The Glory Be Prayer: Origin And Meaning
The Glory Be is a powerful prayer and understanding its words in their entirety will help us say it to God from a place of reverence, not routine.
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I love finding ways to feel God in my day, whether I’m going to work or cooking dinner. I make sure I’m connected to Him by listening to Bible stories, sermons, praying, and singing praise songs. All the apps I test are introduced into my everyday life so that I can feel their usability on a daily basis.
Many individuals are scared to read the book of Revelations because of its vivid description of woe and more woe. Well, it might be scary, but there’s no argument that the book of Revelations is one of the most interesting books in the bible.
It contains prophecy and strategy, speaks of past events, chastises and even encourages you, if you look closely. It tells the Christian of things that were and are to come. It’s the perfect guideline for navigating the end times as a believer.
For some people, the most fascinating part of the book is that it gives inside information about events that happened even before the creation of man. Things that we would not understand if it wasn’t revealed to and written down by the apostle John. One of them is the war in heaven that brought us to where we are today.
Revelation 12:7-9 says,
“7. And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought,
8. but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
9. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
Apart from Revelations 12, various scriptures like Isaiah 14:12 give little supporting tidbits of information on the war in heaven. Combining these scriptures like a jigsaw puzzle, we can see the final picture of what happened during that battle in heaven and why it happened.
Long ago, before the earth as we know it was created, only the sons of God existed; billions of angels serving the Lord in heaven. Lucifer, who we now know as the devil, was one of them. He was a cherub. And no, he wasn’t a chubby little kid who floated around on clouds half-dressed with wings and a halo.
In fact, Ezekiel 28:12 describes him as full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Cherubs ranked very highly in the hierarchy of angels, standing before God’s throne itself. You can imagine how important he must have been because of this honor.
So why did Lucifer rebel despite his importance in heaven? Before long, pride got into his head because of his beauty and status. He became jealous of the honor God receives and began to think “Why shouldn’t I be God or become even greater than God?”
He also couldn’t understand why God would create mortal human beings and place them higher than angels on the hierarchy. To him, it was insulting and maddening. He didn’t care if we were made in God’s image. His pride couldn’t put up with the fact that man was positioned over him.
With these prideful thoughts in mind, he began to join forces with other angels who were also unsatisfied with giving glory to God and wanted to be worshipped. It was about one-third of the angels. The Bible tells us that war then broke out in heaven.
Revelations 12:8-9 clearly states that the devil and his coalition of angels fought against Michael and other angels but they did not prevail.
The devil was also cast out of heaven and down to the earth along with his angels where they roam around now seeking to exact their vengeance on men by deceiving them into going to hell with them in whatever way possible. The devil is bent on taking human beings to hell with him.
Fallen angels are those angels that were cast down to earth alongside Lucifer. Some people take the fallen angels to be Moloch, Chemosh, Dagon, Belial, Beelzebub, and Satan all named after both Christian and pagan mythology.
Some other sets of people claim the seven fallen angels are those who are responsible for the seven deadly sins.
As a result of the victory heaven had over Satan in the battle of heaven and the victory of Jesus on the cross, Christians also have victory over the devil and his demons.
Jesus died not just to save mankind from their sinful nature but also to give us authority over the devil that seeks to torment, deceive and accuse us. As many that believe will receive this authority. The Revelations war gives us absolute confidence, Hallelujah!
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”
“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”
“Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.”
Then I witnessed in heaven an event of great significance. I saw a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2. She was pregnant, and she cried out because of her labor pains and the agony of giving birth.
3. Then I witnessed in heaven another significant event. I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them to the earth. He stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her baby as soon as it was born.
5. She gave birth to a son who was to rule all nations with an iron rod. And her child was snatched away from the dragon and was caught up to God and to his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place to care for her for 1,260 days.
7. Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. 8. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. 9. This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.
10. Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens,
“It has come at last—
salvation and power
and the Kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ.[a]
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters[b]
has been thrown down to earth—
the one who accuses them
before our God day and night.
11. And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb
and by their testimony.
And they did not love their lives so much
that they were afraid to die.
12. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens!
And you who live in the heavens, rejoice!
But terror will come on the earth and the sea,
for the devil has come down to you in great anger,
knowing that he has little time.”
13. When the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14. But she was given two wings like those of a great eagle so she could fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness. There she would be cared for and protected from the dragon[c] for a time, times, and half a time.
15. Then the dragon tried to drown the woman with a flood of water that flowed from his mouth. 16. But the earth helped her by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that gushed out from the mouth of the dragon. 17.And the dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children—all who keep God’s commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus.
The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.(A) The star was given the key(B) to the shaft of the Abyss.(C) 2. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.(D) The sun and sky were darkened(E) by the smoke from the Abyss.(F) 3. And out of the smoke locusts(G) came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions(H) of the earth. 4. They were told not to harm(I) the grass of the earth or any plant or tree,(J) but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.(K) 5. They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months.(L) And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion(M) when it strikes. 6. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.(N)
7. The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle.(O) On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.(P) 8 .Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.(Q) 9. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.(R) 10. They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.(S) 11. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss,(T) whose name in Hebrew(U) is Abaddon(V) and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).
12. The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.(W)
It’s simply amazing to note that God Himself who Lucifer rebelled against couldn’t even be bothered to fight against Him. It wasn’t worth His attention, rather He delegated the battle to an archangel who was lower than a cherub in the hierarchy of angels and they still won the war. It was never a God vs Lucifer battle but a Michael vs Lucifer battle. Even up till today, the devil still knows he cannot contend against God. We serve a mighty God!
The war in heaven was a defining moment for mankind. It is because of this that Christians recognize that whatever the devil throws at us, we will always come out victorious.
The Glory Be is a powerful prayer and understanding its words in their entirety will help us say it to God from a place of reverence, not routine.
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