Learning to Walk in the Light

Have you felt the warmth and direction of His light? Did you take the step of faith to have your life be different?

In my last blog I invited you to invite Jesus into your heart. Maybe you read it and have invited Jesus into your heart. Or have you believed in Jesus in the past but have never surrendered your will to Him?

My second blog is for the one, or maybe the many, who knows, who desire to be encouraged to live a life of significance. One of living by faith and not by sight. One of surrendering your will to the will of your Creator God!

The Scripture I mentioned last time was from the book of John where he talks about “light” and says, “The light shines in the darkness and darkness has not overcome it!” When you invite Jesus into your life, you are walking from darkness into light! When you laser focus with intent and discipline in a daily walk with God, giving Him first place, darkness is dispelled. God is all-knowing, all-seeing. He knows the future…we don’t. And while we will never be exempt from pain and suffering in this world, when we are living in the light, God gives us his supernatural power, guidance and grace to live our lives with significance, power, peace, endurance and victory.

Let me stop here for a minute and share some things that not all of you may know. We have had a child who is now 27 be diagnosed with a chronic illness at the age of 5, a daughter who was severely bullied, and another son who recently, at age 27, suffered a sudden and massive stroke. His life hung in the balance but praise God, he survived. I have buried both of my parents. Amidst it all were other life storms that I am not interested in sharing for many reasons. During all the life storms, I can testify that I was walking and living in the light. The supernatural peace, direction and comfort I received did not come from humans. It came from God and his Holy Spirit that lives inside of me.

I will be honest. During these times…
I felt fear.
I felt sadness.
I felt anger.

I was overwhelmed but I knew where to take all of these emotions…I turned to the One who truly dispels the darkness I was experiencing. Every single time I turned to the light, the darkness left and when it would reappear, I would repeat turning to the light and rejecting the darkness.

We don’t like to talk about darkness. It’s the elephant in the room. Darkness is from our enemy, Satan. Yes, the devil you have heard about is real. Satan is a fallen angel. One who was prideful and was cast out of heaven. If you have decided you are taking faith steps to believe and trust in Jesus, you need to know what I am telling you is true. Darkness comes from the evil one, Satan. He is in the spirit realm and Scripture (God’s Word) in John 10:10 calls Satan a thief saying, “The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.”

Note here: as you start to read the four gospels I encouraged you to read last time (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), you will find Jesus is referred to as a Shepherd, and we (humans) are referred to as sheep. Since most of us don’t herd sheep for a living nor know any shepherds, just know sheep truly can’t survive without a shepherd. They are animals in constant need of a shepherd. They need to have the wool sheared from around their eyes or they go blind. They are vulnerable to all kinds of attacks. If they fall over or fall down, they are unable to get up without the help of a shepherd.

Understand, God created us. He knows us. We were created to follow and listen to the voice of our Shepherd. We are like sheep who are very much in need of a Shepherd.

I want to focus the rest of this blog on how to battle Satan! Maybe you are learning all of this for the first time or maybe you need to be reminded Whose you are. We have to realize Satan doesn’t have the power that Jesus has. He is not omnipotent nor omnipresent. In fact, Satan flees when he hears the name Jesus.

Jesus knows our thoughts. As you read the four gospels, you will learn just how powerful Jesus is.  Satan can hear our words but not our thoughts. I often say out loud, “In the name of Jesus, leave me, Satan.” Sometimes I have to say it often…but guess what? He departs. I have even learned to play Christian music in my car and on a low setting in our home…to dispel the darkness, keep Satan at bay and invite the light of Jesus.

I could care less if you are doubting and maybe even saying to yourself “this is absurd.” You know why? Scripture is true. I have lived this and it is true…this truly leads me and ushers in His light daily and keeps the darkness from sliding, sneaking in. I cannot stress this enough. If you are brand new at this (trusting Jesus), desire a better life and you are taking faith steps without seeing or knowing much…I am inviting you to trust God. Trust my testimony in ways to battle the darkness and to live in the light.

Don’t forget – you cannot live what you do not have. My suggestion is to start your day in prayer and reading His Word. Saying simple short prayers throughout your day. I call them arrow prayers and they go something like this:

Lord help me to feel You and see Your hand in my day.
Lord help me to see and take the way out You provide when I am tempted to revert to my old life.
In the name of Jesus, Satan depart (say this one out loud).
As I read my Bible, help me to understand what I read.
Open my eyes to Your leading…

These are a few simple prayers to shoot to God…HE hears all!

I will leave you with this Scripture to meditate on…found in John 3:20-21, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

Remember, darkness hates the light. If you have taken this faith step to trust God, those around you who have not taken that step are in darkness. They may not even know about the difference between darkness and light. Be aware – they may not understand and that is ok.

You are on a new journey. Stay strong and stay in the light. Those around you who are still in darkness may be changed by your life…and may start to desire the light!