I am impressed to pick up a message the Lord began in me many years ago. It has to do with Light and Glory. So—today I went back to one of the first times I preached it in 1984 at Brother John Osteen’s great church in Houston. Just this past week (5/9/05) at Mrs. Oral (Evelyn) Roberts’ memorial service in Tulsa, I met a couple who attended the service in Houston 21 years ago. I had not met them before and was amazed at what they told me. They came into the Lakewood service because they thought Billy Graham was speaking. When I stepped up to preach, the husband said, “Let’s get out of here.” But they lingered a little. As I passed by during the message, the husband fell out under the power of God and was out for two hours. “So,” the wife told me, “I got to stay. It changed my life—it saved my life.” In picking up this message again, I sensed that I am to begin now where I began then. This article is adapted from that service at Lakewood. An unusual anointing was always upon this message when I preached it. So we are making that original audio message available to you on CD or cassette.
Early on in the revelation the Lord brought to my spirit on Light, He gave me a chorus. It was 1980. My father was hospitalized in Tulsa with serious complications following heart surgery. Agonizingly torn, I made the decision to leave his side and to keep my speaking engagement at a camp meeting in Jefferson City, Missouri. There, some missionaries from South Africa sang this simple song which they said came from Zulu Christians. They said the Zulus would sometimes sing this song for hours and the Spirit of the Lord would fall and move marvelously. Well, in that camp meeting and in many times and places since, the Lord has ministered to and through me with this simple chorus. I wish we could sing it together now.
Walking in the Light of God,
Walking in the Light of God,
Walking in the Light of God,
Walking in the Light of God,
Strong’s Concordance defines the Hebrew and the Greek words for walk with phrases such as "to walk, to go, to continue on, to carry on to completeness."
The Bible defines Light for us.
1 John 1:1-3a
1. That which is from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2. (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you…
John was one of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb. The New Testament calls 24 or so people apostles. But the Twelve are a special group. Peter spoke their qualifications in the upper room where they chose one to take Judas’ place, “Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a WITNESS with us of His resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22).
In 1 John, the Apostle John tells us about that special witness of the Twelve. We heard Him. We saw Him with our eyes. We touched Him. And what we saw and what we heard, we declare to you…
1 John 1:3-4
3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, THAT (in order that) ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
4. And these things write we unto you, THAT your joy may be full.
That which we saw. That which we heard. That which we received from Him, we declare to you. And we’re going to declare it to you for a purpose. The purpose is that you may have fellowship with us.
Now this fellowship is not like what we would experience over refreshments after a church service. The Amplified Bible gets closer to the meaning of the Greek word and translates it like this.
1 John 1:3 (Amplified Bible)
3. What we have seen and heard we are also telling you, so that you too may realize and enjoy fellowship as partners and partakers with us. And (this) fellowship that we have…is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
Partners and partakers! Partners in the Lord’s business. And partakers of its profits. John said in effect, “We’re going to declare what Jesus told us so that you can enter with us into a working relationship with the Creator of the Universe!”
Now this is it! Here it comes! This is the declaration that will allow you to work with the Apostles, with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
1 John 1:5
5. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you… I always feel like there should be a great fanfare of trumpets right here, as we sit on the edge of our seats awaiting such a message!
1 John 1:5
5. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you that [Tah-ta-ta-Tah!!], GOD IS LIGHT, AND IN HIM IS NO DARKNESS AT ALL.
That’s the message! The marvelous declaration that allows us to work with God in life, in prayer, in the Word, in ministry, in healing the sick, in everything! GOD IS LIGHT, AND IN HIM IS NO DARKNESS AT ALL!
That night at Lakewood Dr. Cherry had given testimony that at one time he didn’t know whether to try to get people well. Perhaps God wanted to teach them a lesson.
By and large, the Church didn’t get the message. Darkness was preached from pulpits which confused the Church about God’s will in salvation, healing, prosperity, etc. Often the Church did not even know how to pray. But there is coming a people who will get this message. They will realize and manifest the Church’s true partnership with Jehovah God. I believe the Church will walk in a glorious fellowship with God, manifesting Him on this earth for a short time before we leave. How will we do it?
Verse 7 tells us how.
1 John 1:7
…IF WE WALK IN THE LIGHT, AS HE IS IN THE LIGHT, WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP [as partners and partakers] one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
It would have been a tall order if the Lord had said, “Walk in the light as Kenneth E. Hagin, or Billy Graham is in the light.” But no! The Word tells us to “walk in the light as He—Jesus—is in the light!” And notice. It is not as He walked in the Light during His earthwalk. But walk in the Light as He is in the Light now!! God would not have told us to do this if we could not. He commanded it because we can do it!!! We can walk in the Light as Jesus is in the Light!
“…Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). Enoch worked with God. He knew to name his son Methuselah, which means at his death judgment will come. Methuselah lived longer than any other man, showing the mercy of God, but at his death the flood came.
The Amazing 20th Century
Until Today
Daniel the Prophet wrote that at the end of the age many would travel to and fro, and knowledge would be increased. My grandfather was born in 1890 and died in 1975. He traveled to Oklahoma by covered wagon, and later sat in his home and watched men walk on the moon.
One century saw amazing change in the natural realm and in the spiritual realm. Around the century’s beginning God revealed the light bulb to Thomas Edison. In 1901 came the latter rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Topeka, Kansas. In 1906 the same rain of the Spirit came to Azusa Street and from there to the world.
At this same time, God gave a Jew, Albert Einstein, revelation on Light.
Around 1982 my daughter, Brenda, was an 8th grade science teacher.
I said, “Honey, bring me something I can understand about Einstein’s revelation.”
She brought me a 3rd grade science book. It told how when Einstein was a boy he observed light passing between buildings as he walked down the street. He noticed properties of light that differed with what they taught in school.
Here are some things Einstein eventually discovered.
1. Light is constant.
2. Light is the only constant.
3. Light is the only unchangeable thing.
That matches James 1:17, “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
When the Lord first dealt with me about Light, He caused a tape to come into my hands. It was by a scientist speaking at a Full Gospel Businessmen’s meeting. I cannot now find the tape so I cannot give his name. He had been a professor who taught evolution and did not believe in God. One day, a student challenged him. “Professor, we have computers now. If what you teach is so and man has been on earth millions of years evolving and evolving, put that into a computer and see what earth’s population would be. Now the Bible says that at such and such a time there was a flood and eight souls were saved. Put that into the computer, with all the wars, plagues, etc., and see what earth’s population would be.” The professor took the challenge. It turned out that if what he taught were so, earth would not hold the people. When he used the eight souls and the time of the flood, it came out at the population of the earth then—about 4 billion.
“Then,” he said, “I started studying backwards. I took what we knew from science, and I searched for it in the written Word of God.”
At the FGBMFI meeting he went into Einstein’s Time Dilation Theory. What follows is from his talk there.
Light travels at 186,272 miles per second. It is constant.
If you could travel at the speed of light, strange things would happen to you. You would live forever. You would be immortal. You would have passed time. (However, nothing material can travel the speed of light, for as soon as it reached the speed of light, it would disappear).
The speaker gave us an example. So let’s do it like this. Pretend that I am preaching this message and you are in the congregation.
I say to the congregation, “We’re going to pretend you all are in a spaceship. You are going to take a 30-day trip—15 days out and 15 days back. You will take a clock and a calendar to mark off the days. You will travel at approximately 80% the speed of light. When you come back, you will be 30 days older. But when you return, I will be 60 days older.
“Then, you’re going to take a second 30-day trip. But this time you will speed up to 90% the speed of light. When you come back you will be 30 days older. But I will be 10 years older. I’ll wish I went with you.
“Now, for your third trip, again you will go 15 days out and 15 days back. But this time you will speed up to 99.279% the speed of light—just enough to keep you from disappearing. When you return you will be 30 days older. But I will be 30,000 years older.”
In illustrating this, the professor had us divide those numbers by the largest number that would go into each. Of course, it is 30. therefore, 30 divided by 30 is 1— and 30,000 divided by 30 is 1000. Or, 1 to 1000. This ratio is like the Bible’s statement that one day is as a thousand years. (See Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8.)
And then the speaker showed us Einstein’s theory in the Bible:
1 Timothy 6:14-16
14. …until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ;
15. Which in His times He shall shew, who is the blessed, and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
16. Who only hath immortality, DWELLING IN THE LIGHT WHICH NO MAN CAN APPROACH UNTO; whom no man hath seen, nor can see…
Everything is in the written Word.
Consider translation. All God had to do to translate Philip was to speed him up. We worked in Soviet Russia with a man God translated often. My daughter, Shelli, has a testimony of translation. As we go on with this, we’ll share modern-day translations. For they are about to increase as the Church walks in the Light as He is in the Light.
Please note: The prophecy date listed is an approximation.