The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Authority and the Morning Star, continued

I will also give him the morning star. (Revelation 2:28—NIV)

Do you even believe God is bringing you to joy? This was the question that Satan raised with Eve. Faith in God means we believe God sees us, He cares, He is bringing us to joy, and He has the power to do this. You have to hang on to this faith through every trial, every suffering, every frustration or else you will fall by the wayside.

If we were given authority over the nations, but not the morning star, we would increase the chaos in the universe.

The morning star heralds the new day in us, the day of the Lord. I use a lower-case "d" in day of the Lord because I am not referring to the worldwide Day of the Lord when I speak of the day of the Lord that is being created in us. The worldwide Day of the Lord will come to the earth as the Lord Jesus Christ and those in whom the day of the Lord has been formed return and bring the Presence of God with them.

As Christians we are to pay close attention to both the Old Testament and the New Testament. By these we make our way righteous, acceptable to God.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, (II Timothy 3:16—NIV)

As we obey the Scriptures (not the covenantal statutes of the Law of Moses), and only as we obey the Scriptures, the Morning Star, Jesus Christ, is formed in our personality.

And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. (II Peter 1:19—NIV)

In the physical realm the morning star is the planet Venus, which appears in the sky just before the dawn of the new day.

Another description of the morning star rising in us is as follows:

On that day you will realize I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:20—NIV)

Notice the expression, "on that day." "That day" is the day of the Lord that has its rise within the believer who is paying attention to the Scriptures. It occurs as we live by the Life of Jesus.

We would not want to have authority over the nations, the power to break them to pieces with the scepter of iron, unless we were living by the Life of Jesus. Can you see the sense of this? Authority and power apart from a life controlled by Jesus would be a danger in the creation of God.

We understand, therefore, that the reason God deals with us day and night, night and day, moment after moment, year after year, decade after decade, is that we may be able to govern people in a righteous and holy manner, teaching them to be obedient to God and being obedient to God ourselves. This is the Kingdom of God that is coming and we enter it through much tribulation.

To be continued.