Arise!

In Acts chapter nine there are some significant miracles that took place shortly after Jesus was raised and ascended to heaven. I saw a word that stood out to me in these three accounts. It is the word “arise.”  

Jesus appeared to Saul (later knows as the Apostle Paul) on the road to Damascus and Saul had a magnificent encounter that changed his life. When the Lord appeared to him, Saul fell to the ground and the Lord said “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Then the Lord spoke to Ananias, a disciple, and said “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him, so that he might receive his sight.” Acts 9:3-6, 10-12.

This event changed the world. Had it not been for the encounter Jesus had with Saul on the road to Damascus, our Bible would look very different today. He wrote the majority of the New Testament. Once he met Jesus, history was in the making. The end of this encounter is that Ananias laid hands on Saul to receive his sight and he was baptized in the Holy Spirit. A few days later Saul went out preaching in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. This revolutionized the early church.

The next miracle occurred when Peter was in Lydda and finds a paralyzed man named Aeneas who had been bed-ridden eight years. He said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.” The man got up immediately. Acts 9:32-34. He told the man to do something he hadn’t been able to do in eight years. Peter didn’t just pull this out of thin air. He had faith and a conviction in his heart about the healing power of the name of Jesus!

Immediately after that Peter went down to Joppa when he heard there was a disciple named Tabitha (translated Dorcas) who died. She was precious to her community and that is why they sent men to find Peter and implored him to come pray for her. Peter put everyone out of the room when he got there, and he prayed. Then he turned to her body and said “Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.” Acts 9:36-40.

The definition of arise is to ascend, mount up or move to a higher place; to emerge from below the horizon; to get out of bed; to leave the place or state of rest; to leave a sitting or lying posture; to begin; to spring up; to revive from death; to leave the grave; to move from a state of inaction; to appear; to become known; to be put in motion; to be excited or provoked; to emerge from poverty, depression or distress; to enter upon an office (Webster’s Dictionary 1828).  

The command Jesus gave, and Peter gave carried with it the ability to do it.

The idea is to get up or move from the position you were in, to a new one. Arise is an action word. When I read these accounts in Acts, it stirs me to ask these questions of myself, so I will pose them to you.

What do we need to get up and out of? What do we need to revive? What areas of our lives do we need to ascend to something higher? What areas of our lives do we need to move from a state of inaction to see progress and stop feeling bad about it day after day? What do we need to get excited about? What needs to be put in motion in our lives?

I hear it this way in my heart. Arise! Get up! Move away from the same mindset, fear, negative self-talk that has held you back! Spring up! Get motivated!

To arise means you must leave your current state. You must believe you CAN get up and move forward into something better, higher, than where you are now. Jesus didn’t leave people in the same condition. When He encountered them, He gave them the keys to have something better. Some took it and some didn’t, but He always gave them a better way.

Is He saying to you today “Arise”? Is He whispering in your ear about something that you need to ascend to and go higher in? When we approach life from a higher position, everything is easier. Pray as if you are already where you desire to be, with an internal position of victory. Go to work with the internal position of an expert (not pridefully), not with timidity. Parent your children with an internal position of victory, that you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t feel like you do. Look to the Lord to direct you in all the areas of your life, and then do your life from the position of a higher place, a victorious place.

Jesus told Saul to arise and go wait for further instruction. He told Ananias to arise and go set Saul free. Peter told Aeneas, Jesus heals you now arise and make your bed. This was his healing. He told Tabitha to arise, which resulted in her living again.

Consider how this word arise applies to areas of your life today.

If you already had the victory, would it change the way you pray?

If you already had the victory, would it change the way you talk?

If you already had the victory, would it change the way you think?

If you already had the victory, would it change the decisions you make?

ARISE! See yourself with the victory. Pray from a victorious position, because you are! Live from a victorious position. Look at your life, situations, relationships from a higher place. When you go up higher, things look smaller below. Don’t wallow in the “down below” stuff. Come up higher and see your problems from the 50,000-foot level. They look big when you are 10 feet away but very small when you are 50,000 feet away.