One of my favorite parables, comes from many years ago. I believe it might have been the very first parable God ever gave me. I was attending college on the G.I. Bill at the time. There was a particular professor who liked to start off each class with a joke. He was very affable; we all liked him for his way of easing the class by starting off with a joke.

However, one day he started class with a joke which went as follows: “We are told God made man in His image. If you look around, you’ll see some weird looking people. It kind of makes you wonder what God looks like!” He got plenty of laughs, but there was something about this I did not feel was so funny. Silently I had a conversation with God about it. “Dear God I know You have a great sense of humor. But he is having a laugh at Your expense. Please help me to be able to explain to him so he will understand.”

That was the full extent of my brief thoughts. Suddenly the answer dropped into my mind. I raised my hand to be called on. “Yes Joe, what is your question?” I asked politely, “Professor have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror?” He knew me as a tricky kind of guy, so his reply was a cautious one. “I’m not quite sure I know what you are asking me”, he said. “I’m simply asking if you have ever looked at yourself in a mirror.” “Yes I have,” was his reply. “Good! Then suppose you had red hair, blue eyes, and the little finger on your right hand was missing. If the person looking back at you had brown hair, brown eyes, and the little finger on the right hand was not missing; that would not then be your image. Is that not so?” “Yes that’s right, it would not be my image under those conditions,” he answered. I then said, “In order for it to be your image, it has to reflect back to you the same characteristics that make you known as you.” He answered saying, “Yes it would.”

“O.K., here is what the Bible means when it says God made man in His image. God gives those who are born of His Spirit, the ability of producing the “Fruit” of His Spirit. Whenever we respond to hatred with love, or anger with forgiveness, we are displaying the same characteristics which make God known as God.” “I never thought about that”, was his reply. “Neither did I until just now, I asked God to help me explain to you, and it just came to me.”

How do you think I felt? I was in awe of how God had so powerfully answered the simple request of His curious servant. Since that time I have asked many questions of God as we all do. But sometimes God will surprise me, by asking me a few of His own. He certainly has a right to. We are operating on a ratio of about 80% (me) to 20% (God).

It will come as no surprise that one day a few years after the parable I had been given, God chose to expand my understanding of it. One day God said to me, “Joe, I want you to go inside of a room which is filled with mirrors; mirrors on every wall, mirrors on the floor, mirrors on the ceiling, even mirrors on the door. This room contains only mirrors, a light, and a light switch. Now close the door and turn off the light. Tell Me what do you see?” “Nothing,” I replied. God then said, “The light has a 25 watt bulb in it, turn on the switch and tell Me what you see.” “I can faintly see something in the mirrors, but I’m not sure just what it is.” God then said, “Try it with a 40 watt bulb, then a 60 watt, then 100 watts, then 250 watts, 1000 watts, etc, etc.” As with the laws of nature, each time the wattage was increased the clearer the image could be seen.

God then revealed the meaning of this parable to me. “The mirrors have the capability of reflecting the image. But there are several key ingredients missing. You need not just a power source for the light, but also the switch to control it.” The light switch represents the choice of our will. When we with our spirit, choose to operate in the will of our flesh, when responding to attacks satan brings our way using others - the switch is off. To turn the switch on, requires our spirit choosing to yield to the guidance of the Holy Spirit - producing His Fruit in the choice of action we take. The wattage refers to how much we willingly allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in our total response to the situation. The more in tune we are to the leading of the Holy Spirit, the more clearly the one attacking us will be able to see our Father (God).

So you can see how important it is for us to be always ready to turn the switch on (yield our spirit, through dying to self). Whenever satan tries to use a brother or a sister to attack us, hoping to take away our peace and cause us to sin, our best response is to immediately turn the switch on, (least we fall in the darkness). If we can learn to have a 1000 watt light at the ready, we not only will drive satan away, we will also be able to reveal to our brother or sister, the image of God; that they too might come to discover as we have - God is Love.

But consider this, the light and light switch must be hooked up to a “live’ and active source of power – the Holy Spirit. But try not paying your power bill for four or five months. You can click that switch again and again, but no light will come forth. In order to keep the power flowing, you must be willing to pay the bill.

The same is true with the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus told us of the power bill we must pay on a daily basis. Deny our self, yielding our spirit to the Holy Spirit, asking only for our Father’s will to be done in our life each day. We must be willing to take up our cross (make a sacrifice of love presented to us each day). And we must choose to crucify our flesh (denying it to set the desires of our heart for the day). Lastly, we must choose to follow Jesus, as the Holy Spirit leads us.

Is this not a beautiful and powerful parable? It deals with how the laws of nature correspond in many ways to the laws of God. Now let’s check it out with God’s Word. When I first received this, once again I was in awe. So I asked God, “where can this teaching be found in Your Word? I know whenever I share it, people will ask me this.” Here is your answer. Check out 1st Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 12. “For we see now as through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I also am known.” In the old English days of King James they did not use the modern term, “mirror.” A mirror as we know it was to them, a “looking glass.” We see only darkly because we are not yet perfect, and won’t be until Jesus returns. We sometimes choose to handle situations which confront us relying on the guidance of our flesh, or even worse - satan.

But wait just a minute! I have heard many a minister say, being made in the image of God means we have a body, soul, and spirit - just as God has. If you are speaking materially, of course that’s right. But check out this one. 2nd Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 18. “But we all with open face beholding as in a glass (looking glass = mirror - WOW!) the glory of the Lord; are changed into the same image from glory to glory (as spiritual maturity causes us more quickly and completely to yield our spirit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit); even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” I believe that says it all!

We must always be trying each day to be willing, ready, and able to listen to and be guided by the Wonderful Holy Spirit of God. This is why Jesus told us, if any would come after Him, they must choose daily, to deny their “self” (flesh), be willing to take up their cross (make a sacrifice of love), and follow Him (yield to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus did). We have within, the capability of showing to those lost in darkness, the image of God. But to do so requires us to choose to turn the switch on, and have a 1000 watt light ready to “shine”! This is the ability to make what we are capable of doing, a reality.

In closing, I realize there may be some reading this, who just as I have done; know they have let God down. No reason to fear or despair! God’s love for us is perfect - “perfect Love, cast out fear.” (1st John, chapter 4, verse 18) I would recommend doing what I had to do, and still have to do. Every morning, before you start your day, choose to crucify the will of your flesh, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide your words and actions, that you may bring forth Fruit for the Honor and Glory of God.

Still there are those who never have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in their life. If this applies to you and you don’t want to remain in that helpless state. May I suggest you diligently go after God, seeking this Blessing in your life? Ask Jesus to Baptize you with the Holy Spirit and “Fire.” It’s not only your Father’s desire to give this to you - it’s your rightful inheritance, as a redeemed child of God. Remember Jesus said, “you have not, because you ask not.” So wait no more! Ask, and ask diligently all day, every day, until you receive! AMEN!!