HIS LIGHT BRINGS LIGHT
Sometimes people tap into grace then erroneously think they don’t need to do anything but sit back and relax. Yet Jesus told us to pray, fast, preach the gospel, take the kingdom of heaven by force, take up serpents, drive out demons, heal the sick, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, and oh, so much more. (See Luke 11:1–4; Matthew 6:16–18; Mark 16:15; Matthew 11:12; Mark 16:18; and Matthew 10:8.)
Walking in grace doesn’t excuse you from doing other good works. James 2:17 says, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” (KJV). The word translated “dead” is nekros, which means “a corpse”!1 You are fighting the spirit of death. If your faith is not accompanied by good works, your body will remain lifeless.
I love the wording of James 2:17 in the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition: “So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).” Grace is accessed by faith in Christ alone, but if your faith stays alone, without accompanying works, it will become emptied of power and produce nothing but a dead corpse!
You can’t work for salvation. It is by free grace, through a gift of faith, that you are saved. However, once that happens, good works should naturally spring from your redemption.
Paul touched on the balance of grace that all believers should walk in:
By the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not [found to be] for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them [the apostles], though it was not really I, but the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God which was with me. 1 Corinthians 15:10 AMPC
Paul worked harder than anyone to spread the gospel. Yet he knew he had not done it through his own ability or righteousness. He credited his good works to God’s grace, and he echoed this sentiment in Philippians:
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12–13, NKJV
You are called to work out your salvation but not in your own strength! Paul says it will be God who works in you to do His perfect will.
HIS LIGHT BRINGS LIFE
Once you stop the decay of death in your bodily organs, you need to release into your body the power to be regenerated, rebuilt, and revived! For the rest of this study we will look at the freely given supernatural gifts that you need to operate in so that newness of life can saturate every part of your being.
The first one is the light of Jesus Christ. As I unpack this truth, let me make one thing clear: this is not witchcraft or New Age teaching. The Bible says, “God is Light, and there is no darkness in Him at all” (1 John 1:5). The first thing God created in Genesis chapter 1 was light (verse 3), because that is who He is. Consequently, when He spoke, what came out of Him was His very essence in the form of light.
Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12). The first chapter of Hebrews goes into even more detail concerning this characteristic of God and Christ. It says, “He is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature” (Heb. 1:3).
Jesus is the Light-being, the perfect imprint and image of God. Once Jesus comes to live in you, He begins imprinting God’s nature on you. He accomplishes this through the “out-raying” of His Light (mentioned in Hebrews 1:3). Just as light transfers an image from a photographic negative onto photo paper, the light coming from Jesus causes God’s nature to be transmitted and developed in your soul and body. This is one of the ways you become conformed to the very image of Christ (Rom. 8:29).
This action is executed through the Holy Spirit, whom the Bible says is also Light. Look at this revealing verse in Ephesians 5:9: “The fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light or the Spirit [consists] in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life.” Now let’s break down the verse. The word Light is capitalized because the Bible is talking about Jesus, who is the Light of the world. Then the verse directly connects the Light to the Spirit, as though they are interchangeable, which they are. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, living in you (Rom. 8:9).
Because Jesus is the Light of the world, the Spirit is also Light, and according to Ephesians 5:9, the Light produces fruit in your life. As the Spirit out-rays Christ’s light from your spirit man into your soul and body, you become the image of Christ and are able to walk “in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life” (Eph. 5:9).
The Light produces the fruit of kindness, goodness, and uprightness in your soul and releases life-giving power into your body. Christ’s light can heal every part of your being. It drives out the darkness of bad thinking, wrong motives, and dark, painful emotions. It also brings life to your organs and the parts of your body that are aging and decaying because of death.
THE SOUL HEALING POWER OF HIS LIGHT
The healing of your inner man is of the utmost importance if you are to prosper in your health, even as your soul prospers. So let’s look at the power of His light to heal your soul wounds, starting with this amazing scripture:
Moreover, the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days [concentrated in one], in the day that the Lord binds up the hurt of His people, and heals their wound [inflicted by Him because of their sins]. Isaiah 30:26 AMPC
