In the Light

Bring Everything Into the Light

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7 ESV)

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. (1 John 2:9-10 ESV)

...at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.” (Eph 5:8-14 ESV)

Example of Christians Bringing Their Evil Practices to The Light

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹ And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Also many of those who were now believers [saved children of God] came, confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. (Acts 19:11-20 ESV)

Exposing and Renouncing Our Past

Early Christians in the times of the "The Acts of the Apostles" often publicly renounced there sins moments before the time of their water baptisms. They understood that baptism was a very important time in which legally, in the sight of God and therefor in the sight of demons and fallen angels, they would be counted dead to their old CONFESSED, RENOUNCED and REPENTED OF sins. Demons and fallen angels have no hold over a dead person. And the new person coming out of the waters, in God's eyes, is a new creation - the old has passed away; behold the new has come (2 Cor 5:17).

The Apostle Paul himself wrote how he counted EVERYTHING as a loss in order to know Christ (Phil 3:7-8).

God will not set us free from the consequences of hidden and unrepented of sin. That is why in preparing for getting set free we want to bring EVERYTHING into the light, both bad and good, because some of what we might consider good often has a bad/ungodly influence in our lives (Prov 14:12, Isa 55:9). The best way to accomplish this is to create lists of EVERYTHING. These lists are prayed through, item by item, renouncing and repenting of any sins or lies believed and asking the Lord to remove any and all spiritual attachments that should be removed. To help you break this into a manageable task please consider the following partial outline.