Five Ways we can Cooperate with the Lord to be Enlightened and have God’s Shining

Enlightening rests with the mercy of God, and only when He has mercy on us, we can receive His light; on our side, however, we can cooperate with the Lord’s shining so that we may be enlightened by wanting and accepting the shining, opening to the Lord, stopping ourselves not disputing with the light, and living in the light continuously.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us today and shine on us. We want Your shining. Shine on us and shine within us. Oh Lord, we open our whole being to You. We do not want to argue or dispute with the light. Shine on us, shine within us, and shine through us. May we live in the light continuously today! Amen, Lord, make us Your shining testimony!

In order for us to be the Lord’s testimony on earth today, His shining golden lampstand, we need to have His shining. How can we have God’s shining? Do we want the Lord’s shining? Do we cooperate with His shining? Do we really want light from the Lord?

The God we worship and enjoy is light; when we touch God, we touch light.

We need to realise that enlightening rests with God’s mercy; when God comes in and bestows His mercy, the light of His countenance is our light, His appearing is our vision, and His presence is our gain (Rom. 9:15; Acts 9:3-4; Isa. 50:10-11; Num. 6:25-26).

We believers in Christ depend on God’s shining. We depend on His light. We love His appearing. We want to have His presence. We want to live in His presence and have His smile in us and with us all the time.

However, enlightening is up to God; light comes from Him, and He has mercy on whomever He has mercy. In other words, there may be some on whom He would not have mercy.

Whenever God’s mercy is mentioned, His sovereignty is always paired with it; this means that we don’t have a say in this. We cannot control or deter God’s mercy; we can ask for it, but it is entirely of God’s mercy.

When the Lord’s light comes to a believer, it is His mercy coming to him. We need to realise this and seek the Lord’s mercy.

When we receive God’s mercy, we get His shining. Saul was a fierce persecutor of the church, even a chief sinner, seeking to imprison and even murder those who believed into Jesus.

But then God appeared to Him and the Lord as light shone on Him. When light comes, the most fierce opposer is transformed into the top apostle. We need the Lord’s light. We need to pray for the Lord’s mercy.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. Shine on us. We trust in You and not in ourselves. We rely on You, we look wholeheartedly to You, and we wait quietly on You. Grant us Your mercy. May You bestow Your mercy on us so that the light of Your countenance becomes our light! Amen, Lord, appear to us so that we may see You. We want to touch You so that we may see light, for in Your light we see light. Do not hide Your face from us. Oh Lord, we need Your mercy! Shine on us, dear Lord, in Your mercy!

To be Enlightened, we must Want and Accept the Lord’s Shining, Setting our Heart to be Single in Seeking the Lord Alone

How can we cooperate with the Lord so that we may be enlightened?

First of all, in order for us to be enlightened, we must want and accept the Lord’s shining, setting our heart to be single in seeking the Lord alone with all our desire (Psa. 139:23-24; Phil. 2:12-16; 2 Chron. 12:14; 16:12; 34:1-3; Psa. 27:8; 73:25; Luke 11:33-36).

To have God’s shining, we need to want the shining. Light does not depend on our asking or seeking but upon our receiving and accepting; therefore, we need to first accept and receive in order for us to be enlightened.

Light is always there, for the Lord as light is within us; we need to desire it.

May we not try to manufacture our own light, shining our light on ourselves; this is artificial light, man-made light, and those who surround themselves with firebrands and walk into the light of the fire they lit, they will lie down in torment.

The divine light is not about our own enlightening, our own shining on ourselves, our self-analysis, and our getting to understand ourselves and do better; no, we need God’s appearing!

We must want and accept the Lord’s shining. Yes, the Lord does shine on us “out of nowhere” when He appears to us, but for us to be enlightened, we need to want and desire His shining.

May we set our heart to seek the Lord alone. May the Lord grant us to have a seeking heart, even a single heart in seeking the Lord.

Lord Jesus, we want to have Your shining. Shine on us. Enlighten us. Oh Lord, we do not want to make our own light or be introspective. Grant us to have Your appearing today. Thank You for being the light in our spirit; we are willing to accept and receive Your shining! We set our heart to seek You alone. We want to be single in seeking You so that we may be focused only on You and receive light from You! Amen, Lord, shine on us!

To be Enlightened, we must Open to the Lord, Turn our Heart to Him, and Place Ourselves before Him with No Reservation

In order for us to be enlightened, we must open ourselves to the Lord, turn our heart to Him, and place ourselves without any reservation or holding back (2 Cor. 3:16; Prov. 20:27; Matt. 7:1-5; Luke 6:36-37, 41-42).

For us to receive the Lord’s light, we need to open ourselves to the Lord. The Lord is light; when our heart is turned to the Lord, we will have light. But if our heart is turned to other things, if our heart is not turned toward the Lord, we will not have light.

Whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, and we receive and see the Lord as light.

We may think we are open to the Lord, but we may not be open enough; we need to be open to Him a little more.

We may be stuck, stagnating in our growth; we need to open the deeper parts, the inward parts of ourselves – our spirit, our conscience, our mind, our emotion, and our will.

The Lord as the Spirit searches us, and the spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all the inward parts of our being. He looks into our inward parts and knows them; we don’t know what is within us, for we are often self-deceived.

We need the Lord’s shining. If we are turning our heart to the Lord, placing ourselves before Him, utterly at His mercy and with no reservation, we will receive the light.

May we open to the Lord a little more today. May we not close ourselves to Him. Those who close themselves to the Lord are experts in judging and criticising others. Oh Lord!

If you are in the light, you don’t criticise others, for you see yourself in the Lord’s light. But when you’re in darkness and see others walking in the light, it will be easy for you to criticise them.

May we open ourselves from deep within to the Lord, and release ourselves, putting ourselves before the Lord without any reservation or holding back.

May we allow Him to shine on us and within us, and may we open to Him to receive His shining!

Lord Jesus, we want to be enlightened, so we open ourselves to You! Amen, Lord, we turn our heart to You. We place ourselves before You without any reservation. We just open, Lord, and we don’t hold anything back. Grant us to open our being to You so that You may be able to shine on us. Incline our heart toward You. Cause our heart to turn to You. May any veils be taken away so that we may see You face to face! Amen, Lord, when we see Your face, we have Your shining! We open to You from deep within and we put ourselves before You without any reservation or holding back!

To be Enlightened, we must Stop Ourselves and be Single and Simple in Receiving the Lord’s Word

In order for us to be enlightened, we must put a stop to ourselves; this means that we need to put a stop to our views, our ways of looking at things, our feelings, our ideas and our opinions (see 10:38-42; John 11:21-28; Isa. 40:31; Matt. 5:3; Luke 18:15-17; Isa. 66:1-2).

Many times we are full of opinions, we have our own views, we think our own ways, we have our own feelings, and we are so full that the Lord’s shining cannot penetrate in our being.

We are like Martha, so busy doing this and that for the Lord, but not free to listen to the Lord’ word.

We may read the Bible, but we may have two other screens open at the same time. We may have a time with the Lord, but we also listen to music as we do this.

We need to stop our being. We need to stop our views, our feelings, our ideas, and our opinions. We need to open to the Lord and ask Him to help us stop ourselves.

When we are completely stopped, we can have the Lord’s shining, and we will be exceedingly simple and single in receiving the Lord’s word.

When we read the Bible, we will not read our own opinion and explanation; rather, we will receive the Lord’s burden and His shining.

When we hear a message and our inner being is stopped, we will receive the Lord’s revelation.

May our whole being from within to without wait quietly before the Lord, desiring His speaking, so that we may receive His word and grasp what He wants to speak to us.

When God gains our full attention, He can shine on us, for we are waiting on Him and we listen to Him.

He can then give us His light, for our inner being is open and available to Him. May we be before the Lord regarding this, asking Him,

Lord Jesus, help us to put a stop to ourselves so that we may receive Your light. Oh Lord, may we put a stop to our views, our ways of looking at things, our feelings, our ideas, and our opinions. May we be stopped and quiet before You so that we may be exceedingly single and simple in receiving the word of the Lord. We open to You, dear Lord! Shine on us. Enlighten us. We wait quietly before You. We desire Your speaking. We are here, sitting at Your feet, listening to Your word! Amen, Lord, shine on us!

To be Enlightened, we must Not Dispute with the Light

For us to be enlightened, we must not dispute with the light of the Spirit who speaks to us, and we should not dispute with the ministers of the Spirit who speak without (Acts 22:10; S. S. 5:4-6; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; 11:2-3; Num. 16:1-7, 31-39; 17:1-8; cf. Exo. 33:11-14). This is very important.

Many times we may not agree with the light, we may not like what the light exposes, and we may not want the light to remove things from us. When the light comes, we should not dispute with the light.

If we argue with the Lord, the Lord will no longer shine on us. If we argue with the Lord’s servants who speak to us from the Lord, they will refrain from speaking the Lord’s word to us.

But if we do not argue with the light but rather, welcome the light and allow the Lord to examine, search, expose, and purge things in our being, the Lord will continue to shine on us.

The light we receive from the Lord is not physical; it comes in the way of a certain spiritual consciousness, a certain kind of spiritual sense.

Within us we have the Lord, who is the Spirit with our spirit, and He wants to shine on us, even to shine like a floodlight on certain parts of our being, on certain attitudes we have, and on the condition of our being.

He wants to touch things and deal with things. May we not reject the light. May we not dispute or argue with the light. May we not excuse ourselves from that light.

May we have the same attitude Paul had, Lord, who are You? Lord, what shall I do?

It is serious to refute the Lord’s touch; at the very least, we can delay the Lord’s work in our life.

When the loving seeker in Song of Songs did not get out of her bed to open to her Beloved, she delayed; then, when she rose up to open the door, her Beloved was not there. She sought for Him, but she did not find him.

We all have the experience of rejecting the Lord sometimes; He touched us, He spoke to us, and He enlightened us, but we refused to cooperate and even rejected His light.

Then, we regretted it. We opened to Him. But He was not there. It seemed that He was gone. May we learn this before the Lord that, whenever He shines on us, we would not dispute with the light.

Lord Jesus, grant us Your mercy today that we would have Your shining. We say Amen to Your word. Shine on us, enlighten us, and expose us. We do not want to reject the light. Oh Lord, even though we don’t like or agree with Your shining, we simply say Amen! Oh Lord, save us from disputing with the light or rejecting the light. May we welcome Your light. May we accept the light, submit to the light, and deal with what Your light exposes in us. Amen, Lord, keep shining on us! Keep speaking to us. May Your living light scatter all our darkness!

To be Enlightened, we must Continuously Live in the Light

In order for us to be enlightened, we need to not only have the Lord’s light from time to time; we must continuously live in the light (Isa. 2:5; 1 John 1:7; Heb. 9:14; 10:22; Matt. 5:3, 8, 14; Psa. 119:105; Rev. 1:20; Psa. 36:8-9).

The Lord’s light should not be a rare occurrence; we need to live in the light and walk in the light. As we walk in the light, He shines on us, we confess our sins, and we have more light and more fellowship.

May we build up a life that is constantly in the light. May we learn to have true fellowship with the Lord constantly, throughout the day.

May we be poor in spirit and pure in heart, opening to Him from within concerning all things and in all things.

Lord Jesus, we want to be enlightened. Keep us in the light. We want to live continuously in the light. Amen, Lord, may we build up a life that is constantly under Your shining. We confess our sins, Lord, as You shine on us and expose our sins. We confess our shortcomings. We just open to You. We want to have a constant fellowship with the Lord throughout the day. Amen, Lord, keep us in fellowship with You today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1953, vol. 3, “The Knowledge of Life,” ch. 14, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (4) (2025 December Training), week 37 (msg. 1), The Faithful Witness of God for the Testimony of Jesus – day 4.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Remove my covering, Lord, / That I may see Thy light, / And be deceived no more, / But all things see aright. / Oh, may Thy living light, Lord, / Scatter all my night, Lord, / And everything make bright, Lord, / For this I pray to Thee. (Hymns #426 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Shining One—how clear the sky above me! / Son of Man, I see Thee on the throne! / Holy One, the flames of God consume me, / Till my being glows with Thee alone. / Lord, when first I saw Thee in Thy splendor, / All self-love and glory sank in shame; / Now my heart its love and praises render, / Tasting all the sweetness of Thy name. (Hymns #1159 stanza 2)
  – I would give myself, Lord, / Fully unto Thee, / That Thy heart’s desire / Be fulfilled in me. / I no more would struggle / To myself reform, / Thus in me to hinder / What Thou wouldst perform. / I would cease completely / From my efforts vain, / Let Thy life transform me, / Full release to gain; / Build me up with others / Till in us Thou see / Thy complete expression / Glorifying Thee. (Hymns #841 stanzas 5-6)