Daring To Hide No More

"... It is high time to awake out of sleep ... the night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Romans 13:11-12).

Paul is urging us to wake up to the spiritual realities which direct our destinies. It is very true that we can ... and often do ...sleep through some very important and vital aspects of our Christian lives.

Yah'shua says to us: "Behold, I make all things new ."

He does not say, " I am going to make all things new tomorrow." Nor does He limit its application by saying, " Behold, I made all things new at one point and then stopped ."

The sense of Yahweh's message to us is this:

Behold --Listen up, this is very important -- I have, and will continue to make all things new in your life. It is a process which I have begun for you, and will continue to do with you -- if you live the Christian life of faith and action -- and this newness will be an ongoing process of life springing up in you for all eternity!"

But most of us aren't even aware that we are sleeping. Instead we go through life thinking that this is all there is. And worse, we struggle with fears, lies and demons, and we are made to believe all the while that it is ourselves, that this is simply how we are... who we are... which makes change seem not only frightening, but also impossible. But praise Yahweh we have hope!

For as we draw closer to Him and allow Him to truly own us, most times one layer at a time, He gladly takes what we give Him and He begins, through the working of the Ruach, to stir our hearts, making us aware of our condition, and when we are finally aware, He provides the life and light we so need for our hearts to be fully awakened, and for some a re-birth out of the darkness and into His glorious light.

I know we hear a lot about re-birth from the New Age crowd and certainly from the Occult side, but that is not what I am talking about. Growing up in the occult, I have been through more than a few re-birthing rituals, which of course does not bring life, but death, but that is another topic, for another time.

I do realize that there are those who baulk at the reality of Ritual Abuse, that does not however change the fact that not only does it exist, but it is also alive and well...thriving smack dab in the middle of the main stream. Our government, our special "fraternities", that contribute to the community, thus having an apprearance of not only normal, but good and even our churches are infiltrated. Could you think of a better place to hide? To influence and work behind the scenes? Our enemy is not ignorant. He is a top student in the study of human nature.

It was because growing up in this "non-proveable" environment, that I have struggled and fought my entire life, and namely the past 5 years to find freedom and healing. And praise Yahweh! That even in the midst of my enemies, He has worked, and delivered and healed me.

Nothing but our unwillingness to completely surrender all we have and are, can stop Yahweh from working miracles in our lives. That's right! Nothing!

As most, if not all you know, past hurts and traumas do not simply come and go without leaving scars, nor do they vanish simply because we put time between us and them. They bury themselves deep inside, and though it may seem they have gone, and it may even be that we have forgotten them, they are still there, working and influencing not only our choices but all of our reactions and our perception of life. And little by little, and with the help of lieing demons, they lull us to sleep.

And so there remains a part of our heart that is sleeping and hidden, even to us. It gets covered in many things...the darkness of the unknown, hurts, resentments, pride, stubbornness, work, succeeding, religon, doing good works and even the desire to simply not feel.

John 1:1-5 : the light that shines in the darkness, which light the darkness can neither resist nor extinguish. John is talking about Yahweh, the Creator of Light.

This helps us understand why some prefer the dark over the light which enlightens everyone. We're afraid. Who wants Yahweh's shining a light inside? It's threatening, the thought of Him exposing the broken and defiant places; the harmful habits and thoughts and relationships we nurture; the hurts from which we've never recovered which become our unconscious excuse to hurt others.

I know there's a place in each of us convinced that Yahweh is angry with us, keeping track of our sins and ready to judge and condemn. But He is not into judging and condemning, Yahweh loves the world, the whole thing, everybody, Yah'shua says. There's no reason to fear the light of Yahweh. It's a light that shines to heal, the light of love. Yah'shua puts it clearly: "Yahweh did not send me into the world to condemn the world, but to save it" (John 3:17).

So it's not only safe to come out into the light... it's actually in our exposing all the unexamined stuff to the light of Yahweh's love.. all the sadness and pain and resentment; the lies we tell ourselves, the unforgiving places, the fearful places; our disappointment in ourselves and our relentless and embarrassing hunger for the affirmation of others... that clears a way in us for life, the real thing, "life abundant" Yah'shua calls it (John 10:10), the kind of life you want to last forever.

You may think it'll kill you, coming out into the light of Yahweh's love, naming and owning all the inner debris and offering it to Yahweh. But it won't. Hanging around in the dark is what's killing us.

This is the remarkable thing that Yah'shua is explaining in the scripture. It's stuff like our choosing to live an unexamined life and refusing to go to the doctor that's killing us. This is the judgment, Yah'shua says. It's self-imposed and we condemn ourselves. Hiding in the dark keeps us from discovering and naming the things that are knocking us off, robbing us of life's vitality and keeping us from fulfilling life's purpose.

Our life's purpose is to love the Lord our God with the whole of who we are (Matthew 22:37-38). How can we do this if we don't know the whole of who we are, or if knowing we keep hiding it? And to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39-40). How can we love others if we refuse to love ourselves enough to trust the whole of our lives to the One who loves us?

In the same way, Yahweh doesn't stand a chance of healing us, of growing us up, of gifting us with forgiveness and equipping us with a new way of living, if we aren't willing to expose ourselves to the light of His grace ... not just the nice places in us, but the ugly places, too. He knows that as long as we're afraid of His condemnation, as long as we refuse to trust the promise of His love, we'll continue to hide in the dark.

That's why I think that Yah'shua wanted to get "the condemnation thing" out of the way early on in His ministry. In His first extended conversation in John's Gospel (3:1-21) ... His conversation with Nicodemus, a member of the ruling party who comes to Yah'shua in the dark of night... Yah'shua explains that Yahweh isn't mad at the world. He tells Nicodemus that Yahweh's in love with the world. That Yahweh so loves the world that He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him won't parish but have everlasting life (3:16). Whosoever believes.

Then Yah'shua goes on to describe what it means to believe.

It's the difference, He says, between living our life in the dark or living it in the light of Yahweh's love. Truth is, all along all of our deeds have been lived in the sight of Yahweh who has already forgiven us, is with us and for us, not against us, and will be with us and for us tomorrow no matter what. We can quit living a little life hidden in the dark. We can live the whole of our lives ... the good, the bad and the ugly ... in the light of Yahweh's love.

Yahweh did not create things to grow in the dark - plants or people. Put us in a judgmental environment, we shrivel up. But bring us out into the penetrating light of Yahweh's affirmation and love, we thrive. We mature. We bear fruit. We bring pleasure to Yahweh and to the world around us. Day by day, we grow into the likeness of Christ Himself, changed into the people Yahweh created us to be: loving Yahweh with the whole of who we are and loving others as we love ourselves.

May we all dare to leave our hiding places, and run toward His glorious Light and straight into His arms of safety and love.

"... It is high time to awake out of sleep ... the night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Romans 13:11-12).

Author: Avah - Copyright (c) 2006 MLT - All Rights Reserved