Category: Awaken From Spiritual Slumber

⁹ Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. ¹⁰ In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come. ¹¹ Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waist. ¹² Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, ¹³ for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers, yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city. ¹⁴ For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks; ¹⁵ until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. ~ Isaiah 32:9-15

The LORD warned the women of Judah that their complacency would bring disaster upon the people. In fact, the grape harvest would fail, and they would no longer be able to gather in the harvest. To us today, that doesn’t mean much. What does it mean for the grape harvest to fail and the gathers unable to harvest their crop? Why would that be the punishment for complacency? I don’t believe that LORD is speaking physically. The grape harvest still came in Israel and Judah. The gathers still harvested their crop in Israel and Judah. God was warning them that if they remained complacent in their sin and at ease about it, then the grapes would be no more.

The grapes are what we make wine from. Jesus compared wine to the Old and New Covenant. On the Day of Pentecost, some who heard them speaking in tongues mocked them, saying they were drunk on the New Wine. I believe that the LORD was saying that He would remove the Spirit of God from them, and they would no longer see or hear a Word from the LORD. I believe God, through Isaiah, was prophesying and warning about the 400 years of silence that was to come to Israel. For He ends it with, “until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,”

What day was the Spirit poured out on all of mankind? The Day of Pentecost. After the Day of Pentecost, there arose prophets, healings, signs and wonders, like never before. And even more so, it gave the chance of salvation for all of mankind. Never had there been a time in history when the Greek believer was equal to the Jewish believer. For in Christ, there is neither Greek nor Jew. God shows no partiality.

So what does this mean for us? If we are like the women Isaiah prophesied to and remain complacent in our sin and at ease unrepentant, then the LORD will remove the grapes from us. He will cause those grapes that we once had flourishing in the fields to fail each time. For God cannot dwell in a temple that willingly houses other gods. When we willingly live in sin, we are willingly bowing down to sin and making it our god. If we remain complacent, history will repeat itself in us, and not only will the Word of God be shut up from us, but the new wine that represents the new covenant and the blood of Christ that washes us clean and covers us will be removed from us as well. Complacency will bring domination upon us, for to be complacent is to be a friend of the world. And to be a friend of the world is to be at enmity with God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Live At Ease.

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¹² Then the disciples came and said to Him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” ¹³ He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. ¹⁴ Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” ~ Matthew 15:12–14

Jesus said there are blind guides leading the blind into a pit. What does that mean? There are teachers out there who don’t understand what they are teaching. In fact, they don’t understand that their teaching is inaccurate and erroneous. Jesus said that they, being blind, meaning they don’t fully understand the word of God or what they are teaching (although they think they do), will lead others who are like themselves into a pit.

It doesn’t sound like they will accidentally stumble into the Promise Land. It doesn’t sound like they will accidentally stumble into Heaven. No, they will fall into a pit. Why? Because every tree that our Father has not planted will be rooted up. Every tree that will not bear fruit will be uprooted. This is why we have to be careful with who we listen to. Listen is why we have to be like the Bereans and check what everyone says versus what the Word of God says. That’s why we have to ask questions until we have the Truth. Not our own truth or someone else’s truth, but the only Truth. God’s Truth. This is the only Truth that matters.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek The Truth.

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¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who followed Him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. ¹¹ I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, ¹² while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹³ And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. ~ Matthew 8:10-13

So, the centurion goes to see Jesus and explains to Him that his servant is ill and needs a healing. Jesus said, “Sure, I will come with you and heal him.” The centurion was like, “You don’t even need to come. Besides, I’m not worthy for You to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” That pretty much floored Jesus. He was stunned when He heard this.

In fact, Jesus states that no one in all of Israel had that kind of faith. This would mean that not even Jesus’ disciples had that kind of faith. The men that walked and talked with Jesus daily didn’t have that type of faith. Even though they witnessed miracle after miracle. Healing after healing. Sign after sign. Wonder after wonder, their faith couldn’t compare to that of a man who had only heard of the good things of Christ.

Many of us in the Church are baffled by this. We can’t understand how the men that walked and talked with God have less faith than a man who had never met Him. But what many of us fail to realize is that we are often the disciples, not the centurion. When we grow up in Church, it’s easy to take the Bible and all of its promises for granted. It’s easy for us to miss out on something deeper with Christ because He’s always been there. When we allow the things of God (going to church, reading your bible, praying, worship, etc.) to become just another routine, then the Word of God slowly becomes less and less important. We slowly become asleep, and our faith slowly dies the deeper into a spiritual sleep we get.

So, when we come to Jesus, we need more than just head knowledge. We need a good real down to earth belief in who He is and what He can do. We need to strive for an unshakeable faith.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ignite a Deeper Faith.

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¹³ For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. ¹⁵ So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. ~ 2 Corinthians 11:13-15

People often try to play around with the occult as if it’s nothing but fun and games. Even some Christians play around with tarot cards, ouija boards, horoscopes, and palm readings because they don’t believe that they’re anything more than just a bit of fun. But all of those things are of the occult. They aren’t games. They’re of the kingdom of darkness, and they have real power. They can truly entangle you in their chains, and the worst part is most don’t even know it.

The occult doesn’t always show up in dark gothic wear, holding a solid black skull enticing you to the dark side with blood, guts, and glory. No, instead, most of the time, the occult entices us dressed in regular clothing and holding a plate of cookies. And when we eat the cookies, we don’t even realize that the poison is slowly killing us. The worst part is that so many of us never wake up from that spiritual slumber, and that spiritual comma leads us to a spiritual death. How? Because the occult slowly convinces us that it’s not evil. That it’s light. That it’s good. That it can’t separate us from God because it isn’t bad at all. In fact, it may just even be a game.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Watch Out For The Trap.

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¹⁶ But as the Ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him. ²⁰ When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!” ²³ So Michal, the daughter of Saul, remained childless throughout her entire life. ~ 2 Samuel 6:16, 20, 23^NLT

David was dancing unashamedly before the Lord in worship, celebrating that the Lord’s presence would be dwelling in his place, in the city of David, yet Michal could not discern what David was doing and what was happening in the spiritual. She only saw through her eyes of jealousy and contempt that David was making a spectacle of himself before the servant girls; she was caught up with appearances before mankind.

It seems that, like her father Saul, the spirit of the Lord was not with her, and she had no discernment. She had never seen worship like that before and didn’t understand it, so she felt contempt for the man of God, and lack of spiritual discernment caused her to lose out on the blessing the Lord had for her that day. Instead of giving birth to something great, like a future king, she gave birth to nothing. We have to be careful what we say about the man of God or a move of the Holy Spirit; we need to pray for discernment so that we don’t miss out on our blessing.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t React Like Michal.

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² And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’” ~ Deuteronomy 31:2

When Moses reached a certain age, he was no longer able to go in and come out. Even though Moses was constantly in the presence of God, he still fell into a spiritual slumber, unable to go in and come out. Moses became too focused on the people and lost focus of the LORD and His will for him and his people. In doing so, he allowed the quarreling of the congregation to cause him to fail to uphold the LORD as holy when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it. He allowed the confusion and rebellion of the people of Israel to stop his faith.

Even though Moses believed God and had faith in Him, because he allowed the people to get to him and he disobeyed the LORD, the LORD saw this as a lack of faith as well as Moses taking away from God’s Holiness in the sight of the people.

Today, it’s easy for us to allow the world to anger us and get under our skin, causing us to lose faith in the sight of God. Even if we have faith in our own eyes, disobedience, especially because of frustration with the world, will cause us to fall into a spiritual sleep. This will leave us unable to enter and exit the presence of God as we once did before. So, stay focused on the LORD and His plan. Don’t allow the world to distract you and take away your promises.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Strike The Rock.

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¹⁴ So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the LORD. ¹⁵ And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them. ~ Joshua 9:14-15

Joshua had taken over as leader of the people of Israel, they had just entered the Promised Land, and they had just defeated Jericho and AI. The LORD was with Joshua wherever he went, and that’s where Joshua made his first mistake. Because Joshua knew the LORD was with him wherever he went, he became spiritually complacent and didn’t go to God with every matter. He began to lean on his own understanding and wisdom, and in doing so, he forgot to ask for the wisdom and understanding of God. This led to Joshua opening up the door to be deceived by the Gibeonites.

Today we fall into the same spiritual complacency that leads to spiritual slumber. When we know God is with us always, it’s easy for us to begin to lean on our own understanding and forget to seek God in all things. When we don’t lay everything before God, we miss the Gibeonite in our midst that’s deceiving us, and we make a spiritual pact with them. This gives the enemy the right to dwell in our lives, and if we’re not careful, we may never realize it.

While it’s easy to rely on our own understanding and wisdom to be able to discern what we hear and see, we have to make sure we always seek God’s counsel because the deceiver is always out there masquerading as light. Yes, God is with us everywhere we go, but He doesn’t cause every thought or feeling that comes to our hearts and minds. So, we can’t just put our trust in what we see or in what we hear or feel. We have to always seek God for confirmation regardless of how small the situation may seem to us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek God’s Counsel.

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¹ While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. ² These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ³ So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. ⁴ And the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” ⁵ And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.” ~ Numbers 25:1-5

The people of Israel fell into temptation because of the Moabite women. They forgot the God whom they served because of the culture around them that caught their eye. This led to the death of everyone who fell into this temptation, and it’s no different today.

The culture around us is filled with exotic forbidden fruit that tempts us into spiritual death so that we don’t even notice that our culture no longer has a place for God. We fall into such a deep sleep after indulging in the forbidden fruit that we don’t even realize that our culture is filled with worshiping and sacrificing to other gods. In fact, we don’t even realize that we’ve joined in and bowed down to these false gods.

When we live in a physical world, it’s easy to forget that every physical action has a spiritual effect. What we do in our physical lives affects our spiritual lives, whether we think it’s a big deal or not. The only way to know if you’ve fallen prey to the gods of this world is to seek the God of the entire universe. Search through Scripture, ask God to wake up your sleeping spirit, and pray for discernment and guidance.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Unyoke From Baal of Peor.

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