Night Vision Goggles - Conquering The Darkness

God’s Family Plan: Establishing Generational Blessing

I would like to begin today’s podcast by establishing a Scriptural focal point. I am reading from Ephesians 6:10-12 The Passion Translation….

Now my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last: Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you.Put on God’s complete set of armor provided for us, so that you will be protected as you fight against the evil strategies of the accuser! Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage.

Simply stated, today’s podcast is about the ability to see in the dark and to engage in warfare in the dark. Whether we like it or not, we have a spiritual enemy and he likes the darkness. He wants to keep us in the dark and to use darkness to his strategic advantage.

Obviously, I want to get around to the topic of how to win this spiritual war, but I see and interesting parallel in how the military engages in night warfare….especially the development of night vision goggles and infrared technologies. These are technologies that provide the military with a vision or optical advantage in engaging the enemy in the dark or in a limited light environment.

In preparing for this podcast, I did an online search for articles relating to the history of night vision and thermal imaging. One of these articles came from the website electronics.howstuffworks.com and it tells us…

The original purpose of night vision was to locate enemy targets at night. It is still used extensively by the military for that purpose, as well as for navigation, surveillance and targeting.

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I found another article on the website x20.org that offers this historical perspective… With the United States’ growing involvement in Vietnam, the US Army quickly recognized that they faced an enemy that relied on the cover of darkness to conduct its maneuvers and offensive operations.

Can you see a parallel between military warfare and Spiritual warfare there???

I also found an article on the Smithsonian Institute’s website entitled Seeing in the Dark: The History of Night Vision. From this article I learned that ….

Night vision technology of one form or another has been around since before World War Two. But, current technological advancements have led to a more useful method of engaging in night time warfare. To illustrate how significantly night vision technology has improved, generation zero night vision was capable of amplifying existing light by 1,000 times….while modern less cumbersome night vision devices have the ability to amplify light 50,000 times. And, scientist continue the quest for more effective night vision technology. In fact, the US Army has a research laboratory whose motto is “Conquest of Darkness.”

Conquest of Darkness…could there be a clearer analogy to our mission and purpose as Christ Followers?

For many, 2020 has been a dark year. It’s a time that reminds me of the passengers on a train straining to see if they are ever going to break out into the light at the end of the tunnel.

Many are wondering if life will ever return to “normal?”

But, I have good news. Just as the US military has developed weapons that allow it to successfully engage its enemies in the dark, God has provided us …as Christ’s followers…with weapons that will allow us to win our battle against the spiritual forces of darkness…the forces of this world order that have come against us in so many ways in 2020.