Light Overcomes the Darkness
In today’s post, I am continuing the theme of God’s light and lightning overcoming darkness.
“The war between spiritual darkness and light is prevalent throughout Scripture. A powerful picture of God’s light prevailing over the darkness of satan is the Cross. John 1:4-5 says, ‘In Him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.’
“The word used for ‘comprehend’ actually has a dual meaning. It is the Greek word katalambano, which means to ‘comprehend’ or ‘apprehend,’ including not only apprehending mentally but also physically.(1) We apprehend thoughts, but a policeman also apprehends criminals. The powers of darkness could not understand or comprehend Christ’s intentions; He outwitted them at every turn. Nor could they overpower or apprehend Him.
“Several translations use this ‘overpowering’ aspect of the definition to translate verse 5. Wuest translates it: ‘And the light in the darkness is constantly shining. And the darkness did not overwhelm it.’ Moffatt says it this way: ‘Amid the darkness the light shone, but the darkness did not master it.’ And The Passion Translation states, ‘And this Light never fails to shine through darkness— Light that darkness could not overcome!’ The Cross was a battle between light and darkness. Light won. God arose and His enemies were scattered.
“Bob Woods, in Pulpit Digest, tells the story of a couple who took their son, age 11, and daughter, age 7, to Carlsbad Caverns. As always, when the tour reached the deepest point in the cavern, the guide turned off all the lights to dramatize how completely dark and silent it is below the earth’s surface. The little girl, suddenly enveloped in utter darkness, was frightened and began to cry. Immediately she heard the voice of her brother: ‘Don't cry. Somebody here knows how to turn on the lights.’(2)
“All creation was terrified, groping in the darkness of sin. Two thousand years ago, God announced to His groping and frightened humans, ‘Don't cry. Somebody here knows how to turn on the lights.’
“I believe satan has some recurring nightmares. One of them is when lightning flashed in heaven and kicked him out (Luke 10:18). He probably hates thunderstorms. The lightning is a horrible visual reminder and the thunder sounds like the majestic voice of God!
"’The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And He sent out His arrows, and scattered them, and lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them’ (Psalm 18:13-14).
"’The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD is over many waters’ (Psalm 29:3).
“Imagine satan’s horror when the light and glory of God flashed at the Cross, the same light that had expelled him from heaven. I can hear him screaming, ‘No!!! There it is again! It kicked me out of heaven and now it is defeating me on Earth!’
“At the Cross, the counterfeit, so-called ‘angel of light’ met the true Light and lost his authority over the earth. Then, the ‘Light of the World’ implanted Himself again into humans - ‘For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light’ (Ephesians 5:8) - filling them with His very glory!
“For the first time satan understood what God meant in Isaiah 60:1-3:
“‘Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you. And nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.’
“For the first time, satan understood that the Old Testament temple was a picture of born-again believers, and that the glory of God that overcame him was in every one of them.
“Many believers are not aware that we are filled with the very glory and light of God. When Paul appealed to the Corinthians he said, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, ‘Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?’ (1 Corinthians 3:16) He used the Greek word naos for ‘temple,’(3) which always referred to the holy of holies, not the word hieron, which referenced the entire temple. Paul was literally saying to them - and to us, ‘Don't you know you are the holy of holies?’
“The word ‘dwells’ is taken from the Old Testament word shakan, from which we get shekinah. The ‘shekinah glory’ was the abiding glory found in the holy of holies. Paul was saying that through Christ the shekinah glory of God now shakans or dwells in us (see 1 Samuel 4:4; 2 Samuel 6:12-19).(4) We are the new holy of holies, a temple of living stones not made with human hands, but by God Himself. Second Corinthians 4:6-7, in the KJV, says it this way:
“‘For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.’
“This glory overwhelms spiritual darkness. Israel carried the Ark of the Covenant, representing the presence and glory of God, into battle (see Joshua 6:6). When the Ark set out, a shout would go up, ‘Rise up, O LORD! And let Thine enemies be scattered, and let those who hate Thee flee before Thee’ (Numbers 10:35). Psalm 68:1, also a warfare verse, is a quote of this verse in Numbers. The presence and glory these verses speak of now abide in us. What we are to understand is that the key to victory is carrying the presence of God into battle with us. He rises and scatters His enemies through us! We are now His ‘ark’!
“John 1:5, our opening verse, has one more often overlooked nugget. Because of the verb tenses and mood, the phrase ‘the light shines in the darkness’ would be more accurately translated as ‘the light is CONSTANTLY shining.’ The light that overcame darkness is still shining - the victory lives on, released through Christ’s body as we enforce it in His name!
“In his first All-Star game, Roger Clemens, the great pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, came to bat for the first time in years. He hadn’t had to bat formerly due to the American League’s designated hitter rule. After watching a blazing fastball by Dwight Gooden whiz past him, Clemens turned and asked the catcher, Gary Carter, ‘Is that what my pitches look like?’
"’You bet it is!’ responded Carter.
“From then on Clemens pitched with far greater boldness, having been reminded of how a good fastball can be so overpowering to a hitter.(5)
“We often forget how powerful the Holy Spirit in us is ... how destructive to darkness is His lightning sword. It has supernatural power to overcome the works of darkness – when we release it with confidence.
“Just as the Israelites carried the presence and glory of God into battle, so must we. All that was in the Ark of the Covenant is now in us: the Bread represented Life, the rod represented priestly authority, the tablets represented the law of God. And the glory that was upon it now shines through us.
“Act like it! Strike with the sword - speak the Word! ‘Let God arise and His enemies be scattered’ (Psalm 68:1) - through your intercession.”(6)
Pray with me:
Father, we enter Your gates with thanksgiving, as the psalmist instructed us to do. We thank You for our redemption. Thank You for placing Holy Spirit and His glory in us, making us Your innermost sanctuary, the holy of holies. We thank You for answering our prayers regarding our nation - You are restoring us back to You and Your destiny for America. We thank You for the revival coming to America and the nations of the Earth, which will save a billion souls.
As You have shown us in recent dreams, we thank You for Your light and glory striking our nation to defeat the powers of darkness and release Your light of truth. We release this light over our government, our schools, homes and churches. We release the lightning sword of Your word to drive out darkness and continue its cleansing work. Expose the deep state and eradicate them. Restore our institutions to their appropriate actions. Sweep over our nation.
We pray for the protection of our leaders - in Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Executive branch. We hear warnings from numerous sources of planned violence; please expose these plans and bring protection.
And we pray for Your grace to be extended to those in California suffering from the fires. The loss is astronomical - please bring grace and comfort. We also continue to pray for the relief efforts from the hurricane destruction in Tennessee, North Carolina and Florida. Please give provision to those needing it, and creative ideas to those helping in the recovery efforts.
We ask all of this in Jesus’ name.
Our decree:
We decree that light will overcome the darkness of our land, in the name of Christ our great King.
Today’s post was taken from my book Intercessory Prayer.
Click on the link below to watch the full video.
Spiros Zodhiates Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible – New American Standard (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1984; revised edition, 1990), p. 1846.
Craig Brian Larson, Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1993), p. 133.
Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1977), p. 422.
James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), ref. no. 7931.
Larson, Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching, p 72, adapted.
Dutch Sheets, Intercessory Prayer (Bethany House Publishers: Bloomington, MN, 1996), chapter 11.
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