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Spiritual darkness is a malevolent and sworn, mortal enemy of the Light
of God. It is not merely the absence of
light. It is the personal, antagonistic
presence of resistance, opposition and hostility to Jesus Christ.
Scripture tells us that “our
struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces
of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:12) Whether we choose to acknowledge this truth
or not, Satan takes the Presence of the Light personally, and focuses all his
efforts and resources to snuff it out!
As we saw last week in God’s initial announcement about the Offspring
of the woman Eve, a Promised One was coming who would “crush the head” of the
Serpent Thief. However, in the very same
announcement, God indicated that the Enemy would “strike the heel” of the
woman’s Offspring. The cumulative force
of these two prophetic words depicted the epic and yet very personal nature of
the enmity between the Light of God and Satan’s domain of darkness.
When Jesus Christ came into this world 2,000 years ago, in fulfillment
of that promise, it was nothing short of an invasion of Heaven’s Light into the
epicenter of Satan’s domain. And
darkness, true to its nature, conducted itself according to all of the
characteristic qualities of darkness. The
personal, antagonistic presence of darkness pulled out all the stops to resist,
oppose and obliterate the Light.
However, the Word of God tells us that “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend
it.” (John 1:5) “Shines” is in the present tense,
indicating that the Light still continues to shine. “Comprehend”
is in a past tense indicating action that takes place at a point in time and is
to be viewed as completed. The word
“comprehend” may be translated better by the word “apprehend.” There is a point
(or points) in time when Darkness attempts to apprehend or “lay hold of” the
Light, with the intent of overpowering and overcoming it. That action however, no matter how many times
attempted, always comes to an end. But the
Light never stops shining in the darkness.
The Light is still shining in the darkness. Even after Jesus died, rose again and
ascended back to the Father in heaven, “the
Light shines in the darkness.” This
very moment, wherever you may be reading this, the Light is shining in the
darkness. When He walked upon the earth,
Jesus said “I am the Light of the world.” And now, even in the absence of His physical
presence in the earth, yet He still abides within us. And so He also taught His followers “You are the light of the world.”
The One who is “the radiance of God’s glory” is “Christ in us, the hope
of glory!” Every son and daughter of God
has the Presence of the Living Christ in them.
Everywhere we go, we take the Light of God in us into the darkness of
the world around us. The sworn, mortal
enemy of the Light may attempt to apprehend us and overcome the Light. But “greater
is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” And the Light continues to shine in the
darkness!!!
In Jesus our King,
Pastor Scott
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