When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane in John 17, he said, “Lord, do you remember the glory that I had with you before I came to this earth? Restore that glory to me.” Remember that? Then, he gets up from praying and he sees a bunch of soldiers with weapons and torches coming at him in the garden. And he said, “Who do you seek?” They said, “Jesus, who is the Christ.” He said, “I am.” The Bible says, “I am he.” But, what he technically said was, “I am.” He is the I Am.
When he revealed who he was, his glory was manifested. And, what happened to the soldiers? They fell backwards. Not towards him. Backwards. Why? Because the glory of God defeats every enemy of God. The Bible says in Revelation that when Jesus returns he will destroy all of his enemies. Not with a bazooka or an RPG, or a missile or a drone. With a MOAB. Do you know what a MOAB is? We’ve only used it one time. That’s the “mother of all bombs”. Jesus isn’t using any of those things. The Bible says He will destroy his enemies with the brightness of his coming! His glory. I want you to get this. God’s glory just tears up any of his enemies. Just completely defeats them. All he has to do is just be there. Boom! They’re out! He will destroy them with the brightness of his coming.
When Stephen was being stoned for preaching the Gospel, and they were throwing big stones that would crush his scull and his chest cavity, until he couldn’t breathe. As he’s being stoned he began worshipping and praising God and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened.” See, we think God’s heaven is way far away. No! God said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” The thing we don’t understand is that the spiritual realm does not take up physical space. When you got saved, did you have to go to the tailor and say, “Can you let out my clothes? I asked Jesus into my heart and my chest swelled right up. Go ahead and let them out as much as you can because next week I’m planning on getting filled with the Holy Spirit.” The spiritual realm does not take up physical space.
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