“I am leaving you with a gift- peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” John 14:27

I have been pondering the darkness. We use this term in so many ways, but as I have sat in my darkness, the Lord opened my eyes to a few things. He created the darkness too. Genesis records that “God made two great lights- the greater light to have dominion over the day and the lesser light to have dominion over the night- as well as the stars.” God has authority over the darkness. I read somewhere once that there is nothing that can overtake you that God has not allowed.

Think of the night and the moon. Close your eyes and see God’s created time for rest. Every day, He has ordained a time for us to lie down, release the cares of the day, and sleep, unafraid of the night. What if the very darkness we face is an ordained time for us to learn to rest in God? Would knowing that God still has authority over darkness, change how we Trust Him and experience His gift of peace? The Moon for me has become the physical reminder that God has dominion over the darkness.

Peace. As I was waking up one morning, I heard this, “Bitten, but not devoured.” I’m fixin’ to get a little crazy because maybe the Spirit was speaking to me. Never have I felt such peace fall on me. In my last post, I gave you a glimpse into the depth of my darkness, that’s where I went to sleep, but that is not where I woke up.

I felt like God was saying, “Yes, Satan bit you. I can see the teeth marks on your leg. But YOU.. ARE.. NOT..devoured. I still have you in the palm of my hand.” God is Light and there is no darkness in Him. We have to believe this to experience victory in this life. None. Zilch. There is no darkness in Him. He rules over the darkness, and “In Christ Jesus” you have victory over whatever you are facing. It’s not a feeling, it’s a truth you must believe.

Christy Nockels’, “Healing Is in Your Hands” has ministered to me because she leaves nothing out. Our victory is found only in the Lord Jesus. God never denies that we need healing. He doesn’t tell is to figure it out. Or the worst, “I’m holding it all together.” He designed us to walk with Him in the garden in the coolness of the evening. He never wanted us to be alone.

In Genesis, God said to the Serpent, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and your seed and her seed. You will crush his heel, but He will crush your head.” Matthew records for us the ultimate scene of darkness, the Cross. At noon until three darkness covered the whole land. Then Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Then some men offered Jesus some sour wine. Jesus shouted again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit.

Darkness. But what amazing things was God, the Father, accomplishing in that darkness through Jesus, His Son. It looked like Satan might triumph.  Jesus buried in a tomb!

But Resurrection Sunday came, right on time! And with it, Jesus crushed Satan’s head, secured our forgiveness, and released our healing.

Death has been swallowed up in victory.

O Death, where is your victory?

O Death, where is your sting?

Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, my dear brothers (and sisters), be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1Corinthians 15:54b-58

So I reiterate my questions at the beginning, What if the very darkness we face is an ordained time for us to learn to rest in God? Would knowing that God still has authority over darkness, change how we Trust Him and experience His gift of peace? Honestly, I don’t know everything that God is doing in my darkness, maybe a thousand things, but I can claim that He is teaching me to BELIEVE… even when it looks like evil might triumph. There are sicknesses that end in the death, but death has lost it’s victory over the Believer. Some Believers are holding chains and keeping secrets, but the truth is that these chains and secrets have no power over them. The power of sin is broken.

My dear friend, we are more than conquerors in Him. Know that today you are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ; for He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, to he holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6.