How Great is the Darkness.

[Mickiel]

One of my most frustrating experiences in my life has been the way God has ignored my request to him to have a relationship with him. His refusal to give me his Spirit, and the way he has left me to the Darkness. This has been regretable, but yet true in my experience with God. The reason I do not know God, is because of the Darkness. I didn't even know what the Darkness was until a few years ago. Last year I was able to see it as it is, and only this year was I able to admit that my life is envolped by it. It is very, very hard to come to the point of knowing that you are in the Darkness, and that you can do nothing about it.

In Matthews 6:23, Jesus makes an interesting observation;"But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of the Darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is Darkness, How Great is the Darkness!" By this he meant that we are led by the " Light in our Minds", or the leading influence that we follow." So if the leading influence in your mind is the Darkness, then although it sounds contridictionary, the Darkness is your Light. Its what is leading you. He then states;" How Great is the Darkness! And believe me, this Darkness is indeed Great. Its a Great powerful influence.

And I want to give an inside out view of this Darkness.

Peace.

[Nomad]

That my friend is a great insight.
Im hesitant to add to it because its honesty is painful but beautiful.
Ask yourself if your mind and heart are truly open.
Are you looking in the right places ?
Perhaps God is all around you now ?
Perhaps you have pre-concieved notions and expectations that are getting in your way ?
Perhaps Gods beauty has already manifested itself and its yours for the taking, take a good look around you.
Those amazing pictures you post....

[Mickiel]

I once wrote about " Living without God", which I now understand was part of the beginning of admitting that I live in the Darkness. Much of religion takes a trainned hypicritcal stance in explainning their relationship with God. People make all kinds of claims, mostly to satisfy themselves and others view of them. And thats why most people look in a mirror: to satisfy themselves in the way that they want to look, and to prepare themselves for others to look at them. And relationship with God has morphed into this external pacification of self. People can look right into this mirror, and be so blind that they either cannot see whats really there, or cannot accept what they see, and forget what they saw as soon as they walk away. Because the Darkness has blinded them.

Again Jesus in John 12:35;" For a little while longer the light is amoung you, walk while you have the light, that Darkness may not overtake you; he who walks in the Darkness does not know where he goes." This Darkness is so Great that it " Overtakes people", its a total eclipse of the Mind. This Darkness has had me all of my life, and it has not released me. Its very, VERY, deceptive. Its a mind bender for sure.

Human consciousness is both a blessing and a curse. A duality of the hotbed mixture of good and evil. I have been forced to consider good, or God, from a " surrounding of evil in my life." My atmosphere has been the Darkness. Its always been there, at every turn rotting my successes, kicking me down just as things seem to be comming together. Taking things from me, keeping me from getting things, constantly reafirming its lordship over my life. Teaching me the nature of addiction, showing me the lack of control, pestering me even in my sleep, opening me to its evil seductive powers. Unmerciful, unrelenting, even to the point that it becomes repitition, leaving readable patterns as it grooves out the pain in my past and present. Forcing my memory to reconize the hurt, and like a vicious cycle, it does it over, and over and over again. Seems like one should be able to escape, to learn it and overcome it. And then you think to yourself, if only I had just a little more strength, just a little more self control, some kind of power from somewhere to get me over this hump. If only God would help, then you have to admit that your on your own.

You against this humoungus monster , this Darkness.

Peace.

[Nomad]

Im a bottom line kind of guy. Hope its ok if I just speak my mind.
In your last reply it appeared to be filled with circumstances that happened to you. It gives me the sense that you feel you have no control over the events of your life.
I understand that feeling as I too spent most of my life indulging in the same.
I wont preach to you but I think its ok to relate my perspective as I come from a similar state of mind.
Im in the evolutional process of releasing myself fom the burden of external events and coming to the realization that yes we are responsible for our own condition.
Yes events beyond our control happen to us that effect our lives.
Those are challenges that can be viewed as curses or gifts. In other words how you choose to percieve them is of your own making.

Its perfectly normal to react a certain way to negativity, but it doesnt have to be. You have an opportunity to use the event as a tool to learn from. If you are willing it can be a stepping stone to another higher level of self.
Each step you take makes you stronger. When youre stronger you can adapt more easily. Its an example of manipulating circumstances to benefit your well being. It snowballs into becoming more whole as a human and one of the effects is being able to recognize the way you did things will always get you what you got. Theres a bigger picture at hand than your minds cage.
Free yourself by acting strongly and with purpose.

[Samuel]

Originally Posted by Mickiel

One of my most frustrating experiences in my life has been the way God has ignored my request to him to have a relationship with him.

How do you know God has ignored your request; could it be that you have ignored Him?

Originally Posted by Mickiel

His refusal to give me his Spirit, and the way he has left me to the Darkness. This has been regretable, but yet true in my experience with God.

Perhaps God is speaking to you through His Spirit, but you are not listening. Have you devoted your life to serving God?

Originally Posted by Mickiel

The reason I do not know God, is because of the Darkness. I didn't even know what the Darkness was until a few years ago. Last year I was able to see it as it is, and only this year was I able to admit that my life is envolped by it. It is very, very hard to come to the point of knowing that you are in the Darkness, and that you can do nothing about it.

Explain what you mean about not knowing God because of the Darkness. What darkness are you talking about. Without specifics I cannot respond.

Originally Posted by Mickiel

In Matthews 6:23, Jesus makes an interesting observation;"But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of the Darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is Darkness, How Great is the Darkness!" By this he meant that we are led by the " Light in our Minds", or the leading influence that we follow." So if the leading influence in your mind is the Darkness, then although it sounds contridictionary, the Darkness is your Light. Its what is leading you. He then states;" How Great is the Darkness! And believe me, this Darkness is indeed Great. Its a Great powerful influence.

And I want to give an inside out view of this Darkness.

Peace.

Put Matthew 6:23 in context.

19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

What is Jesus saying to us?

Spiritual vision is our capacity to see clearly what God wants us to do and to see the world from His point of view. Our spiritual insight can be clouded. Our self-serving desires, interests nd goals block tht vision. Serving God is the best way to restore it. We must be fixed on God.

I think verses 22 and 23 are saying that we must be generous and not stingy -- serve others and by doing so, you will be serving God.

[Samuel]

Originally Posted by Mickiel

Again Jesus in John 12:35;" For a little while longer the light is amoung you, walk while you have the light, that Darkness may not overtake you; he who walks in the Darkness does not know where he goes."

Jesus said He would be with them in person for only a short time and they should take advantage of His presence while they had it.

Jesus is the light shining in a dark place.

Jesus poins out the way we should walk.

If we walk in Jesus' light we will become children of the light, revealing the truth and point people to God.

Christians are Christ's light bearers.

[Mickiel]

Jesus walked this earth some 33 years and the powers of the Darkness never touched him. Never effected him, but that changed one day after Judas betrayed him. Jesus was soon arrested and again made an interesting reference to the power of the Darkness in Luke 22:53;"While I was with you daily in the Temple, you could not lay hands on me; But this hour the Power of the Darkness are Yours." I know many will be making their comments on this Post, but Jesus comments are where I gather my truth from. All his Life the Power of the Darkness couldnot touch him, but that particular hour, it was allowed to deal with him, and it killed him soon after.

The Power of the Darkness was given over to these men, and that resulted in the Son of God being killed. Now if the Power of the Darkness can kill the Son of God, explain to me what chance a human has against it. I mean if God does not intervene, and in Jesus case he didnot, we are no match for that Power. Now one can think as righteous and as Spiritual as they wish, no human being is a match for the Darkness. If it can kill Christ, your little righteousness is nothing against it. I just wanted to say that before the flood of righteous postings continues.

Satan will sift us like wheat, if God does not contain him. He is a murderer and we are no match for him. But if he already has you deceived, hes not concerned with your righteous aittitude. Hes already got you, by using your righteousness to deceive you.

In Revelations 12:9 he is described as " The GREAT Dragon", the " Serpent of OLD", the " Devil and Satan", it then states that he has " Deceived the WHOLE World." Now no matter how righteous people believe and think, the bible does not exclude anyone from this deception. From this Great Power of this thing that is Old and Deceptive.

But who Put this thing in Power?

And I want to give the surprising answer to that.

Peace.

[Mickiel]

Jesus called the Devil " The Ruler of this world." You can see that in John 12:31, 14:30, and 16:11. Thats what the Devil is, the Ruler, the undisputed ruler of all the earth. By this we can know that the Darkness really rules this world. The bible even goes as far as proclaiming satan " The god of this World." It gives him that status and Power. Now thats a very powerful status. In Eph. 2:2 this thing is called " The Prince of the Power of the Air." Now Gods word is calling him a Prince, and comparing his Power to the very Air we all must breathe in order to survive.

This is how much Power this thing has, its influence is like the Air, its everywhere, and cannot be avoided.

But let me show you why the bible says this thing is so Powerful, and who gave it this Power. Which also explained to me why I cannot break loose from its Power.

Peace.

[Mickiel]

When something displays great Power, I usually suspect that another Great Power is behind it. This is why I reject the concept of evolution, or Great Power comming from no Power. It just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Power begats Power. Great things come from Great things. And this great Dragon, this Prince of Darkness, came from a Power Greater than him. In Gen. 2:9 God " Caused" meaning he created, a tree with the Knowledge of good and evil to " Grow."

This is the orgin of evil being placed on earth. Then in chapter 3:1 it reveals that God had " Made" a beast, or a Serpent, which is the same Serpent in Rev. 12:9, and that he had made him more crafty, or more intelligent and deceptive, than any other being he had made, and at this point he had already made humans. Isaiah 54:16 shows that God created this thing to destroy and ruin, and to deceive. This is WHY the Power of Darkness is so Great, because God is behind it.

This is WHY satan is as powerful as he is. Its WHY the Darkness rules over the earth. In Genesis 3:1, this thing is introduced to Adam and Eve, and this young couple had ABSOLUTELY no chance whatsoever to defeat satan, and God knew that. But God did absolutely NOTHING to stop it. He did nothing to stop Jesus from being killed, and hes doing nothing to stop the Darkness from ruling this planet! And the reason why is being misunderstood.

In Gen. 3:1, Darkness begins its assualt on humanity, just 13 verses later God pronounces a curse on the Serpent, a curse on the Man, a curse on the Woman and a curse on the earth. And none of these curses have been lifted, which is one reason why a human cannot get out of the Darkness on their own. Conversely it is also the reason why the Darkness rules over this earth in Power.

Peace.

[Samuel]

Originally Posted by Mickiel

Jesus walked this earth some 33 years and the powers of the Darkness never touched him. Never effected him, but that changed one day after Judas betrayed him. Jesus was soon arrested and again made an interesting reference to the power of the Darkness in Luke 22:53;"While I was with you daily in the Temple, you could not lay hands on me; But this hour the Power of the Darkness are Yours." I know many will be making their comments on this Post, but Jesus comments are where I gather my truth from. All his Life the Power of the Darkness couldnot touch him, but that particular hour, it was allowed to deal with him, and it killed him soon after.

The Power of the Darkness was given over to these men, and that resulted in the Son of God being killed. Now if the Power of the Darkness can kill the Son of God, explain to me what chance a human has against it. I mean if God does not intervene, and in Jesus case he didnot, we are no match for that Power. Now one can think as righteous and as Spiritual as they wish, no human being is a match for the Darkness. If it can kill Christ, your little righteousness is nothing against it. I just wanted to say that before the flood of righteous postings continues.

Satan will sift us like wheat, if God does not contain him. He is a murderer and we are no match for him. But if he already has you deceived, hes not concerned with your righteous aittitude. Hes already got you, by using your righteousness to deceive you.

In Revelations 12:9 he is described as " The GREAT Dragon", the " Serpent of OLD", the " Devil and Satan", it then states that he has " Deceived the WHOLE World." Now no matter how righteous people believe and think, the bible does not exclude anyone from this deception. From this Great Power of this thing that is Old and Deceptive.

But who Put this thing in Power?

And I want to give the surprising answer to that.

Peace.

But Jesus rose from the dead. Who had the most power -- Satan or God -- God, of course.

Satan has no power over me because I have faith in the Messiah and accept His work on the cross.