Sunday, 27th November 2022
Rev Daniel Xi An Poon
In 2020, we already talked about arise and shine, but this year, we have new revelations from God, and He is giving us a completely new arise and shine! Isaiah 60:1 says, “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.”
Environment, behaviour, ability, belief, identity… these are the logic in our life, and our focus are often on many things, including the list mentioned above. We always want to do something to change our lives, we work hard, trying to change our environment, be mindful of our behaviour, gain our ability, strive for our belief, seek our identity… but the. We fall into a ‘doing’ mode. We did not really have this faith in God, but we push ourselves to live under the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
We must know who we are, our true identity can change everything. We are the children of God, we don’t need to try hard to prove ourselves, we know God is with us and He leads our way. It’s not about calling out to God only when we are in need, but to know God is always here and we can always rely on Him.
1. For Your Light Has Come
We cannot shine by ourselves, we must let the light comes to us. The world teaches us to work hard, to always ‘do something’. But Jesus called the burdened and yoked, He wants us to live a joyful and free life. God has given the Light to us, not for the people next to us but for us. But we must see this and take ownership of this. It’s our decision to receive the light, because it has already come for us.
2. Arise
There will alway be darkness before the sunrise, but when the sun rises up, we will see the light. When the light comes, do we stay asleep, or do we arise and receive this light? When we know our identity, when we know who we are, then we will rise. We don’t belong to the darkness, we belong to the light, and we must go up to the mountain, to wait for the light to come, and to arise.
3. Shine
What is the meaning of that Kingdom of God? How can we live out the Ten Commandments? To live God and to love others as ourselves. When we see the Light, when we rise with the Light, then what’s next? We must shine. We must let the Holy Spirit to come and help us to convict ourselves for sin, for righteousness and for judgement. When Moses was on Mt Sinai for 40 days, his face was shining that the people can’t see straight into his face. It’s not about us trying to shine, but to examine ourselves, to cleanse ourselves, to get rid of all our sins against God, to come closer to Him, then we can shine.
God’s Way is taking us to blessings, He is our Good Father, He wants us and our generations to receive blessings. But the devil also knows this, it wants to stop the blessings to come to us. We must be wise, have the faith to believe, and let the Light of God shine upon us. When we believe in God’s blessings, our relationships with others will also be blessed. Stop being envy about others and start experiencing it ourselves!