The point of darkness is to release the light. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it-John 1: 5. The darkness cannot stop something it cannot understand. You cannot penetrate something that is unfathomable. The enemy is destined to misunderstand God’s ultimate purpose. If he had known the purpose of Christ in redemption, he would have chopped down every tree in Israel! His own darkness is so persuasive he will continually misinterpret events and miss the point of what God is doing.
He seeks to make us vulnerable to that which he is subject to; misapprehension. This is the capacity to interpret events from a lower order of being. Since the fall from heaven he is out of the loop regarding ultimate purpose. The enemy wants to develop that same blindness in us so that we are in the dark about the purposes of God towards us. Doubt, mistrust, fear, anxiety, tension and apprehension are all constructs of being in the dark rather than living in the shadow of the almighty, living in the light-Psalms 91: 1.
Jesus came saying: I’m the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life-John 8: 11. Light is essential to this life in the Spirit. We are to walk as children who stay in the light-Ephesians 5: 8 We fight the darkness best by remaining in the light. We fight only on God’s terms. We are in Christ who is our light and life. His light brings revelation, which gives us the ability to see in the dark.
Revelation is concerned with God’s disclosure and our admission that what He says is the truth. Insight prevails regardless of circumstances. Revelation is often a shock to our system and an absolute bombshell to the enemy. True light opposes that which does not originate in Christ. When revelation occurs, we must step into the light it brings and walk into newness of life. The darkness that has clung to us must be expelled along with all the negativity that it produced. God’s word functions as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path-Psalm 119: 105. There is a present/future aspect to walking in the light. Sometimes God illuminates only the space around our feet because he is teaching us to walk step by step with him, in the here and now. He will not bow to our need-to-know details regarding how it’ll work out in the future. We learn trust on a day-to-day basis.
At other times his Word is a light to the path ahead of us and we step into a broader place of illumination and intention that allows us to look further in front of our present location. When God illuminates the future he is reorienting our present into a larger understanding and experience of his purpose for us. He needs us to become more familiar with our destiny so he upgrades our current identity in line with his future intention. We must have time to adjust to a higher position and become accustomed to the desires of God for us in this new space.
Reorientation is a crucial part of our development where we make adjustments in alignment with his intention. Our sense of direction is enlarged and our new location in the Spirit impacts upon our current situation. We rise up as we grow up.
Wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness- Ecclesiastes 2: 13. As we walk in the light our capacity to exceed is greater than the ability of darkness to prevent. We learn how to prevail against any opposition. Abundance increases when resistance is present. When the enemy contends, we can abound. It is not enough for the people of God to survive in circumstances. We must triumph! We can learn the art of conquest with success. We cannot just engage in defensive warfare. We must overcome to the point where the enemy becomes cautious of fighting against us. We are more than conquerors (Romans 8: 37) when he fails to show up for the fight. We out rival our chief rival.
We dare not conceive of life outside the splendor of Christ. The light of His Majesty shines through us in all our earthly situations. This is what it means to walk in the newness of life.