| Isaiah 60:1-3 – 5 May 2019 |
Arise, shine for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people, but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
NKJV
The glory of the Lord is upon you. His light and Truth are shining forth through His Bride more than ever before. Although there may be darkness and difficulty, and challenges on every side, the Holy Spirit is reminding us today that there is something greater within us and for us. It is a light that is meant to shine. It is “our” light, the light of the presence of God, the light of Jesus Christ, the light of the world. It is His love and mercy that will break through the darkness and win the day. Romans 5:20 tells us that “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more”; the more we see decay and darkness, the more we can count on the grace of God to overcome. However bad things may appear to be, His grace and goodness is greater and more real. His glory is coming upon the earth like never before, rising up through His people, the sons and daughters of the King of kings. We are called to be agents of transformation and truth, and it is time to rise and shine the living Light.
The prophet Isaiah writes “Arise, shine” because it has to be our conscious decision to rise up from feelings of defeat, victimization and helplessness. We have to choose to turn our will away from fear and hopelessness, and to embrace the light. There is more power available to us in Jesus than we have ever known. The more we draw on His goodness, the more we can receive. The more we choose to trust Him, the greater will be the manifestation of His glory in our midst. There is a new day dawning dear friend, a day to rise and shine. Darkness has gained so much ground because we, (the Body of Christ), have been sleeping, but it is never too late to shake off the deceptions which shackled us and to jump up in the power of God. It is time to appropriate what is ours. It is time to be the manifested sons and daughters who redeem the earth. Weeping remained for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5). We have come to a new day where the people of God step into their calling and stand up to be His priests and prophets. Arise and prophecy His heart for the nations! Arise and shine the light and love of Jesus for all to see! For too long the Body of Christ has been a light hidden under a bushel, when it is meant to be a city set on a hill, dazzlingly beautiful and glorious for all to see. Arise and know that today is your day. This is the hour of God’s power. His light has come! God’s glory is already upon His church! His amazing grace is completely sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9)! God is pouring out His Spirit upon His church like never before, but we are being called to arise from discouragement, despair and desperation, and to shine. God is not promising His light for a future time. This heavenly light filled with His revelation, guidance, leading, and the brightness of His presence is available to us now. We can step into it in faith when we choose to arise and shine. We are His starbust of powerful, transformational light!
Command every spirit of fear and anxiety to go, and embrace the Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of faith. God promised to be with you always, and He has not changed His mind! He has been by your side even through the darkest moments you have ever faced, and He is bringing you through the Red Sea, safely to the other side. He is glorious and mighty to save. He is called “Faithful and True†and He sits upon a magnificent white horse, sweeping across the nations of the world to bring justice and righteousness. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head He wears many crowns. (Revelations 19: 11-12). Jesus has already won! There is always hope for the people of God, so arise and shine for your light has come
destiny and purpose being released through this Word today, and a revelation of our mission and calling on the earth. These words from the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah were a confirmation of his eternal calling and destiny. They can speak to us in the same way, many thousands of years later.
God knows you & has a plan for you. He has an individual purpose and a calling for each of us, something that was designed and created long before we were even born. Nothing we could ever do or say could ever surprise our amazing Lord, because He knew us completely, before we were even formed in our mother’s womb! You may be one of the many people who go through life feeling like they are invisible and ignored, unknown by God and by those in their community but He wants you to know that you are on His heart and on His mind. He sees you, He knows everything that anyone could know about you, and He always has! There are people who live each day in the belief that God is too huge and powerful to concern Himself with knowing the ‘little’ people like you and I, but this Scripture tells us something else, that we have been deeply known by our Father God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit eternally, hallelujah!
Our Father knew us before we were born!If God our Father knew us before we were even conceived, then we already existed in the realm of His heart. He saw us before He created us. He saw all the plans for our lives before we came to this earth (Psalm 139:16), and called these (and us) forth from the eternal realm. Your birth was a planned and purposeful act of God. He wants you to know that you were not a mistake!
You are loved unconditionally and walking towards your destiny. Jeremiah was a normal man with strengths and weaknesses, and an awareness of where he needed to improve, but in the eyes of the Lord, he was already perfect, sanctified, cleansed for His design and purpose. God was not waiting to see if Jeremiah would be a good person before He entrusted him with power or a prophetic ministry. The Lord ordained him a prophet before he was even born!
This is so beautiful and inspiring for many reasons. Firstly , it gives us hope for the people we have been praying for and wanting to see saved and set free. We may see them as people struggling with some issue, but God sees them as a finished work, strong and complete, and walking towards their divine destiny. Secondly, it shows us that God sees each of us in the light of His choice. We are His chosen sons, and the recipients of His favor, His warm smile! We are called by God Himself, cleansed in the precious blood of Jesus, and filled to overflowing with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Long before your biological father and mother came together, you were already seen, known, and called by your heavenly Father. His calling is on your life. You are appointed and anointed to bring His Word of life to the nations, and He is opening doors for you to be supernaturally connected to those who need your ministry. Dear friend, there is so much God has in store for you, and you are going to begin to see the unfolding of His divine plans for you from this day forth. You are His prophet to the people around you, and it is time to say “yes Lord” and to follow the Holy Spirit to the places and people He sends you to. You are His beautiful prophetic Bride, His chosen one, for whom He gave His life. Today He places His ring upon your finger and calls you up, to live life through His eyes. He is inviting you into a partnership with His precious Spirit, and to walk through each day with real joy! You will live in the power of your purpose and your life will never be the same again, I promise you!
