Growing Together in the Glory of God
by Gloria Copeland
Something astounding is about to happen to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. She’s about to grow up into what God ordained for her to be from the very beginning. She’s about to come into “the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
That’s what the Word of God says, and you can count on it. It’s coming to pass—soon! We’re in the last of the last days. The signs are all around us. Jesus is coming! He’s about to catch away the Church, and when He does we’re going to be unified, glorified and ready to go.
Now, you might wonder, How are we going to get that way? With so many different denominations disagreeing and arguing with one another, how is the Church ever going to come together?
By the Spirit of God. He’s the One who’s been sent to unite us, and even if it looks impossible from a natural perspective, He is up to the job.
The Holy Spirit has the ability to reveal to believers all over this planet the truth of God’s Word and bring us all into agreement with it. He can cause every one of us to see the same thing in the Scriptures. He lives on the inside of us as our own private Tutor, and He can make the Word of God so plain to us that, as we give our attention to it, we think more and more like God thinks!
That’s really the bottom line, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter what we think. It doesn’t matter what our denomination thinks. It matters what God thinks. He’s not going to change His thoughts to accommodate us and our denomination. He’s going to change our thoughts to align with His, so that when Jesus comes, He can present us to Himself the way Ephesians 5:27 describes us—as “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing”!
A glorious church isn’t just a wonderful church. It’s a church where the glory of God is manifested. It’s a church where God’s power flows so freely that lives are transformed, crippled legs are made strong, cancer disappears, and demonic spirits leave people’s minds and bodies.
* * * * article continues on p. 28 * * * *
26 : BVOV
