GLORIFYING THE FATHER. WHATS THE COST?

Over the last few weeks, the Lord has been giving me a view of what it means to glorify the Father.  How often in our prayers have we said let you be glorified Father or words to that effect?

John 17:1-5

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, ² as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. ⁴ I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

How did Jesus glorify the Father in these verses? By going to the cross in a total death to Himself. This act of dying to Himself is when He had glorified the Father and finished His work. In finishing this work He made it possible for salvation to be available to us which was His purpose here.

To truly achieve your purpose here and glorify the Father in this purpose do you have to die to yourself also?

John 17:22

And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:

He has given us the same opportunity to glorify the Father.

 

BEING DEAD TO OURSELVES GLORIFIES THE FATHER

John 13: 1-8

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?”

7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”

Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

 

Jesus knew His hour had come so what did He do?  Did He worry about Himself and His issues? No, He forgot about Himself and focussed on those around Him.  He washed the feet of others. They didn’t understand that He had to die to Himself to glorify the Father and that is why He says you do not understand until after this (His death). All these disciples went onto die to themselves and glorify the Father through Christ. I have no doubt they understood that to glorify the Father they had to die to themselves and what the cost of this was for them.

I wonder if we knew that we were going to our deaths whether we would focus on others and serving them, or would it all be about ourselves?

 

John 13: 31-32

So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. ³² If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.

God is glorified in Him because Jesus has just committed to His death in the action of sending Judas out knowing he will betray Him.  This is why He makes this statement.

When we truly die to ourselves, we are glorified immediately.  When those disciples truly died to themselves they walked around with the Holy Spirit in full power in signs and wonders all the time without doubt.  There was none of them but all of Him.

How many times have we seen the Lord deliver in our lives on something when we had reached our end, that is truly died to ourselves?  Look at how many bible figures reached that position.  Joseph reached this position after 14 years in jail. He was then put in His kingdom position immediately once He had reached this heart position. Straight to number two in the kingdom. Just as stated in the verse above immediately

 

John 13:37-38

Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.”

38 Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.

Will we lay down our lives for His sake? Truly lay down out lives or are we worried and anxious about the things of this world.  The closer we get to this position of being truly dead to ourselves the quicker we walk around glorified in our full identity, in power and in a kingdom position.

 

John 14: 12-14

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. ¹³ And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Will we die to ourselves like Jesus so that we can do greater works?

 

John 15: 1-8

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

If we don’t die to the things of ourselves that are not of Him then He will cast into the fire and burn.  When we say to the Lord I will die to myself then He will prune and that can be painful but it is what He is asking us to do so we can be all that we are meant to be in Him.

How often have we said to the Lord “I die to myself I give all?” Do we understand what this truly means when we say this?

Jesus gave us the example and tells us to be like Him.

 

LET’S LOOK AT SOME OTHER EXAMPLES

Galatians 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Paul could glorify the Father because He had died in Christ. When we are in this position the true works gems and diamonds come out and not the wood, hay and stubble.

2 Corinthians 3:5

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

The Covid example is all about fear because when you don’t know the Lord you hold onto everything in a personal sense. You are alive to the world instead of being dead to it. If we are truly alive to the Lord then are we in fear?

Paul recognises the need to be dead

2 Corinthians 1:9-10

Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, 10 who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us,

This is Paul after three years of dying to himself.  It wasn’t instantaneous for Him at the Damascus road. He had a sanctification process to go through to truly die to Himself and be transformed.

Romans 12:1 says we have to be living sacrifices before we can reach the position of transformation we desire in Romans 12:2.  You can’t get to Romans 12:2 without going through Romans 12:1. Death to ourselves is required before true transformation occurs.

Galatians 2:18

“For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

So if we bring ourselves back into us and the world we transgress from glorifying God

Philippians 3:8

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ

God is glorified when we are dead. When our actions reflect being dead to ourselves then God is glorified. This position of being dead to ourselves is expected to occur when we are alive.

John 17:22

And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:

 

He has given us this opportunity to understand Him and be dead to ourselves.

What are the things that are alive in you that are not in Him?

Can we give those up and be in full identity and power?

Are we prepared to glorify the Father at this time?

Being dead to ourselves and alive to Him at this time is what this position looks like.