‘Beholding’ before ‘Becoming’
- Oct 10, 2025
- 6 min read
We continue in our series of ‘Knowing God.’ Not just knowing His presence, but what about ‘Knowing His Glory?’
We not only have a God that comes, visits and draws near to His people, but also makes His majesty and glory known!
This was the call of the disciples in John 1: “The Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”
Charles Spurgeon says this is a “Soul work, saving work, blessed work, everlasting work of God in us."
There’s a clear way of checking to see if this has or continues to happen in our lives as Christians, look at 2 Corinthians 3:18, “Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”
I want you to notice that ‘beholding’ must come before ‘becoming.’ We have to spend time in His presence, His word, in prayer, beholding God.
It's an interesting thought - we become what we gaze at! What gets your attention? What do you spend your time gazing at?
Robert Murray McCheyne said, “If we are to walk worthy of our high and holy calling, we must live daily in consideration of the greatness and glory of Jesus.”
Have you settled for far less of God than He wants to reveal?
Do you feel close to God in your everyday life, or does He too often seem distant and silent?
Maybe, like many Christians, you live somewhere between those two extremes. You occasionally sense God’s presence, but at other times feel as if He’s a million miles away. The wonder of closeness with God and knowing His glory is available to you today, here and now. As you draw near to God, and behold His glory, He will draw near to you (James 4:8)!
To ‘Draw near’ refers to approaching God in a real spiritual sense; to develop and maintain a close relationship with Him. It’s our privilege of knowing such access to Father God through Christ our great High Priest.
In the Isle of Lewis revival, Duncan Campbell hungered for the presence of God more than anything. At times, it was said, Jesus was more real to him than his earthly friends. He was known to spend the whole night in prayer with God before a meeting was to begin. People remarked of seeing the Shekinah glory of God on his face.
Islands where he ministered fell so under the power of God that visitors to the island would no sooner having set foot on the island immediately seek God to find salvation.
Why have we settled for less?
Wouldn’t it be amazing today to find yourself consumed by God's love, and your life overwhelmed by His grace, discovering a purpose and a unique sense of adventure not experienced in a long time? Discovering the more of God, in that: He is good; He is powerful; He is here!
But, it's one thing knowing His presence, but what about knowing His glory? Or, just think, God’s presence can also be the place of His glory.
Rick Warren asks, “What is the glory of God? It is who God is. It is the essence of His nature; the weight of His importance; the radiance of His splendour; the demonstration of His power; the atmosphere of His presence.”
I know there’s a problem, actually a big problem! We are flawed, fallen, sinful people without hope of ever being glorious of ourselves: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Yet we were created for glory.
There comes a time when each of us, like Isaiah, is faced with the reality of our standing before God. Whether in good times or not so good, each one of us needs a new encounter with God and His glory.
Isaiah 6 is probably one of the most famous chapters in the Bible. Isaiah experiences God’s presence and His glory in a deep time of absence. Uzziah had been king and friend for 52 years, now he’s gone! Isaiah had gone to the temple like he had hundreds of time before, but today would be different! He met God and experienced His glory.
Isaiah encounters God when there’s nothing else to lean on, and nowhere else to go. God enters the gap, begins to fill the void, and speaks into the situation that life so often creates. Even in the darkest and deepest of times, God can, and longs to, come. Imagine today He comes into the gaps of your life and reveals His glory to you!
When I was looking at this passage, the questions that kept coming to me were, am I living in the YES of God for my life?; is there fulfilment in my life, is there peace, am I settled in my walk with Jesus, have I experienced His glory?
Even in the darkness and difficulty, Isaiah actually had a life-transforming encounter with God and he beheld His glory!
Many years later, Paul would write to the church in Corinth: 'God said, “Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”' (2 Cor 4:6).
One of the lessons that Isaiah needed to learn was that while things on earth were not good and all seemed very dark and difficult, nothing in heaven had changed. Isaiah saw God was still on the throne!
Today, God’s still on the throne, in full sovereign authority over our world. Hallelujah!
Also, please note it was in the midst of death that Isaiah saw the Lord (Isaiah 6:1). I understand that he was merely noting the time of his calling, however, I think it is quite significant that it took place during the same time that he was grieving the loss of his king. Yes, one king died but he saw a GREATER King in all His glory, He was high and exalted above all things.
C Hodges states, “The holiness of God is not to be conceived of as one among many attributes. It is rather a general term representing the conception of God’s consummate perfection and total glory.”
It’s been said that God’s glory is the sum total of who He is. It is God’s power, plus His wisdom, plus His justice, plus His mercy, plus His holiness, plus His love, plus every other attribute of His character.
How often have we come to realise that life in general does not satisfy and there’s a craving for something more, something beyond the everyday existence, but what is it and where do we get it?
I believe at the root of all of this must be the desire for God, to encounter Him, to know Him and experience His glory no matter the circumstances.
To “Behold the glory of the Lord, and become transformed."
Stop and think about this!
Paul Tripp says, “If you’re in Christ, you’ve been chosen to transcend the borders of your own glory, to reach out toward a greater glory, the glory of God.”
How do we see and experience the glory of God? If you look at 2 Corinthians 3:17 you’ll note it’s a ministry of the Holy Spirit to make the glory of God known to us. To see the glory of God is a spiritual and supernatural thing at the very centre of who we are!
John Piper says, “The healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attracting place at the centre.”
“In the year that King Uzziah died. . . .” Our text starts with a stark reminder that the old must die in order for the new to be born. In Isaiah’s eyes and heart, Uzziah had taken up so much space, to the point of edging God out!
The word "EGO" is not only defined as ‘Edging God Out’ but as "one who is completely devoted to his/her own interests”. So what must we do?
Like Isaiah, to encounter God and know His glory we need to die to ourselves, our will, and our purposes, and yield to the will and purpose of Father God because we can’t make it on our own.
It's a progressive journey from one degree of glory to another, an "ever-increasing glory."
I reckon CH Spurgeon was right -
“You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.”
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