The Light of the World

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16

Writing this, I had the absolute hardest time deciding where to start. How do you explain a spiritual matter to somebody who may not see what I see? So, I will just ask you. Do you know that the light shining is not you, and that the good works are not your doing? I will try to approach this from several different angles, all of which need to be taken into consideration, so please hang with me for a while. Hopefully, in the end, it will all blend.

I look around in the community, mainly on social media, and see people’s giving hearts in abundance, ready to help wherever needed. Single mothers not knowing how to dress their little ones, people in need of housing and jobs, or dog food, and especially lately, lots of hardship through fires and flooding. These people give and help, and they are heathens, not driven by the love of God. They almost seem to outdo the church. You might say, “Yes, but we spread the Word of God along with it”. Good if you do, but I am boldly saying that is not the light that Jesus is talking about, and those are not the works that glorify God. That would be an external shining, but the Word of God talks about the internal Light. We can’t produce it; it’s impossible to be man-made.

So, what is it that makes the light shine if it’s not us? What is the light?

When I look at a lamp and light, I have the picture of an old oil lamp, glass, wick, oil, and flame. You are the body that holds the oil, which is the Holy Spirit. The glass is God’s protection for you. He takes care of the turbulences that may get in the way. The spark that lights the wick is God’s power/fire; the Light is the Holy Spirit. Shine!

The Light that shines through you is the Holy Spirit, and that’s why I will, from now on, write it capitalized, and the man-made shining light in small letters for better distinction.

You can’t do a thing to make Jesus shine bright in this world, no matter how hard we try, but we can let Him use us. **** Even Jesus said that He could do nothing on His own. **** That should make us think twice.

It is so important to understand that we are only the vessel through which God shines. One of the most misquoted Scriptures is Philippians 4:13 because people don’t live it. Many Christians try to help out Christ, which often has the opposite result. We have a world full of pagans hating Christians, not because they hated Jesus first (well, that too), but also because of our sorry attempts to shine and just being dull and artificial.

The Light of Life is the Holy Spirit Himself living in us. When people you have never met are drawn to you and feel connected to you, they are sensing the Holy Spirit in you. It is only with the Spirit’s help that things come alive! Take the Word, for example, it is said to be most powerful, and that is why people quote Scripture instead of speaking their hearts and demonstrating their love for God. It can be the biggest turn-off to the non-believer to be bombarded with Bible verses. But the Word is the most powerful thing in connection with the Holy Spirit! Yes, it can turn hearts in split seconds! That means we need to be directed by the Holy Spirit, not to waste our pearls. We need to be careful where we throw the seeds. And we need to be ready ourselves, not perfect, but ready.

In Luke 24:45, Jesus opened the minds of the followers to understanding, but told them to wait till they were clothed with power (V. 49). That is the secret of the shining Light!

At the very end of my study, I came across Matthew 7:28-29. These verses look to me like the perfect answer to the light question. And Jesus acts like one with authority. It is because He had the Holy Spirit. At this point, Jesus did not perform miracles; the people weren’t persuaded by healings, but because He spoke like one who knew God. He spoke like one who had seen prayers answered and like one who believed that God was Lord in any situation. He knew His mission, and He knew who His Daddy was. He was the shining Light.

It takes sweet, close fellowship to get to know God, being one-on-one with Him. You can speak in authority when you know that your Father is with you and who you are in Christ. Being led by the Holy Spirit, we can say anything to anybody in complete confidence.

It is that boldness that speaks, boldness that comes from within because the Light is on, because we're on fire for Jesus, and we are on a mission. We're lit up lamps. The oil is lit, we are on fire. We can even witness without speaking. Because the Holy Spirit is shining through us, we don't have to try to make God look good. God looks good!

Most Christians never get that far because they are either not encouraged to live it, or they haven’t even heard that there is such a personal connection, that deep, possible with God. They don’t get the revelation from the Holy Spirit to be set on fire to experience God in a personal, intimate way. I'm telling you, being touched by the Holy Spirit, being touched by God, will change your life forever!

With this close fellowship with Jesus, Light witnessing allows for seeds to be planted or even for miraculous transformation to take place. Non-believers may not have Holy Spirit discernment, but they sure can check if you’re genuine; they analyze you. Their judgment of Christianity is what they see in you. You reflect their thoughts of God.

Let’s look at Luke 11:34

The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness.

THE EYE IS THE LAMP OF THE BODY

The sight/insight/wisdom/knowledge of God you have is what illuminates you. You are the lamp.

WHEN YOUR EYE IS CLEAR

If your insight, etc., is clear or single, in other words, in union with Christ/solemnly focused on Him, then…

YOUR WHOLE BODY IS FULL OF LIGHT

Your body/your whole substance/your being (your lamp) will be full of light, aka shining! You can’t make yourself shine, but He can make you shine.

In Luke 11:35-36, we see that the light can be Light or darkness. Hmm, it will become clear soon, and take note that it says, ‘watch out’, meaning you're part of this.

Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.

We usually relate darkness to sin, but it also translates to obscurity. I looked it up in the dictionary. It’s like a state of being unknown, unimportant, or difficult to understand, unclear. Thayer’s Lexicon adds: metaphorically ignorance, which comes close to what I call it – little undercover demons.

We think people in darkness are murderers, thieves, and liars, but the truth is that all who are deceived by the enemy’s lies (even Christians!) are living in darkness.

It is ignorance that keeps us in darkness if we don’t dig into the Word. I mean, dig in deep. Digging deeper and deeper, not only into the Word but also into ourselves. We need to get to know who we are in Christ, see our potential, and uncover all the lies that the enemy planted as far back as early childhood, which hinder us from shining.

All those things are hindering us from shining the Light; they put spots on the glass.

I’m not saying that we should wait to shine and witness till completion/perfection; that won’t happen on this planet. But instead of trying to save the rest of the world right away, we need to take a look at ourselves first and wait till our Light shining starts naturally from within, without squeezing or the extra human illumination. And again, **** even the disciples were told to wait till they were empowered by God. Acts 1:4-5 ****

Back to Luke 11:35. So, the light within us shining/ruling over us is a spirit connected to our spirit, either the Holy Spirit or the spirit of the enemy.

The darkness here can be so many different things, for example, lies of the enemy about our dysfunction, unworthiness, wrong ideas about what God wants from us, or the fear of man. If you are only shaped by your upbringing and your circumstances, you are not reborn of God! People can very well live by good standards without being transformed by God; in fact, there’s a whole lot of unbelievers putting us Christians to shame at times.

The depth we need to dig for brings up questions like: Where do I get my security from? Is it perhaps from looks, job title, dress code, bank accounts, or work, etc.? Why am I really so busy? What bad experience made me put up a wall and create this rule for life? It’s shocking, but even pastors fall into this category.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to butcher you here. We're all humans, and we have faults like that; it’s how we grew up. That is why we need Jesus! Any kind of self-preservation is not trusting God that He can provide. Offense is also a big subject in the Christian world. Truly, we shouldn’t ever be offended if we live in the love of God that we claim. Offense is a snare. So many other subjects like pride and or victim mentality, and on and on. Why don’t we invest more effort into fighting it for the sake of the Light? Why do we believe we are good where we are at? All those things hinder us from being who God intended us to be. Our work is most of all to be presentable and usable in His eyes. In John 6:29, Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” I truly believe that the secret of the Light doesn’t lie in the perfection of the work but in the willingness to proceed.

We should invest and put in effort to reveal those hidden stumbling blocks, but there’s only one who can expose them, and that is the precious Holy Spirit. We can make ourselves look clean, but only God can rebirth us John 1:13. It does not stop by committing to Christ, receiving the Holy Spirit, and then living like before, by what we’ve learned growing up and believing that we are good in our own eyes. That is the danger of self-righteousness! We need to be redone by His power and revelation.

Coming from atheism, the first question I asked myself in this study was, what turned me off the most about Christians and their witnessing? I think looking back, it was the shy, timid approach of the super-humble. They seemed fake, stiff, and too formal to connect, almost creepy, like they were trying to get me sucked in. Of course, the opposite, big-mouthed, bullying, and demanding Christians standing at the street corner, offending everybody, didn’t do it either. The Lord knew there was only one way to get me, the real thing, by letting me meet the Light shining through a person. That’s how He got me :)

Today, as I have grown in my understanding (and many other things :), I still see some things that seem opposite to the shining Light that Jesus was talking about. For example, people who have to justify their every move, backing everything they say up with tons of Scripture to cover every ground. Or those who are hesitant and give evasive answers, always making sure they don’t hurt anybody’s feelings. They don’t feel real to me, even though their intentions may mean well. They make themselves go witness instead of being the witnessing Light. Jesus didn’t have to squeeze it out or set a time to do it; He was! So, be!

The things just mentioned are the big, obvious hang-ups, but there are many Christian character flaws because we were never willing to dig down into the depths of our souls. If we do have that commitment to want to learn, the Word of God will bring it out! The Holy Spirit will nudge us; He is more than willing for us to advance.

The perfect man-made Christian (Pharisee) is self-righteous, a white-washed tomb, as Jesus called him. He does not see his sin of self-sufficiency, indifference to the Holy Spirit, and lack of trust in God. Those kinds of sins keep us spiritually blind. They stain. They blot out the light. The self-righteous Christian is not able to advance and receive more truth.

We do not want to be the white-washed tombs which Jesus rebuked, clean on the outside but never cleaned out from the inside. No, not on purpose. But Christians walking with the Lord for forty or fifty years can still be unstable, uncertain, insecure, restricted, and bound by inner or outer circumstances, never even knowing why they do the things they do. The enemy is so sneaky, working hard undercover to keep the kingdom from progressing. And don’t you ever think that just because you got baptized, you are immune to it. It is only through the Holy Spirit that we can see, change, and live in freedom, being free to shine wherever needed!

Practical Application

The shining of the Light and the gifts of the Spirit are in the same mistaken category for many folks. I will use a spiritual gift in human hands as an example to give you a picture that also applies to the Light shining.

We can be the vessel and let God, or we can take over. Imagine Ben seeing the best in things and people, and having encouraging words for everyone around him. One day, somebody asks, “Do you know that you have the gift of encouragement?” It had never even entered his mind before, but now he is looking for opportunities. He wants to be the best for God that he can be. As he checks his surroundings, he finds plenty of things to say that people like to hear. He keeps at it, and his focus is on finding more occasions. It becomes a habit; sometimes, he starts an encouraging statement just because, and mid-sentence, he realizes that there’s really nothing encouraging to say in this situation, so, rambling on, he makes something up. In all this, guess where his focus is not anymore? On the Lord!

You may have heard it said that the apple on the tree doesn’t groan and moan to grow; it happens naturally. It is the same with the given gifts, and also with the Light shining. It’s effortless because it is Him in us. Happy shining!

Another example now about the Light. Jenny is shopping at the grocery store and God prompts her to buy diapers in size 3. A little puzzled, she adds it to her shopping cart. Back out in the parking lot, she sees this woman with tears in her eyes fastening her toddler into the car seat. Jenny observes the situation and stops at the car, handing the woman the diapers and saying, “I believe those are for you.” She is now beyond a few tears and gasping for words as she explains her tight situation and that food is more important right now than diapers. Do you think that this woman will be receptive to hearing about a God who actually cares for her needs and provides? Of course. And God is in it! Charity, yes, but on His terms!

Christian Sayings and Thoughts of those who haven’t dug deep yet

“My light needs to shine brighter”. – You can’t make it shine brighter! But you can polish the inside of you together with Him.

“Not by my power, but His”. – Then step back and let God!

“But I’m just human”. – No, you are not. The spiritual world has opened up to you, and you are to walk in it and draw from it.

“I was always like this” or “I can’t help it”. If you stay the same as you’ve always been, then you’re not rebirthed. And yes, you can help it because you are empowered by the Most High.

“We need to make an impact”. – No, just be! And follow, and He will.

“We need to reflect Him, not ourselves”.  – It ain’t an option! If He shines through you, you can’t overshadow Him.

On this last one, let me add part of the Scripture from the beginning in Matthew 5:14 You are a city set on a hill by His design! That city doesn’t worry about being seen or drawing attention to itself, and after all, He set it there. Luke 8:16 also talks about letting your Light shine. The previous verse, Luke 8:15, talks about the good soil that produces good fruit. So then, let that Light in you – God’s Spirit in you, your works and your fruit shine. See, God lit the lamp (you); He doesn’t want it under a basket. Then, who are we to put it under the bed? Oh no, I don’t want to draw any attention to me or similar other wrongfully humble thoughts I hear quite often. Show off your good works, the works that come from deep within through faith and the Holy Spirit’s molding.

If you’re good about the things I shared so far, look at it as a reality check and move on, empowered knowing that you got it. And shine!

Scripture Thoughts

John 6:29 If you believe in Him, you believe also in the Word, every Scripture, His precepts, His guidance, and His promises. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling!

Luke 6:45 Is Go(o)d in your heart? Whatever is in us will come out. We don’t need to squeeze it, and we don’t have to worry about what comes out if we are fueled by Him.

Psalm 127:1 Unless the Lord builds it, you build in vain. Unless the Lord shines through you… And in case you are still wondering how, verse 2 states: For He gives to His beloved EVEN in his sleep.

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 My message was not in my smart words but demonstrating the Spirit and power because I don’t want your faith to be on the foundation of me (by now I leave this up entirely to your imagination).

Psalm 67:2 That Your way may be known!

Luke 8:16-18 Parable of the lamp – God lit it and wants you on a lampstand, don’t hide the Light, and don’t hide your fruit (V. 15). Verse 17 has another twist – your secret flaws are known to God; they may be a secret to you, but they will be made known and become light. The more open you are to it, the more understanding and wisdom you will gain.

Psalm 34:1-2 Praise Him continuously. Boast!

Isaiah 43:7 Whom I have created for my glory… Do you know yourself, the way God sees you? We have no excuse; we have the cure! The cure for the misery of humanity.

Ezekiel 37:14 I will put my Spirit within you, and you will come to life, He said.

Isaiah 12:4 Make known His deeds among the people. You can only shout, praise, and sing to the rest of the world if you have personally witnessed His glorious deeds, and then nothing will stop you. But if you are the prayer warrior who doesn’t know the endless answered prayers, you only have head knowledge of God. The Holy Spirit alive in you will stop you from being quiet. It will flow out of you and evidently shine through you naturally. This is the Light Jesus was talking about.

Isaiah 29:13 Their reverence for me consists of learned tradition. If you realize you have the real communion with God missing in your life, it’s not too late. You can start right now and call upon Him. He is willing to love on you this moment, and forever on! Abiding in Christ is not a recommendation; it is a requirement for our Light to shine. 1 John 1:7 is very clear about it. Fellowship is a two-way relationship. Do you hear Him? Is His presence with you?

Matthew 12:36 Every idle word spoken… Man-made fruit falls into this category also. If we speak without the Spirit’s prompting to witness, sadly, it can be more harmful than nurturing at times. Stop feeling the need to say something without the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Idle also means inactive or barren. That clearly points to a word without the Holy Spirit being there to manifest. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about us seeing the instant result of the seed sown. That is not necessary, but the power to reveal the seed needs to be present. We need to be in His will!

1 Corinthians 1:18 Even the Word spoken or read without the Holy Spirit's power is only black letters on white paper. Don’t forget that. I know people who read the entire Bible and didn’t find God in it; only the Lord knows why.

2 Timothy 4:2 tells us to be ready in season and out of season. Too many people are misled by feelings, which makes an out-of-season ministry almost impossible. Don’t wrongly apply Colossians 3:15 when it gets uncomfortable while the Lord gives you a task.

2 Corinthians 3:17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is…. Freedom to be. Freedom to shine. Freedom to witness effortlessly!

John 8:12 Jesus is the Light. And you are His Light on this earth. Shine!

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