THE GLOW UP IS REAL

There is no way that anyone could convince me that the word of God is boring. It is alive and relevant and cuts deeper than a two-edged sword. The Holy Spirit just gives me life whenever I open up the Bible. And that's exactly what happened when I read Exodus 34. I got excited. Let me tell you what it says though because I'm getting ahead of myself.

Moses remained there on the mountain with the Lord forty days and forty nights.... when Moses came down Mount Sinai..., he wasn't aware that his face had become radiant because he had spoken to the Lord.

- Exodus 34: 28-29

So here we read that because Moses had an encounter with the Lord his face became radiant. But let's go back in the story to get the context of the verse and see how this glorious encounter occurred. 

The people of Israel had been in a crucial situation. God had just delivered them out of oppression from the hand of Pharaoh and they were now in the wilderness. So they were saved from slavery but not yet free. Don't we all feel like that at times? Saved but not free? We know all the scriptures and all the words to the songs in Church, we pray, we worship we serve but there is that one thing that's still missing inside of you. And that's how the Israelites must have felt. They were out of Egypt but not at the place God promised them to be.

But thank God they had an intercessor. Are there any intercessors reading this right now? Moses was chosen by God to carry out the plan He had for His people. This is the same task God has given us today as His Children in this world. Just like we are chosen, Moses was chosen by God and the difference between Moses and the other people of Israel was the encounter and the relationship that Moses had with God.

Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend....

- Exodus 33:11

Moses and God were homies. Moses experienced the presence of God on Mount Sinai and in the tabernacle so the Glory of God was upon him and he reflected it.

It is the presence of God, the encounter with YAHWEH that distinguishes us and sets us apart from the people of the world. God's glorious presence will bring the glow up. (Exodus 33:16) 

Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain in the presence of God and when he came back down his face was radiant. The people around him noticed that something about Moses was different. That something had changed. When you get into the presence of God and people tell you-you look different,  you talk differently you move differently...what happened to you? You tell them 'it's the presence of God and the Glow up that's attached to HIs glory upon my life'. 

One thing we need to know though is that the glow up that Moses had was a glory he wasn't able to maintain because it was attached to the law.  ( 2. Corinthians 3:7) 

As soon as he was among his people the glow dimmed so he put a veil over his face and only when he went into the presence of God he unveiled his face and got "recharged" with the glory. Does that sound familiar? Isn't that how a lot of us Christians live? 

A good sermon on Sunday will take us to Wednesday. Midweek service gets us to Friday. And only when we get to church on Sunday God's presence comes upon us, we glow up but we can't maintain that glow in our working places, we can't maintain it around the group of friends we hang out with, around that boyfriend... it's fading.

But I have good news. We have a promise of a better glory than the glory that Moses had. We have the promise of the glory of God over our lives forever and unveiled. Because the veil is torn now! God has unveiled our hearts and minds by the power of the Holy Spirit to give us a glory that is everlasting! From glory to glory.  The new glow up is real. It won't fade away, it won't get dull. If only we take the veil off once and for all and turn to Jesus to see and reflect the glory of the Lord and claim our new, better glow up.

We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away...but whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord - who is the Spirit - makes us more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

- 2. Corinthians 3: 13,16-18

The Glow up under the new promise is real!