// THE GREAT LIGHT – PART 2 \\

Col 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

This hope was a mystery of how God would bring any hope at all to the Gentile world which was most of the world.

He would do it through Christ being within people.

Christ dwells in us through our invitation, through our faith, believing He is within and through the Holy Spirit.

This hope is not the hope of wishful thinking.This hope is the sure expectancy of what we know is going to happen.

‘Christ in you’ is that guarantee of Heaven.

Christ in you is also the guarantee that you are going to make it through whatever you are facing and will not only survive, but you will experience the glory of God in your circumstance. This hope is the sure anticipation of a glorious future. God’s love for you will ensure that He will see you through whatever it is that you are facing. He has not brought you into His Kingdom to destroy you. The devil comes to do that. God has come to bring you through whatever you face so you are formed into the image of Christ.

Christ with us and in us is the assurance that our future will not be embarrassing, shameful or denigrating, but it will be glorious. This hope obviously refers to heaven and eternal life in the future, however, neither is it limited to this. This hope refers equally to our here and now. This hope is not the wishful thinking of an uncertain heart. This is the utterly assured knowings of the heart filled with Christ.

Jesus did not say He brings resurrection.

He is the resurrection. Whatever He is connected to will rise. If He is in us, no matter how deeply we are buried in hell, in darkness, in impossibility, if Christ is in us, we have definite hope of a glorious emergence from that dark place into a glorious position both here and in eternity.

If Christ is in us, we know our blessed future is certain. If we do not own that assurance, it is doubtful that Christ is within.

Christ is not ‘a’ hope, He is ‘the’ hope!

This is the mystery God hid from previous generations, but now reveals.

Our assured anticipation of a glorious future is not based on keeping a law of commandments, or on obtaining secret knowledge, or on being born into a particular race, or being born at a particular time. It is having Jesus Christ the Son of God within that guarantees anyone a glorious future.

Hope is the antidote to Despair.

Faith is the antidote to Doubt.

Joy is the antidote to Depression.

Wholeness is the antidote to Brokenness

Freedom is the antidote to Bondage.

Love is the antidote to Hatred

Forgiveness is the antidote to Revenge

Strength is the antidote to Weakness.

Encouragement is the antidote to Discouragement

Acceptance is the antidote to Rejection

Life is the antidote to Death

Heaven is the antidote to Hell

Jesus is the antidote to the Devil.

He is the Light of the World.

Sometimes the darkness is not because of our circumstances but because our eyes are shut. We’re in the dark because we’ve never had the chance to have them opened.

In John 9 Jesus comes across a man born blind.

Puts mud in his eyes, tells him to wash and the man is healed. In the midst of working this miracle Jesus declares He is the Light of the world.

Light comes into our lives as much through the opening of our eyes as through us coming out of darkness.

John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

We are born with our eyes shut.

Only when we are born again are these eyes opened.

Then we see with eyes that are of the heart, in our spirit.

‘Unless a person is born again they cannot see God’

The birth of Christ was the coming of the great light into the world.

From the moment of Creation the first element established was Light. This light was Christ.

Jesus is the Word, and the first words God speaks are;

‘let there be light’

This was spoken into a world that was described by the Hebrew words that mean ‘Chaos and confusion’ – ‘waste and empty’, and darkness was on the face of the deep.

Light is the answer for darkness.

Light is the answer for confusion, bringing clarity and clear direction.

Light is the answer for emptiness bringing life, growth and abundance.

This light is not the light of the sun. That came on day four. This was light at another level. This light was the very life of God. This is the mysterious force of life, the God particle. Christ Himself is that Life. He is that Light.

This was God establishing Christ at the very centre of everything.

When God said those first words in the process of creating an unending universe and the Earth, He spoke Christ into the foundation of it all, so that all creation is upon Christ, in Christ, and through Christ.

 Amen!

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There Is A River – 8 weeks to go #presen

There Is A River – 8 weeks to go #presenceconference
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// the great light \\

Mt 4:16

      The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,

      And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death

      Light has dawned.”

When Jesus was brought to the Temple to be dedicated to the Lord an old Prophet Simeon, came by the Spirit and prophesied over Jesus that He would be a light to the Gentiles.

Lk 2:32

      A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,

      And the glory of Your people Israel.”

IN DARKNESS;

PEOPLE STOP

When people are in darkness, they stop moving, or move very slowly, very cautiously, however, after a while they stop, then they sit, going nowhere. There are several things that are essential to our well being. One of them is to know we are moving forward, to know we are making progress. To feel like we are going nowhere, completely frustrates how we are built.

People sit down also because they’ve lost the energy to walk or even stand, to make decisions or to hold ground against the pressure.

When we’re in the darkness of condemnation and guilt we lose energy. We are drained of enthusiasm and motivation when the darkness of discouragement or despair comes over our minds.

We have the choice, to fix our eyes upon the darkness or to fix them on the light.

Isaiah told us darkness would cover the Earth

Isa 60:2

      For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,

      And deep darkness the people;

      But the Lord will arise over you,

      And His glory will be seen upon you.

However, he also told us to not let the darkness overwhelm us but to realise that the Light has come and that we should therefore no longer remain sitting, but stand and arise;

Isa 60:1

      Arise, shine;

      For your light has come!

      And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

In the dark we;

IMAGINE THE WORST

When we’re in darkness we imagine the worst. Something moving nearby is a threat, we imagine it’s a snake, or a spider. If someone touches us we jump with fear. Crime increases when night falls. Most crimes are committed in darkness, not in bright light.

FEEL HOPELESS

People sit in darkness when they’re guilty and feel condemned under the darkness of no hope.

People sit in darkness when they don’t know where they’re going or what to do.

FEEL COLD

Without light there’s often also no heat. When the sun rises the cool night turns to a warm day. Light and heat are often together. Plants grow in the sunlight but die without it. Health comes with sunlight. An old Italian proverb – ‘Where the Sun goes, the physician need not’.

To these people a great light rises, even those sitting in the region of death and in the shadow of death,.

Jesus is not just like the sun, nor is he just like a candle, or a light bulb. He is the great light.

CHRIST IS THE LIGHT, THE HOPE OF THE WORLD.

The reason Christ is a great light is because above all these things He is the HOPE of the world.

When we talk of light shining on our future, it definitely refers to hope beaming into our lives.

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