You walk into a dark room and you flip on the light switch
and you get illumination, you get light.
You can see what's in the room.
If you don't turn on the light
and you walk into an unfamiliar room
or a room that you're familiar with,
but somebody moved the furniture, you are likely to trip.
That's why we need the light.
And that's why the light limits the darkness.
So as we walk as children of light,
we are working with our Father to limit that darkness.
["The Star-Spangled Banner"]
God promises in Joel 2, 28
to pour out His Spirit on all humanity.
Welcome to Global Outpouring,
where we contend for that promised outpouring,
we equip for that outpouring
so that we may engage in that very outpouring.
I'm Philip Buss.
And I'm Sharon Buss.
Welcome to the podcast today.
We know from Isaiah 60
that there is a time of darkness covering the earth
and deep or gross darkness covering the people.
But we have to know and we have to understand
that darkness is limited.
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So the other morning, the Holy Spirit woke me up early
before it was, before it was-
Before the sun came up.
I mean, it was still dark.
That's my point.
It was dark.
It was really dark.
And you know, it's winter time here in America,
for those of you who are listening
from the Southern hemisphere, you've got longer days.
We've got shorter days right now.
And it was very, very dark when I got up to pray
and just have some quiet time with the Lord.
Well, guess what?
I fell asleep.
And when I woke up, I noticed that the sky
had started to get gray.
It wasn't light yet, but it wasn't completely dark.
And I heard in my spirit, there's a limit to darkness.
And we need to understand that there is
an absolute limit to darkness.
And I did a little research online
and learned that there are three stages of twilight.
And I won't go into the details of those.
If you want to look at that, you can Google it yourself.
The three stages of twilight where, you know,
there's a stage that you really can't make out anything much,
but the blackness isn't as black out in the sky.
And that's an astronomical twilight, I think they call it.
And I forgot the names of the other two.
Maybe I won't go looking for them.
Google them.
You can Google it yourself.
I'm sorry, I didn't think to make notes on that.
But then there's a part where you can see things,
but you can't see color.
And then there's a part where there's a lot of light,
but the sun hasn't come up yet.
And it's the same at sunset, you know,
like when the sun first goes down,
it's a great time for photography.
There's just wonderful light.
But my point is that when darkness comes,
it only can be there for a limited time.
And to get back to where darkness began,
we learned from Dean Braxton that,
this is something he learned when he was in heaven.
He was in heaven for an hour and 45 minutes.
And of course, in heaven, there's no time.
So you can, it's like being there for eons.
So he learned a lot while he was there.
And one of the things that he learned was that,
that when the enemy of our souls,
who was, I suppose he was called Lucifer then,
son of the morning, he was the cherub that covered.
And he persuaded this one third of the host of heaven
that they should follow him in rebellion.
And what happened was in that moment
when iniquity was found in them,
that's what the scripture says,
when iniquity was found in you,
what God did was he sucked the light out of them.
Yeah, that's what we've heard.
Those that have been to heaven.
Right.
And so that's how darkness happened in the first place.
There was no darkness ever anywhere in heaven.
And we learned from 1 John 1.5,
that God is light and in him, it's no darkness at all.
Philip, what does it say in the passion translation?
That says it really, really well.
Yeah, this is 1 John chapter one, verse five.
This is the life-giving message we heard him share,
and it's still ringing in our ears.
That's beautiful.
We now repeat his words to you.
God is pure light.
You will never find even a trace of darkness in him.
If we claim that we share life with him,
but keep walking in the realm of darkness,
we're fooling ourselves and not living the truth.
But if we keep living in the pure light that surrounds him,
we share unbroken fellowship with one another.
And the blood of Jesus' son
continually cleanses us from all sin.
Wow.
Continually.
That means if you let some darkness in
because of something you did or saw,
the blood of Jesus is there for you.
Absolutely.
So it was 1 John 1.5 through seven
in the passion translation.
Excellent.
Yeah.
So the thing that is in my heart for us to talk about today
is the fact that darkness is limited.
And a lot of the limitation
has to do with our interaction with our Father who is light.
Remember, Jesus said, I am the light of the world.
And then he said to his disciples,
you are the light of the world.
So we are his disciples.
So as we work with him, as we let him work with us, really,
as we yield to his pressure, as we've talked about before,
as we as the clay, yield to the pressure of the potter
and let him work out those impurities out of us
and work his spirit into us
where we're no longer walking in the flesh.
We're not moved by the things that move our flesh.
We're not easily offended.
His love pours through us.
His love is shed abroad in our hearts.
And his love like 1 Corinthians 13 expresses,
we're not easily offended and we're loving one another.
And that love is the light.
Yes, I love you.
Because God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
And Jesus came into the world to be the light of the world
and to deliver us from the darkness.
You know, it's interesting to me that what it says
in 2 Corinthians 4, 4, it's talking about the God
of this world has blinded the minds of them
that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them.
In other words, it's not that God is trying to keep people
from seeing the light.
There is an enemy who is darkness itself.
And he is trying to keep people in darkness.
But our father has sent us into this world
and everybody else who has a belly button
has been sent into this world to be a light to the world.
And the enemy of our souls is continuously trying
to keep us from getting there.
But we are here imploring you to flow with your father
in intimate relationship, flow with Jesus.
Let him wash you.
If you made a big stupid mistake this morning,
wash it in the blood of Jesus right now
and move on in the light because you are a limiter
of the darkness.
Yes, amen.
Because in God is no darkness at all
and he's living inside of you
if you've asked him to come and do so
and you are inside of him.
That's what the Bible says.
So let's just look for a moment at what God said
about darkness and about light in Genesis chapter one.
And I'm reading from the Amplified Classic.
It says, in the beginning, God prepared, formed,
fashioned and created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and an empty waste
and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep.
The spirit of God was moving, hovering,
brooding over the face of the waters.
And God said, let there be light.
Yes.
And there was light.
And there was.
And God saw that the light was good,
suitable, pleasant, and he approved it.
And God separated the light from the darkness.
Now this is before he created the sun and the moon,
the stars, okay?
That's what's astounding.
And he called the light, God called the light day
and the darkness he called night.
And there was evening and there was morning the first day.
And then, sorry, I'm thinking King James
because that's how I grew up, okay?
But in verse four, it says that God saw the light
that it was good.
Yeah.
He didn't say the darkness was good.
He only said the light was good.
If God said it's good, that's good.
Yeah, but he didn't say that the darkness was good.
He said that and he separated the light from the darkness
and he called the light day and the darkness
he called night, he didn't say the night was good.
He didn't really say the day was good.
He just said the light was good.
Okay.
Okay, so the light limits the darkness.
You walk into a dark room and you flip on the light switch
and you get illumination, you get light,
you can see what's in the room.
If you don't turn on the light
and you walk into an unfamiliar room
or a room that you're familiar with,
but somebody moved the furniture, you are likely to trip.
That's why we need the light.
And that's why the light limits the darkness.
So as we walk as children of light,
we are working with our Father to limit that darkness.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, yes, amen.
So continuing in Genesis 1,
when you go down to verse 16,
it says, God made the two great lights,
the greater light, the sun, to rule the day,
and the lesser light, the moon, to rule the night.
He also made the stars,
and God set them in the expanse of the heavens
to give light unto the earth,
to rule over the day and over the night,
and to separate the light from the darkness.
And God saw that it was good, fitting, pleasant,
and he approved it.
He approved adding lights to the darkness.
Yes, that's great.
And I just think that if that whole darkness
that's out there is the chains of darkness
that where it says that these angels that left their first
estate were put into chains of darkness.
I really feel like I haven't held this in front
of our brother, Dean Braxton,
to see if that's really, if I've got that or not.
But I really think that God put those stars even out there
in the expanse of space to kind of keep an eye
on the darkness out there,
and to remind them of what they've lost,
because they're forever losers.
They've lost it.
They gave up their first estate and they've lost it.
And so our father is trying to help us become lights
in the darkness in this season of time that we're living in,
like Isaiah 60 that says that there's darkness on the earth.
Yeah, and gross darkness.
Gross, dark, deep, deep darkness.
The minds of people that have been blinded.
It's just, it's astounding to me how so many of them
can't even reason.
They can't think for themselves.
They've been told what to think.
Sounds like communism.
Well, yeah.
That's what we saw when we were over there.
After 70 years of communism in the Eastern block,
take a generation and a half to get out of that mindset.
Right, right.
It only takes a generation really to go
from light to darkness or from darkness to light.
Darkness to light, that's good.
We have a choice.
Yeah, and it's like reflection.
Like the moon reflects the light of the sun.
And so you can function in full moon a lot of times.
If it's bright enough.
It's bright enough to even cast a shadow.
Yeah, and I remember we were in Zimbabwe.
We were in Chippinga.
And that was where, for those of you,
are you familiar with Reese Howells?
He had a Bible school there.
And he had a Bible school.
He had a mission.
He had a Bible school in Wales.
And the Lord gave them direction how to pray
during World War II when England was being,
London was being bombed while they had Bible school.
And some days they pray, they'd fast.
And he did all that.
So we're in his mission.
And we got one night there.
We kind of got there.
It was dark.
And we found the church that was there.
The roof had been blown off.
And it was the Rhodesian Civil War.
But all the walls were still standing.
So we pitched the tent about where
we thought the pulpit might be.
And I remember getting up in the night.
And it was so bright, the stars.
It was just so brilliant, that African sky.
It was dry.
And it was so bright.
I thought, it's just amazing.
There is no other light but that.
And people are the same way.
And when I was studying this yesterday morning,
this is what came to me.
You can reflect someone's light
or absorb their darkness in the spirit.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's tremendous.
And it will manifest in the natural.
Yes.
So it's like who you hang with.
If you hang with dark people,
I mean, it's one thing if you're working in eight to five
or whatever your hours are on a job,
there's people there that are just gonna
rub your skin raw.
You know?
But it's in your off time.
What do you do in your time with your friends?
What kind of friends do you have?
Are they light or are they dark?
Wow.
I mean, God can put you amongst dark ones,
but it's just like, no one.
But you better be strong with your light.
You have to be.
Your light's gotta be very strong
or their darkness will overwhelm you.
Yeah, that can be.
That can be.
I thought I just, that was a freebie.
That's tremendous, Philip.
As I was studying for this,
I learned that in these different kinds of light,
there is a time, and I think it's that astronomical twilight,
that if you have like a crescent moon or a half moon,
the side of the moon that is dark,
it can be seen by earth light.
Okay, yeah.
In other words, the reflection of the sun off of the earth
will allow you to see some of the dark side of the moon,
which you don't normally see.
So I thought that was interesting too,
when you're talking about reflected light.
What are we with?
Who are we with?
What kind of influence is coming onto us
and what kind of influence are we?
Yeah.
We know someone that's Stephanie Sherman,
I believe is who it was.
And one of her favorite places to go was Starbucks
because she's an interpreter of dreams.
Yeah.
And she says, I have a mission field, I walk in here,
and they come up to me, and all the new-agers and that,
and unbelievers, and she interprets their dreams.
The Holy Spirit just gives them,
this is what your dream's about,
and she's getting them saved.
Beautiful.
But she's got the strength to do that.
Starbucks, okay.
But a bar is another story.
Going in and have two or three beers with the guys,
you know, you're not gonna function.
And I remember doing my Wilder Days
after at the Steel Company, it was a Friday,
we're at a bar on the north side of Chicago,
and there's something I never did that much, you know?
And my best friend sitting across the table from me says,
I forget what the conversation was,
he says, nah, I don't believe the Bible,
that's a bunch of fairy tales.
You know, I had a beer in me,
and I stood up, I had my bottle of Stroze,
or whatever it was, and I was going to nail him with it.
You know, and he looked at me, he says,
you know better than that.
And I knew that he's a blue belt in karate.
I sat down, but I'm defending the Bible
even though I've had one too many.
Yeah, one is one too many.
So back to this idea of, that's all right,
that was a funny story.
In Luke 11 verse 33, Jesus is saying, no man,
when he is lighted a candle, puts it in a secret place,
neither under a bushel, you know, a basket,
but on a candlestick, that they which come in
may see the light.
The light of the body is the eye.
Therefore, when your eye is single,
your whole body is also full of light,
but when your eye is evil, your body is full of darkness.
Take heed therefore, that the light which is in you
be not darkness.
If the whole body therefore be full of light,
having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light
as when the bright shining of a candle gives you light.
So who are we looking at?
If we're keeping Jesus, who is the light of the world
in our sights, it's going to cause us to be light.
It's going to cause us to be that kind of people
that will draw people out of darkness.
There are people all around us that are questioning.
They realize that they are not what they need to be,
that they're realizing that they're missing something.
And if you are carrying that piece
of the Prince of Peace inside of you,
you are affecting the atmosphere.
You are changing the atmosphere from dark to light.
And even if your light is small,
even if your light is a candle,
it's better in a dark room to have a candle
than no light at all.
If the power goes out here,
once in a while the power goes out, you light a candle.
And you can get around, you can do what you've gotta do.
It's not as convenient and it's a little hard to read,
but you can get around, you can maneuver,
you can do what you need to do.
And that's what God is calling us to be is light
in this world to limit the darkness.
That's good.
Hallelujah.
So I just wanna share as I was meditating on this
the other morning about limiting the darkness,
about there's a limit to darkness,
I was reminded of a word that I had received in my journal
quite a few years ago.
And so I went back and looked for it.
Eventually I found it in the little devotional
that I put together out of some of the writings
from my journal, which is,
it's called In Quietness and Confidence,
Keys to Overcoming.
And by the way, that's on sale for Christmas
through the end of the year.
It's very good.
I mean, for the cost of buying a fancy card,
you can give someone a book that'll change their life.
Amen, amen.
So this one is called The Dawn Comes Slowly.
And it was something that came to me
in one of those early morning devotional times
as I was watching this changing of the darkness to light.
So I'm just gonna read what the Lord gave me.
The dawn comes slowly.
In the time of darkest of night, ever so slowly,
the horizon begins to lighten.
Sometimes a dark red line appears
that gradually lightens to orange,
giving way to the light of day.
Sometimes it is painted magnificently
with hues of purple, pink, scarlet, orange, and gold.
Sometimes it simply lightens to a dreary gray,
but it always comes slowly.
This is the norm for Revelation as well.
You don't have any idea of the depth of the darkness
in which mankind is steeped.
But I am the morning star, Revelation 22 16.
My light appears near your horizon
to give you hope that the day will soon be coming.
I am also the day spring, dawn, sunrise from on high,
Luke 178.
I am the light that slowly dispels the darkness.
I am that spirit of prophecy
that Peter refers to in 2 Peter 1 19.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy
whereunto you do well that you take heed
as unto a light that shines in a dark place
until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.
Beautiful.
I am the day break that causes the shadows to flee away
in Song of Solomon 2 17 and 4 6.
I am the son of righteousness that was prophesied
to arise with healing in my wings, Malachi 4 2.
As the day gets brighter and brighter,
the darkness loses its grip.
The form that was so unclear in the darkness
or even completely hidden in obscurity
is revealed in the light of day.
You hardly even perceive the gradual appearing
of the noonday sun once it is truly light.
It takes hours to arrive.
The enemy of your soul wrestles to keep you
in as much darkness as he can muster.
But I have called you out of darkness
into my marvelous light, 1 Peter 2 9.
In me is life and the life is the light of men.
John 1 4.
Most experience revelation slowly,
but because of the gross darkness that is upon the people,
I need to arise upon you and let my glory be seen upon you.
Isaiah 62 and 3.
So that the Gentiles, the unbelievers will be drawn to me.
Most revelation comes slowly.
But now in this era of the electric light,
you can understand sudden revelation
as though throwing a switch.
Instantly the darkness disappears
in the brightness of light.
I'm appearing to many Muslims, many pagans, many Jews.
And in that instant, suddenly,
they suddenly know who I am.
That is how Saul of Tarsus met me
on the road to Damascus, Acts 9.
As it was on the night of my birth,
the shepherds sat in darkness
when my messenger angel brought the word of my advent.
And suddenly a multitude of my heavenly host
lit the blackness with their praises.
So shall it be when my people arise
with the high praises of God in their mouth
and the two-edged sword of my word in their hands.
They will pierce the darkness,
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,
executing my vengeance upon the darkness
that has kept them bound and those around them.
Psalm 149, six to eight in Hebrews 412.
They will bind the demonic kings with chains
and the demonic nobles with fetters of iron.
My people perish for lack of knowledge.
They don't see me.
The light of the world and the giver of life.
You don't know how much you are missing.
Seek my face.
The light of my countenance will deliver you from darkness
to the degree that you seek my face.
That's beautiful.
And I was looking in Psalm 30,
and this is a Psalm of David,
the title, it's the dedication of the house of David
when he built his house.
This is before the temples built.
That wasn't the plannings yet.
Yeah, Solomon built that.
In verse four, sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his,
and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
For his anger endureth but a moment,
and his favor is life.
Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning.
Beautiful.
And when you were just reading there about the darkness,
you know, the dawn, you know, joy cometh in the morning.
Yep.
You know, it's just like we're not meant to go through
these trials.
Not forever.
Seems like it, you know, many times.
But it's building endurance in us.
And sometimes trials are transitioned.
Ooh, that's a good word.
That's not fun either.
No, it's not fun, but it's necessary.
Yeah.
You know, how do you gain rank in the military?
You start as a buck private
and you have your hair shaved off.
Right, and you go through training
and then you pass that training and you get a rank
and then you go through more training and you go through.
And you get humiliated along the way.
Those things happen.
But it's part of gaining rank as you succeed,
as you choose to overcome, as you keep your attitude right,
you get rank.
And you get higher and higher.
And in this case, in the Spirit,
you get lighter and lighter
and your light becomes greater and greater.
Not because you're becoming greater.
It's usually because you're becoming more and more humble.
The more we command our flesh and get it underneath us,
the more the light of the Spirit
will be able to shine through us.
Amen.
So, you know, Jesus taught his disciples to pray.
And part of that prayer is, your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
That is what we're, it's like a command.
We're commanding, we're imploring heaven to help us.
We're imploring our father to help us to enact on earth
the way life is in heaven.
And if you see in Revelation chapter 21 verse 33,
it says, the city had no need of the sun,
neither of the moon to shine in it
for the glory of God did lighten it
and the lamb is the light thereof.
And Revelation 22, five says,
and there shall be no night there.
We're talking about heaven.
And they need no candle, neither light of the sun
for the Lord God gives them light
and they shall reign forever and ever.
It's the Lord that is our light
and there is no darkness in heaven.
Yeah.
Darkness was kicked out.
Darkness happened because the light was taken out of them.
They were shoved out into this outer darkness.
And our job is to shine as the light of men in these days
because we're filled with his light.
And the more we push our flesh down
to let his spirit be seen,
the more we're going to light the darkness around us.
Yeah.
In Acts chapter 26, and this is Saul
before his name was changed to Paul.
You know, he was going to Damascus
and he's on his way to take prisoners in Damascus
on the orders of the high priests
and bring them back to Jerusalem.
And that's when the light of God shone on him.
And he fell down.
He wasn't riding on a horse.
You know, there's nothing in scripture
says Paul was on a horse.
Study it out.
He was walking and he fell down
under the light and the voice.
You know, the voice of the Lord spoke
and everybody around him heard the voice.
You know, they didn't see the light,
but they heard the voice,
but it was targeted just on him.
And the Lord spoke to him and says,
and this is verse 17,
I will rescue you from the persecution of your own people
and from the hostility of the other nations
that I will send you to.
And you will open their eyes to their true condition
so that they may turn from darkness to the light
and from the power of Satan to the power of God
by placing their faith in me,
they will receive the total forgiveness of sins
and be made holy,
taking hold of the inheritance that I gave to my children.
And so this was Paul's,
that this was his command, you know,
and he ended up being the apostle to the Gentiles,
even though he was one of the numbered students
trained under Gamaliel.
You know, so he was a high caliber
and he's flat on his face.
He's met the Lord Jesus Christ
and all of a sudden he's getting his job description.
Beautiful.
What would be going through your mind?
You knew nothing about Jesus,
you fall flat on your face
and the one you persecuted,
if you're a Hindu or Muslim
and you're persecuting Christians or people,
you know, the light of God shines on you,
it blinds you,
you fall down because of the power of God.
What's going through your mind?
Everything you were taught is false
and you've come face to face with eternal light.
Amen.
Wow.
Amen.
And that is what God wants to do all around us.
Yes.
All the time.
To rescue people from this satanic darkness,
this satanic blindness that is upon the people
and to rescue them, to be that light,
to limit the darkness
so that the darkness cannot have what it's trying to have
because our Father is ready for us
to be ready for the outpouring
that he's going to give on all flesh
and we need to be ready
to help people come into the kingdom,
to help people come out of this darkness,
to contend for the light to shine upon them.
You know, we keep hearing these wonderful stories
about, in particular, about Muslims
because we've been praying a lot for the Muslims
to have those kind of dreams and visions of Jesus
that will turn them around and it's happening
because God is answering our prayers.
So be one of those prayers
that will be praying for the light to shine
on the people around you, the people that offend you,
the people that annoy you, become their intercessor.
Become their intercessor that the places
where they have darkness,
even if you're talking about brothers and sisters
and the Lord, the places where they have darkness,
you know, we all have places in us
that we can't see ourselves.
They're blind spots, blind.
Remember, blind means dark.
You can't see it.
You don't even know that you have some of these things.
Become the intercessor for that person
that is annoying you or that is persecuting you
or that just is in darkness, the people around you.
And then reach out and pray for the people
that are out there that need this light of Jesus Christ.
There's so much darkness in the world,
but the Lord will arise upon you.
We know that this promise is for Israel,
but we who are Gentiles have been grafted in
to that promise.
And so we can also be those who will arise and shine.
And we pray for those who are not yet believers
out of Israel, Lord.
And we pray for those who are even in India.
I'm thinking about the terrible persecution
that's going on in India towards the Christians.
Lord, we're asking you to shine your light in these Hindus,
Lord, shine your light.
Show them yourself in visions and in dreams, Lord.
Show them, Father, and move upon your body,
your people in India, your people in Israel,
your people in Palestine, your people in Timbuktu, Father,
in Africa, in Asia, in Europe, Lord, in America,
in North America, South America, Australia,
all the nations of the world, Lord.
We're asking you to shine upon your people.
Shine in your people.
Cause your people to arise, to be that glorious church
without spot, without wrinkle,
that mature bride who has made herself ready.
Lord, the mature bride who is going to be interceding
for those around her, Lord.
Father, we're asking you to cause your light to shine in us
and through us to transform the darkness of this world
into your glorious light.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Amen.
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Until next time, this is Sharon Buss.
And I'm Philip Buss.
God bless you with this overwhelming loving presence.