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THE
GLORY OF GOD:
The Grounds
and Reason of Worship
DEDICATION
I
desire to acknowledge the goodness of the Lord, and dedicate what is His
to Him. In His loving
kindness, He has brought me to a greater understanding of glory, and into
the deeper realm of worship in which I seek to always abide.
This schooling began in much adversity; therefore much of this book
was born in the fire in the very presence of trial and very painful
transition in my life. I
learned that praise was the sphere in which I was made triumphant over all
my circumstances, and my Father glorified.
When I keep my eyes on the glory, my heart knows its rightful place
is to bow before His majesty.
Therefore,
“I will love Thee, O LORD, my
strength. The LORD is my
rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in Whom I
will trust, my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies”
(Psa. 18:1-3). “Then the
spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing,
saying, ‘Blessed be the glory of
the LORD from His place’” (Ezek. 3:12).
¨All scriptures given in this book are from the
King James Version unless otherwise stated.
PREFACE
The
intent of these three series of books, “The Glory of God” and the two
volumes “Worship the Response to Glory” is to bring the house of God,
that is, each member of the true church, into a deeper understanding and
awareness of glory, and therefore, into a deeper wisdom of worship. It is the
Lord’s desire to bring the word glory out of an obscure place,
that by the Spirit we may perceive the essence of it.
Religion has made it a mystical thing; God desires it to be a
revelation. Spiritual
understanding of glory is vital, for it gives us insight into the
character of God and generates a greater and purer worship of Him.
Furthermore, it is the purpose of this writing to exhort and
encourage each member of the Body of Christ to develop a personal ministry
of worship unto the Lord in the light of the knowledge of His glory.
It is also written for the purpose that we all may come into the
spirit of corporate worship, responding to divine glory in Spirit and
truth. I desire that you
realize that God never intended that there should be an elite group of
worshippers, and others would be spectators.
It is the expressway of life for the whole church.
It is not the privilege of a few, but for all that would behold the
glory and obey. To behold the
glory and enter into the dynamic of worship will transform the church.
To
begin this study will require the same thing of you that it did of
me-discipline and hunger for the substance of glory and worship.
Within this study you will certainly encounter some repetition, but
it is there for emphasis and learning:
so do not consider it mere redundancy.
May God bless your diligence and pursuit of wisdom and
understanding in the knowledge of His glory and His worship.
John L. Parault
THE
GLORY OF GOD
The
Grounds and Reason
of Worship
INTRODUCTION
This
is a study in three series. In
this first book, “The Glory of
God” we shall open the Word of God to explore the word glory,
which belongs to the realm of majesty and greatness.
In the next two books "Worship
the Response to Glory" and "The
Glory which is Praise" we shall look at the awesomeness of
worship.
From
the very beginning of this subject it is necessary to state what is on
God’s mind if we are going to have it on our minds in understanding.
There is knowledge everywhere of all kinds, and it is increasing
but not always good. The
knowledge of God’s glory is the choice and highest knowledge in the
universe. It is the knowledge
that is pure and never changes, nor can it be added to because it is
perfect. Glory
is what God is in all the splendor of His perfection of character, or
nature of His life. Therefore,
it is His total essence. It
is on His mind to fill the earth with this knowledge. This knowledge
to a degree was known from the very beginning of the world.
But it was deliberately and willfully rejected.
It is not only on His mind to cover the earth with this
knowledge, but to bring many sons to glory, that is, to impart the
substance of it to them. We
must realize that what is on God’s mind is no after - thought.
He has longed for sons in His image; this is why glory is on His
mind. It was on His mind
before the foundation of the world when He then ordained that Christ would
be the lamb slain. It was on
His mind at the creation of Adam, and when he fell.
It was in his thought in the consequent degeneration of his seed.
It was on His mind when Jesus was born, died and rose again to
restore glory to believing men. And
it still is on His mind. Is
it on your mind?
To
be perfectly transparent with you, what can anyone or I know about the
glory of God from human understanding?
This knowledge is of His essence and of another dimension. As we
have said, God wants it known in the earth but it can only come by the
workings of His Spirit. The fullness of this knowledge can only rest in the heart of
one born of Him. For Him to reveal His glory is to reveal Himself, and it
is His choice, not ours. Ours
is to believe and to seek it.
Paul
considered all things loss and as dung to gain the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ, all of which had to do with glory, Phil. 3:7-8.
To submit to Christ (which is God’s answer to realize glory
within ourselves) your heart changes as well as your sense of value. It is here in change, encounter, and revelation that we begin
to see the greatness of God in the unfolding of His majesty and glory.
Glory is only seen and recognized in faith, and living faith is an
attitude and a response to His glory.
John 11:40: “Jesus said unto her, did I not tell you and promise you that if you
would believe and rely on Me, you would see the glory of God?” (ANT)
In the exercise of faith we come to the vast and inexhaustible
beauty and riches of our God. Here
we declare immediately this is too wonderful (full of wonder), yes, too
awesome for us. There is so
much to know of His glory, that we all
ought to be students of it and of His presence.
The school is His, and He is the teacher.
His call is, “Come and
learn of me.” To
learn of His glory is to learn who the Father is, what we are to become,
and where we are to dwell forever.
If you do not understand this at this moment, you shall by the
illumination of the Spirit of Truth.
Here
is the truth; one can only understand the essence of worship like it should be understood when there is an inward
unveiling by the Holy Spirit of the glory of God.
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