Illumination
Matthew 5:8 (NIV) “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”
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God the Father is in all and through all (Ephesians 4:6). He is always speaking, moving and acting in the unseen realm. By purifying our hearts, the Holy Spirit grants us progressive sensitivity to and awareness of His presence. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” What does it mean to see God?
The purification of the heart is the goal of the Holy Spirit’s work within us. It is sanctification - the progressive unveiling of the Christ-life in us and through us as we are conformed to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29). It is a cleansing of the inner man that allows a greater flow of the Lord’s divine energies (John 7:38; 2 Peter 1:4).
The heart is the center of the inner man - the fountain of his thoughts and desires. To be “pure in heart” is for the inner man to hold no object of worship other than the living God. The Christian journey is a co-laboring with Christ to topple idols and distracting influences that hold sway in the human heart (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
In this process, Christ exposes the darkness within us (sin and lies we believe about ourselves and God) by shining His light into our hearts.
2 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV) “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”
It is Christ who illuminates, but it is up to us to take responsibility for what is illuminated, bringing it into obedience with Truth (2 Corinthians 10:5). Our ability to steward this responsibility is what ultimately purifies the inner man. With purification comes a greater influx of light and clarity from the Holy Spirit. We become filled with His perspective and His perceptions (Ephesians 1:18).
This illumination allows us to see God. It is an overhauling and an enlightening of the perspective that allows us to experience the world as Jesus does. In this perspective, the Father is in all and through all, actively upholding and sustaining the entire universe (Colossians 1:17).
Illumination transforms us. Paul writes that “everything illuminated becomes a light.” What this means is that as Christ progressively shines His light into our hearts during the purification process, everything we feel, do, and say becomes empowered by the same light. An illumined heart sees the world through a perspective proportional to its illumination.
Ephesians 5:8-14 (NIV) “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible - and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”
The goal of purifying illumination is glorification - that we become progressively more radiant examples of the Christ during our lives on earth (Romans 8:29-30). God’s intention is that the light we carry illuminates the hearts of others so that they, through love, become a light.
