Your Rising!

Isaiah 60:3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

From our theme scripture above, there is a brightness; and also, a rising.

The kings won’t come to your self-pity; to your falling, to your down-sitting, to your laziness, to your sleeping or your procrastination! They are to come to your rising.

They won’t come to your pride; but to your humility: your acknowledgement of every good thing that’s in you in Christ!

No one enters a house at foundation level! It has to be built up — to rise to a certain height to be occupied. God’s word is able to build you up (Acts 20:32). Perhaps you’re still being built, that’s why they haven’t come yet. It’s alright! Even Jesus disappeared for 18 years after confronting the pharisees in the temple. He was being built. Let process take its time. Let God take His time. . .

No one knew David while He was in the wilderness. God was setting the foundation on which he’d stand to stone Goliath down.

When God compares Christians — or His chosen ones, He is specific. He said you’d be above and not beneath. No wonder He said you are the light of the world! An apostle friend of mine — Kalanzi said, “I haven’t seen a star on the ground. A lamp must be put on a lamp stand. Your light reaches all if you’re positioned right!”

Jesus Himself said no one lights a candle and places it UNDER . . .

God already said you’d be ABOVE — the opposite of ‘under’. This goes back to ‘kings coming to your rising.’ It is a factor based on position. Like a balloon floats when filled with air, stars are noticed when highly they are positioned.

But the scripture said ‘brightness of your rising…’ So, rising is — yes an issue, and a first but — not the core element that’ll attract the kings. Thus, I stand to correct myself. Like a balloon floats when filled with helium, stars are noticed the brighter they shine for firstly, all stars are already ascended! Unlike some bulbs, their position is all above.

But — some stars are noticed long after we stare in the dark sky for over 10 minutes. They wink, unlike the obvious ones domineering by their radiance! The moon — the sun; these always are the first to be seen once one looks skyward. But the fact that Jesus’ star guided some men for many days means; it either shone brighter than the moon; stayed up when the sun shone during day; or shone as bright as the moon such that one didn’t only see the moon, but His star too — both shinning with the same luminosity. Or … It was confused for the moon when the moon was on leave.

Now some of the rising aspects will apply for the brightness as well; aspects like ‘building’ for the light can be built to greater capacity — greater shinning.

His word’s entrance brings light. Yes you’re already a light — like a star — but the more word enters your heart, (the more knowledge of it) the more assurance to keep you (the star) from perishing and burning out — and your path can get to shine brighter and brighter unto a perfect day.

But that’s only applying to brightness. The word says ‘the brightness of your rising’! I’ll take this to be in the context of ‘a doing word’. In other words, the brightness of how you rise; the brightness of your story. YOUR! Earlier Isaiah said Arise — shine for YOUR light has come. Remember the balloon?

Take emphasis as well of ‘your’ — YOUR light; not ‘generic light, not sun light’ but the light (or revelation) that you’ve discovered or has come specifically to you.

I always draw back — pertaining to individual light — to Proverbs 25:2. God’s glory is in concealing and hiding things. Your glory is in searching out matters (or in this case, the things God’s hidden). Your revelation will come as you search out each of these. And how you search out each will become part of your story. This is the story that will attract men to you.

Einstein discovered the relativity theory. That led to his glory and the entire physics world reveres him. Galileo discovered planet movements and Newton came up with laws of motion that emphasized gravity. All these have had the science world hold them as authorities in that field and it can be the same for you! Ores and planets are still being discovered. Innovations are still running wild and I trust God still has many tricks rolled up His sleeves.

You only need to keep searching out these in Him. For in Him all things consist.

But in all these, I’m sure, part of the questions these scientists would have been asked during seminars and conventions today would be how they discovered a and b and c. Note the ‘how’ — your ‘rising’. How did you rise to that discovery! That’s the core to which the kings will come. For your rising is unique and bright.

Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. The countries will believe your theory Galileo: that we spin around the sun, as long as you justify it. It’ll be headlines. But remember kings search out matters. It’s them who’ll want to know HOW you discovered that it spins around the sun. . .

How did you heal that man? How did you raise that dead person? How did you come up with that business idea? And you’ll point them to the true protagonist of the glory.

Secondly, if we are to make disciples of nations, they’ll all probably come … but if their kings haven’t been won, some laws might not favor the gospel within their countries.

Nevertheless, if the kings have been made disciples; if they’ve come to the full knowledge of God, then it’s easier to subject and commend and dedicate the nations they rule and preside over to God; more like if a girl falls in love, and her father approves, then the marriage can receive the paternal blessing easily. If there’s resistance from the father, progress becomes so hard.

And this is the part where God has to give you the tongue of the learned, so that you might clearly speak the words you’ve heard by the ear of the learned — the things describing your rising. For if we can’t, only the nations will come but not their kings. And let’s not forget their critical positions in influencing other kings, and their nations.

Daniel is the prefect example for this. The vision of the statue he had, when Nebuchadnezzar had dreamt of it and had forgotten it. He searched out the matter by God — all contributing to his rising. Danny however didn’t just tell of the vision, but also interpreted it. Thus Nebuchadnezzar reacted;

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him. The king answered Daniel, and said, “Truly your God [is] the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.” (Daniel 2:46-47)

He recognized Daniel’s God. In chapter 3, the same happened after Daniel’s friends were thrown in the fire but never succumbed. Ere, Daniel was being promoted to rule over provinces (representative of all nations coming to his light). The king came to the brightness of his rising when he asked for interpretation, and he kept issuing decrees that no man should dare speak against the God of Daniel.

Chapter 4 has the climax of this; where Nebuchadnezzar himself was humbled to eat grass. Once he recovered, he’d a new fear of the Lord. He hadn’t personally created room for God in His heart, even if he’d ensured that those he ruled did.

But He said; “Now I, (emphasis on the ‘I’) Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works [are] truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.”

Hallelujah! So keep shinning! Keep letting God’s word in, until even the ‘stubbornest’ of kings can’t ignore you but search you ought! They’ll bow to your God — the God of Daniel, of Joseph, and of you!