#7 Walking in Darkness

  If we say we have fellowship with him while we 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 his Son cleanses us from all sin. 

     If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

     If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:6-9

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Verse Meaning:

1. If we profess we are real Christians.
2. But we consciously do what God forbids or fail to do what God tells us, the Bible offends to say, "we're liars."  Many would say, "God is offending.  He is judgmental."  Or at least John would be labeled, "judgmental."
3. When we walk in the Light there is fellowship with spiritual Christians.  If we do not walk in the Light, we feel uncomfortable around them and feel more comfortable around the compromising ones.
4. But if we confess [admit, own up to, express true contrition for grieving the Holy Spirit] then we are cleansed and restored to immediate fellowship with Christ; restored to the Light.

Thomas Guthrie used to say: If you find yourself loving any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any house better than the house of God, any table better than the Lord's table, any persons better than Christ, any indulgence better than the hope of Heaven—take alarm.—Selected.

My Testimony

Once, I was compromising Christian.  I hid my sins.  And I  paid for it later.  But as the Bible promises, my sins found me out.  I had a hard fall that broke me. I no longer had the pride and self-reliance I had in conditionally limiting Christ in my life.

When I was in that state, I lost interest in reading the Bible.  I tried to pray.  It bored me.  I didn't know what to say.  I felt it wouldn't reach the ceiling of my house.

Finally, I sat on the floor of my house and asked God why?  I waited for an answer; waited for as long as it took.  In time, the word "blindness" appeared on a black backdrop of my mind.  I was convinced, persuaded, [which is faith and conviction] that those words were true about me.

Convinced and miserable I began to search my soul for every instance of sin that came to mind.  I went back as far back as a child.  I truly confessed and accepted God's forgiveness of each sin brought to mind.  I confessed sins I committed to my parents, siblings, church members, girls, employers, to my soul and body, and most importantly to the Lord.

God is the main offended object.  It is His will, His plan, His heart.  I was an unfaithful servant in relationship to pure living, proper church involvement, prayer openness about my soul and its choices. 

 I confessed that I did not bring to Light all my thoughts before the Lord telling Him.  I told Him I had hid discussing some things to Him.  

Then I told God all about my feelings and desires.  I told Him what I evilly longed for.  I was clear to tell Him the names of the corrupted desires and how my flesh longed to please myself.  Then I told God my affections; all that I loved which displaced Him as Lord.

As I brought each into the Light, I confessed each and turned from them in order to become a vessel totally yielded to the Lord's use, in spite of how that affected my relationships and choices.

       I want to get to article #8 about Walking in the Light which is so important.  But for now I want to speak about walking in darkness.  Just because we are Christians does not mean we are always walking in the Light.

People walk in darkness because they make wrong/sinful choices.  Sinful choices may be about acting defensive, resentment, withholding love from a brother/sister, choosing activities super-ceding enjoyable devotional time with the Lord, failing to look to the Lord in all my experiences and choices, pride, neglect, impurity, covetousness, etc.

If we remain in darkness, we strain our spiritual eyes/perceptions of the true nature of things.  It becomes hard to spiritual things, to read and understand spiritual things.  And lastly, we falsely interpret things.  Then we add those interpretations into a growing belief system which pushes us farther into darkness.  After awhile, being accustomed to the darkness, we begin to call darkness light and begin to say, "We see nothing wrong...."

The Effects of Darkness

Regarding people, we misjudge people.  We wrongly interpret them and we  treat them wrongly. Our tolerance weakens, our patience wanes.  We sound more critical.  We shut our ears to anything which contradicts our views.  

We all have a sin nature still residing in us.  That sin nature hates God, the Bible says.  And it attempts to seduce us with false ideas.  We then begin to call evil good and good evil.

Rom 8:7  [That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot. 

Rom 8:8  So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him. 

When we walk in darkness, we mistake any details of what we are looking at.  When in a dim room, we cannot see the detail of color, contrasts, and values.  So failing to see detail leaves the mind with much imaginations that are wrong.

Persons who walk in darkness cannot understand spiritual people.  

1Co 2:14-16  But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated. 

     But the spiritual man tries all things [he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things], yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one [he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get an insight into him]. 

     For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart. [Isa. 40:13.] 

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The old sin nature refuses to believe and respond to the mistaken things we see.  It will throw all its way to provoke feelings of resistance to the Light. 

The sin nature enjoys living in darkness.  It enables the mind to only see the gratifications, not the dangers.  

Every day we experience life and people.  They confront our emotions and our thinking about it.  But when we walk in darkness, the sin nature attempts to hide the details of what God sees.  We do not see the "whys" of something happening.  We confuse happiness with joy and we settle for happiness, but do not grasp joy.   There is no joy in darkness.

We lack the real joy in dark times, and the discernment how to properly associate with different types of people who may be either a danger or an opportunity to share Christ.

If we remain in darkness our vision assures us that all things are normal and that we must handle them the best we can and that God will only help us in emergency situations.  Darkness assures us that a little sin here and there is alright because we are under grace and that God still loves us to let us do what we want to do.

Circumstances can get bad enough on us that we run to God for Light.  But God doesn't let them see everything clearly until they choose to remain in the Light.  If they are serious enough to remain in the Light and walk away from all known sins, more Light is sent.

God is not in the business of being the local doctor to quickly treat our vision and rush out the door to return to darkness.  He wants us to stay with Him, to abide with Him, to live in the Light so that we walk in a dark world, having the Light of God fully shining within us. 

This is my testimony of experience this is true.  Once I made decisions to boldly and increasingly turn from sins in my life, the more Light I began to have.  I do believe those who walk more in the Light see things good and bad the carnal believer does not and cannot see.

Walking in the Light is walking "in Christ."  We are in Him,  He is within us.  There must be a union, a total surrender and submission to all we know is right.  Being right with God provides Light-as-needed to see truly circumstances, people, and ourselves.

Some years ago, I experienced one of many experiences of new Light from God that helped my marriage.  1st went through several weeks deeply judging each of my thoughts, desires, feelings, affects, and choices.  I looked at my character, my witness, my activities, my influences.  God gave me Light what I needed to do with each of these.

Though responding to the Light in obedience took days for some, weeks to years for others.  But, I  can say that I am very little the man I was 20 years ago.  

Ridding the darkness takes self-examination, transparency, repentance, and a growing commitment to follow Christ at all times and reconcile when I fail.

Purpose to know God by reading, studying, and by all means contemplating the meaning of His Word.  Do word studies on Bible words, verses, passages, etc.  There are plenty of good commentaries on the internet.  If you don't daily feed your soul you will live a life of confession and sinning and confession, etc.   We then remain weak, defeated, and discouraged.

By all means talk with God and explain the darkness you feel and see.  Remember that the things you see in the darkness forms a belief system you believe is real--but these are lies formed by you from the distortions by evil.  Our belief system can only be transformed by walking in the Light.

We will cover this in our next lesson.

Good day.  Determine to get out of the dark areas and back into the full light of God.

#8 Walking in the Light

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Note the word "truth."  It is God's will we order our conduct in the way of truth.  The word "truth" means what is really "real."  When a person watches a movie, he does not see reality.  But some individuals can watch a frightening movie and be terrified.  We can see unreal things and believe something real that causes us to emotionally react.  

In the realm of the world, not everything is real and true.  Satan projects lies through this material world.  He manipulates what we see and feel to believe what he wants us to believe.  And it is easy to wander, to become deceived, and to believe what is a lie is truth.

Consider culture, politics, music, entertainment.  People honestly believe what they believe which opposes Truth.  Few people become persuaded of truth because Satan has so masterfully deceived their minds.

Truth is Reality of what God sees.  We may see tragedy, suffering, hopelessness, even religion one way, but God sees all things different from the ways of man.  In the Bible, God declares that our ways are not His ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts."  Truth is only available to those who walk in the Light.

 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:6 -7 

Henry Alford, theologian and scholar writes, that God's Light is, "the entity of the very atmosphere of Life."  

Light is an entity.  Light is more reality than what we see and feel with our body and soul.  

God's Light is an atmosphere we breathe, we walk about in.  We may not consciously sense it all the time, but is always present.  

It is the atmosphere of all fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Light is peace, joy, love, self-control, kindness, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. Light is God's nature.  Light is God, Himself.  Light is not a separate part from Himself.  Light is the mind, heart, and will of God sent forth to us in each moment of experience to guide us how to respond to them; thereby expressing God, Himself to the environment of people and things.

Basically, the Light of God reveals God's life,    God's life is difficult to explain beyond what the Bible tells us.  It is more experiential than doctrinal.  I can tell you what that means from the Bible.  But God's life can only be seen and understood as the Holy Spirit shines that Light upon God and His life.  As you see; God, Light, Life are all one.  God is each.  God is all.  To say you have God but do not experience Life, you have not God.  If you never have Light, you do not have God and you do not have Life.

John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

The Light says, "this is how you shall live, 

this is how you shall behave, 

this is how you shall speak, 

this is the spirit of your speech, 

this is how you shall dress, 

this is the response to someone, 

this is how to express your kindness and goodness that exalts Christ,  

this is how I want you to tell the truth, 

this is how I want you to treat that person, 

this is how you shall use your body--because you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. etc. 

1 Cor 3:16

In other words, if we hide no sins and we are yielded to God with a clear conscience then we are without a doubt, "walking in the Light."  Though we walk in a dark world and come to see dark things, we can see more reality of what lies behind everything; God's Light on it, and how we are to respond to it.  As we increase our obedience to the Light, we also increase our experience of Life.  We have eternal life, but it is meant to grow within us with abounding fruit.  Life needs Light; just as a plant needs sunshine to grow and bear fruit.

SATAN ATTEMPTS TO DIM OUR LIGHT

Granted there are moments when Satan catches us quickly and we do not consciously look to the Light--because it is always there--we become deceived and may sin.  So, sometimes, the Light of God, though as present and every strong it may be, becomes a target for Satan to dim by the darkness of lies, distortions, and allurements.

Scripture strongly encourages believers to walk in this world with a strong conscious focus to be cautious, discerning, and flee all appearances of evil that would identify us with evil or seduce us beyond our ability to resist.

Next lesson, "Walking in the Light Part 2"

#5 Personal Testimony About Drinking of Christ

Some years ago I was quite discouraged.  My career as a chaplain had ended.  I still had a large family of wife and six kids---and bills to pay.

While no one was home, I knelt beside the sofa and humbly, softly, and slowly asked the Lord for help.  I did not even know how to pray.

I told my Father that my motivation was low, my mind confused.  I did not know what to do nor how to pray at this moment.

So I waited.  In a short time the Spirit of God sent me these verses:

John 7:37-38  On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"

When the message came to me, I agreed I was so thirsty to hear God.  But my heart arose when invited to come to Him and drink.

Still not knowing what to say, I kept my words few and carefully chosen.

So, I opened myself as if a cup unto the Lord.  Not having to ask Him to pour, I drank of the Living Water for as much time as I needed.

In moments, I sensed a growing peace, a special love from my Father.  Hope and faith began to grow.  And by the time I finished, I was a new man.  There was no special direction or prophetic insight, must a peace to keep drinking and keep trusting Him.

The matter of drinking is simply a matter of letting go of my negative thoughts and feelings and surrendering totally to the supply of the Father who is super-abundant in every supply I need for each occasion of the Christian life.

The more I surrendered to the all-caring, all-supplying, all-loving heart of my Father, I knew things would be worked out for my good and the good of my family.

I just needed the filling of God.  He doesn't just supply.  He is the Supply.  Knowing my life before the creation of the world, I was planned, I was known, I was supplied with everything I needed.  God, then, knew my sin, my weaknesses, and my needs.  He foresaw my moments of confusion and helplessness.  He planned a way to reach out to me and clear my confusion, settle my heart, and give me what I needed beginning at the moments I came helplessly to the throne and drank of the Living Water.

You see my greatest need was not a job, not money to pay bills.  My need was Living Water.  I needed my thirst quenched. 

I began to practice this principle on a daily basis since then.  Sometimes I have not practiced it and failed.

But every time I became weak, instead of trying to figure it out or handling it in my own power, I've come to the River of Life [the Lord Jesus] and asked Him for drink to handle the conflict at hand.  Those conflicts may be hurt, temptation, decisions, direction, etc.

In my helplessness I have come.  And in EVERY conflict I have felt the same experience as at first.  This experience has given me peace, wisdom, and proper Christ-like expression.

Again, I fail to surrender every time.  But I would say I do this most every time.

It destroys my tendency to be hasty and poor communication.

This has been the greatest tool in my Christian experience.

Even when improper thoughts assault my mind, I come to Him.  I state my helplessness to handle temptation.  I have no personal power to resist Satan and my own sin and self nature.  I tell Him that.  Then I surrender to Him to fill me with what I need of Him.

As I surrender and believe, I wait with perseverance until I sense as change and  know when I am full.

Especially during temptation, as I turn my attention away from temptation and look patiently to the Lord, in a matter of minutes I feel temptation weaken and spiritual purity and power increase.

I hope this will help you understand what it means to trust God.  It is a conscious action of surrender and drinking of the Lord in each and every moment of life when confusion and weakness overwhelm us.

This brings me to the verse below:

1 Peter 2:2-3  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

  if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 

The result of drinking of the Lord is that the taste is good.

I cannot explain what or how the Lord tastes like.  I cannot explain the taste of a certain food if you have never tasted it.  It is personal, only by experience.

You can never know what the Lord tastes like until you drink of Him.

Another thing, you will discover that the Lord NEVER fails if you wait and believe.  And His faithfulness grows your trust to drink of Him in more situations until completeness is formed in your spiritual formation.

It is addictive and transforming.

Abiding and drinking of the Water
Rick

#4 Drinking For Growth

1 Peter 2:1-3  

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 

   Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

    if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 

Main Words of the Verse Definitions

Malice-Gk. "the intent to hurt"; "revenge"; by holding back love and some expression of disapproval".  Includes resentment, unforgiveness, loosening the union of Christian love

Guile-GK. "to bait or trick someone".  The idea of lying or giving a portion of truth while hiding other facts to make the message acceptable.  Guile is deception.  It is leading a person in a different direction because of the message given.

Hypocrisies-Gk.  "hiding behind a mask, playing a part of a script."  Expressing a message to others, not intentionally practiced in the heart.

Envy-Gk. "means not just wanting what another person has, but also resenting that person for having it. ... that leads to division and strife and even murder. When we envy, we cannot bear to see the prosperity of others, because we ourselves feel continually wretched. Envy begins with desire to possess what another has but merges into resentful discontent."  Precept Austin

Slander-means evil speaking, evil speech, evil report. Slander. Back-biting lies. Defamation. Disparagement. Speaking about others in such a way as to belittle or defame their character.  Precept Austin

Overview:  Note that these sins are rooted in protecting "self/selfishness".  They are the seeds of wanting "other" than Christ as their chief need and want.  Such a poison is unwilling to accept what we do not have and insists ways of protecting the inner image with an acceptable Christian image to assure people we are just like them, but inwardly pursuing a road of deceit to carry out the desires of the flesh nature.  Rick

Point:  Actually, any unconfessed sin harbored blocks the life and nourishment of Christ to the soul.  If you are spiritually dry it is necessary to confront and examine our heart about all things to see what is selfish and what is Christ.  Particularly, these sins listed above are extremely deceptive and dangerous to spiritual growth.  Only an honest, transparent, humble believer will examine and deal with that.

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Growth

Only after we put away sins which expose our hypocrisy, we must then act like a baby.   Become humble, reject selfishness, surrender totally to Christ and live in absolute dependence upon Him at all times.

Return to the simply life of drinking spiritual milk.  Stunted Christians are spiritually dehydrated Christians.  Drink little of the spiritual milk, don't expect to grow.

Have continuous conflicts and find no growth, then examine your drinking habits.  Drink little and grow a little.  Drink a lot, grow much and more able to successfully manage conflicts.

But your cup cannot receive the milk if you do not put away you know what you need to put away.

God is the Milk.  He will limit His pourings in proportion to your putting away.  Be filled with the Spirit is a permeating process dependent on what you empty of yourself.  Spend little time seeing what needs to be emptied determines how much of the Spirit fills your soul.

The old-timers used to spend sometimes hours waiting on God.  The experience was not really waiting on God to give but completely examining what is sin in our lives, then emptying it by way of true confession and complete turning away, then a purposeful yielding the soul to God.  Then the Spirit enters and fills.  It's evidence is by peace and sensing the experiential presence of Christ.

Though time is not the focus.  It is taking the time to examine our hearts when sins of many types move into the heart.  A growing Christian learns to judge inward strayings of the heart, expose them as sin, and turning away from them, yielding completely to Christ.

After we complete this necessary step; right with God completely, we should drink of Him.

I learned this experience some years ago. Deeply discouraged, I knelt and shared with the Lord that I did not know what to say to Him.  I could only say that I was spiritually dry.  I then confessed all I knew He disapproved in my life.

Then, when I felt I had cleared my heart, the Spirit of God brought to mind the words of Jesus, "he who thirsts, let him come unto me and drink....and out of his belly shall flow living waters."

So, I vividly remember opening my whole soul, my spiritual mouth as if I were drinking from a cup.  I then, by faith, drank in Jesus.  Yes, Jesus lived in me.  But Jesus did not live in some areas of my soul:  anxiety, worry, struggles with people, lusts, plans and hopes, etc.

I drank Jesus into my need.  Because He is purity, I drank Him as my Purification and Cleansing.

I drank Jesus as my Provider and my Job Giver when I was unemployed.

I drank Jesus as my Wisdom when I needed wisdom for family or work situations.

I drank Jesus when I felt discouraged.  I took Him as my Encourager, waiting and heard words from Scripture that guided my heart in hope.

I still do this.  Whenever inner conflict arises, I stop and drink the Lord into that or those areas.  I have many recurring needs.  I recognize my need and drink Jesus as the supply to that. I leave that to Him, trust Him, and believe He will take care of it. 

The result:  He always has.  He always does.  He changes my inner conflicts into rest and works my outer circumstances to work out for His plan and my good.  And I can handle all of that.

Tasting this kind of experience with Christ is good.  I feel good AFTER I follow this task.  It truly works in everything I do--yet there are times I don't drink.  I wallow, I stay in my rut until I decide to confess and drink again.  I don't know why I allow my will to remain so childish to keep Christ out of my true needs.

Hope you practice drinking of Christ and taste how good the Lord is.  Only with this do you have abundant testimonies to help others in the Body of Christ.

--Rick