By Danna Shirley
Msg given at Charismatic Service April 1995 at Hario
Chapel, Japan.
An
element of light, a luminous body, to cause to burn, to make bright,
candlelight, to glisten, daylight, to shine or make manifest, flame or fire, to
beam, to radiate brilliance, transparent or well illuminated, to shine upon to
become visible…
In Gen 1:3-4 “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was
light...and God divided the LIGHT from the darkness.” And aren’t we glad???
In the Spiritual Sense:
JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD...He illuminates darkness, He brings the
truth to light, He makes us transparent, He shows us our sins...sins of
commission and/or omission.
OLD TESTAMENT
Psalm
18:28 “For
YOU will LIGHT my lamp; the Lord my God will ENLIGHTEN my darkness.”
Our sins are our darkness...as
God enlightens us to them, He gives us a transparency, enabling to us to see
them, [conviction] and therefore, deal with them. God doesn’t want us to be
deceived about our sins.
Psalm
27:7 “The
Lord is my LIGHT and my salvation...”
If it wasn’t for the Lord
illuminating our eyes to be able to see our sins, and therefore our need for
Him, we wouldn’t have been brought to the place of salvation.
Psalm
119:105 “Your
word is a LAMP to my feet and a LIGHT to my path.”
After becoming His children, He
continues to LIGHT our way...enabling us to walk the walk we are called to
walk. Calling our attention when we slip back over into the darkness.
Prov
6:23 For
the commandment is a LAMP, and the law a LIGHT; reproofs of instruction are the
way of LIFE.”
As God chastises us...instructs
us regarding our sins or errors, He brings us back into the way of LIFE.
NEW
TESTAMENT
James
1:17 “Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father
of LIGHTS, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
God wants His children to live in
the LIGHT, He wants to give us good gifts. Not only is God not responsible for
human sin, He is the source of all good...He is unchangeable. This scripture
tells us that He is the Father of LIGHTS...
Matthew
5:14-16 “You are the LIGHT
of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they LIGHT
a lamp and put it under a basket,
but on a lampstand, and it gives LIGHT to all who are in the house.
Let YOUR LIGHT so shine before men, that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father in heaven.”
This is our directive from the
Lord. Let our LIGHT so shine that men may see Christ in us and glorify God.
Matthew
6:22-23 “The LAMP of the
body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of
LIGHT. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If
therefore the LIGHT that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
How many of us have heard the
expression, “A picture is worth a thousand words!” Sometimes we don’t have to
say a word...our “LIGHT” is our countenance [expression, appearance]. It comes
through our face, our attitude, our eye. Are we full of LIGHT or is our
darkness “great”?
John
1:1-4, 9 “...IN HIM WAS LIFE, AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN.” (vs 4) THAT WAS THE TRUE LIGHT WHICH GIVES LIGHT TO
EVERY MAN COMING INTO THE WORLD.” (vs 9)
Christ is the TRUE LIGHT...it is
His LIGHT in us that shines through us. Without Him we are in darkness and we
cannot bring anyone else out of that darkness either. That is why we must SHINE
before men to bring them out of darkness.
John
3:19-21 “And this is the
condemnation, that the LIGHT has come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than LIGHT, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the LIGHT
and does not come to the LIGHT, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the LIGHT,
that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
How many of us recall our lives
before Christ? The darkness that we lived in...not even knowing that we were in
darkness. It took a lot to get me to that
first church service. And of course, we look around to see who is seeing
us...feeling “exposed” before them. And
what about now? We still sin and don’t want our deeds exposed. How nice it is
to know that we can remain in the LIGHT!
John
8:12 “I am the LIGHT of
the world. He who follows Me shall not
walk in darkness, but have the LIGHT of life.”
Following Christ! This is our
daily walk. Sometimes we stumble, sometimes we fall, sometimes we really fall—but
thank God, by His grace, we can be forgiven and come back into the LIGHT . .
. and LIFE!
2
Cor 4:3-6 “But
even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose
minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the LIGHT of
the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on
them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded LIGHT to
shine out of darkness, Who has shone in our hearts to give the LIGHT of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians
5:8-14 “For
you were once darkness, but now you are LIGHT in the Lord. Walk as children of
LIGHT. (for the fruit of the Spirit is
in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to
the Lord. And have no fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful
even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things
that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is
LIGHT. Therefore He says, ‘Awake, you who sleep, rise
from the dead, and Christ will give you LIGHT.’”
That also goes for our sins being
exposed and made manifest by the LIGHT of Jesus Christ. Christ wants us to
awaken from the deadness of sin and allow Christ’s LIGHT to shine in us.
1
Peter 2:9 “But
you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. His own special
people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness
into His marvelous LIGHT.”
This verse is a directive to
proclaim the praises of God who called us out of darkness and into His LIGHT.
1
John 1:5-7 “This is the message
which we have heard from Him and declare to you that God is LIGHT and in Him is
no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in
darkness, we lie and do not
practice the truth. But if we walk in the LIGHT as He is in the LIGHT, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us
from all sin.”
Footnote on 1 John 2:9-11:
Love is characteristic of LIGHT, and hate is a characteristic of
darkness. Those two are mortal enemies. Therefore, a person reveals the
genuineness of his relationship with God by his relationship with others.
DARKNESS:
#4653-scotia (skot-ee-ah) means
darkness, gloom, evil, sin, obscurity, night ignorance, moral depravity. The NT
especially uses the word in a metaphorical sense of ignorance of divine truth,
man’s sinful nature, total absence of LIGHT, and a lack of spiritual perception.
LIGHT equals happiness. “Scotia” equals unhappiness. “Scotia” as spiritual
darkness basically describes everything earthly or demonic that is at enmity
with God.
Eph
5:1-7 Lists the sins or darkness:
fornication=encompasses all acts
of sexual immorality,
uncleanness or
covetousness=identifies the insatiability of human; carnality--never able to
get enough
filthiness=shameful, obscene
foolish talking nor coarse
jesting=scoffer, snearer
idolator=putting anyone or
anything before God
Gal
5:19-21: sins of darkness:
adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies,
outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders,
drunkenness, revelries
James
5:7-9 Lists sins or darkness:
impatience, grumbling
Mt
15:18-19:
evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies
Proverbs
6:16-19:
proud look, lying tongue, hands
that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, swift feet
that run to mischief, a false witness speaking lies, and one who sows discord
among the brethren
Other
sins:
pride, unforgiveness, anger,
impatience, resentment, bitterness, back-biting, judgment, criticism,
rebellion, stubbornness, disobedient, disrespectful, gossip, hate
Sins
of omission:
lack of prayer life, lack of confessing
our sins, lack of just doing good (1 Peter 2:15)
Our spiritual warfare is not always
bringing down strongholds. It is just
being able to maintain our walk.
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