Walking in The Light
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1 John 1:5-10:
5This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7But 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. 8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
We discussed this passage of scripture a little in prayer Wednesday night. I have been thinking about it ever since. There is some wonderful, liberating, truth here.
Verse 5 says that God is light and in Him there is no darkness. It goes on to say in verse 6 that if we walk in darkness, we are not practicing the truth and we are liars. Seems pretty harsh, but John is getting ready to pop the top on something wonderful!
7) But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from ALL sin. The key is walking in the light (which we established that God is the light). If we skip to verse 10 for a second, the scripture tells us if we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and His word is not in us.
When we walk in the light, the light (God) exposes our darkness (sin). If there is no light (His truth), then we walk in darkness (sin) and we do not have fellowship with each other and His truth can’t be in us. In order for us to see our sin (darkness) we must walk in His light. The greatness of this comes in verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God knows we are sinners. His light exposes our darkness, but it is the fact that the light opens our eyes to see our sin, and also opens our eyes to what Christ did on the cross. Now, because of what He did, we can walk in the grace that His death bought for us! That allows us to approach God, confess our sin, and to be cleansed from ALL sin! Thank you Jesus!
When we refuse to confess our sin, and try to hide the darkness inside us; when we conceal our sin like Adam and Eve tried to cover their naked bodies, we are not allowing His truth to set us free, or receive His forgiveness in our lives.
Let’s walk in the light today. Let’s not be ashamed, but walk in the truth that in fact we are spectacular sinners, but we have been saved by a spectacular God and we no longer have to walk in shame, but know we are forgiven because of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice.
Kevin
Rightly Handling the Word of Truth II
1) Do you use the Bible every time you are communicating biblical principles? If you don’t, then why not?
The amount you use of God’s Word in your communication will determine how much the people who hear you value it. This is powerful! Read that again! People will not value the Word if you do not use it as the foundation on which you build everything you communicate. When you do not use the Word as your foundation, you can be easily deceived and you have no basis for anything you say. The scripture we have been breaking down says to”present yourself to God as one approved”. How can you present biblical principles without the Bible? Psalms 119:105 states:Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path. Joshua 1:8 states: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
I rest my case on this point.
2) When you prophesy, or when you hear a prophesy, does the prophesy line up with scripture?
For an example, you are told by God that you should prophesy over this person that they should start an orphanage. Then you think you hear from God that everyone in the room should cluck and peck the ground like chickens and God will perform a miracle. Ok, we have two words. One is from God, one is not. Would God call someone to start an orphanage? Sure He would! James 1:27 says: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. As long as the person who is called bears witness(or is in agreement) with what you are saying and the person called to start an orphanage isn’t a child molester, we can be pretty sure that this is a Word from God. However, besides the health issues and embarrassment factor of pecking the ground and clucking, which are enough to bring the word into question, there is no biblical precedent for anyone in the bible being told to act like animals in order for God to heal someone. Second of all, according to scripture, if someone is sick: James 5:14)Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15)And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. There is no biblical precedent for clucking and pecking, but for the anointing of oil and prayer, so we can both from a physical and biblical standpoint judge that that word was not from the Lord.
I have a couple more questions for you next post.
Kevin
Rightly Handling the Word of Truth
2 Timothy 2:15) Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
I have been greatly impressed by God as of late about this topic. This scripture has been resonating in my soul over and over. I have not felt more passionate and strongly about a topic in a while. That is the topic of rightly handling the Word of Truth. I must say that there are some things that have come up in recent days that has only stressed the urgent need for this to be taught in the church.
We are living at a point in history where there is a strong effort by those who truly do not know Christ to blend different religions into one train of thought, that there are many ways to know “god”, whichever one that may be. If we truly believe in Christ, we know that He is the only way to have a relationship with the one and only true God. If we solidly believe that, we are not going to fall into the New Age Oprah gospel that is going around.
While this is very disturbing, I am addressing something that is even more pressing. There are different levels of truth. For example, the divinity of Jesus is without question. Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection are without question. They are absolute truths.
The problem is when we are talking about other things in the Word that may not be so “In Your Face”. There is yet another level of truth. There are ordinances, giftings, and teachings that we learn about after we have come to know and put our trust in Christ. Things we need to know and practice to deepen our relationship with God. They also help us to become witnesses of Christ so that we may share the gospel with those who do not know Him. This is the area that those who share these truths have to be extremely careful to rightly handle the Word of Truth.
I know in this fast-food society it is easy to pick up a book on a topic, read it, and preach a sermon on the topic. It is easy to give a prophetic word when it is full of wonderfully positive things and the people are eating it up. If a well known preacher, teacher evangelist says something on TV it has to be right. Right? There is no way that they could be wrong! Right? If you have to ask that question, then you are walking on some very shaky, dangerous ground. I am going to ask some questions and share some principles to help those who communicate the Word, and give those of you that are hearing some simple tools and benchmarks to judge whether or not what you are hearing is truth.
Stay Tuned!
Kevin
