Thoughts on ‘Father of Lights’

2 Days ago I went to see the film father of lights by Darren Wilson.  It was amazing or as my flatmate would put it, it was ‘totes emosh’. Anyway the film is a documentary of this guy that goes round the world and just films the work of God in people’s lives, with deliverance from demonic depression, miracles and just generally lifestyles of love.

Funnily enough one of the most challenging bits that I have found was at the end of the film. The ending featured an excerpt of an interview with the evangelist Reinhard Bonnke. And what he said was powerful. I can’t remember the full quote but to paraphrase it: he said that in his evangelism he would people who would spread tables before their gods to worship. However, God of Christianity does the opposite, namely he prepares the table before us to encounter the table and come and drink (Isaiah 55).  God wants intimacy with his children.

Thinking about this I realised that we in the western world can be no different than people in the third world countries. There is no such thing as primitivism. All our nature is the same regardless of our education and financial status. We all tend to create or idols: technology, sex, relationships and work. We all turn to these things and we feel in the comfort zone, being safe. Yet God asks us to go for an adventure to seek him.  To take part of this table and eat, what is that truly matters this world that is like a hotel that is not worth investing in or our heavenly inheritance, where we should invest for our reward. Don’t get me wrong it’s not of performance, but of grace still, we are called to more than to scrape through our lives, living in idolatry and luke-warmness. So let us ask ourselves this, what is the area in our life over which we do not let God take control over?