Kingdom Clash

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." John 1:5..."The New Testament is the story of a clash of kingdoms. The Light stepped into the darkness, and the darkness has been trembling ever since." Chris Tiegreen

When God gave His people Israel their promised land, it was for the purpose of it being theirs forever. They were to live free. Their days of slavery in Egypt were to be forever behind them. Yet eventually, because they never fully embraced their inheritance, they ended up prisoners, slaves, in their own land. One writer stated that Satan has convinced God's people that they are prisoners of war, living in "camps" that he keeps us in. We sit in those camps, discouraged, fearful, even hopeless, just waiting for Jesus to come back and take us away. His Word says that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church, but the church either doesn't believe it, or doesn't know it. So, as the surrounding culture gets ever darker, we hunker down and try to live as fully and freely as we can.....in our POW camps. The greatest tragedy of this lie is that a war has been fought, on the cross and His resurrection, and it is the devil who's the POW. Jesus is perfect Light, and when He stepped into this world, the devil shook with fear. He still shakes with fear. Of our Lord and King, and, if we'll just believe it and live it, of us as well.

I love the story speaker and writer Christine Caine tells of her young daughter who desperately wanted a flashlight. After taking her to a store to purchase one, the little girl excitedly said to her mother, "Now, lets go find some darkness." This is to be the lifestyle of the church and of all who believe on the name of Jesus. Hell shakes and Satan trembles at the mere mention of His name. The deepest, most impenetrable darkness must yield to His Light that pierces even its greatest depths. So must it do with we who carry His Light in this world trapped in darkness.

His Word tells us that the people of God have been transferred and transformed from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light. From the land of death to the land of life. This means that Jesus Christ, almost always through one or more of His people, came into our darkness and rescued us, pulled us out, like those trapped in a deep cave, and brought us out into His wonderful Light. Darkness cannot stop Him because death could not hold Him. All either can do is tremble before Him.....and before those who are His.

To what degree do we live as prisoners and slaves upon our own land? How long have we been living as POW's in a war that we have won in Him? Whether we are there through our own sin, or just the fear and intimidation the enemy seeks to put upon us, we need to know anew, the Light has come, and it has never and will never stop coming. His Light stepped into the world. Let us, all of us, step into His Light.....and behold all of hell, and the devil who rules the darkness, tremble before our King.... and before us.

Blessings,
Pastor O