The Truth In The Light

John 1:5 (NIV)

⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

The past 2 months have been such a transforming time for my soul.  God has truly placed his hands upon me and has guided the Holy Spirit in molding me.  I have read the above verse probably a thousand times and never understood it until now.  What we consider as impossible, to God is very much possible.  When we battle our inner demons we feel defeated.  We continually say I can’t stop this or worse we just accept it as who we are and lose the battles the rest of our lives.  God recently revealed to me in prayer that the majority of the pleasure I have experienced in my life has been to avoid pain.  HOW CRAZY IS THAT?  I haven’t been able to enjoy many of the small victories in life because I always look to find what is wrong with me.  Today is a different day and God is revealing so much and for this I am thankful, especially thankful for deliverance.

When God says and talks about the word being light, He is talking about our Savior, Jesus.  Every moment with Jesus in the New Testament shows Jesus making the darkness run away and healing those who came close.  Healing is what we all desire in life because of the wounds we experience.  We have scars, but many of those have not healed well and are just scabbed over and easy to bleed again.  We desire healing, but God calls for us to scar up not smooth up.  Our scars remind us of where God has been with us and that he doesn’t leave.  As I watch the rerun of my life to this point I see how influenced my life has been by my pain.  Now, I can see who I am in Christ I am excited to see how the rest of life will pan out with God leading and me following.

I am currently at a place in my life that I thought I would never be able to reach with God.  A place of Surrender where I can hear God clearly.  Where he is constantly speaking peace to my heart and placing a calming hand on my thoughts.  I am now gaining wisdom on his terms and not mine, a prayer I prayed many mango seasons ago.  The light of Christ is now covering me, no longer the darkness I use to feel comfort in.  I can feel that the grave clothes have been removed, they have fallen off and the warmth of my Heavenly Father’s embrace is overwhelming.  I have learned that the grave clothes fall off the body but don’t completely detach.  We drag them behind us, enough so that we walk with a slight limp.  That is a reminder to not become complacent in Christ and remember the enemy(Satan) is lurking like a HUNGRY STARVING BIG TOOTHED ROTTED GUMMED LION!  The more I follow and stay in the light the further away the darkness and grave clothes feel.  It doesn’t have an impact on my decisions or thoughts but I still need to know it is there and my healing needs to be intentional.  By giving God my full surrender and waiting on his transcending peace and not on “What I want” or worse ” What I THINK is best” for me I am experiencing worship in a deeper and more meaningful way.  I cannot believe how much God has changed me in these past few weeks.  I can only imagine what years of progress of living in Christ will be like.  My dear, dear Friends, God can fix you, you can stop and most importantly HE LOVES YOU! Amen

One Love, One King, All Christ!

he makes all things new ( Restoration)

We Finish Undefeated!

I begin this story while on a trip to a Band of Brothers Christian Men’s retreat.  There are two of us in the car and just pouring our souls out to one another, or better yet getting soul naked, as one of my close friends calls it.  As in most cases when you are pouring out your soul you are usually talking about your past and your sin.  We love to get to the point of freedom and tell how God “Exorcised the Demons!” from our lives.  We were in the depth of our talks and this was much needed for both of us.  There was no doubt God brought us together for this trip.  We had a a chance to share moments of warmth, sadness, darkness, despair, pain and Victory.  The 6 hour trip felt more like 2 and the pouring down monsoon didn’t even effect us.  It was right about when we were passing Orlando, in the grind of a deep topic and both responded to a statement saying “Our stories and lives many be broken but through Christ it gives us “VICTORY!”  That was when the seed was planted about this very thought and Jesus whispered so lightly in my ear.  I GET IT now, the cross, the choice, the sacrifice, the change and the need of a Savior.  In this reality, the true reality of the One True God, We(All of us who choose Jesus as Lord and Savior) FINISH THIS LIFE UNDEFEATED!

Think about this concept in that every team or individual who competes not only wants to be a champion but they also NEVER want to lose.  They strive and fight and give all of their blood, sweat and tears to achieve that goal of being Undefeated.  However, when they experience that loss, even if it is just one, it’s there forever well on Earth at least.  We, on the other hand, The Beloved of Jesus do not experience a single loss in Christ, not one.  Scripture tells us that he washes away our sin and when we are clean he sees us as Flawless, as if we never sinned.  That means in his eyes we finish this season(life) Undefeated.  There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, translated= UNDEFEATED CHAMPIONS!  Imagine being able to harness this truth.  We can reach this truth through humility and not through our confidence.  We lay all of who we are at the feet of Jesus.  It is in that position of surrender where he lifts us up and embraces us as a son or daughter and calls us friend.  When we surrender we get in the game, we become a major player and most importantly We Finish Undefeated!

When you search the world to find members of the undefeated team you just need to look at their lives and realize they do not live for themselves.  As a matter of fact they live as if they are nothing, so that Christ is ALL.  I am a part of this team and so are those of you who believe in Christ.  The time to end your thoughts of being a loser or losing this game need to stop now!  If Jesus, who is God, and the Holy Spirit, who is God can look at you and see no darkness, then who are we to say they are liars.  In Christ we are free of sin, just not free from the attacks of it.  However, we being His Beloved need to live every moment and thought in this Light.  What a Glorious Day it is to accept and believe and embrace I am and will FINISH THIS LIFE UNDEFEATED!  Amen

One Love, One King, All Christ!