Exposure
Scripture Reading - Psalms 36:9 KJV
For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
Greetings fellow believer in the Awesome Name of Jesus may God’s Grace smile upon you this day while he fills you with all Peace. Today we are speaking on the topic of “Exposure”. On February 11th, 2023 during a time of prayer we (ihlcc) received some more enlightenment on people’s heart which is always an important subject to us. Therefore, we thought it would be a good teaching to share this revelation with you. Sometimes when The Holy Spirit is teaching us a godly principle He first comes asking questions. The thought came to us this morning stating, “Why are My people so flippant when it comes to whom they shall spend their time with?” Good Question and worthy of a good answer. We knew in our heart that many people think it is ok to be yourself concerning fellowship with others. Yes, we (ihlcc) have thought that same thing at different times of our life. Thinking, “If I can’t be myself, than whom shall I be?” We thought it is perfectly fine to be your everyday self that propagates our own agenda. However, our good and gracious Lord has shown us a better way. We should not make being our self a standard practice when it comes to walking (talking, fellowshipping) with others and even when we are walking (talking, fellowshipping) with God. Instead you ought to be seeking to be a better you. Yes, even an enhanced version of yourself. A revised better you, version 2.2, constantly making changes for the good of God and for the good of other people. What we mean by that is every person ought to strive to be a better person when it comes to talking to or working with other people. Yes, every person whether young or old, whether rich or poor, whether black or white, whether teacher or student, whether all well in body or believing for God’s healing, whether preacher or protege we all could grow more into the perfect image of God. Of course this will never happen if we don’t put God first. Today’s scripture states two different things that are connected. Notice the first part of this verse states the truth, “For with thee is the fountain of life:” which means God is the beginning and sustaining force (power) of life in each person and everything that has life in it. This also means every place there is life whether in Heaven or on this earth or even in hell beneath, if there is life in hell (we know it is saturated with death) it started with God and it is still continuing by the Life of God as the sustaining force of life, least it be a dead work. Who knows about each and every person better than God? Absolutely no one, for no one is as mighty in understanding, knowledge and wisdom as our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ with the precious Holy Spirit. This is why the latter portion of today’s scripture states, “in thy light shall we see light”. This basically means that God is full of Light and since He Is the source of all Life we need to be in His Presence to properly gleam from His All Powerful Light and Life. Yes, if we don’t have the proper “exposure” to God’s Presence we will be underdeveloped in our heart (our spirit) and that will lead to a skewed image of God in our soul showing it’s self to all people we come in contact with. For example today we learned to think about God and His Ways first before meeting with other people because if we want to walk in God’s Love we must consider the heart of God (our Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in the Holy Bible, the Word of God) as a foundation purposing to be a blessing to the other person so our Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus Christ can be glorified. Secondly, we must think about or at least consider the heart of the other person. Doing this will help guide us on what actions we can make and what words we can speak during our time of fellowship. Remember God’s Love puts others first before doing what we want to do. Yes, faith friend, when we purpose to grow and become more like Jesus Christ then God’s Word is our daily refuge and source of all good and godly information. Jesus, God’s Word, is the Light of the world and He Is also our personal light unto salvation. How you spend your time with other people is a direct reflection of how The Lord must spend His time with you. Don’t fool yourself if you are spending a lot of time with other people you are not spending a lot of time fellowshipping in God’s Presence with His Holy Word. For this reason we must be wise stewards of how we are spending our time on a daily basis. Now since we like practical teaching we will share a couple of examples. We have seen family members who expect access to you whether by phone call, text or visiting your residence in person, only because they are family (a parent, a grandmother, an uncle . . .). However, many times when you look at what they are doing during the visit it is very clear they are pushing a selfish agenda that is out of line with the whole household. Sometimes the fellowship is completely broken because people stop talking to each other if they are offended and then the visitor concludes it’s time to leave. How much better the whole visit would be if people purpose to be nice to others and to “expose” others to the Fruit of God’s Love rather than the selfish works of the flesh. In another example how many times have you seen a newborn baby enter the world and certain people act like they should automatically see the newborn as much as they want to. Yes, there will be some who think they know all about children so the new mom & dad should listen to their experiences and knowledge. When they act this way and the new mother and dad don’t agree with that assessment of the boasting visiting person the verbal fight of words and attitudes is on. Many will detect an atmosphere of strife and division void of God’s Presence of Peace. One major point of emphasis is you have control of who visits your heart. Remember, oh ye Christian, Jesus and The Father God abide continuously upon the Throne of your heart so you don’t have to follow the selfish ways of men. You don’t have to give everyone or any certain person access to your heart on a regular basis. If you allow negative people to spend too much time with you they will draw you away from God’s goodness and His peace causing you to stumble over their (the ungodly) unthankfulness, complaining and display of negative attitudes. Likewise, if ungodly people are looking more to harm you than to help you they will eat up too much of your valuable time with their dead works they will surely draw you away from godliness. Therefore, you don’t have to spend much time with them. Just because certain people are a part of your family doesn’t mean they should be an automatic influencing part of your heart and mind. Be wise, guard your heart unto all righteousness and that means avoiding certain people to keep peace in your heart and in your house and if need to avoid strife so be it. Jesus told us to separate ourselves from others when necessary in the New Testament Gospels and also showed us an example of it in John 7:2-10 where He separated Himself from some of His family members that were trying to direct His path. Since Jesus was willing to do this shouldn’t we be willing to separate from those who walk against us rather than those who walk with us. The Lord’s Spiritual Heavenly Family of God has priority over your natural earthly family according to Matthew 10:37 KJV which states, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” We (ihlcc) recommend every person and especially all believers to examine how they are spending their time and whom they are spending their time with. Then be sure you are spending more time with those who build you up and strengthen you as opposed to those who tear you down and weaken you. The fact of the matter is all of us need God’s Life and we also need God’s Light so we must have adequate exposure to His Holy Word and to His (God’s) Holy Presence. This fellowship with God is positive “exposure” so you can have better fellowship with people. This “exposure” to God’s Light and life is not automatic, neither is it a quick work so we must purpose in heart to make it happen on a daily basis to achieve full “Exposure” to the Light of God’s Love. For we are fully persuaded that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Amen!