ARISE, SHINE

ARISE, SHINE...Isa. 60:1

"Isaiah  60:1 - Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee."

To ARISE, SHINE is an instruction given by the Lord to every believer. Let's very quickly gain some understanding on what the Lord really requires of us by this instruction. What does it really mean to Arise and subsequently Shine?

"To arise would mean to come up from a lower to a higher position; to come up from one's bed or place of repose; to get up; to spring up; to come into action, being, or notice; to become operative, sensible, or visible; to begin to act a part; to present itself" while "To shine means to emit or reflect light; to distinguish oneself; to excel.; to be effulgent in splendour or beauty; to be eminent, conspicuous, or distinguished; to exhibit brilliance; to be immediately apparent; to make right; to cause to shine by reflected light."

To be understood at this point is that the Lord didn't say at the mouth of Isaiah here that you could choose to Arise, get prominent, be noticeable and visible and then choose not to shine. Shining here means emitting the light that the power of the Lord causes to glow within you, the light that extinguishes every form of darkness ravaging our world today.

The call to salvation is a call to Arise, arise out of the torture of the enemy, arise out of the dominion of sin (Rom. 6:15-23), get up out of that place of the deceit of the devil and henceforth be a light bearer (Matt. 5:14-16), declaring the perfect sacrifice of the Lord JESUS already made for as many as would receive Him.

On receiving the sacrifice of the Lord JESUS on the cross of Calvary for you, on accepting Him as your personal Lord and Saviour and henceforth living your life knowing that it belongs exclusively to He who has redeemed you (Gal. 2:20), there is an expectation of the Lord upon your life and it is that you seek to save others from the tyranny of sin even as you have been saved, this is the step of shinning light. Shinning light also entails you refusing to align yourself to the norms of this wicked perverse generation but as a contrast to live directing men to the true life only available in JESUS.

To ARISE means to be delivered, free from whatever sicknesses of any sort and even death. A narration of two great miracles was given between the verses of Acts. 9:32-41 about Peter of how by the power of the Lord JESUS firstly healed Aeneas from his sickness commanding him to arise and pick up his sick bed and secondly commanding Tabitha to arise after she was before declared dead. The major purpose of arising truly came to play in these illustrations as the knowledge of the word of the Lord JESUS, the good news, the gospel of salvation was propagated as many more people throughout all of Joppa believed in the Lord JESUS (vs. 42).

The Lord JESUS after ceasing the flow of the woman of blood in the book of Mark. 5: 34, had to heed to the cry of a Jewish leader whose daughter was sick, who was seriously hoping that the Lord JESUS would be able to lay hands on the lass so she could be healed but as he was leading the way to his house he was informed that the girl had died. Those who came to give him the tragic news even advised that he shouldn't bother the Lord anymore, but JESUS told him to just believe that she was only sleeping, a statement for which the people made jest of him and alas in vs. 41, the Lord JESUS spoke to the young lady, ARISE, and she woke up back unto life and He handed her back unto her parents.

Luke. 15:18 speaks of the prodigal son, a topic discussed here some weeks ago, how he decided to himself and made the best decision in his life when he said now I would Arise. Invariably he was saying, now I would get up, I would become sensible and come up from this lower position where feeding seems utterly difficult that I have to struggle to feed amongst swine and move into a higher position if at least it were just being the position of a servant in my father's house where there is a guarantee of an abundance and we all know the benefit he eventually enjoyed by arising to go back as he not only got the assurance of a consistent supply of food but he also got th positionof sonship.

Is there a feeling of falling far back away from GOD that the possibility of Him forgiving you and receiving you back as a son seems unattainable, I have good news for you, His arms are always wide open ready to receive back a sinner-man as infact joy unspeakable happens In the heavens at that event. Go back to the Lord today, and you would certainly rejoice because His love for you is by far greater than whatever sins you might have committed.

Today, the Lord says to you, Friend ARISE, SHINE. Get up out of that delay, refuse that fruitless effort, cease to work without positive rewards. ARISE, His hands are stretched out to pick you up out from where you have fallen and even beyond that He also wishes to set you up upon a great hill where you can shine the beauty of the Lord the world over. Decide today to follow JESUS

In conclusion, Ephesians 5:14 says clearly "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." At your positive response to the call to arise from the place of sin, the dead nature and decadence of unrighteousness, is when you receive the light of the Lord to shine bright. DO NOT DECIDE TO REMAIN IN DARKNESS (SIN, DISOBEDIENCE, IGNORANCE). Light exists no where else but in CHRIST ALONE.

GOD BLESS YOU.