Arise, Shine — and Wait

Some encounters with God mark a turning point so clearly that life afterward is never the same. What we do not always realize in that moment is that the promise spoken there may take years to unfold.

Experiences like this are part of what I mean when I speak about the gentle supernatural ways God sometimes communicates with His children.

The encounter occurred in 2010. I had divorced Silas and had been drawn into a deep, beautiful relationship with God while I sought Him through the suffering. He had prompted me to lay down the fight for the marriage I had struggled to hold together for years. He made it clear I was supposed to remove myself, and that Silas had no intention of repenting.

For months the tears had flowed as I tried to move through the long cycle of grief. I wondered if they would ever end and crying out to God, I asked how much longer I must grieve the loss of this abusive relationship. And not very much time passed before He answered in the most glorious, God-like way.

I awoke one morning in my modest apartment to the brightest light I had ever seen pouring through my east-facing bedroom window. Never before or after had the morning sun shone with such dazzling brightness through this window.

Normally when light wakes me, I am fully alert and immediately begin my day. But that morning something unusual happened. Though I felt completely awake, I drifted back into a dream state almost instantly.

And then the vision unfolded.

I was standing in a vast valley. High hills surrounded the valley so that all I could see were gently waving beige grasses rising to my waist. Nothing beyond the hilltop horizon except mostly blue skies.

Suddenly my attention was drawn to the top of one of the hills. There they rose above the horizon, riders in chariots—many of them. They came swiftly toward me with the thunder of wheels and the rushing wind of their speed. Many of them whirred past me, some far away and some so near I felt the turbulent air of their passing break the gentle stillness of the valley. The thought occurred to me that I should fear being run over. But I stood in the midst, unharmed by any of the skilled chariot drivers.

Then from the middle of the rushing army one chariot separated and came toward me. It stopped beside me on my left. It was huge and the rider was so large I was dwarfed in comparison. I couldn’t see past the rider’s torso and didn’t look up higher to see his face. Why? I can only say it felt like standing outside on a brilliant day and knowing better than to look directly at the sun.

The rider turned to speak to me and I felt then He was the Lord. My heart swelled as I listened, knowing I wanted to hear and remember every word.

He said, “Today I declare Isaiah 60:1 over you.” And He gave me the distinct impression that, in time, He would put me in the position of speaking that verse over others.

And as quickly as the riders appeared over the ridge in front of me, they disappeared over the ridge behind me. And I awoke.

I didn’t know what Isaiah 60:1 was so I rushed to grab my Bible and read:

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.”

I was awestruck and overwhelmed by the thought that the Lord had timed his word with the brightest of sunrises and that He had even spoken in such a powerful way over me at all. How marvelous is our King. How tenderly He cares for small and ordinary people like us.

But what does it mean that my light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon me?
What does it mean for others as well?
When, Lord?
When am I supposed to declare it over others?
In what context? What will it mean for them?

I’m still waiting for these answers. At least the complete answers and the “when”. What I do know is that day serves as a turning point in my life after the loss of that marriage. From that day forward, there were no more tears of grief. Only joy in God’s rescue.

It marked a new beginning and a whole new me. One who has been healed of the sin that caused me to fall into that predatory relationship and the one before.

The sin was mine in the doubt of God’s heart-filling love for me. It was also the weight of generational sin—patterns I did not begin, yet whose consequences I found myself living under because of choices made by those before me.

So, while I don’t discount the immediate importance of that message and that encounter, because, really – it is EVERYTHING to me, there is still something more I am waiting to learn and to act on. God is calling me to humbly carry this without knowing why. He is challenging me not to “Abraham and Sarah” the promise by trying to force it into existence before His time.

Lord, don’t let me fall for fleshly contorting of meaning and purpose just because I’m not willing to wait for your perfect timing. I’ve done that in the past with another of your promises and it did not turn out well. Help me wait.

As of the writing of this post, it has been a little over 15 years since the encounter and I am still awaiting the fulfillment of His words. And I have to chuckle in wonder if He will have me wait 25 years just like Abraham and Sarah. If He does, I know it will be okay, because His purpose for fulfilling the promise will be infinitely more amazing than anything I could squeeze out of it by trying to facilitate it myself.

So we learn to wait and trust — by waiting and trusting. Lord, keep my feet on the right path.

“I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.” Psalm 130:6

Scriptural Framework:

Genesis 18:11
Hebrews 6:15
Romans 4:19,20
Isaiah 60:1