Awake, Arise, Receive the Light

John‬ ‭9:5‬ ‭- "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

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I was doing a study on light yesterday afternoon. It all started when I was reading Ephesians 5 and came to verse 14: Therefore He says: Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. There was a scripture reference in Isaiah, which then gave another scripture reference...and light became a theme. Light and life.

I began looking at scriptures with the word light in them. And wouldn't you know, it started at the beginning of time when God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good... (Genesis‬ ‭1:3-4‬) And at the end of the Bible in the last chapter of Revelation, these words are spoken: There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. ... (Revelation‬ ‭22:5‬)  Doesn't that sound like a good thing, the Christ who said He was the light of the world will be the perpetual light for all who followed and endured to the end? All because we follow the Light. We allow His Word to be the lamp unto our feet and light to our paths. The Word that gives life.

God has much to say about light throughout scripture from beginning to end. God created light so all things could be seen. All things that He created...everything shows His Divine character, creativeness, beauty and majesty. Without this created light we could not physically see. The ability to see...His creation...so there will be no excuse for the existence of this Divine Creator and that, in the end, all knees will bow to Jesus, the Light of the world.

So God created light. We need light not only to see but so things can grow. Just like God created light so man could see and things could grow, He brought Jesus into the world as yet another Light for our light and life. Jesus said it above, that He is the Light of the world. And He states further that "...he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." (John 8:12) 

Within the Word is written, or expressed in some way, that having light in our lives dispels the darkness. This darkness surrounds us daily, without the light of Christ. We live in the darkness until we choose to follow the Lord. Where does evil abound? In the darkness. Choose to come out of the darkness and into His marvelous light. 

I'm thankful for the Light of Christ in my life. I was taken out of the darkness and brought into the light. I once was blind but now I see. I'm thankful that I recognize what constitutes or brings on darkness. Through study and hearing God speak through His Word it causes one to know the truth...which will set one free (John 8:32).

John‬ ‭1:4,9‬ ‭- In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

RISE UP

John 5:1-9

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to Him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me."

Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. 

I love this story. I look at it as how the world might view the issue of salvation. The world is one vast multitude of spiritually sick people. We are sick in our sinful, fleshly natures. We are born this way. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). But there is a Man who can change all that.

At some time in their lives, many have been met by this Man. He knows all about us. He asks us in some way if we want to be made well. When that water, that knowledge, is stirred, some make it into that pool and are healed. Others, however, maybe don't go into the pool because they just aren't sure now is the time. They aren't sure if they want to be healed. They might know what they should do, but...it means change. It means letting go of, losing, the old life for a new and better one.

But our God is patient and won't hesitate to confront again, and again, and again. This man was afflicted 38 years. Yet Jesus came to Him. He will meet us and ask us repeatedly in some way if we want to be healed (saved). This salvation is for whoever steps into the pool. Maybe all our excuses have run out or this time we understand the call, or maybe we just need one more word of urging. Then Jesus will tell us to rise from our wrong spiritual condition and walk...follow Him.

There is only one way to be healed, to have our spirits stirred, to rise out of our sinful spiritual condition. His name is Jesus Christ. If you hear Him, respond. Rise and walk with Him.

Matthew 16:24-26 - ... If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Arise and Follow

Genesis 35:3 - "Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone."

In the Old Testament God spoke to the people. God told Jacob, above, to arise and go to Bethel and dwell there. He listened, he arose and he and his family went to Bethel. But there was a condition--"Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments." (verse 2)

God still speaks to us today. He urges us to arise and follow Him and the same condition is set before us, to remove those things in our lives that cause us the inability to purify ourselves so we can be clothed in righteousness and not be able to know who He is, what His plans are for us.

God protected Jacob and his people from possible enemies. God will also offer us His protection. God changed Jacob's name. Jacob means deceiver. He had done a number of things in his life which were deceptive. But now he'd changed and sought God's will. Jacob's name was changed to Israel, which means God rules. He was willing to listen now. God does that for us too. In Revelation 2:17 John tells us what God says will happen when we get to heaven: "'...To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it."' I like that! A new name, one that represents who I am in Christ. 

Earlier Jacob had wrestled with God and, of course, God won. But He had to injure Jacob so that he could not longer fight. We struggle with God when we do not heed His call or command to arise and follow Him. Sometimes He will allow a struggle in our lives to bring us low so He can rise up once again and cause us to take notice. That's salvation to the lost...or rededication to those who have strayed. When we then let go of those ideas or things that cause us to not follow Him, He becomes our friend, protector, supplier of our needs.

I love how Jacob says "[God] has been with me in the way which I have gone." The way. "Follow Me, I am the Way." 

Let's not let pride or unbelief hinder our walk with God...or keep us from it. There are so many promises to receive, blessings and not curses. This God knows our names. He is interested in everything about us because He created us--knitted us in our mother's wombs. He has known us since before we knew Him. He knows our thoughts and words before we think or say them. Who would know better what we are in need of?

When Jesus was healing people often he would tell them to "arise and go" and they were healed. He calls us to be healed spiritually when He asks us to "arise and follow Him." If you hear the call, don't ignore it. Let these promises be for you:

Psalm 18:2 - The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.