The Kingdom of Light

What is it that allows us to see? Most of the time when we think about sight we immediately think of our eyes. But is it really our eyes that give us sight? When God created the earth it was covered in darkness and then God spoke "Let there be light." and suddenly everything became visible. Our eyes are helpful but without light they are useless cells in a socket. Jesus put it this way, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light." (Matthew 6:22). Yes it is light that gives us the ability to see. When our eyes, spiritually and physically, are good, then we can see everything more clearly. It's interesting that Jesus says that our whole body will be full of light. When I think of that I think about cleaning my house. I'm a chicken farmer so my house needs constant cleaning. Sometimes I clean at night with just a few lights on and in the morning I suddenly notice a lot of dirt that I didn't even see the night before! The light helps us see the dirt in our lives. The more light we allow in the more dirt we see. Then we have the decision to make. Do we clean the dirt or ignore it? When Jesus talks about our whole body being full of light I think he is speaking about the transformation that we call sanctification. By inviting his light into our being we are giving him permission to change us, to make us more like him.

Jesus (Yeshua) is FULL of light. God IS Light. And God is the King of the Kingdom of Light. As humans our instinct is darkness. You will often hear people say that they believe in the goodness of humanity. And as much as I have wanted to believe this over the years, I've simply found it to be a fallacy. There is no such thing as the goodness of humanity. But, that doesn't mean this goodness never existed. Let me explain.

When we are born we are born into a dominion of darkness. This world has a prince of darkness. He is the devil and he is real. He isn't a comic book villain or a fairy tale dragon. He is a fallen Angel who wanted to rule instead of God. So God kicked him out of heaven along with a bunch of rebellious angels. So basically there was an attempted coup in heaven and thus was born the kingdom of darkness. Satan is known as the deceiver. He is a master liar. We see this when he first appears to eve in the garden and deceives her into eating the forbidden fruit. Up until that point, humans were actually good. Our motives were 100% pure all of the time. We were full of light. We were part of God's Kingdom of Light and God made us to reign on the earth.

Before we fell for satan's deception, "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." You see, we were like Kings and Queens ruling over God's creation. It's my theory that satan was jealous of our position in God's kingdom and so he devised a plan to infiltrate our ranks. He used deception and lies to turn us from the goodness of our humanity. Unfortunately, this part of his plan worked. We fell for it and we had to pay the price. We were banished form the garden of paradise and sent to work the land with blood, sweat and tears. We were now under the dominion of darkness and it was rough.

For thousands of years we roamed the earth under this veil of darkness. There were shimmers of hope. Mostly in the form of people. Noah, Abraham, Moses, the Prophets, King David and so on. But even these godly people were flawed and gave way to darkness from time to time. We had lost the purity we had back in the garden of eden. We were jealous and vengeful, selfish and rebellious. We learned to lie and deceive others allowing ourselves to be used by satan and his evil plan. You see, he's like, why should I do all the work myself? I'll just turn the people away from God and against each other. It will be chaos. And to a degree he has succeeded. But that's where Jesus comes in.

..."the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."

That light that dawned is Jesus. HE is the light of the world. He said if you follow me you will never walk in darkness. Jesus came to restore God's light and to restore our sight. You see, He came to restore everything! He came to make it like it was BEFORE we fell for satan's deception.

He makes us good again! He restores our relationship with God and our rightful position in God's Kingdom of Light. Jesus' last words on the cross were 'It is finished.' What did he finish? He finished the work of restoring the Kingdom of God. And this IS the good news! That even though we are born into the kingdom of darkness we don't have to STAY in that kingdom anymore! By accepting what Jesus did on the cross, we accept that he paid the price for our rebellion and this alone gives us the right to become the children of God and his goodness. Paul puts it this way, "For he has rested us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

So yes, I do believe in the goodness of humanity but it is not the kind that most people refer to, ie, it is not inherent IN humanity itself. The goodness of humanity is only present through the reflection of a persons relationship with God through the finished work of Christ on the cross. We enter into that relationship through faith in Christ and therefore we become ambassadors of the Kingdom of Light. Our goodness is restored. We have been transferred from darkness to light. And so it is no longer about glorifying "humanity" but about glorifying God and His goodness. That's where satan went wrong in that he wanted the glory. But ALL glory belongs to God forever. But here's the cool thing about God. And what satan didn't understand. God is generous and he actually shares His glory with those of us in his kingdom! "I have given them the glory that you gave me..." (John 17:22). This is where we as humans misunderstand God. We think he is in it for himself. But he's not. He loves us so much that he died for us! He doesn't just rule and reign, he serves a protects. He is good. He is a good God. He is goodness itself. He is not selfish. He is not greedy. He is self sacrificing and generous. He loves to share! And he wants to share his glory and goodness with you! If you don't have this goodness and you want it then maybe today is your day to come into the Kingdom of Light. I've personally made this journey and let me just say, the waters are fine. So what are you waiting for? Dive on in!