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
Isaiah 60:1-3
Noel Richards has written one of the most popular worship songs of recent decades, and it starts with ?Great is the darkness that shall cover the earth?. At first glance these don?t sound like lyrics of a worship song, but the song continues, ?Great celebrations on that final day, when out of the heavens You come. Darkness will vanish, all sorrow will end…?
There is a spiritual darkness all around us, and yet we don?t have to fear it. Rather, we can see it as an opportunity for us to shine and, more than that, for our lives to show those around us that we love Jesus.
In the darkness people stumble and fall and get into all kinds of difficulty, but as God?s people, who carry the light of the Lord, we can come in and reveal him by our works.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:16:?Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.?
This is a great opportunity for us, so it is time to lift up our voices in prayer. It is time to cry out for the light of Jesus to shine into the darkness that covers the nations, the city and our society! But we shouldn?t only look outward; we also must pray that he will shine in our hearts, to give us a fresh light of the knowledge of God?s glory in the person of Jesus Christ.
We can pray with confidence, because we don?t need to rely on our own efforts. It is God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. And there is no darkness that is able to conceal that light, to cover it or overcome it.
Darkness cannot understand light. When the light shines, the darkness flees. When the light of the Lord shines in our hearts, we will see Jesus afresh. And those around us will see Jesus reproduced in us, because we will become reflectors of the glory of God!
We can live for God boldly, in assurance that there is no shadow, no doubt, no turning and no changeability in him. He is constantly shining in the full splendour of his majesty. He is at the height of his powers eternally. He doesn?t wax; he doesn?t wane.
He doesn?t rise; he doesn?t fall. He doesn?t come; he doesn?t go. He is the great ?I am?, who lives and abides forever. That God is our God, and we are his people! And we shine with Jesus, who is the light of the world.
We pray that the fire that has been ignited in our hearts and kindled in the week of prayer and Holy Spirit refreshing would spread from person to person, district to district, city to city and nation to nation!
We give God the glory! Let light shine and darkness go! Let glory come, and shame go! Let faith come, and doubt go! Let his Holy Spirit be manifested, and every spirit that is not of God, that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, will be bound, broken, destroyed and overthrown in our lives!
We open up our hearts to receive from the Lord and ask him to open the windows of heaven over our lives. When we do this and make space for God, he will come in and fill us afresh. We won?t experience just a superficial filling, but one that starts at the very depth of our being. He will not stop, but he will keep on pouring himself into us, until he overflows out of our lives ? out of our mouths in praise, and out of our lives in action and his radiant glory.
The Lord wants to take us and fill us with his presence and glory, so that he can send us out to shine for him. Wherever we go, he will be with us!
Wherever he leads, we will follow and wherever we go, we will find him there already, waiting for us. He will take us to some ?hidden? and very surprising places. I believe that he will surprise us again and again by the glory of his presence and the power of his wisdom and understanding. We will be amazed by the words that he gives us to speak and by the anointing that he imparts to us.
As we open our hearts to God, out of our lives will flow, like a mighty river, an abundance of blessing and healing and deliverance to the nations. We have been called as his people for such a time as this and appointed by the Lord to royal positions. And when we shine for him in these places, we will receive privileges and blessings that are beyond our expectations and which are usually reserved for others.
The Lord will take us and shape us. He will use us in ways that we could not possibly imagine. As we cry out in prayer, he will hear us and see our tears; and he will come to deliver, bless and strengthen us.
As we lay aside everything that hinders us and keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, he will fill us and cause his glory to go out from Kensington Temple London City Church to touch the nations!
Shine with Jesus, the Light of the World
