From Darkness to Light

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Hey, welcome to Self Talk. This is me, your host, Dr. Ray Self. Thank you for being a part of the show. Don't forget to do the stuff we need to do here. Subscribe, download, share, all that good stuff. I appreciate you being with me today. I want to tell you a story today, an unusual story that has an incredible life lesson and that changed my life forever. This show is brought to you by the ministry that I founded, the college that I founded. Uh, it's enrolling right now, the International College of Ministry, a college that is full of Spirit and truth, a Holy Spirit-filled, online, affordable, accredited Bible college or seminary. Get your bachelor's, master's, or doctorate degree right now. Don't hesitate. You know God's called you. Go to icmcollege.org. God bless you. Let's get started.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for everyone listening to this show. I pray that this story and this lesson will touch hearts. Holy Spirit, have your way in J–

I’m going to take you back in time many years ago, around the mid 1970s. I was young, not too long out of college, and as some people like to say, kind of young and dumb but very adventurous. One thing I liked to do back in those days was go camping. I liked to camp. I liked to canoe. I liked to explore. I liked to do things outdoors. And I was a tent camper. You know, I didn't have a fancy camper with air conditioning and all sort of…I, you know, slept on the ground or with a sleeping bag, that kind of stuff. Well, I had an idea. I heard that there was - in this particular area I was camping up in the mountains in Arkansas. I heard that there was a cave that you could find only after a difficult hike up a mountain and down the other side of a mountain. I wanted to go find this cave. I don't know why, but I thought that would be a great adventure. So, I had a girlfriend with me. Back then, I was not walking very close with the Lord at all. Should have been, but I wasn't. But I took a hike, and we, we hiked a very difficult hike up the side of this mountain. Made it to the top and then descended down the other side. And as we descended down the other side, all of a sudden, I found this big entrance to a cave. It had a big wide opening to the caves. “Ah, that's it. That's the cave. That's the one I heard about. And I really want to explore this cave.” 

So, I was kind of like, didn't really know what to expect or what to look for or what I was going to find because, hey, I just wanted to explore that cave. I'd hiked hard to get there. So, we go into the cave, and at the mouth of the cave was a big opening. There was a lot of light. You could pretty much see what you were doing. So, we got into the cave, and I had with me virtually nothing to prepare me for cave exploring or what they call spelunking. All I had was, uh, one little flashlight that you pick up at a hardware store. The one you put in the kitchen drawer, you know those little flashlights, not very powerful. A couple of C batteries. That's all I had. That's all I had. And um, my girlfriend was with me, and she was somehow someway willing to go along with it. 

Anyway, we're in this cave, and we got this big opening, and we kind of went deeper and deeper into the cave, and it was still, you could still have light because it wasn't that far from the entrance. And I looked, and there was this big pile of rocks that was kind of blocking up the cave. I'm thinking, “Well, there's got to be more to the cave than this,” ‘cause we were only maybe 50 yards into the cave. “There's got to be more to it than that.” And I looked at the uh, top of these rocks and I saw what looked like a hole or, or some type of an entrance. I said, "Let's, let's, let's go explore that. Let's do that." And so we, we climbed up these rocks, and we got to this small entrance. It looked like a little narrow hallway, so to speak, with a narrow opening. And being kind of young and dumb and not worried about too much, um, we decided to go through this hallway. 

So now it's starting to get dark. And so we start walking through this narrow passageway, and it's getting darker and darker. Eventually it gets so dark that, uh, the flashlight's off, you can't see your hand in front of your face. It is pitch dark. But I had the flashlight, and it was enough to kind of keep us going. So we walked, and we walked, got deeper and deeper into this cave, and all of a sudden, we come to a large opening, a room like a, a cathedral area. But the only problem was the ceiling was, was low, but it was this big, big opening. I thought, "Wow, this is really cool." So, we come out of the narrow passageway into this big open area with a kind of a low ceiling. I didn't really look much at the ceiling. I was looking ahead of us, and it was very, very dark. I mean, pitch dark. We had gotten very far from the light. It was very dark. I would say the ceiling was about 5 and 1/2 ft tall. Well, I'm 6'4. So, I'm stooped down low, and we're in this room, and I'm just kind of shining the light around. I, I stood up a little bit where my head sort of touched the ceiling, and as it did, I felt something flutter in my hair. I actually had hair back then. And I said, "What is that? There's something in my hair." And I shined the light up on the ceiling, and it was covered with thousands of bats. Bats everywhere. The bats literally covered the ceiling, and I had put my head in the middle of these bats. I didn't like that at all. That kind of scared me. Uh, you know, freaked my, my girlfriend out pretty much. I went, “Holy cow.”

So, I said, "You know what? Let's, let's get out of here. It's dark. I'm, I'm in a cave. There's thousands of bats everywhere, and this is no more– this is not fun anymore. I want to get out of here." So, we turned around and I shined the light back the way we had come– way I thought we'd come and all of a sudden. I see two hallways, two exits, and I do not know which way we came in. I could not remember because what happens in cave exploring, it looks one way going one direction, but when you turn and go the other direction, it looks completely different. I did not know. I was not sure how to get out of that cave. And all I had was this little flashlight that was getting a little dimmer because the batteries- remember the old flashlights? They didn't last very long. The batteries were getting dimmer. And I had this moment of panic. Which way out? Which way out of here? And I do believe at that point I said a prayer. “Oh God, help us. Oh God, help us.” Because I knew if I took the wrong way, we could literally get lost in this very dark, pitch-black cave. I did not want that to happen.

So, I took a guess to the best of my, best of my ability, and we took the exit to the right. And at this time, I'm beginning to panic. I didn't want my girlfriend to know that I was panicking, but I'm getting shortness of breath. I am– literally did not know where I was going. All I knew was I was in complete darkness. And all I wanted to do was get to a place where I could see that light, that I could see the light that we had come from because we had been walking in absolute darkness. And I knew I needed to get back to the light. That's a story of life. That's the story of salvation. And we continued to walk, and we continued to walk, and nothing, nothing, nothing's going on. No light other than my little flashlight. And eventually we went further and further. All of a sudden, I could see a light in the distance. And I could see a little light shining. And we got closer and closer, and it opened up. And I knew it was the light of day. It was sunlight, and we had found a way out.

You see, folks, I want to share a scripture with you. I want to share a scripture with you that it comes from the book of Isaiah. You know, it's close– This is a part of a Christmas prophecy, actually. Isaiah 9:2. “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light, and those who live in a dark land, the light will shine upon them.” This is a prophecy about the coming of our Lord's Savior. You go down about four more verses in Isaiah chapter nine, and it says, "For a child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." 

I tell you what I learned that day, that when you're walking in darkness, it can get hopeless. It can get scary. It can get overwhelming. And all you want, when you're walking in darkness, is to see the light. At that time in my life, at that moment in my life, all I wanted to do was to see the light, to find the light. I did not know, but I was walking out a prophetic picture of the coming of our Lord. You see, Jesus Christ is the light of this world. He dispels all darkness. Darkness does not cover light. Light covers darkness. I needed the light of Christ in my life so bad. I think God was trying to show me something right there. You see, Christ is the light of this world. And if you're walking in darkness, if you're walking in a dark period in your life, keep walking. Keep moving. There is a light. It is Jesus Christ. He is the light. I remember back to that day. There was nothing I wanted more. The darkness had consumed me. The darkness had overwhelmed me. And there was nothing I wanted more than to see the sunlight. And that is a play on words. I wanted to see Sonlight. That is a picture for all of us here. 

You see, where there's light, there is life. There is freedom. And there is no darkness in Christ. And maybe today you're going through a dark time in your life. Maybe there's darkness everywhere. But I want to tell you something. In Christ, there is light. And where there is light, there is love. There is security. There is safety. See, back then when I was coming out of that cave, I knew if I had made it to the light, I would be safe. I would be secure. I, I would have peace. And see, that's a prophetic picture of Christ. When we come to the light of Christ, we have safety. We have security. We have life. And darkness, darkness dispels. You see, when I was in that dark cave, not only was it scary, but it was scary because it felt like death. It felt hopeless. It felt fearful. Overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly horrible. But the light, when I found the light, everything changed. And that is a– such a beautiful, beautiful picture of Jesus Christ. 

When Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, He said something to him. He gave him a call. And He said to Paul, "Open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me." Look at this scripture. “Open their eyes so they may turn from darkness to light.” And my prayer today is that our eyes will always be opened to turn from darkness to light. The light of God. The light of God. The light of Christ is what we need. The light of Jesus Christ is the answer to life to every– In the book of Ephesians, we have this scripture which so pointedly points out when I'm talking to you today in this podcast.

“For you were formerly darkness but now you are light in the world. Walk as children of the light.” Ephesians 5:11, “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them.” Ephesians 5:13, "But all things become visible when they're exposed by the light. For everything that becomes visible is light." You see, Jesus is light. God is light. Darkness is death. Jesus is light. The Apostle John said this in 1 John 1:5, “This is the message we've heard from Him and announced to you, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.”

Folks, my little story I want to tell you, I feel like there's people listening to this podcast, I know that you feel like you're overwhelmed by darkness. What do you do? You pray. You keep walking. You keep moving. And you will come to the light. You know there is light in front of you. You have to find it. And it, it's not hard to find. You just say, "Lord, direct my path. Lord, direct my footsteps. Lord, help me. Lord, guide me. Holy Spirit, direct me." And you will come to the light. Light dispels darkness. Where there is light, there is God. God is love, power, anointing, freedom, deliverance. Everything is in the light. Find the light. Find the light. The light is available for you.

The light is here for you. God is here for you. Jesus is here for you. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is here for you. I know the holiday season can be tough. I know it's not easy, but find the light. Do not stop. Do not stop. There's no darkness in God. If you're feeling dark, that's not God's will for you. Let the light of Christ illuminate you and give you the freedom and the love that God has for you. Amen, and amen. 

Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I thank you for being a part of the show. Heavenly Father, for anyone listening to me who's walking in darkness, I pray, Father, that quickly they will find the light. Let your light be easy for them. Father, I rebuke every spirit of darkness, spirit of heaviness, spirit of despair, hopelessness, anxiety, and fear. And I proclaim over you the light of Christ, where there is freedom and joy and love and all the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Father, for everyone being a part, that's a part of this show that's listening to this show. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. Thank you again for being part of the show. This is Dr. Ray. Don't forget to subscribe, share all that good stuff. Go to the website for the show, icmcolleg.org/selftalk. This is Dr. Ray Self. I hope this has been a blessing to you. God bless you.