Arise, Shine, For Your Light Has Come
God is on the move in a unique way in our generation. I believe we’re seeing the beginning of things that God is desiring to do in His Church. Obviously, we are living in challenging times, yet these are great days to be alive because of the great things God has in store. If our focus is only on the darkness of our day, we can become overwhelmed by it. But if we recognize that, in God’s economy, darkness is not the end but is just the beginning, it changes our perspective and outlook. In fact, it changes everything. Let me explain.
If we look at Genesis 1, where we read about how God created everything, what does it say He created first? Verse 3 tells us the answer: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God separated the light from the darkness.” So, when God created everything, the first thing He did was call light out of darkness. When we look at darkness, we tend to think that means things are going in a negative or bad direction. We fail to see darkness as the place for beginnings with God. We miss that His great work is manifest by turning darkness into light. We must remember He’s the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness” (2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV).
All Is for His Glory
In Isaiah 60:1–2 (ESV), we read, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.” We can see in these verses that, once again,darkness is only the beginning. Where darkness blankets everything, the light and glory of the Lord rises on God’s people.
I think we are at a place in the earth where darkness is covering the world as well as the people in it. That word darkness in the original language is not just a physical darkness, but it is an emotional and spiritual weight or heaviness that weighs or pulls someone down. It places a yolk of depression, oppression, anxiety, and fear upon people. That’s what darkness does. And it’s interesting that darkness exists on the people and on the nations of the earth, yet God speaks to His Church and says,“It’s time to arise and shine.” So, though we’re living in unprecedented times in “gross darkness” that’s weighing us down, we must see this as a divine setup for what the Lord wants to do among us. And to understand this, we need to look at another word that appears in Isaiah 60. That word is glory.
In Hebrew, the word glory is kavod, and it means weight or weightiness, but it’s a different kind of weight than the Hebrew word for darkness. Kavod is the weight of God’s Presence. In His Presence, there is light. In the absence of God’s Presence, then, there is darkness. And when we are separated from the Presence of God, separated from the life of God, it produces depression, oppression, anxiety, and fear in us. That’s the burden or yoke I mentioned earlier. According to Isaiah 10:27 (NKJV), however, the anointing oil breaks the yoke. Oil is representative of power and the glory of God or the weightiness of God’s Presence. That’s what breaks in upon people and sets them free. It’s in the Presence of the Lord where joy, freedom, and faith are produced.
God’s heart is for those living in darkness in this earth to experience the light and glory of His Presence. He wants every chain and yoke broken and people released to walk in freedom, joy, and faith. This is what the Presence of the Lord produces. He says to us today that He wants us to arise and shine out of darkness because He is going to put His glory upon us. And when the weight of His glory comes on us, it will break off depression and replace it with joy. It will break off oppression or possession and release freedom. And it will remove fear and replace it with faith. And this is what God says He wants to do in the Church in these last days.
The apostle Paul closed out Ephesians 3 with these words: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (v. 20 NKJV). And we love to declare that verse and exercise faith in the truth it proclaims. It’s even very applicable to what I’m talking about regarding what God wants to do in this hour. There is, however, one more verse that is an important part to Paul’s closing, and it says this: “to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:21 NKJV). Paul was saying to the One who does “exceedingly abundantly” more than we ask or even think—to Him—“be glory in the church … to all generations, forever”! We see God’s eternal purpose for all generations is for His glory to be in and upon His Church.
Our Mandate
Each year in May, we at Radiant host a conference that draws church leaders from all over the United States and beyond. But we don’t hold this conference just to host a conference. The reason for starting our Arise Shine Conferences (ASC) several years ago was due to the calling Radiant has to arise and be a prophetic light to the Church, inviting brothers and sisters in Christ to come and to see a model, though imperfect as it may be, of a praying and a worshiping church. We also wanted to see those who attend receive an impartation to go back to their churches and begin to call their people back to the place of first love, first priority, around the Presence of God in prayer and worship.
Beloved, that’s not just our mandate in this hour. It’s the mandate for the Church: to receive the glory of God in the Church, on the Church, so that we can exhibit His glory to a dark culture. It’s time to call the American church to be a praying church. Because prayer at the end of the day is not just about the act of prayer. Prayer is for the glory of God. That’s what we exist for. We don’t pray out of some religious obligation. We pray because prayer centers our lives around God’s Presence. And when we’re centered around His Presence, His glory come upon us and dwells among us. And then we’re able to go into the darkness and dispel it.
Now, we’re not to make prayer the end-all because that means we would be making it an idol. No, all is for His glory—“that in all things He may have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18 NKJV). That’s what we do anything and everything for—His glory! Prayer is about Jesus. It’s about the One we love and serve.
We want to see God raise up praying churches across America and beyond that are defined as being those that are centered around the Presence of God, have developed a genetic code of prayer, and are experiencing His glory that dispels the darkness around them. It is key to revival. And if we will arise and shine because our light has come, the glory of the Lord will come upon us, and we will see our nation and the earth changed. This is our Malachi 1:11 moment. This is how we will see that Scripture come to pass, where “from the rising of the sun, even to its going down,” the name of the Lord will “be great among the Gentiles,” and “in every place incense shall be offered to” His name.
