Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of walking in the light as taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, particularly in Matthew 6:22-23. He highlights the glorious promise that if our spiritual eye is good, our whole person can be filled with divine light, leading to a vibrant and fulfilling life. However, he also warns of the serious consequences of neglecting this light, as it can lead to greater darkness and spiritual decline, especially for those who have previously experienced the light. Bickle urges believers to actively engage in five foundational kingdom activities—charitable deeds, prayer, forgiveness, blessing adversaries, and fasting—to maintain a good spiritual eye and remain filled with light. Ultimately, he calls for a commitment to pursue this light, recognizing that it is essential for a dynamic relationship with God.

About walking in the light, I want to talk about a glorious promise and a warning that Jesus gives us right in the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, which is Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Most of you know that. We're going to give just a brief overview of about half of Matthew chapter 6 and point out verse 22 and 23 where Jesus gives the application to the life of fasting and prayer and giving and serving and blessing our enemies. And here's the promise that he gives us. It's a promise that is so glorious and yet he puts at the end of this promise a very sober warning. What I want us to do is to feel the weight of the promise, to really lay hold of it and say, this is for me. Why not me? Why can't I walk in this? But then to also take note of the sober warning, not only for our own lives but as teachers and shepherds in the body of Christ, whether you're teaching one-on-one in a discipleship relationship or one-on-a-hundred or one-on-a-thousand, this is a warning that we need to clearly sound forth to those that we're connected to and that we care about. What Jesus is explaining in Matthew 26, verse 22, he's explaining the psychology of how the human heart works in relationship to the Holy Spirit. And he makes the initial statement, verse 22, the lamp of the body is the eye. Now when he's talking about the body, he's talking about the whole person. Often in the New Testament, the body is in contrast. The body speaks of the outer man and it's in contrast to the inner man. So there's the outer man, the body, the inner man's the heart. But many times in the New Testament, when the writer uses one of the Apostles or Jesus himself in this incident, the body means the whole person. It's not outer man versus inner man but it's all that goes to making you, you. And that's what he's referring to here. That's a common use of the term body in the New Testament, your entire personhood. He says the lamp of your entire person is the spiritual eye. Now he's talking about the spiritual eye. Now our physical eye and our spiritual eye are connected. What we look at with our natural eye definitely impacts what happens in our spiritual eye. But he's talking about the eye of the heart. As we're familiar with in Ephesians 1 verse 18 where Paul prays that the eyes of the heart would be supernaturally open. He says the lamp or the source of light, the source of spiritual light for your person is your spiritual eye. So he's giving a little bit of divine psychology here. He's explaining how the human heart works in relationship to the Holy Spirit. He says the lamp or the source of light for the body, for your whole person is your spiritual eye. So the point is he says now focus on having your spiritual eye set in a right way. That's his next point. Therefore in light of this principle, if your spiritual eye is good, your whole body, your whole person, your personhood will be full of divine light. What a glorious statement! If your eye is good, if your spiritual eye is right, if it's in agreement with the Holy Spirit, your whole person can be under the influence of divine light of the Holy Spirit. I can't imagine a life vision more dynamic or exciting than being filled with light. It's the opposite of darkness and depression and despair and shame. Light. We'll break it down in just a few moments some of the aspects of what it means to be filled with light. Then he goes on to give a warning. He gives a great promise and then he gives the downside if the promise is neglected. If the spiritual eye is bad, it's not in agreement with the Holy Spirit, then your whole body, your personality, your personhood will ultimately be filled with darkness or potentially filled with darkness. Now he's giving the two extremes and most of us are somewhere in between these two extremes. He's pointing one extreme on the right and one extreme on the left. Then he goes on and he gives a second warning. Now he's talking to believers. If you read the Sermon on the Mount, it's clear he's talking to disciples of the Lord. He's talking to us. He's not talking to unbelievers with this warning. This warning is applicable to believers, to disciples of the Lord Jesus. Now he gives the second warning. If the light that is in you is darkness, meaning if your experience with the Holy Spirit, which is light, if somehow you neglect it and draw back and it becomes darkness, your heart becomes filled with darkness, he says how great is that darkness. And the reason the darkness is so great, and we'll look at in a moment, is that there is a dynamic at work in our personalities, in the way our human spirit is made, that if we experience light, if we experience the Holy Spirit, our capacity, our spiritual capacity increases. And if our capacity increases and we don't fill that capacity with light, we end up with a greater capacity for darkness than we would have had if we never would have had the initial increase. Now that's a spiritual dynamic. That's divine psychology that Jesus is pointing to, that many people don't understand. That if you progress in light, which is so glorious and so good, you end up in a, in a situation to where if you don't continue in the light, you actually are in a worse condition than if you never went forward. Because your capacity and the, and even the need in your spirit for more has already been chiseled out, so to speak. It's already been created. And once that enlargement takes place, if you don't fill it with light, then it is filled with darkness. You're not the same when God touches you. And that, we're gonna develop that principle in a few moments. That's the second warning. Not only can the light be turned to darkness, but the darkness is actually compounded and it's increased in a greater way that's proportionate to your growth in light. You know, one guy may say, well, in that case, I'm gonna play it safe. I'm just gonna, I'm not gonna grow in God. So in case I backslide, I won't backslide that bad. Obviously, that's really off. But it is true that if a person who progresses in God backslides, they go, they experience a dynamic worse than if they never would have increased and progressed in light. Some of the stories that I, I know firsthand, or I know of them well, I'll say it that way, of men of God who experienced deep things in the power of God and then drew back from the Lord, some of the stories are remarkable in a terrifying way because their capacity for spiritual things on the dark side is equal to their capacity for spiritual things on the light side. Jesus is warning His disciples. He said, this promise is glorious that you can experience light, but it's a promise that has consequences with it. You touch God, you are different. You can't touch God and then just live the same afterwards. You're different on the inside. Let's look at this. Let's just break this down little by little. Roman numeral 2, the promise. The promise is so glorious that we can be, that our, our whole body can be filled with light. Paragraph B, being full of light includes the following. This is not a comprehensive list. Kind of give you a sense of it if this is a new idea. What does it mean to be filled with light? Well in one sentence it's the manifest presence of God actively affecting your heart, your emotions, your mind. It's the manifest presence of God, this is what light is, actively affecting your emotions in your mind. You feel it. I'll give you a couple, just three or four different examples. Again this isn't comprehensive. Of what you feel and think under the influence of the manifest presence of God actively affecting your inner man. Number one, we have a supernatural ability to feel loved by God. When you're full of light and the manifest presence of God, because the scripture says God is light. God is light. 1st John 1 5. He is light. And when his presence is touching our spirit, that's, we are supernaturally enabled to feel loved. Beloved, there's nothing more powerful than feeling loved. But it doesn't end there. We have a supernatural ability to love back. And that's almost as dynamic as the power of feeling love. The ability to give yourself in a loyal, focused way with all of your strength. It takes the power of God to do that. Now infatuation will carry people for a few months, maybe a little bit longer, where they have the power to give themselves in a focused, in a loyal way to one person. But sooner or later, love has to grow out of that in a more mature way to keep that thing steady for years and years and years. It takes the power of God to give yourself fully in a loyal way to another. Well the Holy Spirit will give us that ability to love God back and to love others. I mean, there's nothing more pleasurable than feeling loved and having the power to love back. That's what light is. I want to be full of light. Number two, being full of light, when God releases living understanding to our spirit. The revelation of the Word. I give a few verses there. You could have given just a bunch of Bible verses to back that up. Light and the revelation. When the Word hits the heart and our understanding is illumined by the power of God, it is an exciting feeling when we feel fascinated on the inside by the Word of God. The Word of God is boring to most people. Even to most believers the Word of God is boring. But when we have hunger and fascination and that bright radiance of the Word of God, oh that is so pleasurable. I've had that feeling many times. I know what it means not to have that feeling too many times. I know that feeling of anxiously waiting to get alone to open the Word because my spirit is vibrant and connecting with the Word and my heart feels like it's flowing like a river. What a glorious way to live. That is the presence of light touching your inner man. I highly recommend it. But I tell you when we get out of sync with light, the Word of God is so boring it's miserably boring. Oh I know that well. Over the years I've had times where the Word of God was so boring. I remember my early years in the Lord. I just said, Lord I can't figure out for the life of me why this book is so boring. I mean I really like you but it's this book I can't deal with. I had no idea that I would have such a change of experience over the years and the years to come. I wish I would have known that when I was 20. When I was 20 I was despairing about this. I really was. It was like the Bible was so boring to me. I just said Lord, prayer in the Bible. I love you but the prayer in the Bible part is the part I can't take. And the fasting. I hated fasting. Number three, being filled with light is being led into deep encounters with God. The light of God leads us which means it's an escort that enables us to encounter God. It's what the psalmist said in Psalm 43 verse 3. Send forth your light. Send out your truth. Because light and truth leads us and brings us. It carries us to the place of God's holy God's holy hill or his tabernacle. It escorts us to encounter God. It gives us the supernatural ability to do this. Beloved, we want light more than anything. Number four, light is the feeling delight in doing the will of God. I mean I know what it means to have the will of God before me and to take a deep breath and say oh I will because I know if I don't it's bad news for me. How many of you know what it means to obey? Because really God gave us an option that we can't refuse you know. It's like okay but I don't really want to. But I also know what it means to feel delight in holiness. What a powerful emotion to love righteousness. The things that I used to love I now hate. Not entirely but I've had that experience over the years. It's little by little. And the things I used to hate like the Bible and righteousness of the Word and prayer. I love my spirit craves them. Not always. I don't want to paint an exaggerated picture. But delighting in righteousness. Delighting in the Word. Delighting in the will of God. That's what King David said. I delight in your will O God. Now this comes, this light is living in agreement with the Holy Spirit on the inside. Beloved, we must covet light and go after light more than anything else. Because it has such a promise of pleasure and such a promise of strength. It makes everything in our life different when we experience light. Paragraph C. Now Jesus is making a promise in this passage. He says the whole body can be filled with light. Now he makes the same promise in Luke 11. It's the same passage in a parallel passage in Luke 11 verse 36. But he adds another phrase. He says if you do this, if the eye is good, not only is your body full of light but it will be like a bright and shining lamp. What a life vision! Beloved, there is more to live for than having more money, more friends, more comfort and a bigger ministry. Now those are all cool things. I'd always rather have more money, more comfort, more friends and a more effective ministry than less. I mean those are good things. But they are not the ultimate things. You want a life vision, you can say it many different ways. You can call it the first commandment, loving God with all of your heart. It's the same thing. But using the language of Luke 11 verse 36, it's to have your body or your personhood filled with light. I mean what a sentence! What a vision! And to live as a bright and shining lamp in the presence of God. I recommend this as the highest life vision. Again you can say it in many different ways. You can use the same idea. Many terms in the Bible describe this. But it's more than kind of enduring God till we finally get a big ministry. You know there's people and I understand this. I did a bit of this in my younger days. I will endure fasting and prayer as long as I have the promise that one day my ministry will be big. If I get power and Lord I want power for all the right reasons. It's just for your glory. Lord says well good then. Then rejoice when I put power on the other guy and you just get back and serve them because it's for my glory. No, no. I want the power to be in my life. There's nothing wrong with that. But let me tell you this. If power in ministry, finally to have a powerful ministry is your highest vision, you will lose your way sooner or later. Because there's something that will never satisfy your heart. That's a good vision as a secondary vision. Having a vision to be a bright and a shining lamp full of light on the inside. I mean you could say it the way Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 48. He said be perfect as your Heavenly Father's perfect. Which means in agreement, living in agreement with the light that you have. It's what Matthew 5 48 is talking about. Well Jesus is actually quoting Isaiah 62 verse 1. The passage we built the fire in the night on. Oh man Stuart. Isaiah 62. It's the passage we built the fire in the night on. Okay, okay. I know it's still early for you. Still early. Isaiah 52. I mean Isaiah 62 verse 1. God is speaking. I will not rest. This is God talking about His people. I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness. Until her salvation or her ministry goes forth as a lamp that burns. God says I promise you that if my people will persevere in steadiness I promise you that I will not stop until they have bright righteousness and their salvation that that goes forth from them. Their ministry will be like a lamp that's burning. Jesus is actually quoting Isaiah 62 1 and he's extending it to everyone. He says any of you that will keep your eye good you can be full of light and you can be a bright and a shining lamp. Now of course the the man that actually walked this out in real flesh-and-blood life was John the Baptist and Jesus said this of him. Imagine not a preacher saying this about you or a biographer. Jesus said this. That means Jesus will say this to him when he stands before him at the judgment seat of Christ. John the Baptist was a burning and a shining lamp. This is after John the Baptist died. I mean he couldn't mess this up. That's the final record. I mean could you imagine God saying about you that you were full of light? Beloved I want to submit this as a life vision to you. That whether you make it to the top of the ministry prominence that the prophets have promised you that you will be great and famous and anointed and it's gonna be awesome and the world's gonna be changed and beloved I think those kind of prophecies and promises those are good and those are important that people have promises about their future function but that will never ever be enough. Well I don't care about ministry I just want to you know get a really cool husband a really cool wife and have enough money some cool friends and just be around godly people. No! I mean yes go ahead and get that but you want more than that. You want much more than having some good relationships and enough money and some godly friends and being in love with somebody. You want a lot more than a couple cute kids that look just like you. You know you want something much more than that. You want to have a burning and a shining heart because that is within the reach of every single person in this room. Well let's look at the conditions. We just looked at the promise. Jesus said here's the condition if you keep your eye good if you keep your spiritual eye good that's what must happen in order to experience the promise being filled with light. Keeping the spiritual eye good. Now keeping the spiritual eye good the spiritual eye keeping a good refers to what the heart pursues or what the heart is hungry for what the heart what your heart is is working for what is your heart hungry for that is what your spiritual eye is focused on. Now he's talking about keeping it focused on living in agreement with the Holy Spirit. Now what we do positions us to receive this increase of light. It's not enough just to want light. We actually have to do things to position ourself for that light to to be given to us. Let's go to the top of page two. Let's look at the context of this promise. You say what do I do how do I position myself for my eye to be good my spiritual eye to be good. Well it's the very context it's the very context of Matthew chapter 6 because this promise and warning is in verse in Matthew 6 verse 22 and 23 but it's the verses before that that Jesus is applying this promise in this warning to. The context of the promise of having a body full of light Jesus just taught what I call the five foundational kingdom activities that positions the human heart to receive more light. If you do these five things consistently and consistently doesn't mean every day all day. You can have a bad day you can even have a bad week. You don't want to have a bad year that's too long. You can have a bad day you can have a bad week and and still be in the flow of this reality as your lifestyle. These five kingdom activities Matthew 6 verse 1 to 18 he just laid them out and after he's finished he now says if you do these things your eye will be good and if your eye is good you will be full of light and if you are full of light you could you could one day grow to be a burning and a shining lamp in the presence of God. Beloved I tell you this is so awesome to know that John the Baptist did this but that's not enough. There's a time and a place in your heart when you say why not me? Why can't I do this? I love it that John the Baptist did it. I want a bright and a shining heart. It is truly for everyone who wants it. Who will live in agreement with the Holy Spirit but they will need to position themselves before God's presence by these five kingdom activities. I typically call this the fasted lifestyle. I wrote a book together with Dana Candler we called it The Rewards of Fasting and really it is it's a short little book about a hundred pages or so. It's basically on these five things. These five kingdom activities. These are not, these are not optional. These are mandatory for walking in light. I've had people you know tell me over the years I remember one conversation a leader in the body of Christ told me he goes man he goes the thing I love about IHOP is it's your this focus you have on this radical Christianity. I go what do you mean? He says you know this whole fasting and prayer and giving your money in extreme ways. I go that's not radical Christianity. He said well no no it's radical brother you're doing great. I go no no you're confused. That is normal Christianity. That's the only kind of Christianity the Bible presents. I go radical Christianity is the guy that's in prison for the gospel and he's been beaten at the five-year mark he won't budge. I go now that's radical Christianity. I go living with fasting and prayer is part of your lifestyle and giving your money for the kingdom of God that is the only kind of Christianity that exists. What's happening in our nation is such a a hybrid. I mean it's it's something very different than what the Apostles taught. I go it might look radical what we're doing here compared to what some other places are doing but I said that you're only you're only confused. What they're doing really isn't Christianity. It's you know it's self-help living with a little bit of Jesus sprinkled in it here and there. It really is. It's self-help. It's positive thinking, self-help living, how to get more friends, have more influence, get more money and make sure you feel good about when you sin. And that isn't Christianity. That's just self-help positive motivational speaking with Jesus mentioned every 10 or 15 minutes. A couple places in the bulletin. That's not even Christianity. I go this is not radical. I go this is the only Christianity that the Bible presents. He goes well well I mean you know what I mean. I go no no I don't think you know what I mean though. I go you need to sign up for this and after you settle down then start thinking about radical Christianity because this is not radical Christianity. This is the only kind that exists. Sermon on the Mount. Now it's okay if you tell somebody hey it's really radical. You know we're not gonna jump on you. You know we'll just understand that but I just took the opportunity. It was just there when I was in that conversation. Number one and number two of the of the five kingdom activities. Charitable deeds. This talks about serving people and giving money. It's just fundamental to Christianity. There is no Christianity apart without these two things as an important part of our life. I'm not gonna teach the whole book right now on the rewards of fasting so I'm just gonna go through this real fast. The third one paragraph two is to engage with God with prayer. The fourth one is to forgive and bless people you're in an adversarial relationship with. The reason I say adversarial relationship because some people think we forgive our enemies or we bless our enemies but their enemies are such dramatic examples of persecution they can only think of one or two of them in the last 10 years. Beloved who we are to bless and forgive is not just the big enemy in the last 10 years. That one guy that you know broke all the records and meanness against you. That's yeah we do forgive and bless that guy who did that but we are to bless the annoying guy on your worship team who is adversarial because he's speaking bad about you behind your back. That's the adversarial relationship we have to bless. Now let me give you this little go on a little bunny trail here. Many people they they do well on this meaning they hold their tongue in the presence of a of a kingdom relationship of somebody who's it's adversarial. They're treating them wrong and most of your adversarial relationships will be inside the body of Christ because that's the majority of the people you know and are relating to in a social way. I mean obviously you'll know a lot of people in the marketplace and that but I'm talking about more in the you know in the course of 50 years more of those adversarial relationships will be people in the faith with you that are annoying you plus some. They're not full-on enemies but it's adversarial. They're on your worship team. They're people you're interacting with on a regular basis in the church world and some people do well. They hold their tongue and they won't speak negative but that's not enough. It's not enough to be silent when the opportunity to put them down is before you. That is good but that's not enough. It says to go the next step and not just be silent but actually bless them and pray for them. That's a whole other level. Now I have a my basic opinion is that most Christians almost never do this in their entire 20, 30, 40, 50 years of walking with God. They've rarely ever actually said prayers for somebody they're adversarial for. They held their tongue but that's only halfway there. Now this isn't something we're doing kind of like to prove to God we're sincere. If we do this it opens our spirit to light in a very dynamic way. It's essential that we do this. This is not this is not a option. This is mandatory. Something radical happens. It opens my spirit to the Holy Spirit and releases light if I do this. I mean I've done it a number of times over the years certainly not enough but I've done it a lot of times. I wish I'd done it ten times more. When I actually say Lord I ask you to give this man more anointing more honor not that much just a little bit but give him just more money that he can spend. No no cut that in half just give him enough to pay his bills. No I mean there's something in me that's going beloved until you pray for your enemies you don't know the crisis in your spirit the conflict but it opens your spirit to light. Jesus wasn't you know you know trying to have them do just some you know jump through all the hoops make it as hard as he could does he see they're really sincere you know like you know like boot camp in the army you know to make it make them tough. No beloved a dynamic a dynamic action and reaction happens inside of you when you do this. It opens up your spirit in a way that nothing else does. It's critical that we bless our enemies. This is the place where a lot of believers get off right here. You know you hear it all the time. I've heard it you know been a pastor 30 years and I've just heard so many stories about these guys that are beat up and burn out in the church and most of that is is really a confusion and the person who's claiming it. There's no such thing as not being beat up by human beings if you've been alive 20-30 years. I mean human beings are mean and they're insensitive in their self-focus they're not thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves and there's millions of them. There's everywhere these people not thinking about me thinking about themselves and I run into them and they think and act accordingly. Millions of them. They're all over the church. They're all over this room. People thinking about themselves more than the thinking about you. You're one of them. You're thinking about yourself more than the other guys. And so they think I've been beat up and bruised by the church which translates I'm bitter and I'm mad at them and I want to be feel validated in it. Which really means they don't really believe they've been forgiven by God therefore they don't have any energy to forgive other people. They're really the real problem isn't that somebody mistreated them. The real problem is they they don't really grasp that God has forgiven them because when I grasp that God has forgiven me there is nothing you can do worse that you could do to me worse than I've done to God. And when he has forgiven me and received me freely when that touches my spirit there is zero room for me to be burnt out and bitter because you're treating me wrong. It's only because I don't esteem how God's treating me. Like I have a little saying I've said for years and it's kind of cute but it's real. I say it all the time. Someone says how you doing and I go well I'm doing better than I deserve. They go haha that's a good one. I go no I'm actually really that's really an important part of my life thinking. I am doing far better than I deserve. Lots of things are hard lots of things are difficult lots of things are broken but I'm getting a far better deal than I deserve from God. So that's real. That's it's a cute little statement but it's real. And when we understand we're getting we're doing a lot better than we deserve then that guy can treat you in all kinds of negative ways but you are going to bless them because you know the real score the real score is that you have been forgiven much. And a guy that's burnt out because the church beat him up it means they're out of touch with how sinful they are and how much they've been forgiven so they have no sense of gratitude or overflow to forgive people that treated them wrong. Their real problem is with God not with the guy who treated them wrong. The idea that they're somehow gonna have a 10-year period in the church where someone's not gonna treat them right I mean treat them wrong that's just they're gonna have many more times. I'm gonna be treated wrong many many more times between now when I meet the Lord. So what? Just get over it. That's how life is. Get locked into God. Be grateful. Pray for them. Bless them. Move on and they can't touch your inner man then. They can hassle some of your circumstances. They can't touch your inner man if you do the Sermon on the Mount. It may take a while before you actually experience it that way but I tell you when you pray and bless your enemies this is this is important as prayer and fasting and giving and all these other things. Well you got the five there the fifth one is is actually fasting. You know it's not enough to you know IHOP we have the fasting days and and what I think is folks hang around IHOP for a few years and and the the kind of the dogma of fasting just the it just becomes language. It's not enough you're fasting last year we need to be having fasting food I'm talking about not just TV and not just meats that you didn't like anyway or desserts because you need to lose 10 pounds so how fast desserts. No we need a really fast food for real. It's a critical part of normal Christianity. You cannot grow at the pace God would give you growth without fasting on a regular basis. It's impossible. You can talk about it all day long but it won't happen. Fasting is as important as forgiving, as giving money, as serving with your time, as prayer is. They all go together. You can't pick four out of the five. All five of them go as a single deal with God and they open our spirit in a dynamic way with God. Well those are the five things Jesus taught on then he gave the promise he goes you know what if your eye is good if you will position your heart before God to agree with the Holy Spirit and you throw those five activities in your eye will be good and you will be full of light. Now we're gonna go to the to the warnings just the next couple moments here. We'll be brief on this. He says the bad eye when the spiritual eye gets out of agreement with the Holy Spirit and that always ends up with those five activities they begin to diminish and drop off in our lives. I challenge you on those five activities. Where are you at with those five activities? If you're not doing them regularly I don't mean you can't have a bad day or a bad week. Again you just don't want a bad year. If you've had a bad year push delete. Let's start over. Let's recommit and sign up to be full of light. Let's start today. Today's a new day and the Lord really will push delete on it and he'll give you a brand new beginning. Warning number one. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 verse 23 if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness. Now he's giving he's giving the extreme on one side because he just talked about the the promise now he's giving the warning. He goes you. He's talking to disciples. He says your whole body will be full of darkness. Now God gives us the dignity. He gives so much dignity to the human spirit. Here's the dignity he gives us. Our choices really matter. If we choose these five activities and to be full of light which means to live in agreement with the Holy Spirit. The Lord says okay if you choose that I'll give you light. If you choose darkness as a born-again believer I will really let you have darkness. I won't stop you. I will try to persuade you to stop but I won't force you to stop ever. And you can you have the power to make decisions to let demons into your life as a born-again believer. And one of the most prevailing ways but I mean the neglecting of these five kingdom activities is the beginning of setting yourself up for it. But this thing that's so prevailing in the in the body of Christ is internet pornography. It is it is like taking the key of your heart giving it to the devil. You give him legal access to demonize you. To bring demons into your life. God says I will let you do it because I so I put so much dignity on the human will. I will agree. I will allow you to decide because I so honor your choices. I beg you not to give that key to that demon. No I like it. If you give the key to that demon I won't stop the demon. Don't give him the key. I will honor your choice. Beloved that's the dignity he gives us. Many people they give the key to the demon. Darkness comes and I mean not only do they get perversion and sexual things they get phobias and they get addictions and darkness and depression. The devil has no mercy. You let him in. He won't stop with sexual addictions. He will move into every single area of your personhood that he can get a hold of. And we don't want to put our eyes on darkness. I'm talking about our spiritual eye. But in this case it would be our physical eye that would then open up our spiritual eye to it as well. Anyway there's many other issues. I just like to I like to focus on that one because there's so much of it going on. And I have mercy. I don't have I don't feel like you know disgust. I feel tremendous mercy for about 30 40 percent of the body of Christ who's swimming in this darkness. I mean born again. I mean millions and millions of sincere believers they're stuck in this. They really really need to take this serious. This is not a well you know we raised the bar a little high. No this is absolutely Christianity 101. Zero zero interaction with Internet pornography. Zero. Not let's bring it down you know a few you know just a 10 percent. Zero. We make a covenant with our eyes. Job 31 1. Now here's the warning number two. It's that not only will we be full of darkness that's terrifying. But he says if you used to experience light. Here's the concept I said earlier a few minutes ago. And your light the man or woman that experienced a certain measure of light their spiritual capacity is increased. If they don't keep filling that spiritual capacity with life they've chiseled out so to speak in their heart a whole new place a whole new room for spiritual things. If they don't fill it with light that they will they will have a craving they will have an emptiness and they will fill it with darkness. And he says the darkness will be compounded. It will be great darkness. It won't be darkness that it would have been if they never would have been if they never would have increased their capacities and their inner man. The darkness is great darkness. Let's go to paragraph C just the last two passages that we'll look at just to read here just real quick. The darkness increases. Matthew chapter 12. Jesus gives us the how darkness increases from a demon's point of view and then Peter's gonna give us how darkness increases from the human point of view. I just want you to I want to leave you with these two. Then we'll pray for you. Wait on the Lord a little while. Jesus is talking about how demons work in relationship to people. He says when an unclean spirit verse 43 Matthew 12 verse 43. When an unclean spirit that's a demon goes out of a man. In other words the man just went through a deliverance session. The guy went to the healing rooms. They prayed over him. They cast the demon out. The demon went out of the guy. He's going, oh man I feel peace. I've never felt this light in years. We've heard those stories over and over through the years. Well the demon goes to dry places seeking rest. But the demon doesn't find anything. Any rest. Demons are angry. They never rest. They rest best when they're living inside of a human being. They desperately want to get inside of you. They can't get inside of you unless you hand them the keys as an act of your will. And as horrifying as pornography is, just as powerful as handing a demon a key is bitterness. Bitterness gives a demon a key. If you stay with it long enough it's it's terrifying. Then the demon says verse 44 he you know he thinks this to himself hey I'll return to my house. He's talking about the person that he just got cast out of. And when he comes to that man he finds that the house is empty. That man got set free the other day. Some months have passed. He hasn't filled the empty space with light. He hasn't given himself an aggressive way to light. So the demon says hey the door's still open. Verse 45 the demon goes and takes with him seven more powerful demons. Seven spirits more wicked than he is. You know there are there there's a demonic hierarchy. There are demons more wicked and more powerful than other demons. I mean you think a demon is a demon. No there are actually more powerful and more wicked demons. They have power to do more wickedness is what that means. They all hate perfectly. They hate perfectly but they have power to actually work wickedness in your life at a higher level. So the first 45 the demon says hey I'll take with me seven other demons more wicked than himself. I go hey guys the guy is opening the door. He's not filling his life with light. He's giving us permission. Come on let's go and seven more demons will come and here's what Jesus says. They enter the man and the last state of the man is worse than if he never would have gone to the deliverance session. He's actually in worse shape because he was delivered. He had this spiritual experience that he didn't go forward in life. He actually is in greater problems than he was if he never would have been experiencing the deliverance by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now that's an amazing reality. Jesus is talking about divine psychology how the human spirit works. Now Peter will just end with this. Peter says he says the same thing but now he's talking from the emotional human point of view. He's talking about a believer in 2nd Peter chapter 2 verse 20. He goes for if after this believer has escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Jesus. This is a believer. They've escaped certain bondages in their life. They've left a life of sin. They're born again. They have the knowledge of Jesus. Then they are again entangled. They are again overcome. They were set free from years of living in sin. They've been set free for a few years but they decide not to continue in the light as a born-again believer. They are entangled and overcome. Peter says the latter end is actually worse for them than the beginning. They're actually worse in terms of their condition than if they never would have even been saved. They would have at least had the chance to get saved but now they're so overcome. They have so much more hindrance to repentance. Now they can still have a chance to get saved but they're in a far greater place because they have bigger demons attacking them. Number one. Number two. A guy that's walked in the light for a few years and then he doesn't walk in the light. They have a cynicism and a hopelessness. Been there and done that and it never worked. The truth is they never were there in a wholehearted way but they say I've been there and I done that. I did that prayer thing for a few years. Didn't work. They are in a far worse condition than the guy who never ever tried to walk with God because they have a cynicism. They have a hopelessness and they have demons that they've invited. Their capacity for darkness is far more increased because they were walking in light and that enlarged their abilities, their spiritual abilities on the inside. So Peter says the latter end, verse 20, is worse for them than the beginning. Then he really brings it up a notch. Verse 21. It would have been better for them. I mean this is like Peter. How could you say this? It would have been better if they never ever knew the way of righteousness than to have known it and the turned and went back. Because again now their capacity for darkness is greater. They got bigger demons attacking them. They have the element of cynicism. I tried it. It didn't work. They have an element of hopelessness in a way an unbeliever doesn't have. I mean the unbelievers think I don't even know if that Christianity thing's real. They're not cynical. I mean they're unbelieving but they don't have this testimony. I tried it for five years and then I know for sure it doesn't work. They're worse and there's what Peter says. It has happened to them according to the true proverb. This is what happens to a believer who doesn't proceed in the light. A dog returns to his vomit. A sow or a pig having washed returns to wallowing in the mire. Now a dog has this disgusting and unclean completely illogical thing about a dog. There are several illogical things but I won't go there. A dog will vomit and as disgusting and unclean as that is a dog will go sniff the vomit. It's an illogical thing about a dog and what what Peter says is an unbeliever who touch goodness when they when they don't stay with it they are in a in this disgusting illogical unclean state where they're sniffing out perversion and darkness in a way they never would have before. They are like a dog going back to smell their own vomit or he says or the pig. They've washed and they go back to wallowing in the mire. Now I don't want to get real graphic but a pig pen it's more than mud. Okay I'll just leave it there. It's really bad what's going on in a pig pen. It is contrary to nature. I don't know that much about animals but I don't know of any other animal. You give them a nice free clean shower they run right back into the manure. They love it. They seek it out. He says that's what this man is like. His something happens illogical and perverse they become when they walk in light and they don't stay with that their capacities have enlarged they have a capacity for anger and perversion and addictions at a far level higher level than they ever would have had if they never walked into the light and then turn back. Jesus is saying he said it going back to the warning he said if the light that's in you turns into darkness he goes how great is that darkness I know a number of stories they're absolutely terrifying stories I'll just I know about ten of them of men that were used mightily in the power of God had lives of prayer and fasting for 10 15 20 years and one guy I'm thinking of he was used in one of the greatest revivals in the 20th century in South in Southeast Asia raised the dead a number of times verified it tens of thousands of people were getting saved in a communist situation it was amazing the miracles that God used with this man he raised up a whole church planning movement he was a modern-day Apostle this guy got discouraged got bitter things went wrong he'd been there 10 or 20 years laboring in it and what happens is 10 or 20 years later the story is I mean it's a true story but he died he died in an unnatural way the Lord took him home oh I don't know where he went but he died I'll put it that way there's no question it was under the judgment of God the man became a deeply devoted worshiper of demons and communicator of false spirits I'm talking about a modern-day apostolic type man with power wrote books and had a following a man of prayer and fasting moved in the operation of the prophetic he had such a capacity for darkness he couldn't do normal kind of you know go to church on Sunday once a week type Christianity he had such a capacity for an interaction with spiritual dimensions that he went the other direction in such a great way and I know a number of stories that that is one of the more graphic ones I know a number of them in history that are like that but I'm talking about modern-day I know some other ones it's amazing where they went in their heart after they walked in light for years and years and years as a having been in the ministry for over 30 years I've watched so many young people go 10 or 15 years 5 or 10 years whatever fasting praying believing in revival in their 20s now they're in their 40s they won't have anything to do with their they won't even hardly pick up their Bible if you ask them they believe in Jesus they'll say yes they have no living evidence of a life in God that you can't tell it at all they live just like unbelievers and they were 10 years in the prayer room crying out for revival reading all the books and somewhere in that more times than not they were only in it so their ministry would be big they really were not in it for light to grow in light they were in it so they could finally make it big and I didn't make it big after 10 years they got offended some people treated him wrong 10 or 15 years later you can't even ever you can't there's no evidence they ever walked with God I know hundreds and hundreds of people like this they walk 5 and 10 years fervent and that was 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 years ago I look at him now I go what and the things they're doing at the heart level in terms of immorality and drunkenness it's like this is inconceivable and Jesus would say it's not it's not inconceivable I warned you the promise is awesome you can be full of light but the warning is sobering you can fall into great darkness if you don't stay with the light God wants us to take it serious that he's offering himself to us if we don't take him it's not like well let's go let's look for another option if we turn down the God that created us and redeemed us there is no other option it's darkness and if we walk with him for a while the darkness compounds 10 years and 20 years later the darkness has so many layers to it it's not that there's no hope it's so much more difficult for a person to get through well I know that's ending on a negative note you know I left this morning and Misty said I am terrified right now I think you're gonna do fine I am terrified she goes I'm gonna get every verse on light I am going to dive into the light she goes I said I think that's kind of what you're doing she goes oh my god I am terrified by this so I'm not trying to terrify you because my my real point isn't how bad the darkness is although Jesus did not hesitate to say it worship team go ahead and coming up my real point is the promise that we can be filled with light beloved I want to walk in this promise I want to be filled with light amen