The National Head of The Church of Pentecost in India, Apostle James Raj, has stated that the glory of God has been manifested to the world through Jesus Christ, and that anyone who accepts the gospel message of Christ receives the glory of God.
Delivering the sermon on Monday, May 6, 2019, at the Heads’ Session of the 16th Extraordinary Council Meetings of The Church of Pentecost at the Pentecost Convention Centre at Gomoa Fetteh, Apostle Raj said the glory of God which man was deprived of following the disobedience of the Adam, has now been revealed in Jesus, God’s only Son who died for the salvation of humanity.
Speaking on the Glory of the Lord, Apostle Raj revealed that God created man with the purpose to rule and to take dominion (Genesis 1:26). He added that God created man in His own image and crowned him with glory (Psalm 8:5). However, he said, man lost his rulership and glory after he had sinned against God (Genesis 3:23-24).
He explained that Eve took the forbidden fruit and gave some to the man to eat and thereafter saw themselves to be naked, thereby losing their glory and rulership and were subsequently thrown out of the garden.
Apostle Raj indicated that after man was deprived of the glory of God, it took a very long time before it reappeared again, but this time round to the Israelites on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:16).
He explained that the glory of God which later dwelled in the Ark of Covenant moved with the Israelites. He said the Ark which represented the presence and the glory of God, had to be carried by Priests and not ordinary persons (1 Chronicles 13:9-10, 2 Samuel 6:7), saying, “Carrying the Ark of Covenant was a ministry supposed to be discharged by God’s people.”
He noted that the glory of God carries power. This, he said, was better experienced by the Philistines who, when they took possession of the Ark after defeating the Israelites, were cursed by God as He brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumours (1 Samuel 5:1-12).
According to Apostle James Raj, the glory of the Lord, which reappeared to humanity through the coming of Jesus Christ, has been made available to all who believe in the Lord Jesus. “The same glory of Jesus is in us today. We are the priests and kings and we are here to possess the land and the nations and rule,” he mentioned.
Reading from Luke 24: 13-35 about the conversation Jesus had with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he disclosed that unlike Adam and his wife who after eating of the fruit and had their eyes opened to see their nakedness, Jesus took the bread and ate it with the two disciples and their eyes were opened to see Jesus, the glory of God.
Quoting from Ephesians 1:20-23, he said those who have received the gospel of Christ equally have power and authority over the devil.
“Under our feet is all the dominion and principalities,” he said, adding, “As a church, we should get out of our comfort zone and possess the nations. We have been given the power to take dominion. Let us arise to possess the nations.”
PENTECOST NEWS