Light And Shadow
We are very good at self-denial and self-deception! God gave us the gift of Self. A beautiful creature filled with light and life, and we are in complete denial of that Self! Maybe, the struggle is not in denying the self we know but fighting tooth and nail to keep as much of it as possible, to live as close to the darkness as our rules allow. The self I know is the fallen self. The selfish self whose universe is little more than me. And everything that is out there is about how it affects me.
Can you and I stop and consider this paradigm shift for a moment? Would God ask us to deny the Self that He created us to be? This self filled with light and life? This other-centered and self-giving Self in harmony with the Divine? Is not fallenness the denial of this Self, made in the image and likeness of God?
Who are You?
So, maybe self-denial is not the solution after all, but repentance, changing our minds, about who we are?
“Do not be misled, my beloved brothers and sisters. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes]. It was of His own will that He gave us birth [as His children] by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.” (James 1:16-18 AMP)
What we call ourselves is but a shadow cast by the Father of Lights upon the Self that we are, the shadow that lives in darkness and death. It is time we stop believing the lie of who we have been told we are and embrace the reality of our Origin, Relationship, and Life! The mystery of the Gospel solved has always been, “Christ in you the hope of glory.”
Denying the Imposter
Turning the prism back around to how we have always seen ourselves, denying the shadow makes perfect sense. Self-denial is not about controlling the shadow, punishing or starving it but turning our back on it and walking into the Light. In the Light, the imposter is just that, a misrepresentation of the real.
You do not solve this problem by addressing the lie but by accepting the Truth. God is better than we ever dreamed was true, and so are we! Proverbs says, for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
There are so-called doctrines that good people have long accepted. Doctrines, I do not understand how anyone who loves God could hold, except by shutting their spiritual eyes! . . . Good souls, many will one day be horrified at the things they now believe about God!
The Imposter is the introductory blog for the Sermon below: