You know that moment when a verse or chapter of the bible hits you differently? That moment when you pause to take it all in, allow it to soak in and simmer into the core of your body, soul, and spirit? That Rhema moment when you jump up to blast in the heavenly tongue with thanksgiving to the almighty for such revelation. I had that moment sometime in the previous week as I listened to Apostle Michael Orokpo’s sermon on maximum impact. He shared so many vital points in that sermon but as he broke down Isaiah 60:1, I caught a different revelation and it hit differently. I doubt that this blog post can come close to dissecting it as it was revealed in my spirit man but I would make an attempt and trust that the Holy Spirit breathes upon God’s word as you read.
Isaiah 60 verse 1 is about the most popular verse in the bible if I must say. I somewhat believe that even non-Christians may be able to quote it. It is such a powerful verse I must say too, I remember vividly how it was my anchor scripture for some parts of the year 2018. This verse says,
Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
A close attention to this verse and we can see quite a number of action verbs and phrases in this short verse. In fact, the whole verse screams action; action from our end as children of God and action from the Lord. But more often than not, we only pay attention to the action on God’s part. One thing I would like to point out before I proceed is the fact that entrance into the kingdom of God makes us children of God, gives us access to the Father, and gives us access to call Him Abba Father – Romans 8:15-16. And our dear Father is Light, there is no darkness in Him – I John 1:5. Hence, our default posture should be to radiate God’s light that He shares with us as His children.
Now back to the verse, why is God asking His children to arise? I see two salient reasons:
- We are probably sleeping and not shining God’s light upon us as we should: I love how the message bible puts it, the translator makes it glaring that there indeed was a slumber on the part of God’s children. Get out of bed, Jerusalem! Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight. God’s bright glory has risen for you – Isaiah 60:1 MSG.
- Verse two points us to another reason God is calling out to us to shine our light. The whole earth is covered with gross darkness and even more so filled with people from the dark world- Isaiah 60:2. The Lord is counting on us, His children to rise up and shine! our light that every corner of the world may be lit up.
With that said, so what does it mean to Arise and Shine? The message translation puts it very clearly for us: It means to wake up from any spiritual slumber we may be in, it means to tune our face and life to the light of God, and it means to do all that God wants us to do on this earth. At this moment, I would like you to pause and think about that man or woman of God that you know who is shining God’s light, who may have impacted your life in one way or the other. Imagine if they had not taken action or if they had not risen to shine their God-given lights!
Even more so, shining our light isn’t limited to establishing big ministries, it spans and encompasses the way we live our lives. Instead of retaliating evil with evil, we should arise and shine our light of Love always. It takes a lot of discipline and strength from the Lord to do this, nonetheless, God wants us to Arise!
The Lord is counting on us His children to Arise always and shine His light that has risen upon us. This way we can light up the whole world with God’s light. And the beauty of this collaborative effort between us and God is the unending blessings attached to carrying out the action to Arise! The Lord says that nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn – Isaiah 60:3. This would happen only if we Arise and shine!
As I wrap up this blog post, I would like to tell you that it comes so easy to Arise and Shine when you spend so much time with the Lord. Moses is a classic example, he spent about 40 days with the Lord on the mountaintop. And as he descended the mountain top, his face shone so much he had to cover his face. Therefore, my dear sister and brother in Christ, I encourage you to spend quality time with the Lord. Allow His countenance and light to rub off on you. And to you, my dear friend who may be struggling with evil thoughts, come to Jesus Christ, use His blood to wash off all filth from you so that the glow of the Lord, the light of the Lord may radiate through you eternally.
This is amazingly wow!