TEXT: MATTHEW 10:27
"What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye
hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops."
Dark momments impact, most time, certain amounts of inestimable and functional knowledge: it makes a kind of insight that might not be procured from the pages of any book here on earth at hand and possible. Therefore, it is just and correct to say, as we did in the previous part of this meditation, that, inherent in any dark experience, are timeless understanding and knowing that are wired into the fabric of the entire being of the man who is the partake of such expirience: Deity speaks deep and useful truth to man in his dark momments!
The foregoing comments throw clearer light on the first part of the text under consideration, which first part reads thus: "What I tell you in darkness..." This part of our text shows clearly that two parties are involved here: one party says something to the other party: in simple lamguage, something is said to somebody. Both parties are in this darkness together! God walks with us right into our darkness! In joy or in sorrow, our Lord is always with His own. He says in Matthew 25 : when I was in prison...when I was sick...when I was hungry...when I was thirsty...Our Lord feels our infirmity. He understands our dark momments...our heavenly father knows that we have need. Amen!
Conversely, by the second parts of this text, which reads thus: "... that speak ye in light..." we see a man who is instructed to speak whatever he has heard in the momments of his darkness. In the first part of our text, he is spoken to, while in the second, he is commanded to speak, in broad day light, what he has heard in the dark. His dark momments afford him with what to say: knowledge and utterances are birthed in our dark momments. A man that is not dealt with by the hand of God would not have much to say to his generation. The man in the darkness of the first part of this scripture, became a preacher in the second part thereof. Dark momments make preacher out of a man. Paul says in 1Cor.1:3-4 that:
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth
us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God."
We see therefore, that comfort can only come from a man who himself has been comforted. The ministry of comfort is for those who have known the comfort of God: and comfort is only known in the face or context of sorrow and pain, dark momments. When a man encounters challenges of any kinds, he stands to be made a preacher by such if his challenges are well managed by him. Even God commands light to shine out of darkness. This means that inherent in every darkness, is a ray of light waiting to be commanded to proceed forth! Light means insight, clarity, discernment and perception. Hallelujah! We may do well if we look carefully for light in our darkness. There is a light, an insight and knowledge waiting to be harvested from our dark situation!
So, we see a man who turns out to be a preacher of what he has heard in the midst of his darkness. "... speak ye in light..." If we asked many diligent servants of God, inclusive of this minister of the word of God,they would not hesitate to confirm to us that the rough momments of their lives afford them glowing thoughts which normally end up becoming part of their sermons. The man in our text is instructed to speak out in the open, even on the housetops. From obscurity to popularity! His destiny is on the top! The words he heard in the momments of his darkness give him a place on the housetop: he was given a global audience by the word he heard in screte. Ministry that would have global impact and audience is born not in the open nor in the school of theology but in the school of the challenges of life...yea, in the dark places! May God give us light! Amen!
Furthermore, many young brothers and sisters want to climb the housetop of popularity in ministry; speak in the public glare and in the place of concourse, who have not actually learnt anything in the place of thick darkness. Many are on the housetops doling out chaft and decoy bread made of sawdust! No wonder, they quickly run out of oil and the word of God...left only with their oratory prowess, good looks and expensive outfits: popular but poor spiritually; poor in revelation; bereft and devoid of real impacting personality, utterance and unction.
Darkness must precede housetops! If men must be made to take heed or pay attention to us and what we have as they do to a light that shines in darkness, God must then light us in the place of darkness. Our Lord never lights a candle and puts it under a bushel, but He sets every candle He lights on a candle stand: if He has lighted us, then our place is on the candle stand! He would never allowed the lighted to be 'bushelled!'
Observe the main crux of all that we are saying here: God impacts knowledge, insight, perception and discernments in momments of darkness and challenges: and these insights or knowledge so impacted, become or form the line of the thoughts of our message that would impact our world. Sometimes, what to say comes or proceeds from what we go through: this is one of the major sources of divine utterance and unction. In the second chapter of the gospel of Jonh, Jesus asks the attendants at the wedding to fill the available pots or vessels with water and thereafter draw same out, which became wine that saves the faces of the celebrants.
The water in question descended into a dark region, expirienced obscurity and oblivion for sometimes inside thr pots(covered pots). While there, a change took place. The water turned into a sweet wine. No man comes out of darkness or dark momment the same way he enters. He would become sweet and lively...he would resolve many embarrassing situations! Such would have a real message for his generation. All other waters that never entered those pots, remains just ordinary waters...use for mundane things, colorless and unattractive!
Usefulness proceeds from God's disciplines on our lives. The darkness would not be long, we are coming out as new wine to be a solution to our ailing world! Amen! The way to the housetops...what to speak there is what He has told us in the dark! What has your dark momments thought you? what are the sources of your sermons? Bible, commentaries, study aids, various translations of the Bible are not enough! There must be a chemical reaction between these aids and our challenges or dark momments for there to be any impacting ministration!To be continued!