SHINE

Let your light SHINE before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven – Matthew 5:16

To shine is:

• To glitter in appearance;
• To be radiant in manifestation;
• To emerge out of obscurity;
• To illuminate all around;
• To excel in brightness and glory.

You cannot shine until you arise. You cannot shine on the bed of ease. “Arise, shine, for your light has come…” Your light has come to stay. So LET IT SHINE. It is not an ordinary light. It is the light of God’s glory. Who can hold back the light of the sun from shining? How much more the light of the Son of God! In these days when gross spiritual darkness is covering the world, God is covering His people with Glory. Consider this: science confirms that the moon does not generate any light of its own; it receives and reflects the light from the sun in such a brilliant and attractive manner to the planet earth. In a similar way, when Christians arise from spiritual sleep, Christ gives us light; that is, He shines on us (Eph.5:14). Your duty is to awake and arise, His responsibility is to bathe your life with His light, such that you can proclaim: “in Your light we see light” (Psa.36:9). You cannot generate any light on your own. You must abide in Christ to Shine. It is in His light that we shine!

What is the purpose of His Glory? It is that our light may shine amidst the deep darkness, and draw multitudes of Gentiles, and their kings and nobles into God’s kingdom. The grosser the darkness in Egypt, the brighter is the light in Zion. Babylon’s day of darkness is Zion’s day of distinction. The World is waiting: believers have no option than to awake, arise and shine in this hour of power and glory. This is God’s heart-cry to our generation. Ours could very well be the generation that would witness the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world is of little value to us; but we have God’s best to offer them. The whole creation is waiting for the manifestation of God’s sons (Rom. 8:19). Deep in their souls they are longing for liberty; crying for healing; desperate for deliverance; and thirsty for the reality of redemption.

The world needs the Messiah. Who will show them the Messiah? Who will manifest Him before them? The devil is busy trying to provide alternatives to the Messiah. As Jesus is; “so are we in this world” (1Jh. 4: 17). When the world sees us, they should have seen Jesus. He is the King of kings, and He “made us kings and priests to God and His Father” (Rev. 1: 6). It is therefore a pitiable sight, seeing “princes walking as servants upon the earth” worshipping the “beggarly elements” of this world – fame, fashion and fortune (Ecc. 10: 7; Gal. 4: 9). This is our Season of Shining. We’ll “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom” of our Father (Mt.13:43a). We’ll “shine as lights in the world, holding fast the Word of Life” (Phil.2:15-16).

Hurting humanity is waiting for the healing touch of God through your hands. Multitudes of disillusioned souls are waiting to hear the voice of hope from heaven upon your lips. Men and women at junctions of confusion are waiting to receive words of wisdom and direction from your mouth. You must therefore arise and begin to shine, not for your sake only, but for the good of multitudes that are drifting blindly down the steep slope of sin into an abyss of eternity without Christ. “Let your light so shine…” that people may “see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Mt.5:16). Awake, Arise, and Shine!