John 8:12 Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The Lord Jesus is the light of the world, and when He shines in us and on us, we will no longer walk in darkness but will have the light of life (see John 8:12).
When God in Christ shines as the divine light, all darkness is eliminated, all rebellion and disorderliness is removed, and all lawlessness and resistance is exposed and dealt with. When God in Christ shines on us, there’s a certain kind of ruling of light taking place – light rules, and God shines on us, His authority is installed in our being, the enemy is cast out, and anything of the darkness is exposed and removed.
When the divine light shines, all things are in oneness and harmony, and as we live and walk in the light, we are being adjusted, brought back to where we should be, and kept in oneness and harmony with the saints and with everything and everyone around us. What keeps us in oneness and harmony is our habitual living under the ruling of the divine light.
If we say AMEN! to the divine light shining, exposing, infusing, and dispensing, we will spontaneously be one with the saints and we will live in harmony. But if we are in darkness and we don’t come to the light, if we don’t contact the Lord in His word in a living way and His light doesn’t shine on us, we may think we are one and in harmony but we are actually in darkness, clueless about our situation and condition, and full of rebellion, resistance to God’s will, lawlessness, and disorderliness.
However, when we come in the light, when we walk in the light and experience Christ as the light of life, all things in our being are in order and the divine life grows in us in a normal way. When the sun shines, everything is in order and life grows.
When God in Christ shines in the New Jerusalem, the river of water of life proceeds from the throne of God and the tree of life grows on both its sides, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month!
May we be the ones who habitually come to the light and live in the light so that we may be in oneness and harmony under the divine rule, and the divine life would grow in us in a normal way! In this way we have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem today!
The Divine Light Rules when it Shines
When there’s darkness, there are all kinds of evil things happening, rebellion is there, and corruption is operating. But when the sun shines, everything is in the light, there is order, and life grows. When Christ came, in Him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4).
He told us that, if we follow Him as the light of the world, we will by no means walk in darkness but shall have the light of life (John 8:12). When the Lord shines on us again and again, the divine light controls and rules us.
In a very real sense, there’s no “code of behavior” in the church life, neither are there any “rules” on how to do things in the Christian life or church life. What we have is the regulating divine life within us and the controlling light shining on us.
When the brothers and sisters are regulated by the inward life growing in them and controlled by the divine light shining in them, the church life is kept in order, peace, oneness, and harmony. The reason there’s no oneness and no harmony in the church is because the saints don’t habitually walk in the light and they don’t constantly allow God’s light to shine in them.
As seen in the New Jerusalem, in the church life today we have the invisible God in Christ shining with glory, and when He shines, all darkness is removed, all rebellion is terminated, and all disorderliness is set right. Light rules, and God in Christ on the throne shines and brings everyone under His authority by His shining.
Where there is darkness, there is chaos and confusion, but when light shines, things are set in order and the light rules and governs. In our Christian life and church life we need to have God shining in us as light, and we will be brought under His authority.
The church life is a miniature of the New Jerusalem, and so if we have God in Christ as the center, we will have light and everything will be under God’s rule, kept in order, and we will be in oneness and harmony (see Gen. 1:3, 14-18; John 8:12; Eph. 1:10).
We can see this in Genesis 1 – when God restored and further created, He firstly restored light, and darkness was divided from light (see Gen. 1:3-16). The more light there is, the more separation and rule there is. When light shines, there is no confusion and no rebellion.
When light shines, God is on the throne, Satan is subdued, darkness is eliminated, and all rebellion is cast out. When God as light shines, everything is kept in order under the rule of the divine light.
The Divine Light Generates Life and Causes Life to Grow
Where there is the light of God, there are the ruling power and order, and when there are the ruling power and order, there is the generating power, the yielding of life; this is a picture of the New Jerusalem (Gen. 1:3-26; Rev. 21:10-11, 23; 22:1-2, 5).
When the sun shines the first thing that happens is that it rules and brings in order, and then all the living things can grow in life in a normal way. When God as light shines, firstly we are brought under the rule of God and then life is generated and life grows.
Life comes from light: if we are under God’s shining, life will be generated and the divine life will grow in us. In Genesis 1 we see that when light was restored, everything was in order under the rule of light, and then as a higher light was restored (the sun and the moon), life was generated.
The higher the light, the higher the life. In the New Jerusalem there will be the highest light – God Himself as light shining through Christ, the Lamb-lamp, therefore there will be the highest life growing. As God shines in Christ, the river of life is flowing and the tree of life is growing and bearing fruit.
Christ came as light, and the life in Him was the light of the world; also, He came so that we may have life and may have it abundantly (John 10:10). Christ didn’t come merely as light to shine on us and expose us; He came to shine on us, bring under God’s rule by bringing us under His shining, and then generate life in us and cause the divine life to grow in us.
From God as light all the riches of life come forth. God in Christ is light, and from Him flows the river of water of life, in whose living water grows the tree of life (see 1 John 1:5; Rev. 22:1-2). This is so wonderful!
In the church life today we don’t need to “strive to behave better” or “work on being better Christians”; rather, what we need to do is exercise our spirit, contact the Lord in a living way in His word, and He will shine on us. Under God’s light we will be headed up in Christ, brought under God’s rule, have all things in order, and the divine life will grow.
Where there is the light of God, there are the ruling power and there’s order, and there is the generating power, the yielding of life. When God’s shining is accepted and welcomed in us, we will be set in order, all things will be in oneness and in harmony, and life will grow in a normal way.
May we have such a foretaste of the wonderful effects of God’s shining in the New Jerusalem today in the church life!
Lord Jesus, may Your living light scatter all our night and everything make right, bringing us under God’s rule and causing life to grow in us. Keep us under Your shining light all the days of our life. Lord, shine in us and bring us under Your rule by Your shining. We want to keep the oneness and be in harmony by allowing God in Christ to shine and rule in our being. We want to enjoy all the riches of the divine life and grow in life as we are under God’s shining. Grant us a foretaste today, in the church life, of God in Christ shining in the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minor Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msgs 431, 436), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem, week 6 / msg 6, The Lamb as the Lamp with God as the Light .
- Further Reading: recommending chs. 17 and 19 in, The Vision of God’s Building (by Witness Lee).
- Hymns on this topic:
# He’s the very center,/ Ruling on the throne; / By His life the power, / Saints are kept in one. / By His light of glory, / They are kept in light, / Harmony enjoying / In divine delight. (Hymns #971)
# As the light began to shine / His discernment became mine. / I began to see aright; / God divided dark from light…. / Sun, the greater light we see / Ruling day triumphantly; / Yet when darkness fills the skies, / Waxing moon is on the rise! (Hymns #1192)
# Take time to behold Him, gaze oft on His face, / Receiving His Person, and grace upon grace. / By His pleasant shining, infused we will be; / Our faces will glow with His light, radiantly. (Song on Beholding Christ)
# Christ as Head will be the Center; / God within will be the Light; / Christ enthroned, with God, His substance, / Will fulfill His heart’s delight. / Christ as life will be the content, / Heading up all things in light; / All the saints will be the vessel, / To express His glory bright. (Hymns #981)
About aGodMan
