The Voice of Light
by Joanne Panettieri
Editor - Kingdom Iconoclast
“The people living in darkness have seen a great light” Matthew 4:16
Jesus taught his followers that he was the light of the world:
John 8: 12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
By this statement Jesus was saying that “light” was a person, not a doctrine, idea or a theology. Darkness symbolizes distress, ignorance and death. There is fear associated with darkness because we don’t know what is there. Used figuratively darkness also represents moral depravity.
Later on in John’s Gospel, Jesus tells his followers that he must go and prepare a place for them so that they could be “where I am”. (Present tense) He did not say “where I am going”, meaning in the future. He was going to prepare a place for them so that they could be where he was right then! Jesus taught them that “greater” things would they do because he goes to the Father. This word greater means more in number because Jesus was duplicating himself in his believers.
Our purpose for being born again is not to go to heaven when we die. It is to be conformed into the image of Jesus, the second Adam, the man from heaven. We are to be ambassadors for His Kingdom and bring His reign to the hearts of men.
“As he is so are we in this world” 1 John 4:17
So when Jesus tells his followers in Matthew’s Gospel that THEY are the light of the world it is HIM in THEM which brings light and life to others.
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill can not be hidden” Matthew 5: 14 (city on a hill: see Hebrews 12: 22 reference to the New Jerusalem and spiritual Mount Zion)
Dispelling the Darkness
The light of the Glorious Gospel can not be overcome by any works of darkness.
John 1: 4 “In him was life,and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
How do we shine our light in the world so that we overcome the darkness? We do this in several ways, one of which is by our behavior. We no longer participate in the evil deeds of darkness. Our light shines though our changed way of life like the rays of the sun. This is our silent witness. Another way we dispel darkness is by our voice.
The word “light” in Greek is “phos” which means anything emitting light. (Strong’s # 5457) We get the word “phosphorus” from this root.
The word “phos” means:
“phos” (Strong’s 5347) which means: light; a heavenly light such as surrounds angels when they appear on earth ; anything emitting light; fire because it is light and sheds light; the power of understanding esp. moral and spiritual truth; that which is exposed to the view of all, openly, publicly: God is light because light has the extremely delicate, subtle, pure, brilliant quality
The word “phos” comes from these two Greek roots:
“phaino” (Strong’s #5316) which means: to make manifest; cause to shine; to bring forth into the light. to shine, be bright or resplendent; to become evident, to be brought forth into the light, come to view, appear
“phemi” (Strong’s 5346) which means: to make known one’s thoughts; to declare; to say.
The word for “voice” in the Greek is “fonay” which means:
“fonay”: voice; a sound uttered; a tone or uttered words. We get our word “telephone” from this root. It is related to the word “phaino” (see above) through the idea of disclosure.
Hearing God’s voice:
God has always desired his creation to hear his voice. After he created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden they would walk with Him every day and hear his voice.
Gen 3: 8 “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
Adam, the man created in the image of God, began his 1st day of life on God’s 7th day, the day of rest. All Adam had to do to stay in God’s rest was to hear and obey God’s voice. We know from the story of the fall that Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were cast out of the Garden to toil for the rest of their lives.
From that day on God was looking forward to a people who would listen to his voice and obey him. Noah heard and obeyed and built an ark, and as a result he and his family were saved through the flood. Later God found Abraham and through his obedience he desired to have a holy nation of people who would hear and obey him.
Gen: 12:1 “Now the Lord saidto Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. ….. 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran."
When God appeared to Moses and the people of Israel on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19) He told Moses that He was coming down on the Third Day and that the people would hear his voice. The people refused to hear God’s voice because of fear and the priesthood was given to them as intermediaries between them and God:
Deut 5: 24 -25 “And you said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die.”
But God spoke directly to Moses at the Tent of Meeting from the place where the pillar of fire and pillar of cloud rested:
Numbers 7: 89 “And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him.”
God is still looking for a people who will hear and obey him:
Hebrews 3: 7 “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness”
Jesus said John 10: 27 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
God’s word (voice) is light:
Psalm 119: 130 The unfolding (or entrance) of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.
“Just like the earth we read of in Genesis chapter One, even so the Spirit of God is brooding over the ‘earth’ within US that is void and without form (un-perceived) with darkness upon the face of OUR deep, and SPEAKING Light and separating the darkness (remember, it wasn’t till the fourth day that He made the sun, moon, and stars). “...darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (Genesis 1:2-3) You see, it is the VOICE, the sound, that brings forth LIGHT, for it was the VOICE that called forth light in Genesis, and that same VOICE echoes through all creation as “the whole creation GROANETH”. 1
Light and Sound:
We saw above the relationship between the Greek words for light and sound. Now scientists have proven that light and sound are actually the same energy and both can be measured by waves. Light and sound just manifest at different frequencies. The main differences between them are the velocity with which they travel and the shape of the waves. They are both forms of wave motion but sound requires a solid, liquid or gaseous medium and light travels through empty space.
“Frequency affects both sound and light. A certain range of sound frequencies produces sensations that you can hear. A slow vibration (low frequency) in sound gives the sensation of a low note. A more rapid sound vibration (higher frequency) produces a higher note. Likewise, a certain range of light frequencies produces sensations that you can see. Violet light is produced at the high-frequency end of the light spectrum, while red light is produced at the low-frequency end of the light spectrum. A change in frequency of sound waves causes an audible sensation—a difference in pitch. A change in the frequency of a light wave causes a visual sensation—a difference in color.” 2
We are His Voice in the earth:
Because we have been raised with Christ (Eph 2), when we speak the Word of the Lord it is as if the Lord Himself were speaking through us.
When we witness:
2 Cor 5: 20 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God”
When we pray in tongues we are pronouncing judgment on God’s enemies:
2 Cor 14: 21 “In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.”
This scripture is a quote from the Prophet Isaiah and was referring to the Assyrian captivity.
Isaiah 28: 11 “For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people, 12 to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.”
When we prophesy: (Strong’s # 4395 Gk - to utter forth, declare, a thing which can only be known by divine revelation)
1 Cor 14: 24 “But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.”
Ascribe to the Lord Glory
A Psalm of David.
Psalm 29:1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!
We are to be the voice of the Lord in the earth!!
Footnotes:
1. “Deep calls to Deep” by Doug Fortune http://www.dougfortune.org/
2. A Comparison of Light Waves with Sound Waves: http://www.tpub.com/content/neets/14182/css/14182_44.htm