Step into the Light

As I was on my knees praying I started praying for the church, the body of Christ as a whole. I got up to write and I got stuck…. But a scripture came to my mind. I finally found the scripture:

This is the judgment [ that is, the cause for indictment, the test by which people are judged, the basis for the sentence]: The Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds are evil.

John 3:19 AMP

I started looking at related verses and I realized how frequent Jesus talked about the Light. In these verses, Light was not just a noun but it was  a verb. This means that as the Light Jesus also eradicates the darkness for those who came to Him …

For every wrong doer hates the Light, and does not come to the Light [but shrinks from it] for fear that his [sinful, worthless] activities will be exposed and condemned.But whoever practices truth [ and does what is right- morally, ethically, spiritually] comes to the Light, so that his works may be plainly shown to be what they are—accomplished in God [divinely prompted, done with God’s help, independence on Him].

 John 3:20-21 AMP

There’s just something about the Light. I think back to the days before I recommitted my life to Christ.  The things that I was bound to were done in the darkness. When I was addicted to  pornography  I rarely watched during the daytime, in the light. If it happened to be in the day, I would close my door, the blinds would be closed and the lamp would be off. It would just be me, my sin and darkness– at least that’s what I thought. I share this with caution but I want you to understand my relationship with the darkness and its impact on how I related to the Light. I find that if we really think back and examine our former ways we will see that we’ve all had a relationship with the darkness that kept us from the Light.

The previously mentioned incidents are my personal experiences but I understand now why my sins were committed in the darkness. Basically, it was because I knew the Light. During that time of my life after my sinful encounters I would seek the Lord for forgiveness because I knew what I was doing was wrong. Now that I think of it, it’s kind of comical when I picture myself praying when I knew I had no intentions of stopping. I thought that praying afterwards would save me….It’s sad.. Anyways, I can’t say that I was ashamed because that level of conviction wasn’t there but I knew it was wrong. I knew the right things to do and what I was doing wasn’t it. For me the darkness meant that my sins were hidden and in the darkness my sins were accepted…No one would know about it unless I spoke about it… Today, when I think back on that season of my life there is a temptation to feel ashamed. Even as I write this, the pull to feel shame is still there. But I am not ashamed. Why? Because God’s Light came into my life and dispelled the darkness so these “yokes”no longer have a hold on me.

God’s Light allowed me to see my heart and showed me why I relied on sin to feel “happy” and “fulfilled”.

Some of us are still walking back into the darkness because of shame. God takes our hand and pulls us into His Light… And to be honest that’s a scary place to be…In the sense that you are totally exposed; Your flaws, mistakes, soul-ties, soul-wounds everything is exposed! That  is not an easy road to take but IT IS NECESSARY. As human we don’t want to believe that we are screwed up people in need of a savior.  We are prideful believing that we can do life by our self and our actions are justified… We want to be our own savior.

So when God takes us and exposes our heart in it’s sinfulness it’s a hard pill to swallow… The exposure causes us to come face-to-face with some of our greatest short comings. 

When we leave the Light and go into the darkness, we are rejecting God’s greatest gift to our sanctification, transparency… The truth is if we think we are perfect with no issues we will shrink away from the refinement God wants to do in all of us. With transparency God sees right through us and He allows us to see just how much we need Him. This helps us to be merciful and graceful to others because we realize that God has been merciful and graceful to us.

A “Christian”who shrinks away from the transparency that God wants us to have, becomes callous, unmerciful and does not give grace. They will not forgive, because they haven’t been enlightened to realize that they too need forgiveness.

‘Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.”’

LUKE 7:47 AMP

In the Light nothing is hidden and that’s where God wants us to remain. I know it’s painful and can be humiliating but if we are not in the Light we cannot be used by God. If we say we are followers of Christ, Christians, we have to walk in the Light. The enemy wants us to stay in the darkness, nursing our pride because we are afraid of being humiliated. We don’t want to let go of everything that has comforted us and what we thought brought us happiness. There lies the deception my friend and God’s judgment on the world. Jesus says,He didn’t come to judge the world because it’s His words that will. His word is plain, Light came into the world and men loved the darkness more than the Light. The sin wasn’t that men only loved the darkness but they preferred it over the Light. Why? Because their deeds are evil. They didn’t want to give up the deeds that defined who they were. They wanted to wrap themselves in  darkness because once the Light rips away the darkness they would be left with themselves and the reality of their deeds. 

Jesus said “ While He was on the earth He is the Light of the world.” You know what that means? We cannot accept God as Savior, Redeemer, Friend, King, Defender,Protector, Provider, Alpha and Omega if we cannot accept Him as the Light. The one who exposes the darkness within us. I think some of us are afraid that once we are exposed we will have nothing left. But, I believe that’s the point God wants us to realize. Now that the sinful deeds are exposed and we are left with ourself God can then pour Himself into us.

We can start depending on Him to do “good works” in us and walk in His righteousness. Walking and remaining in the Light shows us that we need God. It removes the prideful tendency of the human heart. If “Christians” leave the Light to walk in the darkness we belie God and His character. God wants transparency in our life so that we may reflect His light.

Let your  light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence [ recognize and honor and] glorify your Father who is heaven.

Matthew 5:16 AMP

If God’s light doesn’t shine through us, what’s our purpose?

What’s so crazy is that even if we don’t have full transparency, light  will still  be reflected but it will be overshadowed by what we allow to block it. This blockage can become a stumbling block to others around you that are watching your “Christian walk”.

I realize that I use the word “allow” very often when I write. This is because everything really depends on the choices we make. We are not victims of our circumstances, we make choices everyday. God wants us to choose Light, regardless of how we think we look. He wants us to choose true freedom over the captivity in the darkness . He wants to choose the Light even when we want to run back to the “comfort” of the darkness. He wants you to love the Light because the darkness only oppresses and hinders. There’s nothing good in darkness. But in the Light we have clarity, we see what’s before us and we can wave “bye” to what’s behind us. In the Light, there are no tricks, life is plainly visible with our eyes.We can have peace because we know who is with us.

The deception is that freedom is in darkness, but don’t be deceived. You can’t be free from something when you can’t see it. Step into the Light.

I hope that you can surmise from all of this that God wants you to stay in the Light. We hinder our maturity and our walk with Christ by going back to that which will only destroy us. Find comfort in God’s unconditional love…I find strength in knowing that regardless of what my life was and is God STILL chose me! HE STILL CHOSE YOU, before you chose HIM. Let’s not allow the lies of the enemy to seduce us into his darkness. Even if God begins to show us the evil within us, it’s because He loves us! Don’t run from His edification because it doesn’t feel good. Stay because HE IS GOOD!

Allow Him to heal you and never go back to the darkness.

‘Not that I have already obtained it [this goal of being Christlike] or have already been made perfect, but I actively press on so that I may take hold of that [perfection] for which Christ Jesus took hold of me and made me His own. ‘ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead

Philippians 3:12-13 AMP

I love you all with the Love of Christ, Let’s light up this world with GOD’S LIGHT together, Nadesha!