Hello again,sorry for the delay with the blog this week. I have had a house full of company and wasn’t able to spend the time I like to in preparation. Let’s continue for a while in our study. We will not study as much today but hopefully can pick up the pace a little during the next few weeks.

We have learned a lot about night/darkness and what that looks like and produces. Some of the information has just been to stimulate our thinking so we can look beyond the surface of things and use the knowledge we gain to pray with understanding about both our own circumstances and the needs of our nation and the world.

One little tidbit that amazed me is that night is shorter than day. Why do we always feel that nights are so long? Is it because of the intensity of night? Night becomes progressively dark then with the changing of the orbit light invades darkness and as it does it becomes brighter and brighter and we say Good Morning. It is important for us to remember that LIGHT dispels the darkness.

Now let’s continue in Isaiah for a little while… The answer to the man from Seir that we started this study with was, (Isa. 21:12) The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come. Sounds like continuous transition to me.

Matthew Henry Commentary : Enquire, return, come. Be inquisitive, be penitent, be willing and obedient.’ The manner of expression is very observable, for we are put to our choice what we will do: “If you will enquire, enquire; if not, it is at your peril; you cannot say but you have a fair offer made you.’ We are also urged to be at a point: “If you will, say so, and do not stand pausing; what you will do do quickly, for it is no time to trifle.’ Those that return and come to God will find they have a great deal of work to do and but a little time to do it in, and therefore they have need to be busy.

A R Fausset…commentary :       if ye will inquire, inquire–If ye choose to consult me again, do so (similar phrases occur in Gen 43:14 2Ki 7:4 Est 4:16 ).
      return, come–“Be converted to God (and then), come” [GESENIUS]; you will then receive a more favorable answer.

As you read and consider our study together think about the things that are unfolding before your eyes with a different discernment. It seems to me the news in our world is ever changing and we need to keep our eyes open to what is going on around us so we can see and understand the darkness/night that is manifesting itself.

Isaiah answered the man from Seir, but not like shipmate Bob did on the old radio program every night with 8 bells and all’s well. He answered it with the morning comes and then night…enquire…In Luke 11 the Disciples had asked Jesus to tell them how to pray which He did and then went on to give them further information.
verse 9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. seek….Luke 11:9..ask-to ask, beg, call for, crave, desire, require. This was the same thing that Isaiah told the man from Seir. The same thing He tells you and me today. Please don’t grow weary in asking and seeking the Lord when you are in a state of darkness. He will hear and shine the light of His love and presence into your situation.

I can’t emphasize this enough, light, light, light. That is what dispels darkness.
We need light…even if it’s only a faint glimpse of light it is better than darkness.
We do not need to settle for just a little bit of light/morning/day.

We saw an example of how light shining out of the sky on a man hiding in a boat revealed his presence in that boat and helped the police to capture him last week in the horrible darkness in Boston, Mass. There was much seeking and asking and enquiring during the darkness of information and truth until that young man was revealed. Then came the victory.

If you have been following the news of the world and our nation you know one of the things happening has to do with life and death and man’s desire to decide who lives and who dies. Life is so precious and yet from the beginning with Cain, men have chosen to eliminate the life of others to pursue their own desires. Darkness engulfs their minds and thoughts and tells them they are right and after all others feel the same way they do so the world moves forward into darkness and out of the light of the Lord and what He has created us to be.

But, God created LIGHT: Gen. 1: 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Let’s continue our study and gain some insights regarding HIS LIGHT next time.

Hello my friends, I’m so glad you dropped by. I trust you all had a wonderful Easter Celebration with your churches and friends. I certainly did. What a wonderful time we shared with our children and grand children and our church family.

What I am trying to get us all to consider is how we can discern darkness/night in a different way. Looking at the natural through the eyes of the Spirit. I am praying that we are all doing that. I am trying to do what the prophet Habakkuk said for us to do in Habakkuk 2:1-4
1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

2 And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie:
though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

I desire to make the vision so clear that we can all see the urgency for us to become watchmen today, now, quickly, for the prophet told them the vision is yet for an appointed time… Please read those scriptures over before you continue…and ask the Lord to burn this in to your spirits as well. I am trying to make it plain on this blog (table i.e. tablet)

Put on your spiritual cap and see the natural with spiritual discernment. What is going on in the natural that shows you there is darkness and do you discern the darkness in the spirit. Do you see the road the enemy has taken mankind down since the days of Adam. And can you tell if we are in night and how much night and do you know what night is? I’m praying some of those questions have already been answered at least in part.

There is a scripture in Gen. 6:5 that tells us about some of the thoughts of man.
Verse. 5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Verse 6 And the Lord had sorrow because he had made man on the earth, and grief was in his heart. I would say that sounds pretty dark wouldn’t you?

I find it interesting that in the book of Genesis, in the very beginning, when the Lord was creating He created light/day first and then came darkness/night. Take time to turn to the scripture and read that right now and ask Him to quicken something special to you through these scriptures in conjuction with our study.

We have spent a good deal of time figuring out what night is…Actually it is really very simple when you look at Gen. 1:5 And God called the light day and darkness he called night. I think we all understand that completely. Because we have lived in that knowledge all of our lives. But that was natural and I truly want us all to see with our spiritual eyes and discern the time.

We aren’t going to spend much more time on darkness/night but we are going to look at a few more scriptures to point the way forward in our study. I’m sure you heard this scripture sometime during the past Easter time either through a sermon or a movie.

Luke 22:53 When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness. Our Lord is facing the Priests-the religious establishment with some truth…and then tells them …this is your hour and and the power of darkness. Oh, my friends, please consider these meanings of the word “power” of “darkness”.

Power-physical and mental power; the ability or strength with which one is endued, which he either possesses or exercises. to exert power, give exhibitions of power, Thayers Lexicon

Darkness- Strongs: 4655
1) darkness
a) of night darkness
b) of darkened eyesight or blindness
2) metaph.
a) of ignorance respecting divine things and human duties, and the accompanying ungodliness and immorality, together with their consequent misery in hell
persons in whom darkness becomes visible and holds sway
Thayer’s Lexicon
this is the power of (night’s) darkness, i.e. it has the power of rendering men bold to commit crimes. Of darkened eyesight or blindness on one deprived of sight. Please remember that last bolded phrase..we will do a bit more research and I have a first hand example of the power of the eyes to share later.

So you see, night/darkness has a power….it is the power to limit and even render a person powerless because of lack of “sight”, cause man to be “blind”. No wonder we have the scripture in Matt. 15:14 calling the leaders of that day “blind” leaders of the “blind”. This was a time of night/darkness.

Isa. 60:2
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

Eccl. 2:13-14 Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
The wise man’s eyes [are] in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.

New Living Translation: verse 13: I thought, “Wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness. verse 14: For the wise can see where they are going, but fools walk in the dark.” Yet I saw that the wise and the foolish share the same fate.

Eccl. 8:1 How wonderful to be wise, to analyze and interpret things. Wisdom lights up a person’s face, softening its harshness.

Prov. 17:24 Sensible people keep their eyes glued on wisdom, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth.
NKJV Wisdom [is] in the sight of him who has understanding, But the eyes of a fool [are] on the ends of the earth.

For you consideration today: Here is part of a comment posted by one of you…
You cannot measure dark, because it is only the lack of light. It isn’t real substance. You can only know how dark it is by the absence of the light, but you can measure the light by meter, and by it’s influence on other things. [thanks K.W.]

When darkness becomes darker it is because light vanishes, but when light comes darkness has to flee. We can not see clearly in the darkness but when light comes we increase our abilities to “see clearly”.

Day and night are cyclical. Just think about it…There have been periods of time through out history that have been extremely dark i.e. night..and times of refreshing that have brought “great light”. When the light comes – men “see”.

The watchman answered the man from Seir and said…Isa. 21:12 The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!”
He left this person with a choice…inquire, return, come back.

2 Peter 1:19 NKJV And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;

John 3:21
vs. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. For context read verses 19 and 20 also.

There is a very old song we sang in years gone by that says in part “open my eyes that I might see,open my eyes illumine me”. That is my desire for all of us.

We are going to leave our study here today lest you grow weary of reading. Please humor me by spending some time considering the scriptures you have read and doing some studying on your own and bringing back some nuggets the way KW did for all of us to think about.

Lord, I ask Your blessings on each one who has endured and read to the end of this study. Quicken the Word to our hearts and if there is any place that is like darkness to our spiritual eyes I pray that You would shine Your light on our path and into our hearts and reveal a deeper understanding as we read and study. We are only in the beginning stages of the wonderful challenge and enlightening Word You have placed on my heart and I am getting anxious to keep moving, but know You are doing a great work and re-kindling fires that started in some of our spirits years ago and have been dampened by the cares of life and circumstances we have faced. I ask now that You would fan into flame that desire placed by Your Spirit. Use us Lord, is our prayer for all of us today. In Your Wonderful Name…AMEN