From glory to glory

I want to go to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. Second Corinthians, chapter 3. And I want to talk about how to live in revival, how to live in perpetual revival and renewal, how to live a life of continuous spiritual growth and development. And the Lord brought to my mind verses especially from 14 to 18 of Second Corinthians, chapter 3. You can use this text for your study this week. Use it as a starting point for your own reflection because it has so much meat, so much good nutrition that it lends itself to many a sermon. But verse 18 above all is a good starting point and right now, Father, renew my strength, renew my spirit, renew my intimacy with your word and with this sermon and make it fresh in me, as if it were the first time I've ever heard it. I preach, Father, that I may be a blessing to my brothers and my sisters this afternoon in the name of Jesus. Amen, amen.

Verse 18, Paul says, “Therefore we all – that means you, all of us here, Lion of Judah, those who are near, those who are far away, as a church – we all with unveiled face as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are transformed from glory to glory.” Let's say that again, from glory to glory. Amen. "...from glory to glory in the very image of the Lord as by the spirit of the Lord." Before that Paul has been talking about the Hebrew people. It says in verse 14, "Because of their understanding, - of the Jews who did not receive Christ when He came in His divine human form, - their understanding was dulled." Blunting means that it can no longer cut, a knife, an edge that becomes blunt is no longer capable of continuing to cut, it becomes blunt. “…it was dulled because to this day,” Paul says at the moment he is speaking, “when they read the old covenant, they are left with the same veil not uncovered.” And he is referring to when Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights in the presence of God on the mountain and was in such intimacy with God that the glory of God was transferred to him, his face. And when he went down he did not realize, when he went down to have interaction with the people, he did not realize that the glory of God had transferred to him. And then his face was shining with the very shekinah glory of Jehovah and the people were terrified to see that glory of God in this man whose face shone like bronze. And Moses had to put on a veil to cover his face so as not to scare the people. And the idea was that for the moment the glory of God was interrupted by that veil and the people couldn't see it because they couldn't bear that divine glory.

And so, Paul uses that imagery and says, when you read the old covenant, when you read the Scriptures, the same veil that doesn't let the glory of God shine to you as it should, is still on your face. And who is it that removes that veil? Christ. It says, “…which is taken away by Christ,” and even to this day when Moses is read, the veil is drawn over their hearts. "But when they turn to the Lord, the veil will be removed." Because? Because the Lord is the spirit. And what does the word say? Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We do not want a religious life without the spirit and that is what happened with the Jews. The Bible says, there is a passage that says that the Holy Spirit fled from the temple, he left because the Hebrews grieved the spirit of the Lord so much that the spirit left. The spirit that descended when Solomon consecrated the temple says that the glory of God was so powerful that the priests all fell to the ground. The glory of God was so great that no one in that temple could remain standing. But one day, he says, that also because of the persistent sin of the people, the glory of God did so and left. And to this day that glory is not in the temple and there is no temple even because God completely destroyed it.

And Paul is talking about… I would say that they are two types of Christianity, two types of religion or faith or relationship with God. One is the relationship that the Jews had. There are two types of church in the world, there are two types of Christian in the world. He refers to that Jewish people that instead of going where God was taking them, which was a greater revelation through Christ Jesus, they stayed where they were, they stayed in the old covenant. When Christ came with a fresh revelation from God to them, they preferred what they loved, their customs, their rituals, their commandments, they stayed with the substitute, which was simply for a while. And they said, no, we are not going there. We are the chosen people. No one else except us, so this idea that now… this is for the gentiles and that you have to leave all the holidays and the temple with all its apparatus and all the religion. No, we do not need, as they told the Lord Jesus Christ, we do not need, we have never been slaves, and the Lord told them, you are slaves because those who are forced to do the same thing over and over again are not free. If you know the truth, the truth sets you free. But the Jews preferred to stay with the old revelation. And that is what the Apostle Paul is saying, that there is a type of church, there is a type of believer who is satisfied with the same as always. And this sermon, brothers, this meditation, God has placed it in my heart to make us all a call towards perpetual growth, the perpetual going towards new dimensions of our life, our relationship with God, not being content with the glory of yesterday.

God calls us to be a people in process, to go from glory to glory. Yesterday's anointing is over and we have to be people who are always listening from God because otherwise, what happens is that our understanding becomes dull. When God speaks to you and God tells you something, if you don't listen, then stagnation comes, spiritual death comes. When God is calling you to go to another dimension of life, to another state with Him, you have two options, either you listen and move and flow in that direction, or you stay comfortably where you are and the Holy Spirit says, "Okay, I'll help you." I will leave you there in your vain dream until you listen to me." And the thing is, God is always speaking to us, always taking us to new levels. That is what I told the brothers in the original sanctuary in the few minutes that I was able to greet them and talk to them about the decision. Many times God brings something into our lives and that event, that revelation blesses us greatly at that moment, but many times we fall so in love with that moment that we believe that it is forever and then we stay there and don't want to get out of there. And my idea was that by now, God has spoken to the spiritual leadership of the church that now, for many different reasons, it is time for us to come together in one service like we have done before, because that was a passing thing, that was for a while to deal with the COVID lawsuit and other things. But we believe that we can be together now. And if God calls us again to go there, amen, glory to God.

I have always said that León de Judá has to be a flexible church, a church that listens to the Lord and that adjusts to what God is calling us to do because that is how Christian life has to be. We have to be flexible and we have to let the Lord always take us to the new level, to the new revelation, because the Christian life is a life of perpetual change, of perpetual transformation. The Jewish people did not want to do that. Brothers, 2000 years ago Christ came and they are still waiting for the Messiah. This past week I was at an event here in León de Judá, at a pastors' lunch about an event that is coming up for you on October 24, I'm going to tell you later, and the person who was addressing us said, “Look, My brothers, I know many Jews," and in fact he has a lot of relationship with the Jews, "and I continually speak with rabbis - and I have heard the same thing from other pastors, and he says, - and many of these rabbis know more about the New Testament than ourselves, they know more about Jesus than we do. They know the history, they know the theology, but they don't convert.” Because? Because there is a veil, there is a veil that covers them.

When Christ reveals himself to your life and you don't listen to him, spiritual dullness comes. When God is speaking to you and you persist in what you like, what you believe, what you are, the Lord will stop speaking to you, he leaves and does not waste. Because God is looking for people open to his revelation and to what he wants from us. So there is a type of church, there is a type of Christian who lives in comfort. We have already become accustomed to rituals, to religion, to coming to church on Sundays, to doing the usual things, the routine, and we have stopped living on the edge of God's presence. And God doesn't want that from us. God wants a ministry of the spirit where we are always alert. What is God telling me? Where is God calling me? What is the new level, the new peak to which God is calling me? It doesn't matter if you are 40, 50, 60 years old in the Gospel, God will always have something new for you. I tell you, brothers, I have been preaching for almost 40 years. We began the ministry in the year 84 full-time and for 37 years I have stood in a pulpit like this, preaching on Sundays, and I tell you, brothers, I tremble every Sunday before standing in the pulpit. Sometimes I agonize more than I should because after 37 years of ministry I shouldn't sometimes get as tense as I do to preach. And I tell them that Saturday nights are times for me often of a little agony because I want it to be like that until I die. It doesn't have to be as difficult as that, I think partly because I'm a bit anxious by nature, but the truth is that we should never get used to it, the day should never come when we go up to the pulpit like, ah, I already know it. I did, I've been 37 years old. No, we always have to tremble in the presence of God.

And I tell that to the brothers of praise as well, that we always... we talk many times about it, that one can get used to the routine and one can get used to always doing things the same. And I admire that of Danibel Ríos [00:13:01] although he has also been in the ministry for 30-odd years, he ministers as if it were the first time. I think we are sorry, right? And there are other Christian artists who aren't, you see, their minds have already been checked a long time ago and they are doing routine things. We do not want to be critical but that is the truth because they have gotten used to it and I believe that we always have to live waiting, Lord, what do you want? What do you want me to do? We cannot be with yesterday's anointing. The Hebrews got used to the rituals, to their understanding of what faith was, to their expectation of what the Messiah was, and when the Messiah came in an unexpected way, they did not recognize him. They always believed that the Messiah would come on a white horse, like David, strong, to reinstate the Jewish people in their former glory. And when Christ came, a humble, simple servant, mounted on a donkey, they did not recognize him and preferred to remain in their ancient expectations and the Lord passed them by. And then, they entered a torpor and a dream that lasts until the year 2021 yet. And God wants, brothers, that we live differently and that is why Paul then speaks of another type of Christian, not as those who saw their understanding dulled, but as people who are now living anxiously in the spirit.

My brothers, God is very interested that you know him as he wants to be known. And the Christian life is a journey of perpetual process where God is continually revealing new facets of Him to us. God wants your life to be a process of discovering new layers of the Holy Spirit, of removing things from you and putting new things in, of mentally healing yourself , to renew your spirit, your temperament, your character, your habits, your way of speaking, your way of relating to others. God wants to heal you from the wounds of the past. God wants to remove the distortions of the traumas you went through as a child. God wants to heal your mind. God wants to minister your neurology. God wants to break your ties. God wants to give you a better understanding of his word. God wants you to have moments of intimacy with Him. The Christian life is a life of perpetual process, of going from glory to glory, of growth to growth. I love that chorus that says, "From glory to glory I see you, the more I know you I want to know more about you."

God wants us to go to that level. Another cute chorus says, “Yesterday is over, I need you today. Holy Spirit breathes in me." How beautiful it is when we live hungry for the Lord, when we are not satisfied with yesterday's anointing, when we are not satisfied with last year's peaks, and we say, Father, renew me. There are so many beautiful choirs. I love those choruses, "Renew me Lord Jesus, I no longer want to be the same, renew me Lord Jesus, put your heart on me because everything that is in me needs to be changed, Lord." How many feel that we have to change? I am the first, brothers. I turned 66 in July and I still need God to change me like the first day, brothers. Preaching, preaching, preaching, knowing the word and I know that there are still areas and zones in me that need to be dealt with by God. And I hope that when I die, the last breath is, Father, change me. And then, he is going to answer me in a definitive way because he will have totally changed me. But while we are here on earth serving the Lord, we have to be in continuous process. My brothers, God wants to take comfort away from us.

I love the words of the psalmist, “As a servant pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, when will I come and present myself before the house of God?" How many feel that desire to know, not the God of religion, but the living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? I want to know the God of miracles. Brothers, and I will die wanting to see more of the glory of God. I tell you with all my heart, in my heart there is a very big hole to know the God that I have seen in the Scriptures, to see him in three dimensions. And that must be your desire every day. Don't be content. If you think you know something about God, remember that God has layers upon layers of revelation for your life. If you think you've come a long way with God, look, you're still in diapers. God wants to reveal another direction, another dimension. Stay hungry, stay hungry to see the glory of the Lord in your life.

Remember Moses? When Moses was near the presence of the Lord, he said, “Look, if you have chosen me, and if you truly love me, show me your glory. I want to see your face,” Moses told him. And Moses had an appetite to see God. I long to see the Lord. I have a craving. I have an appetite to know the living God, the God who raised the dead, the God who raised the paralyzed, the God who gave hearing to the deaf. And I will not stop longing to see the glory of God as long as I live. And Moses said to the Lord, "Show me your face." He was asking something very dangerous because the Bible said that he who saw the face of God died. And God told him, "Look, you won't see my face but you will see my back." I would settle for seeing God's back, I don't know about you. I don't know how that is because I don't believe that God has a body like us, but what God wanted to say to him, “Look, I am going to reveal to you an aspect of my glory, I am not going to reveal everything to you because I am going to fry there in a moment if you see me, but you will see my back.” And then he says that God put it, how beautiful that image, God put it in the cleft of a rock as if to prepare it. The cleft of a rock means that his body was well tucked in and very safe. He couldn't move from there. God wanted to protect him from what he was going to experience in the cleft of a rock. How beautiful that. I ask him, “Lord, put me in the cleft of a rock and prepare me, because I want to see your glory. I want to meet you, I want to know more about you."

And then God, says that it happened quickly, Jehovah, Jehovah, a voice was heard declaring the glory of God and Moses could see the heavens of God. And he was able to have that intimacy with God. And the intimacy with God was so great that when Moses came down from there, the glory of God had transferred to him. And that is what God wants from us. By dint of being so in communion with God, that the glory of God is transmitted to us and we can reveal who God is to others who see us. And I believe that this is the goal of every believer, that we be more and more like Christ, that we reflect Jesus more, that people, by force of us, be in communion with Him, with His word, to have a search for God. , that the divine energy is transmitted to us and when we are seen by the world, they see Christ in us. And that only comes through the study of his word. In recent months I have been reading the word in a more intensive way, and I tell you that I have read the Bible I don't know how many times now, I am discovering new levels. And by the way, I haven't given my sister the Bible, I couldn't find it. I didn't find it for some reason. I owe it to you and I'm going to get it. We have talked about that.

But brothers, there is something wonderful that happens when one fully immerses himself in the word of the Lord. And that is one of the ways of contemplating the glory of God, because when you read the word continuously, intensively, the word transmits its image, its power, its personality to your life as well. And the Bible says that the Bible is like a two-edged sword that cuts, is sharp, deeply examines feelings, emotions, thoughts and shapes us according to what we read. And that is a way of maintaining intimacy with God. Never stop having your devotional times with God, reading the word devotionally, hearing from God. Another thing that I think helps is to think, imagine Christ and renew the image of Jesus in our lives, because Christ in his person, no one has seen him, we have not seen him, but we can imagine him. There is an image, for example, in my life that has been a great blessing... the mystics of yesteryear used a lot what is called an icon that sometimes we evangelicals misinterpret and think that they are simply pagan images and all that. But the ancients have used them as paintings reflecting aspects of the life of Jesus. In the world, for example, Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox, icons are paintings that reflect different imagined aspects of what Jesus is like, and these images are looked at by people to understand something. They do not worship it, they are simply like images that help in meditation about Jesus Christ.

And there is an image that has helped me a lot in these times of… the Lord carrying a man who is almost fainting. And then, the Lord Jesus Christ, a powerful Christ, taller than him, stocky, robust, has him supported from behind. And Samuel sent me the image of that one… I have it too. And sometimes God… we have to imagine the Lord in some dimension. If you are, for example, in a time of illness, imagine Christ reaching out and healing you. Visualize it that way. If you are in a time of physical lack, imagine the Lord reaching out to you and providing for you. Visualize the Lord in some dimension. If you feel lonely, sad, imagine the Lord approaching you and standing before you and embracing you and ministering to you. The idea is that when we meditate on some image of the Lord that has to do with us, the image of Christ renews us, strengthens us. That is like contemplating the face of the Lord. Jesus has a very great renewing power in our lives. And we have to have private time where we have to let God speak to us, that God take us to other levels, that God transforms us from glory to glory. He wants to reveal himself to your life. God doesn't want you to live a religious life, where you come to church every Sunday and sit there and make a few faces and go home, and that's it.

I believe that we have to come to the house of God with the expectation of having an encounter with the Lord. Every day you have to visualize. When you walk through that door and walk in here, remove all your preconceptions of what you have done, how your experience was last Sunday, and come waiting to see what God is going to say to you today. And when you go to worship the Lord, look, make sure that every word you sing with your mouth, you rehearse it in your mind. And you pronounce it with conviction, don't pronounce it like that distantly. Visualize and verbalize as if it were the first time that you are doing things. Come with the expectation that God will find you. When you get up in the morning, Lord, what do you have for me today? And rehearse that expectation of what God is going to tell you because God is always renewing his word and his expectations, his guidelines in our lives. We have to live with that sense that God is going to tell me something new, he is going to speak to me in a different way today. Because when we assume that we have already done everything and we already know, God stops speaking to us and then we have to return to contemplate the new and different face of Jesus in our lives.

One last thing I tell you, why do many people sometimes stop longing for those moments of encounter with God, those moments of renewal? I think one of the reasons is because many times when God wants to work in us he puts us through times of trials and difficulties and sometimes we don't like that. God willing... in the biological world, if you are sick and need health, many times you will have to go through a surgical process, or you will have to start taking certain medicines, or you will have to do certain exercises, or certain things, which are going to be painful many times, but they are going to be necessary for you to get to the health you need. When a person loses an arm or has some kind of situation in their joints, what happens? That he goes to a chiropractor or a physical therapist and they put him to do exercises and it's painful when they're doing those exercises, but if he doesn't do it, he gets paralyzed and gets worse. And I believe that it is a law of nature but it is also a law of the spirit. When God wants us to give birth to the new life of the spirit, there will be discomfort in us. I can tell you that each period of promotion in my life and of spiritual growth has been preceded by a time of affliction, trial and crucifixion. The hardest moments of my life have been before God did something wonderful.

I have stopped being afraid of this process, I have already gotten used to it. And I know that often along with giving birth comes discomfort. You women know what I mean, that to give birth you have to experience pain, discomfort, nine months a woman of discomfort. And if Eva hadn't misbehaved, that wouldn't be necessary but it is. I'm playing. [Laughter] But you know, sisters, that to give birth there is suffering, there is discomfort, there is pain, there is screaming, there is deformation of the body. That is natural. But wow! Says the Apostle Paul, how nice when that baby is finally outside and we can celebrate. And women forget the pain so quickly that they want another one afterward because the joy of seeing a new life overwhelms the pain that accompanies that birth. And so it is with us, brothers, that is a law of nature and of the universe, I believe, that before life comes there must be a crucifixion. And that happened to the Lord Jesus Christ.

If the Lord had not wanted to go to the cross, where would we be? But He says that for the joy set before Him He mounted on the cross. And let me tell you that if you visualized the life that God has for you, the blessings, you would submit to crucifixion because God is a perfect, generous surgeon, that He is never wrong. He is going to cut you only what you need to be cut, no more, no less. Give Him the right to intervene in your life and trust Him. And when you think you are going to die say, Lord, it hurts, but I trust in your hands and I want you to change me. I want you to transform me because I want to be like you. I want that when the world sees me, it sees Christ. I want to contemplate you. I want to see you. I want to know you better. And we have to make meditation on Christ the focus, the focus of our life. When you look at Jesus, what do you see? I don't just see the power that heals, the power that raised the dead, the power that made a deaf hear or a blind see, or a paralytic get up and run, or set a demon-possessed girl free. I also see the one the Bible says was perfected through obedience and suffering.

Paul says that he wants to know Jesus in his death and his sufferings and in his resurrection, both. Many of us want to meet Jesus only at his resurrection. We want to know him as the Christ who passed through walls and appeared to the disciples, went to another place, etc. And what about the Friday of the crucifixion? What about the Sabbath that happened on earth? And we, brothers, if we want to be more and more like Christ, if we want to experience the glory of God in our lives, we are going to have to submit to suffering. But God is going to change you and he is going to show you that the time that you are going to spend underground is going to be a great blessing and you can be used more by the Lord. The word of God says, "If the grain of wheat does not fall to the ground and die, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit." There is no substitute, brothers. Before bearing fruit we have to fall to the ground. And I feel that the Lord is speaking to all of us this afternoon, as He did this morning in the English service, and He is calling us to times of intimacy with Him, times in the Master's workshop, times of longing for a new stage for our life. And he is telling you, do not be afraid of being intimate with Christ. Do not be afraid to go to the mountain alone with God and to contemplate the glory of God. You are going to take risks, you can die but you are not going to die because you will see the back of the Father and you will be blessed and you will reflect the glory of God in your life.

Brothers, the Christian life is not a life of empty rituals, it is not a life of repetition, it is not a life of customs, it is a great adventure where we present ourselves before the Lord and say, Father, what are you going to do with me today? ? What new revelation are you going to give me? Let's open our hearts to the Lord. God wants to make you a spiritual giant. God wants to use you, God wants to reveal himself to you. And don't be afraid of the Master when he takes his instruments and tells you, "I want to operate on you." Do not fear him because he is the surgeon par excellence and he knows what he is doing. Don't stay in comfort. Don't stay where you are. Don't stay in your character saying, that's not how I am and I'm not going to change, etc. No, no, make yourself fragile and see, the more God bleeds you, the stronger you will be. The more God cuts you, the richer, the more powerful, the more powerful you will be. God is going to prune you so that it bears more fruit. The Lord says it in his word. God prunes us more so that we bear more fruit. If we do not bear more fruits we are in trouble, but if we bear many fruits then God is pleased with us. And then, the more fruit you bear, the more God will prune you so that you bear more fruit. But it will be the glory of God. Do not fear the processes of the Lord.

Look, if you are in Christ, don't worry, things are going to happen in your life, terrifying times are going to come, but trust in the Lord because God is going to take you to safe places of delicate pastures. Do not fear the interventions of the Lord. Don't be afraid to seek more of God's glory. God has good things for you. I want to tell you whatever you are going through at this time, do not see the face of the devil destroying you, see the loving face of God taking you to new levels. Do not see the enemy who wants to make you see that he is in control. Who is in control is Christ taking you to places of delicate pastures, to places of greater fruitfulness, to bear more fruit for the glory of the Lord. Go on the adventure, go on the adventure of a life filled with the Holy Spirit. And ask the Lord, change me, transform me, work on me, Lord. I surrender my being to you.

Right now let's lower our heads and we're going to ask the Lord, I myself do it from up here with fear and trembling. Father, we want to meet you. León de Judá as a church, as a congregation and each of us as individuals want to meet you. And we want you to reveal yourself to us. We want to have an encounter with you on the mount of transfiguration. We want to see you in three dimensions. And we know that it is dangerous to see your glory, but we do not want anything else but that you work in our lives. I ask, Father, that this church be a church always in transformation, a church in perpetual process, of people in transformation, people always going to the next level that you are taking us to. Don't leave us where we are, Father, and forgive us because many times we get stuck and continue stagnant, but please, Lord, speak to us. I ask you to speak to my brothers and sisters this afternoon, to each one of us, to indicate to them what you want from them. And we give you our appetites, we give you our preferences, we give you our habits, our comforts, our careers, our finances, our marriages, our children, our ministries, our service, our character, our temperament, our personal history, the traumas of our childhood, the resentments we have clung to, the offenses of the past, Lord, the fears that bind us, Father.

We give you everything, everything, everything at your feet, at your feet this afternoon we place them, Lord Jesus. Heal us, oh God. Make us a community of people in process, people in treatment, in the Master's workshop, being treated by you, Father. We do not want other things, we do not want rest, we want the day, we want to follow the column of smoke and fire where you lead us on a perpetual pilgrimage, Father, towards a new revelation. I ask that by this word, Father, those who are here today and those who are in their homes, and those who are not even listening, Father, who identify with this family of the Lion of Judah, be touched by this word. And that you enter us into a time of spiritual effervescence, where we see your glory, Father, where you reveal yourself to us in new ways. We want to see your glory. We want to see your face, Lord. Enter us into that most holy place where your presence is, Lord. By this word fulfill your purpose in our lives and we will always give you all the glory and all the honor. We love you. We love your face and we love intimacy with you. We love your personality, Lord Jesus, the hallmarks of your character, and we want to eat from the roll of your revelation. We want it to enter our bowels and become part of us, Lord, for the glory of your name. For your love of us do it, Father, and for your love of yourself and your word, work in us. Thank my Lord. Thank you. Amen and amen. Give the Lord a big round of applause and give glory to Him. And we're going to be a growing community. We are going to be a community desperately in love with Christ because there is no better place to be. Glory to the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Glory to God. God bless you, my brothers.