The potential for color is present in our world, but is unrealized without light, for it is light that brings color. In the twilight, our entire world is seen in shades of grey. But as the sun rises, color then becomes discernable. Only when something is oriented toward the sun, and the sunlight is reflected off of it, is it then possible to see color. The world does not change when the sun rises-only my view of it does.

It’s All About Him

We must strive to see as much of Him as He will allow us to see in this life. We must strive to know Him as much as He will allow us to know Him. He wants to be known, and so if He is unknown to me, the fault lies not in Him, but in me.

Psa 3:3 But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

How is He my glory? Jeremiah tells us; He becomes my glory as I come to know Him.

Jer 9:23-24 23 Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.

That glory-the glory of knowing Jesus Christ-changes everything in my life. It gives definition where previously there was none. It gives perspective and context where there was none. It makes things make sense. It changes the very color of my existence-from black, white and grey, to the full color spectrum in all of its brilliance. And if I can see this Glory, then the sufferings-all of them-of this present time will fall to their proper place of priority in my life.

If the diminished effect of these sufferings in Heaven is owing to the overwhelming presence of God in the form of Jesus Christ, there has to be a way to achieve a slice of that here on earth, and it certainly His desire to reveal it to us.

Lord, show me thy glory. Show me now thy way, that I may know thee