Articles

Awakening of Light & Glory

There is a stirring in the atmosphere of the presence and glory of the Lord. At times it is gentle like a soaking rain, and at other times, it is like a powerful thunderstorm as the front of His presence breaks in new ways with His power. By the Spirit, you can see the flashing of His light breaking in, hear the sound of His voice bursting forth, and feel the power of His presence shaking everything that can be shaken. He is wooing us in His tender compassion, and captivating us with His awesome greatness and amazing love. There is no one else like our God and He is altogether worthy of our praise -- not simply the praise of our lips, but of the sacrifice of praise in the giving of our all to Him with nothing held back. He is worthy!

This morning I was meditating on Isaiah 60:1, considering the beginnings of awakening that we are seeing bubble up across the land. Many times this verse has been used as a declaration of intercession over the Church of our day, calling Her to shake Herself out of the doldrums of tradition and ineffectiveness regarding significant impact of the Kingdom into the culture of our day. This is good and we must continue to speak forth the mandate to the Church to arise and shine! The Lord, however, began to draw me to look deeper into what He is saying, and led me to look at the original meanings of the words He spoke in this one verse. There is far more here than I ever expected! 

The word for "arise" is quwm (kum) and means to rise, stand up, become powerful, to be established, or confirmed. It can also mean to endure or persist, to to be fixed, valid, proven, or set. It is to fulfill, confirm, ratify, erect, build or to bring on the scene. It is to set or cause to stand, to establish, make binding or to carry out. Clearly this is much more than simply rising up out of a chair!

This word, arise, is a word of strength, or intentionality. It is a directive to rise up and embrace the place of having persevered to breakthrough after having stood and persisted. It is that place when you are established to stand and to build upon a firm foundation and to bring on the scene in power and with authority that has been tested and proven to carry out and give effect to what has been given to you to do. It is a word of confidence and assurance that is needed to build and establish God's purposes "on earth as in heaven."

The next word, shine, means to be or become light; to be illuminated and to give light. It is a word of revelation. Not just the receiving of revelation, but the permeating illumination of revelation that causes you to give off light -- to shine forth and give illumination. One definition is to kindle or to light as a candle or wood. This is a command to let our lives be a source of light and a spark of setting fires to dispel darkness and bring revelation to the world around us.

We may ask, how is this possible? It is possible for us to 'rise and shine" because "your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." The how we "rise and shine" will be as varied and diverse as our individual personalities. However, the how we are able, the why we can do this, provides us the reason and the confidence to rise and shine.

The word light is another form of the same word used before as shine, and it speaks of that which lights the day or the night. It can be as the breaking of day, dawn, morning light, or lightning. It speaks of the light of life, of prosperity, or instruction, or the light of face of the Jehovah God. The Lord God Almighty, He is The Light, and He has come upon us.

The depth of the word for come lets us know that The Light has come in, entered, and come upon us as light falling or lighting upon us, even as we often here it spoken of the anointing coming upon a person. When the Lord of Light comes He also brings things to pass and introduces us to dimensions of revelation we have not had before. When Light comes it gathers and brings near. We are drawn to and into the Light. There is also an aspect of being able to see so that we can enumerate upon -- list, quantify, name, detail, or add up -- all the marvelous attributes of the Light that has come.

The Lord is our Light and this word says He has come. Not that He will come, but He has come. When we grasp the truth that He has come upon us we are drawn into a place in Him where we see and know what we have not been able to see or know before. Light comes and births confidence and full assurance of faith that what He has spoken is and forever will be established.

Then the Word continues and adds yet another marvelous proclamation -- "The glory of the Lord has risen upon you." The glory is the weighty manifestation of the Lord's splendor, majesty, honor, and abundance. It is the revelation of His greatness that births reverence and worship in the hearts of all who are touched by His glory. His glory changes everything it touches.

In 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 we read that when the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the temple that "the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God." When the glory enters everything changes. What the priests had been doing up to that moment ceased. What they were doing was good, it was according to the instructions of the Lord, but when the cloud of His glory entered the house, they could no longer stand. His glory captivated and completely altered the order of the day.

His glory has risen has risen -- has come forth, come out and appeared upon you to utterly overtake you with the reality of His majesty, splendor, worth, and greatness. His glory brings all flesh to the end of itself so we stand not by our own power or might, but only by His Spirit. His glory captivates us in ways that nothing else ever will be able to do.

Can you see the light? Can you sense the glory? The Light has come. The Glory has risen. Arise and shine in full confidence and assurance of faith that He has come to you and He has released His glory over you. The Lord has spoken forth His command for us to stand as those He has made powerful, has established, has tested, tried and proven, and has set and positioned us to carry out His will on earth as it is in heaven. He has given us everything that we need to shine as lights in the midst of darkness and has sent out to bring illumination and revelation of His grace and glory to the world around us. Hallelujah!

and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Isaiah 60:1