The Image of God and the Light
Recently a friend of mine, a Reverend very passionate about God sent me an audio message of one of his morning devotions. I listened to it and I was blessed by his version on the importance of Light in the life of a believer. He said that Light brings out the true Image of an individual and it enables the image of God in us to be seen.
I learned allot from that statement and I felt I could share it here. There was a statement I used to like making, that is "when light shines in a dark place, the things in the dark are exposed and that is when cockroaches and rats run away into hiding."
What does this tell us. The bible says in
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
What this says is that many will prefer darkness because of many reasons, one of them being the fact that they do not want their image to be revealed. They stay in darkness because they are ashamed of their image, you will find many if them in or forming secret societies.
Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
Often times nobody wants to be seen in satan's image. It is why even wolves will not show up as wolves but in form of sheep.
Witch-doctors or wizards and magicians will not come as magicians but will put on a false image of God or the sheep but in actual sense they are grievous wolves ready to feast on the sheep. Many come looking like men of God and even quote scripture. They design an image of what a man of God should look like so that even when a true man of God shows up, people will reject them because they donot look like the image set before them by the wolves.
These wolves will do their best to ensure that you don't think or reason but rather take their word as the word from God. They will not allow you to seek God on your own or communicate with God. They become a link between you and God yet we very well know they are not shepherds. If you offer a wolf to look after sheep, they sheep will become prey. Wolves disguised in sheep's clothing hate light. and that is because the light will expose their real identity.
Those who are in the image of God don't fear the light. They freely walk in the light because it shows the image of God. Even satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Satan will always appear as the good one and knows how to convince people that they are doing a mistake to follow God and that he is the cool guy and God has hard conditions.
One of the things the enemy loves to offer is getting you to your goal before the appointed time so that he can sabotage God's plan. The enemy usually finds out the future plan for you and quickly comes to tempt with his offer.He quickly brings an enticing offer that looks better and easier than what God initially planned for you but will in the end dump you like he did to Adam and eve after fooling them and taking their place.
When Satan approached Jesus, he gave him an offer of quick solution to what Jesus was working hard to achieve which means Jesus did not have to die to get all the kingdoms of this world. What satan was looking for was branding. Satan wanted to brand himself on Jesus and eliminate the image of God.
Wen we brand items we put an image of the company inform of logos, pictures etc and then sell out materials. The way satan threw Adam was by dealing out the image of God by creating a false image where Adam imagined himself wise and independent from God.
God is not interested in us being independent from Him because then it would defeat the purpose of being created in His image. When we try to be independent form God we actually take on satan's image because he was the first rebel who wanted independence form God.
We being in the image of God makes us very powerful. That is why Satan could not defeat Jesus but rather he had to use tricks to try to lure Him into abandoning the image of God.
Jesus has in many places stated that He is not independent of the Father, he does what the Father says and what He sees with the Father. The enemy has tried his best to kill the brand of God by introducing many false images and feeding them in the eyes of believers who have for a long time embraced the images.
So he said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that ‘I Am Who I Am’; then you will know that I do nothing on my own authority, but I say only what the Father has instructed me to say.
John 10:18
No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do.”
John 15:15
I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father.
Many come dressed up and performing miracles, prophesying constantly, speaking so-called deep things but leave you very empty yet you continue to follow them because of their miraculous works(magic performances) hoping that you will also get to their place.
Instead of being blessed or ministered to or transformed you leave when you are envious, pitiful, proud, demoralized feeling condemned, wanting to compete among many other negative outcomes.
For long now many people have abandoned the Holy Spirit and His functionality in the church which eliminates the whole identity of a Christian believer.
Without the Holy Spirit, everything we do is on our own or under the influence of the evil one.
Matthew 7: 21 “Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do. 22 When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God's message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!’ 23 Then I will say to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!’
Emmanuel Ranja
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