ARISE

I’ve still been pondering how, in the light of Jesus resurrection, we practice resurrection and the personal practical ways that can and does happen for us. So often around Easter we hear it said ‘He is Risen’ but what I heard whispered to me recently is ‘Arise,  my love.’ Songs of Songs 2 says,

Arise, my love, my beautiful one,

and come away for behold,

the winter is past;

the rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of singing has come,

and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.

A few days ago I was home alone and feeling a little rest-less and unsettled over something. I began giving thanks for all God had done through out the circumstance but was honest too about where I was at with it. Always with the questions!! The next day at church we had a time of prayer on our table and a lady began by starting to sing over me and then brought an interpretation which was the verse above and some more. It was a moment when prayer became a conversation as it was a direct answer for what I had been speaking to God about the day before. I felt God had heard me and was letting me know His thoughts on it all. You see a few years ago I had been on holiday with my husband It had been the honeymoon holiday we had never had after 22 years of marriage. We’d been enjoying some beach time and I’d taken a photo of a plant growing on a cliff side. It had my attention as it didn’t look like it should thrive in that barren environment but it had. Life had found a way to blossom.

The thing was that when I looked at the pictures there was a flower on one of them but not on the others of the same plant. A flower had appeared where there wasn’t one.

 

The book I was reading that day had quoted the verse and I had been so encouraged that we were in a new season of our journey together. Spring had come with new life and fresh opportunities and we were now going to see something new blossom. It did and this was God’s way of reminding me that nothing’s changed- Life was going to find a way- Jesus always brings new life.

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But you know when God wants to take you a little deeper and say a little more? I looked up arise and the first definition was ‘something has come to light.’ It can also mean when we wake up and open our eyes as well as standing up and getting going, changing positions and emerging. The verse is a picture of how Jesus goes to wake up His bride so they can begin something new together and it’s exactly where I think many of us are. God is waking us up and giving us new ways of seeing what He is doing in and amongst us as a body of believers. I’m reminded of how Jesus said to His disciples in John 11 that He was going to wake Lazarus up. He had to explain in clearly that he was actually dead but the resurrection that happened was to call forth Lazarus – to let him emerge into new life.  He also said, ‘If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.’ That echoes what they heard Jesus say in John 8, ‘ I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’  In the context of John 8 the Light of Life is found when we receive Jesus and have the same relationship with the Father as He did.

Many of us sense the awakening and the call to arise.  Many of us can see a new season beginning to emerge as we embrace more of the Light of Life Jesus talks about. Although I was sung over there is a louder song being sung over our land. The sound of the Spirit is being heard  broadcasting God’s intentions.  As we begin to hear it and join in the harmony that it creates, it will release the new season even more. On the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection, the disciples were waiting in a room when the sound of wind came. They began speaking in other languages as they were filled from the inside out with the Spirit. What I notice is that the power is in the fact they were filled with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead – they then released a sound of that Spirit so that others in the community could hear it. The words spoken could be personally heard and understood as heaven’s sound became real to them. Then the church emerged. The Bride of Christ  happened. Peter spoke a wonderful word at the birthing of the church where he proclaimed Jesus and encouraged people to hear. He later wrote in 2 Peter 1, ‘ we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts’ He had seen, heard and experienced the prophecies of Jesus fulfilled and now the testimony of Jesus is still the spirit of prophesy. As we forth tell about who He is we sing the song, we proclaim and reveal all He is. It’s going to happen again as we hear the sound and join in. God is calling us to arise and join in the song that is already happening so His Bride can come forth.