Are you blocking God's light?

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5

Did you ever do an experiment in Science class with a glass prism where you passed sunlight through it and it formed all the colors of the rainbow?  You might remember that white light is composed of all the visible colors of the electromagnetic spectrum and that the prism bends and refracts each of those colors so they can be seen individually. 

There's a rainbow above the throne of God, which seems fitting since God is Light. His wonderful, incredible light coming from His very person is refracted above him into a rainbow! Cool, huh?

And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. Revelation 4:3

We are also told in the Scripture that, we who trust in Jesus, are also lights, lights of the world in fact. But we are also told that it's possible that we don't shine at all or that our light is quite dull. A few weeks ago I heard a sermon online about how easily we can block God's light and what is the best way to become a prism of His Light that we can then refract to show His true beauty to the world.

Think of yourself as a Prism pointing up to heaven. In order for light from God to move through you and shine on others, all three of your sides need to be clear. In other words, there can't be any cloudy or dirty or dark glass because then light would not move through.  The First side that needs to be cleared is the bottom which represents your will.  This occurs when you get "saved". You believe in Jesus and you submit your will to Him.

Will - Submission to Jesus as Lord of your Life

 But the Triangle is still blocking the light!  There's more to do in order to reflect the light of God. The next step is to gain knowledge. How do you do this? You read the Bible!  You pray often (without ceasing) You listen to great preachers. You hang out with other Christians and share their struggles and what the Lord has done for them. You learn how to hear God's voice in your spirit!

If you just submit to Jesus but don't grow in your faith, you won't reflect His light. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that if you are truly submitted to HIM, you can't help but grow in your faith, because He will lead you to do the things you must do in order to Grow!!  Don't stay a Baby Christian drinking from a bottle!

I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.  1 Corinthians 3:2

But Knowledge and Will isn't enough either. You must produce fruits!   What do I mean by fruits? The Fruits of the Holy Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control

The Truth is, you can say you believe in Jesus. You can have a PHD from every theological seminary in the country. You can speak Hebrew and Greek and attend every conference there is, but if you don't bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit, you are nothing, and will not shine the Love of God to others. In fact, once again, I would say that your claim to be submitted to Jesus is false. In other words, you can't say you follow Jesus and then not show love to your fellow man, constantly lose your temper, have no inner joy, lie, cheat, etc. These fruits should be evident your life, especially if you've a Christian for awhile.   Sorry the graphic below is a little small. I hope you can see it.

When you have all three of these sides operating (even if they are just in the beginning stages) you will begin to shine God's light to the world! We are commanded to be lights. But not every Christian is shining! I'll leave you with this incredibly important Scripture from the Apostle Peter. He lists several things (fruits) we should be striving for as Christians.

Faith
Virtue
Knowledge
Self-control
Perserverence
Godliness
Brotherly kindness
LOVE

The reward if you grow in these things, you will be fruitful for God (shine lots of His Light!) AND
you will be allowed entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord!

The punishment for not growing in these things:  You are shortsithged, blind, have forgotten that you were cleansed from your sins. You will stumble and quite possibly NOT be allowed into the kingdom of God.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.  For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-11

As the world around us grows darker and darker, it's time we remove all hindrances and start shining God's bright light into the world!  With me?