To Arise and Shine
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April 03, 2011 |
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 "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you." (Isaiah 60:1)
In the present time the wickedness of man is very great on the earth. People run in the way of destruction, not even knowing what sins are. We need to manifest God's powerful works to lead them to the path of salvation. In other words, we should become skillful workers who can rise, shine, and lead many souls to receive salvation in order to give glory to God. Then, what can we do to be prepared?
First of all, we have to arm ourselves with God's Word.
Just reading, memorizing and listening to the Word of God does not necessarily mean we are arming ourselves with the Word. Only when the Word we heard fills us and we put it into practice can it be said that we are 'armed with the Word.' That is, when we arm ourselves with the Word, we will be convinced that our hearts are filled with the Word of truth and the Word is ours. Our heart, thoughts and deeds will change, as well.
For instance, suppose you heard about the Syrophoenician woman who was told by Jesus, "…it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." At that time, she humbled herself and showed her faith. She received answers. After being impressed by her actions, you pray thinking, "I shouldn't get offended or feel my pride is hurt by contempt, but make confession of goodness until the end." But it's not long before someone says something to you that hurts your feelings like, "Why do you boast so much? You just like the things that flaunt yourself and you brag about your accomplishments all the time." Now, if the truth is cultivated in you, you are able to feel grateful to the one who has given you the advice of love.
However, if the truth is understood only as knowledge, you might think, "That not so…I tried to do my best because they were not trying hard enough, and now they are judging me and saying I am boastful? I just tried to plant faith in that person with my testimony and they say that I was bragging about my accomplishments!" You have uncomfortable feelings with many kinds of thoughts. The Holy Spirit works at one corner of your mind, so you have the thought, "I will be able to become a man of spirit only when I can accept words that are a lot more insulting than those." However, though you hear the voice in you, you end up ignoring it.
However, if you have really armed yourself with the word, you won't have any discomfort. When you receive advice of any kind, you can just think about how it applies to you and if you realize something you can change yourself by it. You will also have authority over your words. You will hear the voice of the Holy Spirit clearly, and it will help you evangelize people.
Secondly, we must have spiritual love.
Those who realize God's grace will naturally come to love Him. Because they love Him, they cannot help but to love their brothers as themselves (1 John 4:21). Suppose you long for New Jerusalem and seek holiness eagerly, but you do not love your brother. You say something like, "I can accept everybody else but not this person. I do not like him." Or, you say, "I do not hate him, but I do not agree on anything, so I just ignore him." You say you do not hate him, but this is very far from love. The most fundamental problem is that you do not love him.
Love is gentle and it seeks the benefit of others. You think in goodness in the other's view point. You believe he will do better, hope, endure, and bear with him. You believe he will change. Even though he does evil and does harm to you, you can understand him by thinking about his background and environment, considering his measure of faith, and understanding his position. Also, when you see those whom you love, even though they have some faults, you do not try to reveal them. You just try to see their good points. Even though the other's actions do not agree with your education and common sense, you help him do better by using his good points. You have to love those who have rough hearts that are like battered reeds or smoldering wicks.
Thirdly, we have to pray powerfully.
In order to arise and shine, we not only have to continue to pray diligently, but also we have to pray powerfully. Even though some people have prayed for a long time, they have no improvement in faith. Their self-righteousness and frameworks do not break. This means they are not offering up powerful enough prayer that touches the heart of God. Some people do not even know what they are praying for because they have other idle thoughts and doze off in prayers. Those who habitually doze off during prayers are distracted and have poor postures for prayer. If you kneel down and pray earnestly with your hands clasped, you can pray with your heart.
1 Corinthians 14:14 reads, "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful." As written, praying in other tongues and prayer of heart must have balance. In particular, when you pray for the kingdom of God, you have to clearly pray with your own language.
Some people pray in tongues when they pray for personal matters and when they pray for the kingdom of God. In this case, many of them do not pray with heart while praying in tongues. While they speak in tongues with their lips, they have idle thoughts. Also, some people pray with their words, but they pray with meaningless repetitions. Or, some people repeat the same words as if they were chanting.
Those who pray with all their heart will clearly express the things that are appropriate for God to hear. They will remember what they pray for because they asked for what they truly desire.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will become spiritual workers who lead countless dying souls to the way of salvation by praying powerfully in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, arming yourselves with the Word, and cultivating spiritual love in your heart.
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