Faith to Faith & Glory to Glory: Thriving Thursdays

Hello Instagram, welcome to Thriving Thursdays and welcome back to the replay for those of you who may go back and watch this later. So first of all, I need to apologize because I put the wrong date and the wrong, um, yeah, the wrong date for Thriving Thursday. I put yesterday's date for some reason. Um, I think I was doing it so quickly that I didn't double-check to make sure that it was, um, a live posted in my, uh, profile that was saying that I was going to go live today. So I know Instagram is sharing with everybody that I'll be going live momentarily. I'm actually going to go live only on Facebook today and Instagram today, um, because StreamYard, um, it's up and down. So I'm just going to go with where the people want to hear. And it seems like on Facebook, uh, my personal page actually, which is also public to see, um, the live videos, I got so much response from, um, last week's word. Some people that I know personally was texting me saying Thank you so much for sharing. And so, um, I'm excited about today's word, you guys. So thank you so much for joining in. So I'm gonna go ahead and go live on Facebook. All righty, hopefully. Okay, so I am live officially on Facebook now, and I'm live also on Instagram. Hello, welcome you guys, welcome, um, back to Thriving Thursdays. Um, so everyone on Instagram and Facebook, if you are on Facebook, I apologize, I cannot see your comments, but I will see them after we get done, and I will be sure to comment like I did on last week. Okay, I went live through my Zoom platform because Zoom actually records it, and I actually turned this live into a podcast as well for me to, um, you know, reach more people. And so, um, again, welcome back to Thriving Thursdays. I was going to go live on my business Facebook page. But as I was saying up here on Instagram, people seem to be more responsive on my personal page. And you guys text me, some of you guys called me, some of you guys like commented a lot. And so I was like, okay God, well they want to hear, they want to hear what the Lord has to say, um, through me on today. So thank you guys so much for joining. I'm going to start and just like 30 seconds and go straight into the message today. Um, I do have a word from the Lord, okay? So I'm gonna go ahead and pray before I get started. So Father, I just thank you right now, Lord, for, um, this time, God, to be able to just pour into your people, God, to be able to teach the word of God, to be able, Lord God, just to be your vessel, to be your mouthpiece, Lord God. I ask you, Holy Spirit, to settle here, settle in this live, settle in my notes, settle in the word, settle in my voice, settle in every single area, God, um, during this live. Father, I just pray that your people are blessed by it. Father, I just ask you, God, just to speak through me, God, whatever's on your heart. God, in Christ's name I pray, amen and amen. Huh, so you guys, this morning, let me tell you something. I don't know, the Lord just been— whoo, ah, this man. But first of all, I want to say this. So, um, I live in North Carolina, um, and so I know the storm Hurricane Ian hit Florida hard, um, this morning. So just be sure when you're praying, please pray for Florida. Please pray for restoration, for a quick restoration for them, because it's flooded and the people are, you know, out of their homes. Oh God, watching the news this morning, it was just— ah, broke my heart to see that. So please pray for Florida. And so I know in my area where I live, we're supposed to get like some of the remnants of that, not the full storm, but we're supposed to be getting, um, tropical storms um, I think tomorrow night. So my kids will be out of school tomorrow, and because of the storm that's coming. And so you guys continue to pray, just keep praying. Prayer does work. Um, and I pray that no one's life was lost. So far when I checked before, nobody's life was lost. And so I'm gonna go ahead and go into the message. And so the title of today's message is Faith to faith and glory to glory. And you guys already, already know who follow me, I always have a story as to how God like starts a word in me to prepare to share with other people, okay? And so this was Tuesday morning, I woke up, I was tired, your girl was— I was tired, y'all. I had— I've been working out, I've been trying my best to like, you know, be fit for the kingdom and all that good stuff, but I woke up feeling so groggy, but I said, God, I need to pray. I just felt the urge to pray, but my spirit wasn't catching up with, you know, me needing to pray. And so when I get like that, I have to really push myself. I have to really begin to just speak God's word. And as I do that, my spirit kind of wake up, and I did. And then I'm able to flow and go straight into prayer and pray whatever is on, on God's heart. And so I have this prayer book that I've had since 2013, and this book is by Kimberly Daniels, and it's called Prayers That Brain Change. You might probably see it on Instagram better, and this is the book for Facebook. And Kimberly Daniels has some amazing books and some amazing prayers. And so I came upstairs to my little library. I said, okay, let me go up here and see what I can get to kind of get me, you know, get me going this morning. And so I went and I got this book, and I began to pray one of her prayers. The prayers are powerful. Like, if you need to like increase your prayer life and have more language for your prayers, I encourage you to get this book. It's a great book, okay? And so I was reading one of the prayers. One was, um, Commanding the Morning Prayer, and then I was reading another prayer that was called Prayer for Divine Alignment. And as I was reading that particular prayer, um, it was talking about, you know, asking God for discernment, asking God for spiritual— for wisdom, asking God, um, to mature you. And, um, I was like, oh, and then like, as I was reading the prayer out loud, the words, um, faith to faith and glory to glory just kept coming to me. And I could hear the Spirit of the Lord saying, my people become spiritually mature as they grow from faith to faith, from, um, to glory to glory. And I said, okay God, I hear what you're saying, right? And prior to that, I had already been asking God, okay God, you know, let me know for Thursday what you want me to teach, what you want me to talk about. Um, I'm open because, as I said before, the Lord told me to give him Thriving Thursday. So whatever he put on my heart to share on Thursday, that's what I'll be doing, sharing what God puts on my heart to share with you all. And so, um, I got up, you know, took my kids to school. I was driving. I'm like, okay God, I hear what you're saying. I said, so I need— just let me know for sure if you want me to share this word. So Tuesday I didn't really go into detail to study it, but yesterday morning I woke up, I did, I did it. As I begin to study, I'm like, my God, this is so, so, so powerful. And I really had to dig a little bit deeper, to be honest, because I had never read some of these, uh, some of these chapters before in the New Testament. So anywho, I wanted to share with you all how that word, um, came about. And so what I want to do first is go over each, you know, each word, faith and glory, and then go into the word that God gave me concerning this. First of all, we always hear the statement faith to faith and glory to glory, right? And, you know, it goes hand in hand. It does for sure. But do you know in Scripture there's not a verse that says that we go from glory to glory and we go from faith to faith? There is actually two different separate scriptures. And I was like, wow, God, I didn't even never realize that that was not in, you know, the same exact verse. It's two separate teachings, two separate verses. And so I began to study it out. I'm like, wow, so when people say that, that's— it's good, but it's not actually a scripture. That makes sense. And so the word, um, faith— the spiritual definition of faith means the assurance that the things revealed and promised in the word are true even though unseen, and gives the believer a conviction that what he expects in faith will come to pass. Okay, so here are some other words, um, that go along with faith: trust, belief, confidence, conviction, reliance, dependence, optimism, hopefulness, hope, and expectation. And so Romans, um, chapter 1, um, verse 17 is actually what the verse is that talks about going from faith to faith. But whenever I'm like studying a particular scripture, it's really important to make sure you read the scriptures before that and even a little bit after that so you can fully get the context of the scripture and then continue to pray and ask God to give you revelation. So that's what I was doing, reading and studying it, like, okay God, give me like understanding of what you're saying, uh, in Romans chapter 1. And so in Romans chapter 1, um, Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, okay? And the letter, he was telling them how he was so proud of them because they were full of faith, and their faith has spread like all over the world. Like, people— like, they were known for being a church of faith, okay? And he talked about how Jesus, um, was sent down from heaven as a descendant of David, and he came to offer people the salvation. But Paul also talked about Christ's death and resurrection but only briefly. Okay, so verse 17 says this, it says, for in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith, disclosed in a way that awakens more faith. As it is written and forever remains written, the just and upright shall live by faith. Okay, this is the Amplified Version, and the reason why I chose, um, this particular version— I read like the NIV, I read KJV, I read the different versions of verse 17, but I'm in an Amplified Version. It actually goes in more detail as to what it's saying. And so I begin to look at that. I'm like, God, okay, give me revelation, Lord, revelation. Okay, and so it said the gospel is that Jesus died for our sins, right? For in the gospel, right? And that by faith we can receive salvation. So righteousness is a complete and total work of God. We humans tend to view righteousness as something we can achieve by our own merit or by our own actions, but the righteousness of God is different. It is right standing before God that has nothing to do with our human accomplishment or our worth. It is received by faith. There is nothing we can do to deserve or earn it. It is a gift, and we can receive it by faith. And once again, faith, faith in that God's word is true, faith in that we have salvation through Christ, faith is that we can, you know, be righteous before God through faith, right? Oftentimes we think that if we do A, B, C, D, E, F, G and check off the boxes, that we are righteous. And that we have to earn our salvation. I'm familiar with other religions too, and I'm telling you, most other religions operate this way. They truly think that the things they do is what earned their salvation. They truly believe that what they do for God is what earned their salvation, and it's not. It's not. Only faith can allow you to truly receive the salvation that Christ died for our sins. He died for us, right? And then I put here, um, to live righteously is to conduct one's life in an upright manner and with moral standards that reflect our relationship with the Lord. Okay, and so when the word of God says from faith to faith, right? I said, God, okay, take me back. Take me back to when I first got saved. Take me back to Whenever I first, you know, really truly understood who the Lord was. So in '08, um, is when I really truly like gave my whole life to God. Okay, God, here's my life, you can have it. Of course we have ups, we have down, we have bumps, we have all these things, right? But at that point in time in my life, God, you look like had yanked me up. That's a whole story all by itself in the church, okay? And so, you know, for me, I have faith. I knew that God existed. But for me, what helped increase my faith was seeing miracles, signs, and wonders go forth. Yes, the very first ministry that I was a part of operated heavily in the gifts of the Spirit. They operated heavily in, um, the fivefold ministry, and it was beautiful. Like Sunday after Sunday, week after week, we were always in God's presence. We were always like praying and fasting, and oh my God, like deliverance was breaking forth. Like, you guys have so many stories my God, of deliverance for myself, um, in ministry and going and going to this church. And that alone, wherever you see God perform miracles, whenever you see Holy Spirit perform, um, signs and you see things that happen that's not normal, right, that increases your faith in God. And so I was very fortunate, very, very fortunate to be able to be a part of a ministry that, um, that, you know, that God called me to be a part of during this season to expose me to this. Right? It was a clear indication of what God was calling me to. At that time, I didn't know that, but now looking back, I know that now. And so wherever we see that, that increases our faith too, okay? So what are some things that you can do right now to ask God to increase your faith? Because the word of God says that it's impossible to please God if we do not have faith. Okay, and the word of God also says that faith, all we need is a mustard seed. A mustard seed is very, very, very, very, very, very small. Okay, number 1, ask God for more faith. Ask God to build your faith in him and expect him to give you opportunities and instructions in your life that will help to build your faith. It can be something very, very small. Like, there's time when I've been in the store or the grocery store or whatever, and the Lord may tell me, okay, this woman at the register, tell her that she's beautiful, or this person right here, tell them this, right? And of course I'm like, Lord, like, I'm nervous. I'm like, okay God, like, are they going to receive it, right? And so I tell them and they begin to cry. I'm like, thank you so much, because I had just been feeling so down about myself, down about how you know, I look, and all these different things, right? So things like that God may ask you to do in order to build your faith. And the more you do that, it builds your faith. The more that you obey God— my God, faith and obedience is like best friends. As I was studying in scripture, I could clearly see that faith and obedience, they sharpen each other. So the more we obey God and see the fruits of the obedience, our faith increases. Okay, so according to, um, James chapter 2:14-26, in a nutshell, is saying that faith is accompanied by action. Not just a verbal expression of your belief, but action. Action is what increases your faith. Your action is your obedience to God and your obedience to God's word. So obedience is the visible expression of invisible faith. Oh my God. So verse 26 says, for just as the human body without spirit is dead, so is faith without works of obedience is also dead. Okay, so you can talk all you want about the word of God, you can say all these different things, you can say this, you can say that, you can say I believe, but if you're not operating in obedience it's hard for you to produce the fruits of the Spirit. It's hard for you to truly, you know, really yield the, um, yield, you know, fruit of the gifts of the Spirit too. The third thing is to put God's word into your mind. Um, a key verse, um, that I found was Romans chapter 10:17. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God. If we're not constantly putting the Bible into our minds we're not going to have much faith or grow in faith. It's just that simple. And for me, my favorite chapter to read is Hebrews chapter 11. If you feel like your faith is not where it should be, or you want to grow in your faith, go and read Hebrews chapter 11. That chapter is amazing, okay? It is amazing. It talks about Abraham, how he obeyed God. It talks about Noah, I call it the, you know, the Hall of Faith, where you have all the believers before us in the— in that time and how they operated in faith and how God really showed up for them. But of course, we have people today in real life here on earth who also operates in heavy faith. It takes faith to preach the word of God. It takes faith to operate in miracles, signs, and wonders. It takes faith to prophesy. It takes faith That's why the word of God says that it's impossible to please God without faith. Faith, y'all, faith. In this hour, we need faith. Okay, all right, so the next, uh, I'm gonna go right into the next part, which is the biblical definition of glory. My God, this, this right here, whoo, it's blessed me right here. I've studied before, you know, about faith, but glory a little bit, so This glory one had me like, whoo, had me on a high. Okay, so the Hebrew word, um, for glory is heaviness or weight. Okay, so here are some words to truly, um, explain, you know, um, glory: renown, fame, prestige, honor, distinction, acclaim, acclamation, celebrity, praise, accolades, recognition, notability, credit, repute, reputation, splendor, majesty, majesty, greatness, impressiveness, gloriousness, and nobility. My God. And as I was studying that, you know, I just heard the Holy Spirit say that he changes us from glory to glory because of our faith. As we grow in faith, faith to faith, we simultaneously grow in his glory. In turn, this is how your anointing and your— on your life grows as well. Oh, that blessed me. That blessed me. I don't know about you, but it blessed me. Okay. And so one of the things that, you know, I met over the years so many people who feel like they truly can't give their life to Christ because they need to be a certain way, they need to act a certain way, they need to stop smoking, they need to stop drinking. They have this mindset that if I could stop doing these things before I get saved, then I can get saved. But it's the total opposite. Faith is what saves you, okay? And so what God was showing me is that, tell my people who are struggling with this, who's struggling with their salvation, that the more they get in my presence, the more they get into me, the more they, you know, come and, you know, into my word and come and praise me and honor me. My glory is what transforms you. God alone can transform you. His glory transforms you. Okay, let me get into scripture a little bit more about this. So the next part is coming from, uh, 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18. Okay, so once again, I like to read, you know, before I get to the verse that I'm going to be teaching about, right? So in 2 Corinthians chapter 13— chapter 3, Paul is correcting the false teachers who were in and among the church of Corinth because they were bragging about their own accomplishments and how they were self-sufficient. They were bragging about their education, about their, uh, about their status. About things they have done. And how many of you guys know people who do this? Okay, they're like, I went to seminary, or I went here, or I go to this church and I go to that church. And they use that as a way to validate who they are in Christ, when we should be bragging about God, bragging in God, bragging about how God has saved us and how God has brought us a mighty long way. Okay. Yes, you can do all— I mean, going to school is great. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is we cannot forget that if it had not been for the Lord, okay, we would not be able to accomplish these things. So they tried their best to discredit Paul's ministry, but Paul clapped back, okay? He told them that if they are not operating and moving in God, in God's glory, that means absolutely nothing, especially when it comes to ministry. And so leading up to verse 18, um, Paul also used the analogy about Moses. So if you're familiar with the Old Testament and Moses, you know, Moses was the one who went to God on behalf of Israel before their sin. Um, he, you know, he had to go and pretty much like repent for them, um, bring a sacrificial offering, which back then was an animal. And when he came back, he would have a veil over his face because the people could not withstand, um, God's glory, or it could kill them, literally could kill them. And so in scripture, Paul is saying, okay, yeah, then, you know, Moses did that, right? Because they had a hard mind, they had hard heart, they didn't want to listen, they were disobedient. So Moses had to be the person to go to God on behalf of the people. He's saying, but now in Christ, the veil has been removed so that we can all have access to God's glory, to God's glory, okay? So you don't need me, you don't need somebody else, you don't need another minister or a leader to go to God on your behalf, right? Of course we're praying for you, of course. But what I'm saying is, if you want to get in God's presence and his glory, you can produce the atmosphere for yourself, okay? And so it says that, and we all with unveiled face continually seeing as in a, as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into his image from one degree of glory to another, from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Okay, it's also the Amplified Version as well. So the glory is revealed only when the veil of unbelief is removed through Christ by the Holy Spirit's power. Those who see God's glory in Christ begin to change to become like him over time progressively. So that's why you cannot transform, you cannot change on your own. You go from glory to glory and faith to faith whenever you are immersed with the Lord, whenever you are in his word, wherever you are in his presence, whenever you're seeking him out. That's how you transform. We cannot transform on our own. People say they can, but that's— yeah, that's not true. So how do we grow in glory? Number 1, we need faith because faith, you know, activates the presence of God. Okay, so number 1, prayer. Spend time with God. Begin prayer with repentance. Begin to thank God for his many blessings. If you have a heavenly language, pray, pray in the spirit. If you have that, the Spirit of the Lord will fill the temple. So we look at scripture, this is back in Exodus chapter 40. It talks about, uh, whenever they went to the Tabernacle of the Meeting, and when they came near the altar, they washed as the Lord had commanded Moses. Our washing is repentance. Repent, repent. And he raised up the court all around the Tabernacle and the altar and hung up the screen of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. My God. The next one is praise and worship. Whenever you are engaging in praise and worship, you are inviting the Holy Spirit in. And when the Holy Spirit comes in, that's when you— he can reset your mind, he can reset your thoughts, he can reset your emotions, he can reset all those things that we cannot do on our own, that we cannot do on our own. So it says here, indeed it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music and praised the Lord, saying, for he is good, but his mercy endures forever, that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the other cloud. For the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. And so whenever you're surrounded with his glory, all you can do is bask in it. Just bask in it. And so I know I have met people before like this. So there's time when I meet people who, they have so much word in them, they have so much knowledge, they have so much wisdom when it comes to the word, but I can tell that like they're like spiritually like dry. So it's like, wow, oh my God, like they know your word, they're, you know, speaking from their, their mindset and their understanding. I said, but they're missing the Spirit of God, they're missing God's glory, God's glory. And so this is why we need both. We need faith and we need glory to go hand in hand with each other to transform us to give us revelation, to equip us, to increase our anointing. We need both the spirit and the water to be able to sharpen us and to help us to truly do the work of the Lord, okay? And so I will go back and I will put some of the scriptures down here for you guys to, to look up as well, to go back and study. But this is what the word that God gave me to release today is how to teach you all how to go from faith to faith and to go from glory to glory. Amen. Let me see if I see anybody, any comments up here. Yeah, I said, um, this is good, but she says my faith is low right now. Yes, amen, amen, amen. And so I want to pray, um, real quickly before I get off. So Father, I just thank you right now for your word. Father, help us, God, as a people, Lord God, to understand and tap in how to go from faith to faith, to glory to glory. Father, Father, help us to understand that we need your word, we need your spirit, God, we need your presence, God, to be able to transform us, God, to be able to transform our minds, transform our hearts, transform transform how we even see you, Father. Father, help us, oh Lord God, to just surrender and lay down everything to you, our flaws and all. Because Father, without you, Lord God, we are nothing. Without your presence, God, we are nothing. God, God, help us, oh Lord God, to read your word. Guys, read your word. God, help us to understand it. God, God, give us revelation of your word. God, speak to our hearts, speak to our minds. Father, I pray for every single listener who's been on who will come on later, who will, um, come back, Lord God, and feast on this word. In Christ's name I pray, amen and amen. And so I also want to say that next week I will not be going live. I will actually be— I'm going out of town on Thursday. I'll be traveling to Florida. So I know Florida has a lot going on right now, but I truly believe that next week is just going to be amazing and powerful. I'll be going to Apostle Jennifer LeClaire's Elijah Prophetic conference. It's Thursday to Sunday. I went back in April. It was powerful. It was anointed. It was just amazing. And so I'm excited about going, going to, going there. Um, I'm not getting paid for announcing this. I just believe in the ministry, okay? And so, and so, um, if you're interested in watching it live, you can. I believe only like 2 seats left. But you guys, I, I can't even put into words like how April was. April was— it was amazing. When I came back home, it took me almost 2 weeks to like get myself together. It took me almost 2 weeks to kind of like recalibrate and just get my spirit to come back to earth. Literally, I was extremely sensitive and it was like, ah, but it was, it was amazing. Okay, so if you were able to— if you want to watch it live, you can go to her website, um, jenniferleclercq.org, or go to, um, www.awakeninghouseofprayer as well. And also, if you're interested in becoming, um, a Prayer Hub leader or joining one, you can also, um, visit Awakening House of Prayer as well, or her website. So yes, I wanted to, um, share that with you all. So I'll be going live again, not this Thursday, but the Thursday after next. Thank you guys so much for watching, and I will see you guys soon. Bye, you guys. Thank y'all so much for watching. Let me get off of here first. Yes, amen, praise God. Alrighty, well, you guys have a nice day. I will leave the replay up from the beginning so you guys can see it in case you missed it. And I'll see you soon. Alright, bye.