"When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness," (Luke 22:53).
"To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God..." (Acts 26:18).
"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness..." (Col. 1:13)
"For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee," (Isaiah 60:2).
We live on a dark, fallen planet. There is no question that evil men are waxing worse and worse. There is much confusion over what is right and wrong. People no longer discern the difference between good and evil. Our moral compass is broken. Many even in the Church have taken on a humanistic worldview and no longer rely on the Bible as their source for understanding truth and how we should live this life. Television has been called the devil-vision and hell-a-vision as programs
continually spew out debaucheries, blasphemies, perversions, violence, adulteries, lies, immoralities,
witchcraft, liberal political agendas, etc. Christianity is mocked and God's name used in vain. There is no fear of God. As the darkness increases it would seem like we're losing the battle; but be assured, we're not!
A number of attempts had been made to kill Jesus before the time appointed for him to die. Read the story of one such attempt in Luke 4:28-30. The angry mob had literally thrust Jesus out of the city and "led him unto the brow of the hill whereon the city was built, that they might cast him down headlong" (v. 29). How did He escape? It was not the hour for the power of darkness to prevail. In another incidence recorded in John 8, Jesus' message so upset the Jews that they took up stones to cast at him, meaning to stone him to death. Yet He escaped, "going through the midst of them" (vs. 59). How? It was not the hour for the power of darkness to prevail.
When the "hour, and power of darkness" came into the life of Jesus, he understood that God had a purpose for it and that he would have to submit. It would appear that the darkness would destroy Jesus by beating, whipping, bruising, crucifying, piercing the Son of God. Yet, for all that the power of darkness was allowed to do, it could not overwhelm the Light! Instead, He gained all power over all the power of the enemy. He died and rose, never to die again.
We know what darkness is. We've experienced its power of sinful pleasures and addictions. We've eaten the fruit of disobedience. We enjoyed the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes and the pride of our lives. As sinners, we were not just living in the darkness, we were the darkness! (Eph. 5:8). We were of our father, the devil (John 8:44). We were under his power and did not have the ability to break free on our own. God send His Son to translate [pick up and carry] us out of that kingdom and into His own.
We know that darkness pre-existed creation. The darkness predates our world; it predates mankind. The origin of sin, sickness, death, misery, emptiness, depression, confusion, and all the evil that darkness represents is not of this earth. What is the source of darkness?
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil:
I the Lord do all these things," (Isaiah 45:7).
"God is light, and in him is no darkness at all," (I John 1:5). How then could a holy, righteous, pure and loving God create darkness and evil? It only makes sense by looking at the original language of scripture (using a concordance) and by the revelation of the Spirit of God.
There are different words used in Isaiah 45:7 for "form", "create", and "make". So, let's look first at clues from the concordance:
1. Form - [3335, yatsaq] - to "pour out", to melt or cast as metal; by extens., to place firmly, to stiffen or grow hard.
2. Create - [1254, bara] - to "cut down"; select, choose, dispatch
3. Make - [6213, asah] - to do, accomplish, execute (-ion); exercise, labor, procure, maintain, perform, prepare, provide
What do we make of these definitions?
1. Light was "formed", or poured out. Light poured out of God and that which was "formed" was cast into the image from which it came. Hence, He is the "Father" of lights.
2. He "created" darkness and evil. Something was "cut down" for darkness and evil to be "created". We know that Lucifer and one third of the hosts of heaven were cut down, or thrown out of heaven after pride and self-exaltation was birthed within the archangel (we'll do a full teaching on that later). When God created angels they were given a faculty called "free will" or "volition". Man would also be given this faculty which leads to the ability to select or choose. Without being given a "choice", angels and men would be mere puppets. God wanted us to love and serve Him willingly and out of love, not because we were forced to.
3. Peace was "made". When God made man and placed him in the Garden of Eden, He also placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil within man's reach. The only commandment man had to keep at that time was "do not eat of this tree". It was mankind's test of obedience and he failed. Yet God made peace with fallen man. He provided coats of skin even though man lost his paradise. God prepared from the very beginning to bring forth the One who would become the Prince of Peace and restore mankind back to Himself. It took much labor to provide for our peace and reconciliation, but God maintained a people through whom He would accomplish His will.
There are secret principles you will need to understand as we go deeper:
1. God did not speak the darkness or the evil into existence. They are part of an unspoken creation.
2. The darkness and the evil did not come out of God's being. Because words are spirit and anything that God says carries His character and nature, He had to find a way to create darkness and evil without either speaking it. God is not evil. He is holy, righteous and just. He is love.
The apostle Paul tries to bring understanding to this concept in Romans Chapter Seven. When speaking about the Law, he states that he would "not have know sin, but by the law". He is not saying that the law is sin, but that the law made him conscience of something outside of itself. The darkness and evil makes us aware of something outside of God. It's a difficult concept to grasp. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to bring illumination and revelation.
Let's talk about light and dark as natural phenomena for a moment. In the natural, all light leads back to a source: the sun(light); a flashlight; lamp light; candle light; fire light, etc. You can flick a switch and turn on a light bulb. But you can't flick a switch and turn on darkness. You can't locate an earthly source for darkness. You can only create a dark room or other place by shutting out the light. God separated the light from the darkness and gave darkness a time to prevail. Therefore, evening comes; darkness comes. Yet even in the darkness, God gives us the light of the moon and stars. In the darkness we form sources of light by which to see. The darkness comes because the sun "goes down" and disappears beyond the horizon. It's still shining somewhere; and it will come back around again. But in the meantime, in the natural, you are living in an hour and power of darkness. You cope with it because you find sources of light.
But what of spiritual light and darkness? All true spiritual light comes from the "Father of lights" (James 1:17). Many Christians believe that when Satan and the host of fallen angels
were cast out of heaven, they were thrown into the earth and that is why the earth was covered with darkness and was without form and void. What we know for certain is that Satan showed up in the Garden of Eden in the serpent who was used to tempt Adam and Eve to disobey God. With that one act of disobedience, the power of darkness entered into the human experience.
Next week we will ask and answer more questions about the darkness and the Day of the Lord that is coming.
"Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light," (Amos 5:18).
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