We wrote yesterday, about how we are God’s secret weapon to bring His light and love into a dark world. How we, as citizen’s of heaven, are His ‘Trojan Horse’ because we carry His Glory, into this world. We said that understanding who we are spiritually, and what we carry, was of utmost importance if we are to fulfill that call to be part of the fulfillment of the prophesy that ‘the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea’. Today we are looking at how we do in fact release His life into the world.
If we turn to Isaiah 60:1-3, we can see that the exhortation, recorded here and given to the nation of Israel long ago, comes to us today, God’s people, with even more power because of Christ. Because of His death and resurrection, those of us who have come to Him for Salvation and forgiveness, have also been ‘made alive’ with Christ and raised up with Him in His resurrection life. We are now seated with Him in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 2:4-6. (A mystery we may never fully grasp until we see Him face to face.) We are a ‘new creation’ 2 Corinthians 5:17, and we have the indwelling Spirit to help us do what these verses are telling us to do.
‘Arise shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising’.
So what does this look like in practice? Yesterday we said that giving thanks for our new identity, our new position in Christ helps us to keep our eyes on Him, and not on ourselves. From Psalm 34:5 we know that, if we can keep our eyes on Him, we will be radiant. Thinking back, the other day, over our ‘Thanksgiving Journey’ this year, I realised that that thanksgiving is also a fundamental key to releasing the life of God, the rivers of living water, into the world, because :-
‘Thank You’ helps me to connect with the Lord in ‘the moment’, enabling me to remember and therefore receive all His promises for the challenges that each moment brings.
‘Thank You’ opens my eyes to the Lord’s presence, and all the provision that His presence with, and in, me carries.
‘Thank You’ lifts my gaze to heavens resources and God’s heart of love.
‘Thank You’ enables me to rise up in faith and claim those same promises, and the prophetic words that have been spoken.
‘Thank you’ helps me to dwell on what ‘is’ in my life and not what isn’t.
‘Thank You’ turns any delay into a season in which to build my faith, and grow as a child of God.
‘Thank you’ stops any discouragement from creeping up on me.
‘Thank You’ destroys any negativity, doubt, fear or unbelief, by blocking the enemy’s voice.
‘Thank You’ helps me to listen with my spirit to the promptings of the Lord, not those of my old self or the enemy.
‘Thank You’ releases the Holy Spirit to fill me with wisdom, hope, joy and expectancy.
I could go on and I hope you will build your own list, but simply put, thank you allows that river of life to keep flowing through me in all and any situation, and as the Spirit flows, so the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ grows in me, and that helps me to obey Isaiah 60:1. It helps me to ‘Arise and Shine’ spiritually speaking. And the wonderful thing is I can do it! I can give thanks anywhere and at any time of the day or night.
Wherever we are, in a hospital bed, a pub, a school, our home, the shops, the hairdresser, the office, or the football game, we are the closest some people will get to touching the life of God. It’s our privilege and honour to represent the King and release the blessings, the very life of God, that we carry as His children, into any and every situation in which we find ourselves.
I will let Paul sum it up for us from his letter to the Colossians ‘Let every activity of your lives and every word that comes from your lips be drenched with the beauty of our Lord Jesus, the anointed one. And bring your constant praise to God the Father because of what Christ has done for you!’ Colossians 3: 17 (The Passion Translation)
