As the Lord’s faithful followers, we are becoming shining and living stars; as those who follow Christ we become living stars like Him to be His duplication by giving heed to the prophetic word and by the Spirit.
On one hand the Lord Himself is the living star, and the magi saw His star, followed it, and eventually found Him; as such a One, He shines over us to guide us on the way of righteousness, the way of God, and the way of the church.
We need to find Christ as the living star and follow His leading and shining, and we need to allow Him to infuse us with Himself as the shining One until we ourselves become living stars.
In Matthew 2:2 we see one shining star, which is Christ, but in Revelation 1 we see seven stars in the hands of the Son of Man, which typify the messengers of the churches, the ones to whom the Spirit can speak His living message.
We need to see how can we as believers in Christ become the living stars, those who are intensely living and intensely shining in this dark age.
The Lord promised Abraham in Gen. 22:17 that his seed will be like the stars in the heaven and like the sand on the seashore; we believers in Christ are the spiritual descendants of Abraham and are likened to the stars in the heavens, and the people of Israel are the earthly descendants of Abraham and are likened to the sand on the seashore.
Seven Ways to be Enlightened by the Lord and become Living Stars as His Duplication
There are at least seven main points on how we can become living stars and how we can be enlightened by the Lord as the living star. If we are to be living stars, we need to be full of light.
1. Light is in the Word of God – not merely the written word in the Bible, but the Word that the Spirit speaks to us from within, revealing anew the Word of the Bible to us.
The word of the Lord is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path (Psa. 119:105), and the opening or unfolding of His words gives light, imparting understanding to the simple (v. 130).
There has to be a prayer in us that we would hear the Lord’s voice, that He would cause us to hear His voice (Song of Songs 8:13-14).
We need to hear the Lord’s speaking especially in our time with Him in the morning; He comes to us like a gazelle and a young hart to set up His sweet and beautiful kingdom on this earth as the mountain of spices.
By being in the Lord’s instant speaking every day, we are washed by the water in the word and we’re beautified with Christ and by Christ to become His glorious church.
2. Enlightening rests with the mercy of God; whenever God comes and bestows His mercy, the light of His countenance is our light, His appearing is our vision, and His presence is our gain (see Isa. 50:10-11).
We cannot manufacture light or conjure up light; we simply need to trust in the name of God and rely on our God. All those who manufacture their own light, not God’s light but their self-made light, they walk into the light of their fire, and they will lie down in torment.
God has mercy on whomever He wants to have mercy, and He has compassion on whomever He wants. He who receives revelation is the one to whom He gives revelation, and he who obtains enlightening is the one whom God chooses to enlighten.
It is entirely up to God and not up to us. We cannot demand light or control light; when light comes, it comes without us seeking it, and when light doesn’t come, even if we seek it, it won’t come. It’s like the rising of the sun – the sun rises whether we seek after it or not or whether we like it or not, and when the sun doesn’t rise, we can’t cause it to rise simply because we want it to.
When God enlightens us, we can be enlightened, but if He doesn’t, there’s nothing we can do about it. This is why we need to pray to the Lord, Oh Lord, have mercy on me and enlighten me!
When Paul was on the way to Damascus, even though he opposed God and didn’t seek God, he had God’s appearing, and he prostrated himself before God and was greatly blessed. God had mercy on him.
The light of God is not controlled by the hand of man – it rests upon the mercy of God. If God doesn’t enlighten us, we shouldn’t manufacture light ourselves or seek light ourselves.
If we fear God, obey His voice, and suddenly fall into darkness, we should trust in the Lord, rely on God, and wait for the light of God to shine, for only God is light and the source of light, and only in the light of God can we see light.
On the other hand we should be warned that, when we have no light, we should not try to find a way out ourselves by kindling a fire to try to make our own light…If we don’t wait for God but gird ourselves about with self-made light, though we may walk in the light of our own fire for a time, in the end we will lie down in sorrow.
At the same time, we shouldn’t borrow someone else’s light by taking their light as being our own.
We may hear someone testifying how, when he encountered difficulties, he accepted the dealing of the cross, and God took him through. We may accept this and determine that, from that day forward, we will accept the dealing of the cross.
Though this is not seeing light by ourselves or manufacturing our own light, this is borrowing light from others, it is taking someone’s light and making it our own. He who does such a thing, after a while, he will definitely abandon such light, for borrowed light has no use, it can’t take the place of real light.
This is why, when we come to the Word of God and to the ministry that opens up the word to read it, we need to pray and open to the Lord so that He may shine on us and enlighten us.
The words in the Bible and the words in the ministry need to become light to us; we need to ask the Lord, Lord, show me what is written in Your word and what brother Lee speaks about – cause me to see what You see, and cause me to have the burden that brother Lee had!
We need to come to the Lord so that we may have genuine light from God, not borrowed light or manufactured light. Further reading on this, see ch. 2 in, The Knowledge of Life, by Witness Lee.
Lord Jesus, we need Your shining. We refuse to make our own light or to borrow someone else’s light – we want You to shine on us. Dear Lord, only You have the light, and only in Your light can we see light. May it please You to shine on us and give us the divine light. May it please You to appear to us again and again to infuse us with Yourself as light and make us the shining stars in this dark age. Enlighten us as we come to Your word and read the ministry. May we see what You see in the Word, and may we have the same burden and feeling that You have in Your word!
3. For us to be enlightened, we need to want and accept the Lord’s shining, setting our heart to be single in seeking the Lord alone with all our desire.
Psa. 27:8 shows us a conversation with God, how He wants us to seek His face, and we seek His face with all our heart, for we want to see Him face to face.
We need to want, accept, and not hide from the Lord’s shining. Sometimes we don’t want the Lord to shine in certain areas of our life, for we feel that, if He shines in an area, He will not be happy with what He finds there…but we need to be open to His shining and even want His shining, asking for His forgiveness and cleansing whenever He shines on something.
4. To be enlightened we must open ourselves to the Lord, turn our heart to Him, and place ourselves before Him without any reservation or holding back.
We need to have a prayer in our being, Lord, I open my being without any reservation to You; I want You to shine in my being. Those who close themselves to the Lord are experts in judging and criticizing others.
For example, if we close ourselves in a dark room and look out, we can see things very clearly to criticize, but if we turn the lights on in that room, we can’t see that clearly outside.
When the Lord’s light shines on us, we can’t see the faults or weaknesses of others; but when there’s darkness in you, you can judge and criticize others.
5. To be enlightened we need to put a stop to ourselves; we need to put a stop to our views, our ways of looking at things, our feelings, our ideas, and our opinions.
When a person completely stopped comes before the Lord, He can be exceedingly simple and single in heart to receive the word of the Lord.
Sometimes when we come to the Word of God we read our own views, our ways of looking at things, our feelings, our ideas, and our opinions in the Word of God, because we didn’t stop our being. We need to stop, sit at the Lord’s feet, and listen to His word, just like Mary did.
6. To be enlightened we must not dispute with the light of the Spirit. When the light shines, we shouldn’t argue with it. When the Lord shines on us through His word or through those who minister His word, we should not argue with the light or dispute with it.
If we dispute with the light – whether by ourselves in the Word or in public with the ministry of the word – we will not receive light. We must accept the Lord’s light.
7. To be enlightened by the Lord we must continually live in the light.
In Eph. 5:8 Paul tells us that we were once darkness, but now we are light in the Lord, so we should walk as children of light. We need to walk in the light – as He is in the light (1 John 1:7), by living, moving, and having our being as children of light.
Lord Jesus, we open to Your shining. We open our being without any reservation to You so that You may shine on us and in us to enlighten us and make us the living and shining stars in this dark age. We turn our heart to You, Lord, and we place ourselves before You without any reservation or holding back. We put a stop to our views, our ways of looking at things, our feelings, our ideas, and our opinions, and we simply come to You, sit at Your feet, and listen to Your word. Strengthen us into our inner man to accept the light, not dispute with the light, and not reject the light. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to continually walk in the light and live in the light as children of the light, so that You may continually sine in us and through us to make us Your duplication, living and shining stars in this age!
Becoming Living Stars by Giving Heed to the Prophetic Word and by the Spirit
In 2 Pet. 1:19 we see one of the ways to become the living stars as the duplication of the Lord as the living star.
We have the prophetic word made more firm, to which we do well to give heed as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts.
Christ is the star, and we as His followers are being made stars like Him to be His duplication and reproduction as shining and living ones in this age. We need to come to the Lord’s word, the prophetic word, and pay full attention to it until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our heart.
The star is something like phosphorus, bringing light in the darkness. We should give heed to the words in the Bible by praying over them with the exercise of our spirit until Christ as the morning star rises in our heart.
Sometimes when we read the Bible we feel we don’t get any light, but when we open our heart and give heed to the word, something within is shining, rising, dawning, and breaking through.
The issue of our pray-reading over the word of God is an inward sense of enlightening and shining, and this shining causes us to love the Lord Jesus even more.
The more we have God’s shining in us through His word, the more we love the Lord Jesus; this love for Him grows to the point that we are besides ourselves with love to the Lord Jesus. This is actually Jesus coming to us as the dawning day, as the morning star rising in our heart.
We need to not only read the Bible but learn to open to the Lord, turn our heart to Him, and exercise our spirit so that the black-and-white letters in the Bible would become like phosphorus, full of light and life, and we have the Lord rising in us as the Star.
This shining, this rising up of the Lord as the star in us, will cause us to be shining and living. If we go along continually with this inner, rising star, we will consistently be in the Spirit, and we will spontaneously be shining and living.
In Rev. 3:1 we have the Spirit, even the seven Spirits; the hand of Jesus here holds not only the seven stars but also the seven Spirits. The seven stars – typifying us as the shining ones in the churches – are one with the seven Spirits.
If we have the living word as the morning star rising within us, and if we are one with the seven Spirits, eventually we will become the stars. We not only have the star shining within us, but by looking at the star and following in the Spirit, we become the stars.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to become the living stars as Your duplication as the Star in this age. Amen, Lord, we come to Your word with a turned heart and an exercised spirit to receive Your shining, Your enlightening, and Your instant speaking. We exercise our spirit over Your word, Lord, to receive the divine phosphorous and catch the divine fire. Make us intensely living and shining in this dark age. May we have the star shining within us and, by looking at the star and following in the Spirit, may we become the living stars in this age!
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References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1970, vol. 1, ”New Testament Service,” pp. 287-289, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 10, Christ as the Star out of Jacob.
- Hymns on this topic:
# As for Thy life within, / In darkness I mistake- / If spirit or the flesh, / One for the other take. / As for Thy way, O Lord, / I often am not clear; / I toward seclusion tend / And from the pathway veer. / Oh, may Thy living light, Lord, / Scatter all my night, Lord, / And everything make bright, Lord, / For this I pray to Thee. (Hymns #426)
# O Morning Star! Spring forth from my heart’s fountain, / As we attend to Thy prophetic word; / Glow as a lamp amidst apostate darkness, / Until the morn arrives in all the earth. (Song on, O Morning Star!)
# And we have the prophetic word / Made more firm, to which you do well / To give heed as to a lamp / Shining in a dark place, / Until the day dawns / And the morning star / Rises in your hearts. (Scripture Song)
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