Christians who grew up thinking about a candle\u2019s light when singing \u201cThis little light of mine, I\u2019m going to let it shine\u201d have entirely the wrong idea about what it truly means to be a Christian light shining in the world, said the Benham brothers in a recent talk in Herdon, Virginia.<\/p>\n
The identical twin brothers said that most think of a candle\u2019s flame when singing the lines from the song about not letting Satan \u201cblow it out.\u201d But Christian faith, they said, is not meant to be extinguished when faced by the winds of opposition, but to become more inflamed. That\u2019s why the image of a candle in the song needs to be replaced by the image of a coal, they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see, the same wind that extinguishes the candle\u2019s light ignites the coal\u2019s light,\u201d said Jason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between a candle and a coal?\u201d he asked. A candle is lit from the outside while a coal burns from the inside,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Jason quoted from the prophet Jeremiah (20:9) who called the word of God in his heart a blazing \u201cfire\u201d that could not be contained inside himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know how God gets the light that\u2019s inside of you out into the world?\u201d asked Jason. \u201cHe puts you in situations and around people in certain contexts where the devil is trying to extinguish your light. And the very act of the devil blowing as hard as he can to extinguish your light will actually ignite the light that\u2019s already inside of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jason said Christians must become on fire for the faith like a \u201ccoal\u201d so that they can \u201cburn brightly\u201d for Jesus.<\/p>\n
But David pointed out how the \u201cwind of culture is blowing\u201d in an attempt to extinguish Christian lights. The wind comes in the form of politically correct pressures to accept \u201cgay marriage,\u201d \u201cabortion on demand,\u201d and \u201crampant perversion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many Christians, David said, have unfortunately fallen for the trap of hiding their light under a basket \u201cwhenever it is not convenient\u201d for them to shine in the darkness.<\/p>\n
The brothers related how they themselves fell into the trap of turning off their own lights when they were first approached by home improvement television network HGTV a few years ago to film a reality show based on their wildly successful real estate business.<\/p>\n
But in doing background checks on the brothers, HGTV lawyers discovered an article by pro-homosexual website Right-Wing Watch that accused the brothers of being \u201canti-gay, anti-Choice extremists.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the show\u2019s producers asked the brothers if they were \u201canti-gay,\u201d the brothers thought they were going to lose their chance at making the show. They related how they immediately began to experience a \u201cheaviness\u201d and a \u201cfear.\u201d<\/p>\n
The brothers decided to draft an email to HGTV based on what they called a \u201cman-pleasing spirit.\u201d They outlined their Christian belief in marriage, stating, however, that when representing the HGTV network, \u201cwe\u2019ll be quiet about [our beliefs].\u201d<\/p>\n
But before sending the email to HGTV, the brothers decided to run it by a spiritual mentor. \u201cThree minutes later [our mentor] sent an email back saying: \u2018How dare you boys write an email like this… You don\u2019t even know who you are anymore… How do you know that God hasn\u2019t put you in this situation to tear down the stronghold that\u2019s ransacking this nation? People are operating in fear, and now you are too. You both need to repent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The brothers said the mentor\u2019s words pierced them. They immediately got down on their knees and begged God to forgive them for being so \u201cblind\u201d and willing to \u201cbetray\u201d the Lord by being quiet about His truth.<\/p>\n
The brothers went on to explain the essence of the trap they had fallen into. \u201cWe were operating out of a man-pleasing spirit, not a God-pleasing Spirit,\u201d said Jason. \u201cWe were operating out of the fear of man instead of the fear of God. We took our focus off of the person of God and put it onto that platform that he put there in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd guess what, anything that God puts into your hand, if you\u2019re not willing to let it go, it\u2019s that thing that\u2019s enslaving you. You are now controlled by this thing that you\u2019re not willing to let go. And oftentimes, it\u2019s a good thing that God put there in the first place, and [you compromise to protect your platform, saying] you\u2019re \u2018doing it for the Lord,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The brothers gave an example of how this trap works in the real world. They said if a religious leader refuses to speak Biblical teaching about homosexuality from the pulpit because he\u2019s afraid of retribution or losing his congregation, then he has fallen into the trap of \u201coperating out of the fear of man instead of the fear of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such a religious leader is \u201censlaved\u201d and must learn to let go of his man-pleasing spirit, said Jason.<\/p>\n
The brothers said that falling into the \u201cman-pleasing\u201d trap taught them a crucial lesson in how to be a real Christian. They realized that the moment a Christian begins to focus on the \u201cplatform or the promise … or whatever it is\u201d instead of the person of God who put it there in the first place, such a Christian begins to operate according to human strategies, not according to God\u2019s ways, which are found \u201cspiritually in the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStrategies are good, but they have to follow the Spirit,\u201d said Jason.<\/p>\n
The brothers never sent the email. A few weeks later, HGTV contacted them to sign the contract for the show. The brothers were already months into filming and the first episode was about to run when the network suddenly capitulated to homosexual-driven attacks against the twins and decided to cancel the show.<\/p>\n
When HGTV informed the brothers of the decision to cancel, the brothers realized that the time had come for them to let their light shine by taking a bold stand for the Lord and his truth about marriage and the family.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We realized that] this is a \u2018bully agenda\u2019 that will not go away, and that it is bullying every single person of faith into submission,\u201d said David.<\/p>\n
As the brothers encountered the winds of opposition blowing on them because of their Christian beliefs, they experienced the inner coals of their faith ignite into a blazing flame.<\/p>\n
They went on to appear in about 200 interviews with major television networks and radio programs across the country where they spoke in defense of their Christian beliefs on marriage and the sanctity of life.<\/p>\n
They would never have been able to proclaim God\u2019s truth so widely and effectively to so many people had they surrendered to their fear and compromised on their faith by deciding to be quiet about their beliefs.<\/p>\n
Jason explained that Christians will only begin to be a blazing coal of light in the culture when they surrender their dreams and ambitions to the Lord (their platforms and positions) and face their greatest fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you face your fear, God takes over the fight,\u201d said Jason. \u201cAnd let me tell you, if you are willing to face your fear, God promises you this: your greatest blessing is only found on the other side of your greatest fear.\u201d<\/p>\n
The brothers said that when Christians are willing to face their fears and let everything go to follow the Lord, then they can expect miracles.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoldness [in facing your fear] precedes the miraculous,\u201d Jason said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet go of that thing you\u2019re holding onto. Step out onto the field of battle and you do business with God,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
David said all Christians, whether they be business leaders, stay-at-home moms, politicians, or pastors, need to be \u201cbold\u201d today because \u201cnow is our time, this is our moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we\u2019ve got to embrace this [fight], whatever the cost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christians who grew up thinking about a candle\u2019s light when singing \u201cThis little light of mine, I\u2019m going to let it shine\u201d have entirely the wrong idea about what it truly means to be a Christian light shining in the world, said the Benham brothers in a recent talk in Herdon, Virginia. The identical twin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[865,864,594,862,49,863],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}