Editor’s Note: Joel Renner is the CEO of RENNER Ministries and the National Director of the U.S. ministry office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Alongside his father, he has actively participated in nearly every facet of the daily operations of the ministry since his youth. Joel resides in Moscow, Russia, with his wife and two sons.

How To God From Glory to Glory

by Joel Renner

Second Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV) encourages us, “…We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” But how do we go from glory to glory? Good question, and what a subject! Let’s take a look at what the Bible says.

First Samuel 15:22,23 (NKJV) says:

So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”

In these scriptures, we find King Saul receiving a strong rebuke from the prophet Samuel for not following the Lord’s clear instructions. But just like Saul, many of us want to make huge progress overnight by doing something valiant and big — when, most of the time, we go from glory to glory by being consistently obedient.

In these same verses, we see that being obedient is better than sacrifice. Isn’t that interesting? Many of us want to be earth-shakers, but few of us want to simply be obedient.

Let’s look at it from a higher perspective. If you were in a leadership role, would you like to have people under you who, in an attempt to make a difference, randomly make even huge sacrifices that are not planned — and in the big scheme of things, no progress is made — or would you rather have a team under you who trusts your directives and follows what you ask them to do so that, in unison, the group makes progress because of their obedience? I think we all would choose the second option.

In most cases, God does not ask us to make huge sacrifices, but in all cases, He does ask us to be obedient. And in our obedience, we are trusting Him to change our situation.

I also like this verse found in Luke: “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much” (Luke 16:10 ESV). I like this verse because many people don’t want to be faithful with “very little” — they want to be faithful with “much.” But we all start with little, and, if we are faithful and obedient, our little grows!

Let’s be obedient and faithful with the little in each of our lives, and let God grow it.

God bless,

Joel Renner