«Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you, the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising» (Isaiah, 60:1-3).
Our ministry is to be the salt and light to our society. God has granted us this ministry, but not because we are better than others. God gave us this ministry because of His mercy. Now as the recipients of God’s mercy we do not have any right to condemn those that do not know God and live under the power of the prince of darkness. God is sending us – His children — into the world to spread the light and reconciliation. While doing this ministry, we should not lose heart; we should not allow anything to stop us. We must be courageous and go forward enduring sorrows as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
It says in the Bible: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path» (Psalm, 119:105). It is God’s Word that starts the light of God in our hearts and leads our steps on the right path: «You will light my lamp; the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness» (Psalm, 18:28).
You should not forget that you are God’s ambassadors on earth. When you face a problem or a difficult situation, think of what Jesus would have done if He were in a similar situation. This will help you. Christ is the One we represent on this earth. Think of what He would say, how He would solve the problem, how He would go through the situation you are facing today. If you think about like Christ thinks and you develop or grow in the nature of God, then you will become a strong and influential ambassador of God in your sphere of influence; you will ‘salty’ and you will be bright light in this world.
1) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mathew, 5:3). This talks about dependency on God. Our lives depend on God. And since we realize our dependency, we must continually come to God and spend time with Him. This is a foundational step in becoming the salt of the earth and the light of the world; we must live a life that is totally depended on God!
2) Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Mathew, 5:4). Sin, unrighteousness and injustice that surround us must motivate us to pray and mourn before God, to stand in the gap for our land. It must motivate us to repent of the sins and unrighteousness of our nation. When we look at the things around us with God’s eyes, then everything that grieves God will grieve us as well. This is where passion is born and a vision for change is conceived.
We continue talking about our role and function as God’s ambassadors on the earth. We’ve talked about the Bible calling us Christ’s ambassadors; God has sent us to encourage people to be reconciled with God. The Bible also calls us the salt of the earth and the light to the world. But if we as Christ’s ambassadors on earth do not actively practise our faith, then our society will deteriorate. Today, if we look at successful and prosperous countries, we can see the reason of their success and prosperity is because the people there embrace and practice Christian values. Only righteousness exalts a nation – Thai is a law, – God’s law. Only righteousness makes a nation prosperous! Injustice and sin destroy a nation.
After Jesus left the earth and ascended to heaven, He commissioned us to be His ambassadors or the sent ones (His representatives) on the earth. So we must understand and receive a profound revelation concerning the spiritual authority and power that we have in Christ. The Bible says that Christ made us kings and priests in order that we can reign on earth for Him. It is God, our heavenly Father desires that we all to be busy about His business. His business is to reconcile people with Him. God desires to do the work of reconciliation through us – «we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God». He wants us to declare the word of reconciliation. « God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation » (2 Corinthians, 5:19).
As we concluded earlier, it’s impossible to please God without understanding our role and purpose on the Earth. We also mentioned that God helps us to reach such understanding through His word. Metaphors used in the Bible help to reveal what God expects from us and how we can please Him.
There are many metaphors used in the Bible to reveal to us what are our essence and our task on the Earth. The word “messenger or “ambassador” is one of them. Paul uses this word in his letter to Corinthians:
«Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation. We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God». (2nd Corinthians 5:19-20).
Heaven is the place from which Jesus rules and reigns over everything. What God says about us in His Word is the truth which we must believe. Now we have God’s nature in us and it must be continually fed and nurtured. We must believe that now we have heavenly authority and power that was given to us in order to destroy the works of devil on earth. That is what Jesus did when He walked on the planet earth: He destroyed and undo the works and intentions of the devil. He set an example for us to follow in His foot steps:
«For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil» (1 John, 3:8b).
