“Turn on the Light and stop walking around in Darkness”
Isaiah 59:8-10
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
Some of us are walking around this world in the dark, stumbling and tripping over things we can’t see. God says it’s time to turn on the lights and stop walking around in darkness. The true fact of the matter i
s that we don’t want to really turn on the lights. We don’t want to clearly see all that’s around us. We don’t want to see the trash we have stored up in our houses. Houses we force the Holy Spirit to live in full of clutter. Some of our houses look like that TV show “Hoarders Buried Alive”! Well I say to you, it’s time to turn on the light. The Holy Spirit is suffocating inside this house full of mess. But you don’t care you keep on walking around stumbling in the dark.
The darkness is sin. The unconfessed sins we pile up in our homes is what creates this darkness. This is a darkness which causes blindness. This is darkness like that which the Egyptians suffered during the 10 plagues. They couldn’t even see their hands in front of their faces. It was just that dark.
The word says we made ourselves crooked paths. We’ve got piles of sin lying around everywhere. We can’t even walk straight. We can’t see the path. We’ve lost our way.
There’s no peace. Always grief, anger, sorrow, hurt, pain, suffering. But we continue to live in these houses in this awful condition.
Groping for the wall like the blind.
| The word grope is used as a Verb meaning to: Feel about or search blindly or uncertainly with the hands. |
That’s how you’re walking around this life. Walking around with uncertainty and blindness. Feeling about with your hands. You pick up things which are beyond recognition. Because there’s such a huge pile of sin; you feel it but can’t tell what it is.
Turn on the light and stop walking around in darkness.
The scripture tells us in:
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
Oh no, we choose to stumble around in darkness! Why walk around in the darkness? That is the question of the hour. We have our answer given to us in scripture:
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
We do things which God is not pleased with. We love the sin we commit each and every day. We enjoy ourselves. We think nothing of the consequences we have to face. We clutter our homes with rebellion, lying, cheating, gossip, slander, drunkenness, lasciviousness, adultery, fornication, murder, witchcraft, unforgiveness, gambling, drug addictions, envy, jealousy, pride, and the like.
We’ve forgotten who we are. When we first got saved, we became the children of light.
Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Why have you forgotten who you are? And, why are you walking around in darkness?
We stumble at noon day as if it were the night. Noon is the middle of the day. This is when the sun is at its highest elevation in the sky. There is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to see what’s right in front of us. But we can’t, for the darkness is far too great for us.
Turn on the lights and stop walking around in darkness.
God wants us to clearly see what’s in front of us. He wants us to be able to place one foot in front of the other without tripping on these sins which creates the darkness we have in our homes.
Some of us come in every Sunday and Wednesday with bruises and bumps black eyes, knots on our heads from things we’ve been bumping into all through the week.
We’ve knocked some things over which spilled on the counter tops, floors and the walls.
We suffer from all kinds of sickness and disease because we don’t have that peace. We’re sick from all that bacteria build up because we fail to turn on the lights so we can see what we’re walking into.
The problem is we got comfortable and lazy. We ignore the darkness and continue stumbling through life asking everyone we see to lift us up in prayer.
Well I say to you again, turn on the lights and stop walking around in darkness.
Israel did the same thing. We learn in the next verse of scripture:
Isaiah 59:11
11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
This is the murmuring and complaining God has warned us about. How dare we murmur and complain about calamity we’ve brought upon ourselves.
You see the sin may start off as one little thing then we go and get another and another and another. We’ve accumulated so much junk, it’s no wonder we walk into walls!
It’s so dark in your house because you’ve covered up the light. You can’t even see where the light is to turn it on anymore.
The poor Holy Spirit is trapped inside somewhere underneath all this mess. You don’t even know where He is. The Holy Spirit is buried alive in the midst of all your sin.
We look for judgment and salvation but we’re told it’s far from us.
There’s too much sin. We’ve smothered it out.
I’m crying out to you, turn on the light and stop walking around in darkness.
Continuing on in God’s word we read the next verses as follows:
Isaiah 59:12-15
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
This is really a dark place to be in. Sin stacked upon sin. Our sins are as a ladder reaching up to heaven. Our sins are so many God can’t even see us. Our sins are our testimony to God. Our sins speak out for us. But the saddest thing is the fact that the word tells us we know our sins.
We know exactly what we’re doing. It’s as if we have no shame. We keep on doing what we do. We pay no mind to the things of the Spirit of God. Remember, the poor Holy Spirit is buried alive in your filthy house.
13 In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
We’ve moved away from God. What’s in your heart comes out. You start speaking oppression, once again, because you have no peace. Your heart is a wellspring of life and it’s cluttered with iniquity.
There’s power in your words, but the only thing you can speak is what is in you which is junk. You can’t speak anything good. You have no good word in you.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
It’s as if your house is boarded up. Equity can’t enter. God’s word can’t get in there.
15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
Let me tell you a story about a girl I know. Now this young woman had a new home. Her house was beautiful. The yard was beautifully landscaped. She had tulips and roses blooming on the outside. All of the hedges were well-trimmed. The siding on her house looked brand new. The roof had just been done and was looking real good. This young woman had a house she could be proud of.
Then one day she brought something in. She brought in a pack of cigarettes. She started to like them. So she bought a carton and became addicted to nicotine.
Soon thereafter she brought in some wine. She started off with Wild Iris Rose, then Maddog, she then brought in some beer. She was bringing it in by the case. She began having parties in her home. She invited all the partying spirits she could find. They partied all night long. Some partying spirits would linger there a while, because they were so heavily intoxicated they couldn’t move.
She had a good time and was enjoying all these things she was bringing into her house.
After a while she began to shack up with the partying spirits. She began fornicating, having pre-marital sex with these spirits. So she brought soul ties into her home. She created many a soul ties. So many she’d put a harlot to shame. For you see she charged nothing for the acts she committed with these spirits.
I want you to begin to picture this young woman’s house right now. The flowers aren’t blooming anymore. Some of the shutters are hanging down. The grass has been replaced by weeds.
The inside of her home is a mess. But I’m not through yet. There’s still more to come. Cause you see, this young woman began to bring in all kinds of darkness. She brought in arrogance and pride, envy and abuse. This abuse may not have been physical but it was verbal. She believed the lies the enemy was telling her.
From there she had to bring in loneliness and low self-esteem. Piles of impatience was thrown all over the place, along with bitterness, rudeness, anger, and gossip.
Backbiting was welcomed in as well as unforgiveness. There was no place left in this woman’s house that wasn’t filled up with some kind of clutter. Sins were lying around everywhere. She had sins here and sins there.
This young woman’s house was ugly. She couldn’t see a thing. As time went by she accumulated more and more darkness until she didn’t know what to do next.
As her house grew darker and darker inside, the outside was starting to look a mess too. The grass was over grown. The weeds looked like trees. There were boards placed on the windows. Any passerby would have thought the house to be condemned.
Her beautiful house was no longer beautiful. It was an eye sore. All the other houses in the neighborhood looked far better than this house.
The young woman would stumble around in the darkness searching and grabbing for things. She kept on reaching and picking up all the sins she had collected over the years. She would feel them and then throw them down again.
She tripped several times and had many a black eyes from walking into something she couldn’t see was right in front of her. The young woman got to a place where she finally stopped dropped down to her knees right where she stood. She felt hopeless. She wanted to give up.
I’m here to tell you today that there is hope. There is a remedy. Somebody somewhere had been praying. Somebody had cried out to God on her behalf. Somebody went to bed late at night and woke up early in the morning and sought the Lord for her.
Then one day as she was groping the walls trying to move around her house she grabbed a hold of something. There was something that was familiar to her. Something she hadn’t felt nor seen in a mighty long time. She held it tightly in her hand. She couldn’t let it go. She could feel her face getting wet with tears. Because what she was holding in her hand was the light. She had grabbed a hold of the Holy Ghost and wouldn’t let him go!
This young woman knew what to do. For she quickly came back to her senses, and she proceeded to turn on the light! Oh what a beautiful day it was as the darkness disappeared.
The darkness had to run when the light came on. All that darkness is dispelled from the moment when you turn on the lights. Darkness can’t be where the light is.
You see that young woman was me. I was the one trapped in darkness. I was the one who once had a beautiful house. It didn’t take too long for the enemy to entice me and wrap me up in darkness. I was lost and confused. I thought I was having a good time, but I had no peace.
Saints of God I hope you got the message. I hope it rings loud and clear in your spiritual ears. I don’t want you to miss it. You intercessors be serious and thankful God has called you to do the job of praying. Had not my mother and several others been praying for me, I would still be in my house of darkness.
I thank God on today for the ability to turn on the lights.
This is the reason why you see me giving God praise the way I do. I don’t want to forget the things He has done for me and how He has set me free.
I don’t want to go back into that darkness again. I didn’t like what it felt like. This is why I praise God while I have a chance. This is why I do what He calls me to do. I know my God has called me to pray. Pray and praise is who I am. I’m going to do it with all my might.
You see once I turned on the light, the Holy Spirit tore the boards from off of the windows. I could see. I wave my hands like John Cena, in front of my face. I’m so happy that I can see them again.
I realize that I’m free. I don’t want to be trapped in that house full of darkness. I’m careful now as far as to who and what I allow to come into my home. I don’t let just anybody in like I use to.
As of today I have welcomed love, joy, peace into my home. My home looks brand new again. This time is better than before. I have also welcomed in prayer and praise. Bible reading and bible study are placed in my house.
God is not through with me yet. For He has many other things which He wants to place in me.
If you are living in a house full of darkness confess your sins to God now. Repent and sin no longer. Ask God to remove the darkness and bring you back into His marvelous light. Turn on the light!
