Focus: Divine Crescendo

Text: Prov.4:18

"But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

Everything about God moves from the infinitesimal to the infinite, from seed to harvest, from conception to consummation, and from time to eternity. It keeps growing and expanding. The resources of heaven are immeasurable. God is known as the God of ALL comfort, the God of ALL grace, the Father of lights, the Father of spirits, the God of mercies, the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the King of kings. He is the God who has blessed us with ALL spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and we can go on and on. Everything keeps extending and overflowing. Where God is concerned, the law of diminishing returns does not apply. God is the Ancient of days, but He doesn't age. He is absolutely ageless. He is always the same yesterday, today and forever.

The path of the righteous shines brighter by the day. It never dims. It never darkens. Life gets better for the righteous as he moves from time to eternity. The hope of the believer in Christ never fades. The saint's light never goes out.

*God's grace

The believer's life overflows with grace. John writes, "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace" (Jh.1:16). The believer in Christ is a recipient of grace. His life begins with grace and culminates with glory. We receive grace for grace. The word 'for' literally means 'against,' 'instead,' or 'in the room of' in the Greek. Being a preposition, it can have the force of 'upon.' We receive grace for grace, or grace against grace, or grace in the place of another grace, or grace upon grace - grace heaped upon each other. As one grace is about to expire or finish, another one is coming on. We are constantly being reinforced with grace. As one grace is going, another grace is stepping in. We never run out of grace. 

The resources of grace are endless. We receive grace after grace. God has surplus grace in store for us.

*God's gift of faith

The believer's faith moves from one level to another. Paul writes, "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (Rom.1:17). The believer's righteousness is appropriated solely by faith. We get it by faith and live it out by faith. Our relationship with God is a faith journey. Our fellowship with God is faith-based. Our journey with God begins with and ends in faith. 

We pray by faith. We live by faith. We preach by faith. We fast and feast in faith. We run our race by faith. We serve by faith. We give by faith. We love by faith. We obey by faith.

*God's strength

The believer goes from strength to strength. The psalmist says, "They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God" (Ps.84:7). On the human level, we go from strength to weakness. As we journey from place to place we grow tired. As we labor we lose strength. In Christ, we neither tire nor retire. God renews our strength. We move from the place or position of strength to the other. The arm of flesh fails, not the arm of the Lord. The believer's power replenishes. We wax stronger and stronger in the work of the Lord. We walk without fainting. We run without losing our steam. Elijah ran faster than king Ahab who was riding on a chariot. The Scripture says of Elijah, "And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel" (1Kgs.18:44,45,46). 

In us, the divine energy is ever increasing. In the energy of the Spirit we can accomplish the incredible.

*God's glory

As the believer looks into the mirror of God's word he will keep seeing the glory of God, and as he gets transformed as a result. Paul tells us, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2Cor.3:18). 

We behold the Christ-image, and by the Spirit of God we are being changed from glory to glory.

There are levels or realms of glory in God. Moses carried the glory and the whole of Israel couldn't stand it. Isaiah beheld the glory. You too can behold it. Something changes in us and around us.

*God Himself

Jeremiah declares, "Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation" (Lam.5:19). God lasts forever and His throne never expires from one generation to another. No one is in a position to vote Him out or overthrow him. He reigns throughout the ends of the earth and beyond the bounds of time.

The psalmist says, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD" (Ps.106:48). He is eternally blessed - from one point of eternity to another. Eternities exist in God. In fact, He is the Father of eternity. The psalmist repeats, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen" (Ps.41:13).

God existed before all things and He is the intelligence behind all that exists.

The psalmist says again, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God" (Ps.90:2).

*God's mercy

The psalmist says, "But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children" (Ps.103:17). O yes, from little light to brighter light, from grace to grace, from faith to faith, from strength to strength, from glory to glory, from generation to generation, and from everlasting to everlasting. 

The eternal Spirit of God lives in us and we are destined for God's eternity. This is the divine crescendo! Hallelujah!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter