Principle Eighty-Three
The Principle of Glory
Here is the principle of Glory:
One cannot give glory to himself, but must depend upon others besides himself for any recognition he receives.
This is summarized in the truism, “Give credit where credit is due.”
Let us say that Stephen King gave a speech saying, “I am one of the greatest writers who has ever been born and you’d better appreciate that.”
Would that enhance his glory as a writer?
No.
It would take away from it. People in the audience would think, “What a jerk!”
On the other hand, if a respected person introduced King and said, “Here is Stephen King, one of the greatest writers ever born, and he deserves our appreciation.” What would be the response? The audience would agree and his glory would be enhanced.
The story of Moses not giving glory to God illustrates that God himself cannot give glory to himself and depends upon others to do it. In the work that God and Moses were doing together God depended on Moses giving him credit where credit was due. When the people were thirsty and had no water Moses smote the rock and took credit for the water coming forth and violated the principle which is sacred, especially among the higher lives. God calls himself a jealous God because even He depends on others for glory and does not want others to deceptively take credit when the credit is due to Him.
God expected Moses to not take credit. After all Moses said,
“Listen to me, you rebels. Must we get water out of this rock for you? Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out in abundance and they all drank, men and beasts.”
If Moses had merely said something like “God will create water for us” he would have kept out of trouble. Instead God saw a violation of the Principle of Glory, which Moses understood, and “the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “You did not trust me so far as to uphold my holiness in the sight of the Israelites; therefore you shall not lead this assembly into the land which I promised to give them.” See Numbers 20:10-13 NEV
He made it plain in the above verse that Moses screwed up. Moses did not lose his reward but the Principle of Glory is so sacred to the higher lives that God did not want to take the chance of Moses assuming unearned glory to himself again and thus falling into darkness. For the rest of his life Moses attempted to practice the Principle of Glory but suffered the effect by not entering the promised land.
As it was, Moses received great recognition:
“And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.” Deut 34:10
As disciples to enter the promised land of full soul contact we must consistently practice the Principle of Glory for as soon as we assume unearned glory a cloud of darkness descends which is difficult to lift.
In the parable of the best seats the guest tried to take glory to himself by taking the most honored seat. But he had no power to take the glory to himself. The host ordered him to take the lowest seat and placed someone else there.
“He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true.” John 7:18
This very clearly illustrates the principle that you cannot be glorified by seeking it for yourself, but must be glorified by another. Jesus realized that he was to give glory to God and in return God would glorify him. Neither Jesus or the Father could glorify themselves.
If we want glory and recognition we cannot demand it for ourselves but must wait for others to give it. If you do what you consider to be a great work and no one says anything then there is no glory. You cannot rectify the situation by demanding to be recognized. The only solution is to enhance the work and make it available until someone does recognize it and gives glory. After glory is given by one then others usually follow.
The Key to understanding is hidden in plain site in these scriptures.
John 7:18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
John 8:50 And I seek not mine own glory:
John 17:4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
There is no glory without recognition. Glory is created from the consciousness of intelligent lives. As I said, if God created the universe and there was no one in it to praise or appreciate the work then he would have no glory. You cannot glorify yourself. Thinking that a work deserves glory does not glory make. Many have sacrificed themselves for a cause and received no glory because no good was produced by the sacrifice.
All of us, whether high or low, must do the same thing with our work. We must do our best at creation and then present it to the people and let them decide. If they give us glory we will feel everything was worthwhile. If they say negative things or ignore the work then the creator must reassess his work and either work to improve or change direction.
I have done many things for which I have received no glory or recognition and if I did not just accept the response and move on the effect on me would have been negative. Sometimes an attempt at a work that receives little recognition in one cycle is but preparation for great recognition in a future cycle.
Suppose you wrote a book that you were really proud of and you gave the book to a trusted friend to share with a group. Then you find out the friend makes the claim that he wrote the book and takes credit for it’s contents. You may not write the friend off forever, but you would be offended and not trust him again until he has proven himself over a period of time.
We are in the image of God and if we want to understand God we must understand ourselves and when our glory is taken by another we become angry. So do the higher lives on their own level.
Before the Principle of Glory is understood in its fullness the inclination is to think it is small minded to desire appropriate glory be given, but it is not small minded at all, for without the implementation of this principle creation would come to a halt and the glory or God and men would cease to be.
All life forms in the universe need this, even God. For higher lives it is not needed for the ego, but for the sake of truth. Truth is the core principle guiding higher lives and the Principle of Glory can only be violated with deception. To uphold truth, the Principle of Glory must apply. There is much more to it than desiring a pat on the back. If that is all one sees he does not understand the principle.
If I think a book I write is a masterpiece and a reader thinks it is a piece of junk and says so then he has not violated the Principle of Glory just because I think the book is good. I would accept that and allow his opinion opinion, as I should. But if he reads the book and thinks, “This is great, I wish I would have thought of this,” and then proceeds to present the book, or its original ideas, as if he wrote it himself, then he is stealing my glory and I would be upset and would not trust him for some time.
I have had people steal my ideas numerous times and do not feel a grudge but do not trust such people in this area until they can prove a willingness to follow the Principle of Glory.
No one likes to be stolen from and the stealing of intellectual or spiritual property is seen as a much greater violation than the stealing of a physical commodity. Artists, for instance, are very upset when someone plagiarizes their songs or writings. This is why we have copyright laws which uphold the Principle of Glory.
There is true and false glory. False glory is that which is forced upon people as has happened with tyrants such as Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jong Un etc. In tyrannies people have to praise their leader or go to jail, or be killed. Praise given in that situation is not real praise but truly false glory.
If sincere praise is given freely then it is not false glory. Now, there are many situations in life where the decision to praise, be apathetic or condemn is a judgment call. Moses was not praised by everyone and I’m sure there were a number who thought he was guilty of lots of sin including murder. His own brother and sister judged him to be unworthy because he killed an Egyptian, but Jehovah affirmed (gave glory) that he was the man for the job.
Most everyone who receives glory for something that is a judgment call does not receive accolades from all. Some people even hated the Beatles but since a high percentage give them glory they will go down in history in a positive way. The fact that some hated the Beatles does not take away from the glory given by those who like them.
The main point of the Principle of Glory is not to get everyone to agree or disagree that a certain action is good but that glory comes from sincere praise and recognition from somewhere else besides the creator of the action or work. The one responsible for the work should get the recognition (good or bad) and not another. Glory should not be stolen.
Whether or not an action or a teaching is good or bad is a judgment call and the closer it is to the will of God the more glory the person will eventually have. Jesus only had 200 people to give him glory after the resurrection while the world condemned him, but now billions give him glory. Even though a small number still do not give him glory he is probably the most glorified person in our history.
By following the Principle of Glory the ones who are responsible for an action get the glory or the condemnation.
Through deception a person can obtain temporary glory for a bad job but when the final results are seen the job can be more correctly assessed. For instance, Lincoln was seen as doing a terrible job through most of the war, but now the dust has settled historians rate him as the best president we have had.
After we leave this world the true quality of a person’s work will be much more accurately seen and there the right people will receive just glory that may have been overlooked while alive.
When one realizes how important this principle is to higher lives then seekers will take it to heart with more intent and be more assiduous in not violating it. I know that such understanding had that effect on me.
However, the main benefit is in seeing how glory is obtained and then taking the correct path to receive it.
Obviously, most people do not understand the principle as the majority go the wrong direction numerous times in attempting to receive recognition and glory. The real key to glory is to not actively seek it but merely seek to do a work that others will appreciate. Then glory will come naturally.
So, there was God, all alone, with no one to give him Glory. In order for the Glory of God to be manifest, he had to have more than one available. So, he created us for his own Glory. And that was part of the motivation. And why do we do any work? Well, we want a little recognition.
A lot of people think it is bad to go seek recognition. If you do it the wrong way it is erroneous. But if you do it in the right way where everybody gets their share of the benefit, then, you are on the path to glory yourself.
Let’s suppose you are all alone. So, let’s say you are the best speller in the whole United States and nobody knows about it. Well, are you going to learn any new words? No. You think, well, I’m the best and there is nothing in it for me so, I’m not going to learn any new words. But, if there is a spelling bee or a need for writing then the recognition will cause you to continue to work on your spelling.
Whenever you try to take glory to yourself, you take away from your own glory. The only way to achieve glory, is to be recognized by others. You cannot take glory to yourself, it must be given to you by others. And a lot of people don’t understand this principle. A lot of very highly evolved people don’t. Moses didn’t even understand it until he made his great error, and he was one of the greatest souls of all time.
Remember the story about Satan and the Christ coming to God offering to redeem mankind. And Jesus says to Him, I will be the saviour but I will give you all the glory but Lucifer comes to God and says I will redeem all mankind but I will take glory to myself and I want your power so that I can have the glory. And God says, no, I won’t just give you my power carte blanche.
It’s like a chain. One person recognized the one above him in the chain and that person recognizes the one above him, and sends Glory up the chain from the lowest life to the highest life in the Universe. And what happens when the chain is broken? The path of Glory becomes broken.
And it’s broken in humanity right now as we do not understand how to pass the glory up. Most of humanity are doing everything they can to take glory to themselves.
What the person who violates this principle does is he puts a wall between himself and his soul – so Light from his Soul is diminished.
Any type of deception puts a wall between you and your soul. So, its important that every word that comes out of our mouth is true. And why do we trust God, or a representative of God? Because we believe that every word that comes out of his mouth is true!
We have faith in God because his word is true and if we want to be like God, we have to make sure our word is true. If our word is true we will be on the path to true glory.
The wrong approach to glory is to think, “I’m gonna go out and I’m going to do this work and everybody is going to love me.” That’s not the right motive. What needs to motivate the seeker is doing the right thing, doing service, doing things that people will appreciate, and then you just know that it will come back to you. And when it does come back to you, it will often come back to you at unexpected moments.
Mankind is a big problem for the Great Ones as they look down upon us because we don’t understand the Principle of Glory. So the glory doesn’t manifest in the Kingdom of God as much as it should because we’re a kink in the armor of God so to speak – because we want Glory to ourselves.
If you serve, not thinking of Glory, and it starts to manifest and people appreciate it then your incentive is increased and you follow the path even more. But if nothing comes back to you after a period of time, you’d quit doing it.
If God created the Universe and none of his creations believed in Him or none of them gave Him Glory, He’d say, Well, the heck with this, I’ll make that universe disappear and do something else. So, you have to get some satisfaction out of your work
A good show to watch that illustrates the drawbacks of attempting to steal glory is The Words, starring Bradley Cooper. He was an aspiring author who discovered a lost unpublished manuscript and then published it as his own and gained great fame. The problem was that the deception ate at him and he realized that he was not able to enjoy the false glory that had been thrown at him. His life turned into a real mess.
Then he met the real author who was gracious enough to not make demands. Even though the real author did not receive name recognition he still achieved satisfaction in that his work was glorified.
The Principle of Glory is NOT centered around giving glory or credit where the person thinks he deserves it, but where the receiver thinks it is earned.
To receive glory from another the receiver must sincerely feel the value and acknowledge it out of free will.
A violation of the Principle of Glory comes if:
(1) A person distorts or lies about the praiseworthy words or actions of another.
(2) A person attempts to take credit for himself for the words or actions of another.
If one does not appreciate the words or works of another then the laborer must accept that fact and let it go. If his work has lasting value then true recognition will eventually come along with the joy of service and achievement.
“To every person there comes that special moment when he is tapped on the shoulder to do a very special thing unique to him. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared for the work that could be his finest hour.” – Winston Churchill
Copyright 2016 by J J Dewey
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