Morning Star Rising

I have been captured with II Pet 1:19, regarding the Morning Star rising in our hearts.  I feel that there is something VERY profound in this verse that has imminent relevance to us.  

“And so, we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.” – II Pet 1:19

First, let’s ask some questions

1. Who is the Morning Star?

“I Jesus... am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” – Rev 22:16

2. If we already have Jesus (Christ the hope of glory) living in us, and if there is a greater experience where Jesus the Morning Star arises in us, then how will this extra dynamic of Jesus arising affect or change us internally?

3. What are the external differentiating characteristics of this new day dawning and the Morning Star arising?

Have you ever thought about these questions?  They’ve been very thought provoking to me.  Well, this is not the place to present exhaustive Scriptural research, but here are several ways in which the ‘Morning Star rising’, might manifest in us.

Transfiguration (glorification), governing authority, light, wholeness… and ‘becoming love’

So, this talk may sound hyperbolic or fairy-tale-ish.  But it’s in our Bibles and we’re ‘Bible believing believers’!  So, let’s see if I can make it more practical by ‘painting’ a hypothetical scenario which will hopefully awaken a potential revelation in us.

Radical transformation of normal
A society of miners had lived so deep in the mines that it took hours to descend to work and then return to the surface each day.  Those hours of transit were wasting their lives.  Generations ago, they decided to relocate their whole families down into the mine with them.  A complete ecosystem and subculture took shape and became normal.  By now, the miners and their families had completely forgotten what it means to live in the brilliant light of the beautiful world above.  The darkness had become normal to them.  Lamps and artificial lights were the best light they knew.  They have come to venerate these lesser lights with great reverence because these lesser lights were the ‘authority’ that distinguished the difference between night and day.  They worked when the lights were shining.  They slept when the lights were turned out.  There remained no memory of what the light of the Sun meant to the generations long preceding them.  O okay, maybe there were some ancient writings of a far off land… in another time.  But that just seemed so detached and unreal.  A belief in the Sun of those writings, had long been forgotten and replaced with the best thing they now knew… lesser lights.

But one day, someone invited them to something completely unheard of… something that they have no paradigm for.  They were invited to ascend out of the darkness and to experience the Heavenly benefit of a brilliant sun that shines forever and is exponentially brighter than any light they’ve ever known or dreamed of.  Who could comprehend something so foreign… so science fiction… so too-good-to-be-true?  They couldn’t.  But a few dared to try!

When they ascended out of the darkness and into the full light of the Sun, they are awestruck with wonder, bliss and near blinding brilliance.  They felt the warmth of Light and beheld the spectacular beauty around them.  Without knowing it, they began receiving life giving properties from the sunlight.  And this light was so bright and compelling as to dispel shadows and eradicate whole sectors of darkness that had always dominated the periphery of any and all the lesser lights below.

This newly revealed Sun was deeply revolutionary.  So stunned were the miners that they would never be able to return to the past ‘normal’ life of living by lesser lights.  With haste and contagious compelling descriptions, they sent for their families and encouraged all fellow miners to throw off the darkness and live in the light of the Sun.  Quite literally, a new day had dawned for each miner and this changed everything!

Obviously, our story was hypothetical.  But what if this same dynamic from the story above, is applicable to our II Pet 2:19 passage?  Let me explain.

Up until now, a personal prophetic word or a fresh rhema has been an unbelievably powerful inspiration in a comparatively dark world.  We did well to hold onto those words as a ‘light in a dark place’.  We had forgotten our former estate (our life in the Heavenly environs prior to conception).  So now, our ‘distance’ away from God had become normal… and a prophetic word (or rhema) was a powerful ‘light source’ from God.  This is the normal spiritual order in our present day.  And God ordained it to be this way, in this present ‘day’.  But He also has told us to expect a new normal!

Now, in case we think we’re over sensationalizing this concept, let’s look at a radical paradigm-busting passage.  Consider this next-level normal, which will blow any previous normal out of the water.

“They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun.  For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever. Then the angel said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His angel to show His servants what must soon take place.  Behold, I am coming soon.  Blessed is the one who keeps the words of prophecy in this book.” – Rev 22:4-6

So, the old norm, which we now venerate, will be trumped by a new norm that can’t be compared to the old norm, even though the old norm has been the gold standard of our time. 

I don’t know if there will be a global wholesale manifestation of this Morning Star rising at first, but I do believe that we can be partakers of the ‘first fruits’ of the Morning Star rising.  It’s possible that these first fruits may be ‘hidden’ for a time until a ‘critical mass’ occurs and the new norm becomes global.

I realize that this is a pretty heady discussion topic, but we are in the Isa 54 mode: “Enlarging the place of our tents… lengthening our cords… stretching out our tent pegs.”  And since we are a part of ‘architecting a new age’, it’s exciting to explore these new horizons!

I’m so happy to be numbered among a company of believing believers!

–MLH

The Morning Star is rising within us – and He wants out – 16mins
https://youtu.be/V09XKOE13ZI

Into the Realm of the Morning Star – 32mins
https://youtu.be/hBfX2SfkK-c

The Morning Star is Rising – 8mins
https://youtu.be/NSJK4FhpzVY