If you believe you will see the glory of God

In John 11:38 it is written:

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” 40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone .

Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

These words are rich in their meaning and tell us a lot about faith. They also tell us a lot about the compassion, glory, Majesty and might of Jesus Christ. First of all in this full story, the text right before these words, we see the compassion of Jesus. Jesus weeps, He is moved and deeply troubled. The love and compassion of Jesus is so strong that when people suffer, He makes the suffering His own, it is as if Jesus Himself went through it. The love and compassion of Jesus Christ is like nothing else.

We also are given a lesson in faith. Faith is in many aspects to trust and obey God. When Jesus is about to wake up Lazarus from the dead, Jesus tells them to move away the stone. When Martha says: but Jesus, he has been dead four days, that is doubt or unbelief. Jesus then answers: Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”, and what Jesus means is that they should move the stone, which is to believe.

Jesus didn’t tell them: stand by my side and believe as much as you can in your own hearts, then Lazarus will live again! That is the kind of faith that you find in New Age and which is preached in many places of the Church of Jesus Christ today, especially in the Western World. They teach you to work up a strong faith in your own heart. To have faith in your own faith.

But that is not Biblical faith. Biblical faith is more a trust in that what God, Jesus, has spoken will happen. It is also that you do as the Lord tells you. Faith in this situation is to move away the stone from the tomb. If you do that, it is a sign of faith. To move away the stone is to act upon the Word of Jesus and believing that when you do, when you act in obedience, Jesus will do something. Jesus will show the Way in the next step. Faith is that we start walking. We receive a word from the Lord, and we start walking according to that word. No matter what we feel, we start walking. That is faith, that is to walk by faith.

In this text the words, “if you believe, you will see the glory of God”, also mean that if they believe, they will see the glory of Christ as He wakes up Lazarus from the dead. To wake someone up from the dead, just by saying: Lazarus, come forth, is a marvelous sign and wonder. It is very rarely seen, but Jesus revealed His glory and might, to those who BELIEVED in Him. Yes, Jesus did some miracles that also those who didn’t want to believe saw, but most of the time Jesus didn’t let them see His glory. He did it where they believed. And it tells us about the power in the Words of Jesus. He speaks, and Lazarus is raised from the dead. When Jesus speaks a word, it will come to pass.

On the mount of transfiguration where Peter and two other disciples saw the glory of Christ, as He spoke with Moses and Elijah, He did that to those who believed. His clothes were made white and His face shined. He showed them His glory. If we don’t believe, we will never see the glory of God.

God reveals and shows His glory, power and might by letting us see signs and wonders. That is true. But if we start to look for Jesus in places where we come for the miracles and wonders, but not first of all for Christ Himself, if we don’t first of all come to meet and be with Jesus, to listen to the Word of God, but we come to see things happen, to see miracles, we can easily be deceived.

There are many preachers today who do great miracles, healings and wonders even in the Name of Jesus, but I sense and feel: no, this is not Jesus Christ. Yes, they use His Name, but I believe that they do not know Him. Remember Matthew 24:3 and Matthew 7:15-23. Those words Jesus spoke about these days. Jesus Himself said that They will come in My Name and do great signs, but they will deceive many. We have to watch out that no one deceives us. We need to discern the spirits to know: is this God, or is it someone else?

Because even the Enemy can do great miracles. We see that on many places in the Bible. The magicians of pharaoh did great signs before Moses, but that was done by witchcraft. It was not done by the God of Abraham.

But our God, the Lord our God, is stronger. If we love Jesus, love the Word of God, more, than we love the miracles, we will not so easily be deceived. Because The Lord, our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, is the most powerful God of the Heavens and the earth. And He did, does and will do great miracles in our lives and in these days.

He has done a miracle in my life. I was in my old life so afraid to speak before people that if I was to speak before more than one person, I would start to tremble and shake, I couldn’t breathe and I had to stop speaking, because I couldn’t go on. My voice would go away.

And I tried everything in my power to change that, because it embarrassed me. I tried positive thinking, listening to voices speaking positive thoughts into my mind. I tried to listen to relaxing music or meditation. But it didn’t help. I thought it was impossible to change and that I would suffer from it all my life.

But with God all things are possible. Today I stand here before you and I speak to you and I am not afraid, and that’s a miracle of Jesus Christ in my life, a miracle of Jesus Christ living inside of me through His Holy Spirit. I spoke at the conference last week before several hundreds, not nervous about the speaking itself, not afraid of loosing my voice. It’s a miracle. What is impossible for man, is possible with God.

We also saw a miracle last week. Me and Liliane prayed for Naomi with her throat, her goitre, and just a few days later it was down to less than half. We will pray for that again tomorrow, and I believe that the Lord will heal her completely.

I also believe that these words from John 11 mean that if you believe, you will see the glory of God in your own life, have it inside of you, in your heart, and around you. I have had the privilege to get to know and for some time walk with some great men and women of Christ, and I especially think of a man that I spent a lot of time with during my conversion in 2005-06.

He had seen the glory of Christ, and it filled him, his entire person was filled with the glory of Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit. His face was filled with light, because Jesus was His light, Jesus was His sunshine upon him. His entire being was filled with the glory, love and joy of Jesus Christ. You could feel the presence of the God of Israel upon him. This was given to him by grace, and by grace alone. He knew this, therefore he was deeply humble. He had done nothing to deserve it. It was a gift from God, a precious gift. Then why was this given to him?

He had some great things in his personality. He was deeply humble. God will not give this to those who are proud. He had a deep awareness of his own fallen nature, his sin nature. That made him humble and small in his own eyes. He also had a great fear of God. He always obeyed God, without asking questions when the Lord told him to do something.

And he had a heart that loved Jesus above all else and that searched for Him and His Kingdom. And most of all he had chosen to believe, and if you believe, you will see the glory of God. He often quoted Jesus’s words: ask, and it shall be given, seek, and you shall find, knock, and the door will be opened. His life showed that it’s true.

I have also seen this from afar. I have seen preachers on YouTube like David Wilkerson and Carter Conlon from North America and I feel how they are filled with the Holy Spirit and I see the glory of God around them. I feel the sweet aroma of Jesus Christ. It fills also me with the Spirit when I listen to them. We give all the glory to Jesus Christ, but it is wonderful to see and it is such a blessing to me and many others.

But in many other preachers from North America today I don’t see and feel this, I see and feel almost nothing about Jesus Christ in them. Maybe you do, but I don’t. But in these great men of God I do, and in great measure.

But I also believe that this can be given to you and to me. God has no respect to person. Jesus loves not one person more than another. What He has given to them, Jesus is also willing to give to us. All we have to do is walk in humility and believe. Pray and Believe. And the glory of Jesus Christ can also be given to us, and that is something that is more precious than everything this world has to offer. To have the presence of Jesus Christ is more valuable than anything else. It is a treasure you can find nowhere in this world. But in Jesus Christ, there you will find it.

But above all I believe that it means that if you believe, you will one day see the glory of God, the glory of Christ, in Heaven. If you believe, you will one day reach Heaven. And that is what means more than anything to us. As believers in Christ we don’t live first of all for this world, for this life. No, we have Heaven as our home. We build our city, just as Abraham did, not in the here and now, but in the coming world.

And if you believe, believe in Christ and hold on to Him until the end, until you die or until Jesus Christ comes back, you will one day see His glory. You will walk in Heaven, you will have a joy that is unspeakable, you will see treasures and riches never before heard of or that you ever could imagine. The glory and the light of Christ will be your sun. There will always be day, always light, but still you will never be tired, never be weary.

And above all you will stand in the marvelous presence of Jesus. You will have Jesus always close to you. You will sense and feel everything that Jesus is, everything found in His wonderful presence. You will experience the joy of Christ. You will have a sweet, wonderful, deep and everlasting peace that surpasses all understanding. You will have grace all around you. And you will always feel the love of Christ.

And Jesus will say welcome home, you good and faithful servant. Welcome home my beloved child and friend. He will look at you, with a face full of beauty never seen here on earth. He will look at you, and you will see His wonderful and miraculous glory, a light that makes the sun look pale and fading in comparison.

And maybe Jesus will say to you, with a voice full of love and might: didn’t I tell you, My child, that if you believe, you will see the glory of God. Amen.

I want to sing a song to you.

Jesus Jesus, sweetest Name Jesus
In that Name, Jesus, I have life today

I will always praise the Name of Jesus
In that Name is deliverance from sin
All other names will vanish, but His Name will live forever
It shines in glory and in tremendous light it is the song in my Fathers house

Soon the gates will open to the Heavens
I am home and I see Him face to face
To Him this Name was given, and He gave the Name it’s beauty
When He walked among us in humility, and on the cross we saw His victory