I like to read books about people’s visions of heaven. Of course, I take them all with a grain of salt, and I compare them to Scripture, but I do find them inspiring. The descriptions thrill me and help me keep my eyes on the prize. 

One book was particularly sobering. This young man was a military recruit in World War II, and he died of pneumonia in the barracks hospital during training. He saw his own body with the sheet pulled over his head. Then Jesus, the Man made of Light, came into the room, and the young man’s life started playing like a 3D movie around him. A question came from the living Light: What did you do with your life? Every response the young man made was met with the answer, That glorified you. Then came the next question: What have you done with your life to show Me? He grasped instantly that Jesus was asking what he had done with His life to show the world the unconditional love of Jesus. 

That scene has replayed in my mind many times. It has caused a knot in my stomach as I’ve struggled with how to live my life for God’s glory and not my own. That is the question, isn’t it? Our actions, our deeds, our words — they may be the same either way; but one way brings glory to God, the other is for personal glory. What is the difference? How do I live for God’s glory?

This week I read a scripture that shed some light on this for me. Let me put it in context. In the encounters Jesus has with the people and the Pharisees in John 6-8, He continually tells them that He isn’t acting on His own, that He is not doing His own will or saying His own words, but He is doing and saying only that which He receives from His Father. He tells them this over and over, hoping against hope that they will put their faith in Him.

Then, in John 7:17-18, Jesus says, 

Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 

It hit me. Doing and saying things that originate from me bring personal glory; doing and saying things that originate from God bring Him the glory. It’s so obvious that you are probably wondering what I’m so stunned about. Let me try to explain. 

Jesus always sought the Father, in order to receive from Him, and then He did and spoke what He heard the Father say or saw the Father do (John 5:19; 12:49-50). He spent time with God, received from Him, and broke that bread before the people. That brought glory to the Father, not to Himself. That is how we live our lives for God’s glory. 

Of course, that’s why the Father has given us the Holy Spirit. When we live out of the infinite resource of the Holy Spirit in us, we will bring glory to God by showing Him to the world. When we live out of our desires, our flesh, our thinking or our feelings —  then it’s all for personal glory or personal satisfaction.  

Have you noticed those times when you are living out of the Holy Spirit only? Your words, your actions, the great love you have for people — how it is from Him and not you? For me, this only happens when I spend more time with Him, when I’ve been filled with Him — saturated with the Spirit and not the world. Otherwise, I live out of my own desires, out of my own impulses — for my own glory. Lord, help me.

I can only end with a prayer.

Father, draw me to you as I’ve never been drawn before. Forgive me for all the times I’ve neglected being with You. Retrain me. Let the world fall away. Make my priorities right. Help me let go of my own agenda. I want to please you. I want to bring glory to You, to reveal You to the world, as You’ve asked. Just….. help.