WHEN THE LIGHT OF GOD SHINES, DARKNESS CAN NEVER EXTINGUISH IT

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES.

TOPIC: WHEN THE LIGHT SHINES IN OUR DARKNESS, THE DARKNESS CAN NEVER EXTINGUISH IT.

COMPILED/EDITED BY-:
Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace-Udochukwu President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM

“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
John 1:5

The only power darkness has is in the space granted it by an absence of light. When the light comes, the darkness retreats. We can see things as they actually are.

You can’t know the answer to something until you know the problem. Before we look at what John 1 has to say about light, I want you to understand what Scripture says about our spiritual condition. We are all born with a sin nature. Ephesians 2:1 says we are “dead in trespasses and sins” apart from Christ. You may have heard salvation described something like this: “I was drowning in a sea of sin and Jesus came by in a boat, threw out a lifeline, and pulled me onboard and saved me.” That sounds good, but it’s not the gospel. The gospel is that you weren’t just drowning in a sea of your sin, but you were dead, floating face down, and Jesus walked on the water, came to you when you could not come to Him, picked you up, carried your dead body back to the shore, and breathed eternal life into your lungs. John 1:4, our theme verse for this week, says, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Jesus came into the world to bring light and life because we all came into the world spiritually blind, dark, and dead.

When you hear a noise in the dark you are afraid. As soon as you turn on the light, you have courage and confidence. You may be going through things that are dark and scary. God will be your light in your darkest hour. He will be your confidence and you do not have to fear. Darkness cannot overcome light. The devil tried to overthrow God but could not. In the end, Light wins and darkness loses.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness;and the darkness comprehended it not.”
John 1:1-5 KJV

Today, men seek justice without morals and piety.
When justice is divorced from morality, when rights of individuals are separated from right and wrong, the only definition you have left for justice is the right for every individual to do as he pleases. And the end of that road is anarchy and barbarism.
We are moving fast in that direction as a culture. But I will stake my life on the truth of John 1:5. The light shines in the darkness—Jesus shines, the gospel shines, the church shines—and the darkness will not overcome it.

It’s amazing to think that without light, there is complete darkness. Thank God every morning He directs the sun to rise, which allows us to see without stumbling and having to feel our way around like a blind person. Spiritually speaking, we were all born into spiritual darkness and are only given our vision when we invite Christ to transform us into a new creation. Another exciting reality is that no amount of darkness can extinguish even the tiniest light, and confirms that as creator, His authority is greater than any other power. “And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness cannot overcome it!” John 1:5.

WALKING IN THE LIGHT

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
1 John 1:7.

THERE are two great powers in conflict in this world. One is the power of good, of which God is the King, and the other is the power of evil, which is represented by the Prince of the power of the air, even Satan. The first principle is set forth by John under the figure of light. God himself is essential light, and everything which is good in the world is an emanation from himself. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” The light is the evident emblem of truth; darkness is the symbol of error. Light represents holiness; darkness is the appropriate figure for sin. Light represents knowledge, especially of spiritual things, since light reveals; darkness is the fit token of the ignorance under which the natural mind labours perpetually. By nature we are all born under the dominion of darkness: we grope our way like blind men, and when we knew God by the light of his works, we glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in our imaginations, and our foolish heart was darkened. Naturally, spiritual things are not discernible by man, they are spiritual and spiritually discerned, and the carnal mind cannot perceive them, for it walks in darkness. The guilt of sin is a thing too high for the carnal mind to understand; the glory of the eternal sacrifice it cannot perceive. The excellence of God, the faithfulness of his promise and the validity of his covenant, all such things as these are swathed in mist, so that the carnal mind seeth them not. As soon as ever the grace of God comes into the heart, it makes as great a difference as did the eternal fiat of Jehovah, when he said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. As soon as ever God the Holy Ghost begins to work upon the soul of man to illuminate him, he perceives at once his own sinfulness, he abhors that sinfulness, he labours to escape from it, he cries out for a remedy, he finds it in Christ; henceforth he no longer loves sin, he is not guided any longer by the darkness of policy, and selfishness and error, but he walks after the light of the truth of God, of righteousness, of holiness, of true knowledge. God has brought him into light: he sees now what he never saw before; knows, feels, believes, recognises what he never had known anything of aforetime— he is in the light. Hence you constantly find the Christian called a child of light, and he is warned that he is of the light and of the day. He is told, “Ye are not of the night nor of darkness.” “Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.”

The Christian, then, is in the light, and he is practically in it; his walk and conversation are regulated by truth, by holiness, and by that divine knowledge which God has been pleased to bestow upon him. He walks in the light of faith, in another path than that which is trodden by men who have nothing but the light of sense. He sees Him who is invisible, and the sight of the invisible God operates upon his soul; he looks into eternity, he marks the dread reward of sin, and the blessed gift of God to those who trust in Jesus, and eternal realities have an effect upon his whole manner and conversation: hence he is a man in the light, walking in that light.

But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name” (v. 12). Light will change you if you will receive it. Saul is an example. Saul was not a godless man. He was a devoutly committed religious person. However, he was on the wrong path. He was on his way to put men and women in prison for following Jesus. While he was on his way he was blinded by a light. That light changed Saul to Paul, murderer to missionary, church hater to church planter. He had no idea all that God had in store for him at that point! When the light gets in you, it changes you. God has a way of turning our lives around. He can stop you in your tracks and turn your life around. Nothing could have stopped Saul but the light of God. God knows what it takes to bring you to your knees. Stop fighting Him. You can’t fight the light. The light shows things as they really are. It shows all imperfections. Jesus came to bring the light down close to us, so we can see what we are really like on the inside…dark and dead. The good news is that Jesus is light and He is life to all who receive Him!

SHALOM!

FOR MORE SPIRITUAL INSIGHT/PRAYER REQUESTS 🙏 PLEASE CONTACT US AT:

RHEMA PRODUCTIONS TV ABUJA, NIGERIA.

PHONE:+2348033083732

EMAIL: revinnopeace@gmail.com

WEBSITES:
www.rhemaproductionstv.com, www.rptvblog.com.