Christian Living

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Being bombarded, whether with a particular theme, word, and, or Scripture text over a period of time, can make you become uneasy, especially if there’s no desire to do anything with it. I have arrived at a point where there’s no other options but to stop and take note. Over a few months the Holy Spirit kept nudging me about all aspects relating to light; it is amazing at every turning, ‘darkness and light have followed me,’ a stirring within kept prompting my heart to write, it was so obvious, but pursuing this topic in writing somehow evade me. Nonetheless, from time to time I’ve jotted down notes and texts, here and there, until I’ve plucked up the courage to begin the process of writing today. When I actually began writing it became an emergency, I was literally glued in one place until it poured out from the inner man to a writing pad.

God has no favourites; He deals with us all according to His righteous standards, although applying discipline to each individual may be different. He declares in His word “I am God and I change not” that means His character, righteous standards, holiness, grace and mercy never change, but dealing with us might not warrant the same method. God is light, came at one of those quiet moment while crying out to Him to be drawn closer.

A sudden stillness engulfed me, I had to stop and listen. The message came, “You draw near to the light and darkness will disappear,” it was a simple statement but profound, and has not left me since. The love of God is so amazing and answers our cries in numerous ways because He wants us to be like His Son.

I don’t know about you; but whenever I read God’s word, observe Christ’s character, consumed by the simplicity of His teaching; the commands to His followers to adopt certain characteristics (as the disciples must be like their Lord), namely, as He was, so should we be in this world; naturally the gap in our spiritual lives begins to show by un-Christ’s attitudes. It was at this point a cry ascends to heaven, ‘Lord I need You.’ The response came; Jesus Christ is the light of the world and as we draw near to the light darkness has to go. I’ve written the article from this premise. There are three aspects within the text to be covered – light, darkness and life (each word might be used singly or together).

Christ talked much about these words in relation to victorious living throughout the gospels, especially in the book of John about light, darkness and life. Jesus is the light and it is important for us to be light, and the only way we can become light is to follow the light.

Considering the above statement ‘follow the light...’ bears tremendous weight on us that it is possible to follow the light and continually eliminates area of darkness – more light less darkness, this is what Jesus said (John 1:5, 9; 9:5). But how can we turn these commands into revelation and progresses to application?

Application is simple, we take the words or commands spoken by the Holy Spirit and apply it to our everyday life, and it is not according to our cultures, education, personalities or experiences. The alabaster box must be broken and the light of Christ becomes the perfume to others, flowing out through us in this world. The present darkness is looming and the world needs the light. Let’s pause for a moment and examine the practicality of light and why we must draw near to the light.

Light has enabling power which darkness is unable to penetrate, not even the shadow of darkness; light makes us see clearer, and helps us to complete our journey. We are commanded to draw near to Him and He will draw near to us, this takes effort, focus, staying power, tenacity and determination to stay on the right track without deviating from it.

Once we lose our focus we become overwhelmed by the darkness around us, lacking in motivation and get distracted from the purposes of God. A cry came from King Solomon, “Draw me, I will run after You,’ it is God who does the drawing and us who follow; we must be at the place where we want to be drawn. Paul says ‘Work out your own salvation...but it is God who is at work in us to accomplish His work through us. It does take submission to God and resist the devil to pursue the light.

Jesus said, “I Am the Light of the world. He that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:13 NLT). He sets the scene as the light bearer and giver of life. In Him life existed and that life became accessible to bring light to all mankind. We must follow in obedience the light with every fibre of our being; because what Christ has commanded He equips us to obey. As He demonstrates in His word He upholds the world and us by the Word of His power.

One songwriter sings – “He is the Pillar that holds our lives,” how true! And He is also the image of the eternal Godhead as light who reveals both sin, and the holiness of God to humanity. We are created in God’s image and utterly dependent on Him for our very existence, whether spiritually, physically or otherwise; so our focus must be on Him and not ourselves.

The Bible says Jesus came as light to expose darkness (John12:46). Our world is plunging headlong in darkness: secularism, humanism, atheism, and anti-Semitism invading most cultures today; if we are blinded by it, eliminates sight, clouds our judgment and makes us ignorant of truth. God’s time clock is ticking close to midnight, and the church is asleep in the light, in our little huddles doing our own things; and unaware of the unveiling of prophesies.

Many gentile nations are isolating, replacing, and demonising God’s light to nations; our world is facing the pending wrath of God and many are unable to see. It is time to get closer to the light and let His light shine in us and through us; it is time to walk in harmony with the light of life. I guess everyone may feel it’s not possible to walk as Jesus walked because ‘we are only human,’ and sometimes feel inadequate and question is it possible to live without being overtaken by our cultural trends? Let’s take a look at Jesus.

He was tempted in all points, just as we are tempted today; He lived in a corrupted society in Samaria and Judea, tempted with bribery by the devil, hated by the very people He came to save and yet He did not sin, retaliated or bemoaned His fate. He did not compromise to gain the favour of men; but was secure because of His ongoing relationship with His Father, and His obedience sustained Him even to the death of the cross.

Now can we live up to Christ’s standard and follow the light? Sure we can, He resides in us, and greater is the One who lives in us. He overcame and so can we. We have the light of life living inside us, with the ability to follow closely given the resources of heaven we receive. In Him was life and the life was the light of men, life existed in Christ and Christ lives in us. Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life and in Him there is no darkness at all, if we are obedient to His call we overcome darkness. What a role module?

Each gifts we receive are entwined and should not usurp one above the other, but must pursued and adhered to because every gift has a specific guideline attached to it so, if or when we break anyone of them is detrimental to our walk in the light. We have a guide, and He makes us feel uncomfortable when we are distancing ourselves from the light. We are given options to respond to the tug of the Holy Spirit or ignore Him; Jesus indeed came as light to expose sin in our lives.

A writer made a bold statement that – “We may have walked so long in the dark that we don’t know what light looks like anymore; and went on to say, when we buy into lies we futilely (ineffectively) try to look in the light while harbouring dark places,” this is so heavy. Sometimes we get accustomed to a lifestyle which easily compromises our faith without us recognising it, so it is important to use the Word of God and have a regular check-up. Pay attention to the tug of the Holy Spirit and get His directive.

The word dropped in my heart by the Spirit although seemed basic, it had a weighty impact. I was aware God wanted me to stop and take note. The force of the word was like a throbbing toothache, ‘walk closely to the light to avoid get caught up in darkness,’ yes, my pursuit to the light can be at a long distance sometimes, there is always light, doing what I always did, but there are tremendous differences between seeing from a flashlight and the lights in a stadium. The lens we look through determines how we see Jesus.

It is possible for being caught up with any affairs of this life, be it spiritual, emotional, physical, financial or any other distractions, which make our vision of Christ becomes blurred; instead of seeing the full blaze of the stadium light in Christ we see dimly through the lens of a flashlight. It seems advisable and a ‘must to do,’ to question ourselves at every turn and monitor the kind of lenses we are seeing our Saviour through. Any distraction is darkness; although darkness cannot overtake light, our lights can grow dim. It is our responsibility to keep our focus on the Light of lights.

Jesus is the light of the world when we follow closely we cannot walk in darkness because we have His light to guide us. Nevertheless we must let His light shine so that our good works are seen; good works are instigated by the Spirit to glorify God. Every child of God should recognised our works are important, but have a spot check to see whether Jesus or self is beaming through our services, as we are admonished by Paul when we take communion to examine ourselves.

Therefore, self examination is necessary and it is not only in taking the bread and wine ,but a daily examination of sins that harass us i.e. pride, envy, malice, not discerning the Lords body (1Cor 12) etc these are dark areas outside the realms of light, and are warning signs which need taking note of. David said, “Whatever laws, commands, words, we receive in any format, are warning signs to those who hear them, and also rewards given to those who obey them (paraphrase Ps19:11NLT). God continues to speak but am I? Or, are we listening and shifting from our static position to where God has designed? If not, why not?

Jesus said as long as there is light people can walk safely and able to see, that is to make sure our gaze are on Him, because He is the light of the world (paraphrase John 11:9 NLT). Thank the Lord we are alive at this moment and because of this we have hope.

We are loved by Him and we can take our position as Children of the Most High God, the Creator of heaven and earth. So whatever word we receive, whether we interpret it hard soft strong or otherwise it is for our benefit. God is not interested in making us feel embarrassed. When or how He speaks to us; He loves us too much to leave us in darkness, and to deviation from the light is sin. He does not tolerate sin of any kind; because living in opposition to His Word is living in darkness and devoid of light. He wants the best for us and that is keeping in step with light.

However this word is interpreted or received it’s probably a wakeup call; first to the author and possible to the wider body; God is Sovereign. He will do whatever He knows is beneficial for one, two or many; we are approaching a critical time in history and it is possible the Lord wants to keep us following close to the light. This age is closing in, it is clearly seen in Scriptures and worldwide events confirm what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Therefore it is possible the Lord wants us to stop and take note and use this word as mirror to find out where we are spiritually, how closely are we walking to the light; nothing comes cheap, there is a price to be paid:
• Are we prepared to pay the price?
• Are we ready to meet Him?
• Can we say we are walking in the light of God’s Word?
• Do we love Him, honour and trust Him?
• Do we love our neighbour as we love ourselves?
• Do we find ourselves longing to be exactly what Jesus wants us to become?
• Or is our status - spiritual or otherwise, more important than living in the light?
These are personal questions which only the author and reader can answer, the Holy Spirit is able to highlight, whatever the answers may be aim at the individual to follow close to the light and secure a successful journey. Remember Jesus was tempted in every way we are, yet He did not commit sin. He has made it and so can we.

Jesus must be our focus. He came into this dark world to give spiritual light, He is the way – we follow Him closely; He is the truth – we listen and obey and He is the life, in Him we live and move and have our being, He is the source of our existence. It cost Jesus; He paid the price to take us out of darkness, so it is obvious, it will cost us too.

Following the Light has a price and it is not easy to the flesh, because all sacrifice requires death and flesh does not like dying; it is only in abiding in Him we take on the image of Christ and brings victory (2Cor 4:6); as God called light out of darkness at creation, so it is with us as we respond to Him, He turns on the light in our hearts to see Jesus as He is,

Our goal must be to stay on course, eyes fixed on Him, yes, we will topple over from time to time, but we get up every time and keep on walking. Our victory is to follow close to the light, His great love for us insists on truth and truth is light; this is the essence of the article. God is light and those who follow Him will not walk in darkness but have light to guide them every step of the way; it is befitting to end with a quote from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

“I Am the light of the world. If you follow Me you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12 NLT).

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