A New Day Dawning!
It’s been awhile since I’ve put pen to paper but, to be honest, I’ve spent a period of time in preparation for what the Lord would have me release this year and I’m excited to share this with you! It’s a deep, evolving relationship walk with God and one that I wholeheartedly invite you into.
Just as a heads up, you will see specific headings within the body of each blog moving forward and everything points back to a series of courses that are on offer for you to explore. If you choose to journey with me through the course offerings, these headings will be all the more meaningful, but either way, I pray that the Lord will touch you with His Deep Love and Comfort as you read.
Safety:
Isaiah 47:5a, “Sit in silence, go into darkness….”
I wondered yesterday, why the Lord had given me this chapter in Isaiah about the fall of Babylon. It paints a dire picture of impending destruction of a nation that oppressed God’s people and through this passage we see the after effects of God’s Judgements under the Old Covenant. I read it through, and I was so aware of, and grateful for, the New Covenant of Love and Peace towards mankind that was promised when Jesus was born into this world; the love that was demonstrated when Jesus preached and administered the Kingdom of God, and the sacrifice of love enacted when Jesus died for our sins on the cross and rose again on the third day. Jesus was the Dawning of a new era for humankind, an era of relief from Sin and Judgement, if man puts their trust in Him and Believes what he did for us! Hallelujah!
Isaiah 60: 1-3 speaks of the coming of Jesus and this Light that He would bring into the world and it’s this Light which is available to us as Believers when we come into a relationship with Him. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See the darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples but the Lord rises upon you and His Glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light and Kings to the brightness of your DAWN.”
What does this ‘Light’ mean for us? The Hebrew root of this word in the Strong’s Concordance means:
-‘to be or become light, to become bright.
- Used of the eyes of a faint person when he begins to recover. To refresh, to gladden.
-To be surrounded and resplendent with light.
-To be made light.
-To lighten one’s countenance, to make cheerful.
-To make one’s own face to SHINE!
The Light of God is created to shine into the Darkness, so first we need to start with the topic of Darkness and find out some of what this represents to us. This Darkness occurs in the life of an individual before they are born again when the soul is dead to God and it can actually happen to someone after they are born again as well, because we physically and emotionally live in the realm of Sin and Death and we are subject to the effects in this fallen World we live in.
In the Strong’s Concordance the word Silent from Isaiah 47:5a (at the start of the blog) means in Hebrew:
-To be made silent, destroyed, persish
-To be made quiet, still
-To be astonished,
-The dumb, silent stone
The word Darkness means:
-To be surrounded by Darkness,
-To darken, dim
-Misery, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness
-Obscurity, hidden
-To obscure, confuse
-Hide in a Secret Place
We see, in Isaiah 47:5 that the realm of sin leads to destruction. When disaster strikes in an area of our lives we can be grief stricken, astonished, confused, sorrowful and we can retreat into ourselves in order to try to resolve what has happended. This Silence and Darkness described in Isaiah 47:5, to me, describes very well the modern day word we use for overwhelming negative life events, which is Trauma. Trauma holts our journey as we sit in the Silence and Darkness trying to figure out what has happened and then how to move out of this place in our lives effectively. Sometimes we can stop growing and developing in this area because we simply can’t move forward. It can feel like time itself stands still! Most trauma happens to us because of other people’s sin towards us or it can be through bad life decisions and sin of our own doing. Just existing in this fallen world exposes us to trauma as well, and I believe there are varying levels and degrees of trauma and with have more affects than we are aware of or choose to admit to.
However the degree of trauma, there are results that appear to be similar but aren’t always noticeable when someone looks at our lives from the outside. This is because the effects can be upon our soul; our emotions and our inner thought life. There can be a ‘stillness’, a raw ‘silence’ and a heavy ‘darkness’ in an area of our inner world. There can be an ‘aloneness’ that began somewhere in our trauma experience/s and it can present as the only thing which really seems to ‘build’ in this space of our soul.
After all this discussion of Darkness, let me bring some of this Glorious Light to you today!
When we have an experience with Jesus, when we first begin to follow Him, this Darkness can be illuminated by His very Presence and disappear without us having to change anything as Holy Spirit iniates the Transfomration of our Souls! How Glorious! Sometimes, though, this darkness lingers and we can even protect it in an attempt to hide it, until we realize that God wants ALL of us. As we journey in relationship with God we begin to understand that every day is a New Day to allow Him to Love us completely and it’s His Love; His speaking to us, understanding us, and encouraging us that draws His Light into this Silent Darkness.
We’ll be talking about these things as a theme all the way through these blog posts as I am passionate to see God’s people experience a New Dawning of God’s Love within their Souls!
I love how the words used for Light describe this Transformation process; the description of the eyes of a faint person as they begin to recover. This Light isn’t blinding or confronting, it’s soothing, refreshing, uplifting and makes our hearts gladden and our countance to be one of cheerfulness. It’s taking these Dark and Silent places and illuminating them with the Truth of God’s Love into every hidden corner of our Hearts!
Knowledge is power and once you know that your Silence and Darkness is destined to be filled with His gentle voice and the Light of His Love, you can begin to journey again in these areas. You will come to know that He was always there, He ‘saw’ you and ‘sees’ you every day, He has a plan for your life and you WILL NEVER WALK ALONE. He WILL fill this space of Aloneness in your heart.
Jesus promises us that this Darkness will not overwhelm us forever and that He has Overcome the Darkness and that He is the Light! It’s been amazing for me to see that these areas of our soul where Darkness resides are ‘Secret Places", many times we aren’t even aware of their existence and if we ARE aware, shame attempts to keep things ‘hidden’. You may not understand where the darkness began but you can trust Him to lead you into full Illumination and Peace. Rest assured that the Lord is calling all the parts of our hearts into His Light where we can enjoy the ‘Secret Place’ that He has for us, where He holds us close to His Heart and tucks us safely under the Wings of His Love.
We can REST in this passage of scripture knowing that Jesus WILL dispel the Darkness we encounter within our lives.
John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” ESV
Let the beautiful words of this song wash over you as you listen, and make it your prayer today to actively ASK Jesus to come into those deepest parts of your Soul where you sense the Silence and the Darkness residing. In reality your Spirit is present in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus and the goal of our journey as Christians whilst we are on this earth, is to Transform, along with the guidance of Holy Spirit, our Souls (our mind, will and emotions) into the truth of Who and Whose We Are In Christ Jesus. Let us go from ‘Glory to Glory’ as our Righteousness shines brighter and brighter each day in the Light of His Love and Faithfulness. Amen!
Much Love in Him Fellow Traveller,
Merita