Learning to See in the Dark - David Mitts

"The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. "Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. "If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays." (Luke 11:34-36)

Click here to listen to "Learning to See In the Dark"

Last week we spoke about offenses which have the effect of anchoring us to the kingdom of suffering operated by the prince of darkness. We realized that only by forgiveness, releasing the attachment to the pain and the lies of the enemy, can we be free to walk on the storms of our lives. We have the privilege, as sons and daughters, to choose life or to choose sin leading to death. We are free in Yeshua but we have the choice to agree with that freedom or remain in the bondage of offense. The key is all in our perspective. Our perspective is determined by the world we put our trust in, where we stand or are seated.

Yeshua calls our perspective the lamp by which we illuminate our lives. It is how we judge our lives that affect the quantity and quality of light that we are and that we can see by. Judgments or offenses are called skandalon in Greek and are the bait of Satan. What do they trap us into? Darkness or a twisted perspective.

Yeshua stated about us: “you are the light of the world”

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Mat 5:14-16).

Light is meant to illuminate. By its nature light brings things into view. When we can see by light we can safely maneuver in the world. Darkness, by contrast, causes us to be doubtful and stumble. Last week we looked at doubt, or what the Bible calls being double-minded, as the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Another name for that Tree could be the Tree of shame and self-protection. It is the Tree of self-doubt. The fruit of the Tree is fear and through fear comes hiding of ourselves from the truth of self-discovery. We fear who we think we are and want to hide that fear from others especially God.

Adam spoke our heart when he said: "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."(Gen 3:10).

He was and we are afraid of the Voice because it will pierce the cover-ups that are the result of our perceived need to hide ourselves from whatever “naked” means to us. It isn’t just physical nakedness but the whole feeling of shame that comes with the fears that someone will discover our secrets which we fear are dark in nature.

Hebrews 4 says it this way:

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. (Heb 4:12-13)

So like Adam, we can learn to fear the voice of God. Religion is an attempt to cover our nakedness with doctrine and mob psychology. The challenge is that God is still walking in the Garden of our lives calling to us: Adam......... Where are you.......

So, He sent Yeshua to free us from darkness which is actually just a form of self-protection and cover-up.

You see, through Adam, we acquired the cover-up, which is self-covering. Yeshua came and told us that we are the light of the world. If we are the light then what is hiding the light?

If we think of natural light, what hides it or makes it of no effect? A covering of some form. It is the same with us. If we think we have something to hide, then we will cover up our light nature. Does the cover diminish the actual light? No! So we don’t need more light we just need more revelation or uncovering, of the light that we already are.

So what is the cover-up that is in the way? Judgments and the belief in the world and its temptations.

When Yeshua began teaching about the light that we are, first He had to face the serpent in the garden, the garden that had transformed into a wilderness. What did the serpent known as the adversary or satan, tempt Yeshua with?

3 World offerings.

1. Power over nature, turning stones to bread.
2. Power over physical safety
3. Power over people, worship.

The temptations were interesting but what was really up for grabs was doubting God. They began with the statement, “if you are the Son of God”......

Like Adam, Satan began with undermining God’s word. God had just spoken “this is my beloved son”... You see when you connect your identity with a behavior, you make your identity servant of the behavior. Once that has happened you are in idolatry.

Men have always tried to make holiness about behavior, performance. If you are so holy, then..... Fill in the blank.....

Yeshua was Holy, not because of what He did or didn’t do. He was Holy because of who He was, is and will ever be, the Son of God. His sonship wasn’t based on performance criteria set forth by the world system. His light wasn’t dependant on anyone’s approval. Neither is yours.

When Satan tried to seduce Yeshua, he used doubt, his only weapon, with “if-then” statements. This was an attempt to anchor God’s kingdom to our reality. If Yeshua proved His divinity, His son status by performing a miracle in response to Satan’s accusations then the eternal kingdom would be subject to the temporal one. Why? Because the identity issue of “if you are God’s Son would be equalized with performance. Yeshua didn’t come to restore performance but identity. Specifically He came to restore a loved identity in its fullest sense.

To give a simple example, I used with a mom this week. A mom is a mom not because of what she does but who she is. She may do good mom things and also make mistakes. None of that affects her being a mom who loves her children. In the same way her children may make mistakes, but that doesn’t stop them from being her children. Satan would jump in a tell the mom, “if you are their mom......”. Whatever he gets her to do to prove she is a “good mom”, automatically puts her in slavery to that condition. She becomes defined by that condition. If she forgets or fails in performing that condition, she condemns herself as a bad mom. This is the lie of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, double-mindedness, performance-driven identity that will result in shame and the need to cover-up.

Yeshua faced the lie-based reality and denied its authority. Instead, He acknowledged the sovereign reality of God’s Voice, God’s protection and love and God’s ultimate place as the source of our trust. By answering the performance-based lies of the tree of good and evil, right and wrong, with trusting in The Father, He showed the narrow way to life and living in the Light.

You see God’s Word is Light. He not only spoke “light be” He was light itself and so spoke Himself. Look with me at the beginning of John:

In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it. (John 1:1-5 TLV).

If you read this carefully, you see that the “Word” and the “life” and the “light” were all the same. The Light which is the Word clothed with flesh and alive with eternal life came into the realm of darkness and was not overpowered by the darkness. Nor can you be. Darkness can only seduce the light that is you to accept its lies and conditional reality based on double-mindedness. At the root of that kingdom is offense.

To walk as the light that we already are, all we need to do is come out of agreement with offense, conditional reality, what the Apostle Paul called the Law of Sin and Death.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Rom 8:1-2 NASB)

Condemnation is the only possible consequence of double-mindedness, the tree of good/evil, right/wrong. When we identify ourselves with outcomes or identify God with outcomes, then the only possibility is offense and condemnation. This is called the Law of Sin and Death. It is the Law of the tree of good and evil, of offense and relative conditional performance. Another way of saying that that may connect with you is the law of conditional love. If I do what you like, then you will love me. It is mammon. It is a lie rotted in the deceiver and his deceptions.

In Christ, we are set free to be who we always have been, the loved children of God. We are born-again into our eternal nature. We cannot die because that law has no jurisdiction over us. It can kill the only part of us that is of the world, our physical vehicle. Believers are martyred every day but they DO NOT DIE!! They merely release the vehicle of dust back to its origin. They live eternally because they are and always have been light.

So, the question then is how do we come to a greater revelation of who we are as children of light and why is that important? Well to answer the second question, first, the whole creation is waiting expectantly for that revelation!

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. (Rom 8:19 NASB).

Our uncovering of the light who we are is connected to our righteousness manifesting and our role as the sons and daughters of Elohim.

Then, we are left with the how question. The how is as simple as repentance, which means to have a change of heart. In Greek, as we spoke a few weeks ago, the word is metanoia, in Hebrew tshuvah. Both paint word pictures of a heart that is converted to a position of alignment with God. Basically, we surrender, we give up the fight of offense. We trust Him and surrender our need to be protected by our own devices. We walk on water.

Activation: Consider this true story of how one can see but not see ·

In the late 1970’s, the genocide by Communist leader Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge army left millions dead and many maimed, among them over two hundred blind women who came to the United States as refugees. One peculiarity was observed among this particular group of women, many of whom settled in Long Beach, California. Their eyes appeared healthy. Brain imaging determined that their visual systems were functioning normally. There was nothing wrong with either their eyes or their vision centers. Curious, researchers dug deeper and learned the truth. All of the women had witnessed terrible suffering-the murder of their children. Together they had subconsciously chosen not to see any more. Over time, they had all gone blind. "Their minds simply closed down, and they refused to see any more," researchers told the Los Angeles Times. 

A tragic story. And not so different from the darkness that now blinds the hearts of most to the staggering realm of the Father, even now. If pain can blind, Yeshua’s love can bring sight to the blind. Through a renewing of the mind, empowered by the Spirit, you can see peace in the storm. The eyes of your heart will be opened, and you will know the presence of the Father now on earth as it is in heaven.

Close your eyes and consider any area of trouble in your mind and say to yourself, “There is more to this situation than what I see.”

Spend time in quiet reflection. Know that if you could see the way Yeshua sees, all the offense you now perceive would go away; all the threats would become harmless swells in a sea that cannot harm you.

Don't you want your vision corrected to see this light instead of darkness? Ask the Holy Spirit to give you this sight-the flesh cannot heal distorted vision.