Category: Awaken From Spiritual Slumber

“Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ~ Matthew 26:41

How many hours do we spend in prayer a day and how many hours do we spend a day doing things that weaken our spirit man? I’m not saying we need to spend every waking moment in prayer and do absolutely nothing else, but I do believe we (the church) should spend more time in prayer. Just as these disciples were asleep and not keeping watch, so is the church. The Church is in the mess we’re in today, not because of Trump. Not because of the different world leaders. Not because of the broken government system. Not because of the ACLU. Not because of the amount of sin in the world, it’s because of the Church.

The Church is the only thing in the Church’s way. We are the only thing in our way. How many churches fast as a church family once a year or more? How many churches are worshiping and praying for the anointing of the Holy Spirit? Jesus said we would do better things than even He did, so why don’t we see it?

Why don’t we even see what He did being done? Why aren’t we using those Spiritual gifts that are set right in front of us and all we have to do is open them? Why don’t we? Why don’t we take those gifts that have been given to us? Because we, the church, are asleep. And when one of us sleeps we can’t function right, how do we know this? Because we are called the body of Christ, if the body is built up of different members, then if one, just one member goes rogue the entire body is affected by this one member. We can’t properly and effectively work without being in perfect unison.

So, we (each and every part of the body) needs to stay awake, we need to be on watch, and we need to pray. We need to do as Jesus did and wake up those who are in spiritual slumber. We need to be on high alert because we have been asleep for so long that we have forgotten we are in a war zone. No matter where we go, no matter who we are, no matter our name, no matter our ethnicity, no matter the color of our skin, we are all in war because it is up to us to spread the news. It is up to us plant the seeds. It is up to us to preach the gospel. It is up to us to intercede for the sinner. But if we’re asleep how can we do this and defend every attack the enemy throws our way?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Awaken.

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“⁴ But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea so that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. ⁶ So the captain came and said to him, ‘What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.’” ~ Jonah 1:4-6 (ESV)

Jonah was not concerned about the stormy weather because he had fallen so far astray. He was unaware of his surroundings to the point that the storm above did not wake him. He felt so comfortable and so assured that he had outrun God that he caused himself to become spiritually asleep.

At some point in time, we have all experienced spiritual slumber, and the worst part is, just like Jonah, we don’t even realize it. God tells us to do something, and we decide to run instead. We decide to push Him away, slowly becoming more and more numb to Holy Spirit’s pull. You just keep getting farther and farther away from God that not even a storm will wake you up. Instead, it takes someone who is awake to wake you up.

Sometimes it takes someone’s forceful nudge to show you that you’re on a sinking ship in the middle of a storm and will drown unless you wake up. Unless you do something about it. Unless you repent. And if you don’t take heed to their warning, you will be awakened. But when you are awakened, it’ll be too late. Listen to your wakeup call and jump out of the sinking ship. Repent. Turn away from your sins. Get rid of that tv show or movie or song that is numbing your senses. That person that has come between you and God. That fantasy that blinds you from reality.

Peace. Love. Go forth and JUMP.

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“³¹Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, ³²but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” ~ Luke 22:31-32

Jesus knew Peter’s faith would not hold, but He told Peter “when you have turned again strengthen your brothers.” When you turn back, turn back stronger. When you turn back, turn back and help others who are weak. When you turn back, don’t allow that fall to consume you, don’t allow yourself to be full of shame. Instead, learn from it. Be strengthened by it. Become stronger than before. Failure is more than just missing the mark. Failure is learning how to get back up.

Don’t be afraid of failure because in our weakness that is when He is strong. You learn from your mistakes. You can grow from your mistakes if you allow God to strengthen you. Don’t be defeated. Don’t allow your mess up to keep you down but get back up for Jesus has prayed for you. God believes in you so much that He took the time to pray for you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Get Up.

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“‘⁴⁴Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. And let it be a witness between you and me.’ ⁴⁵So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. ⁴⁶And Jacob said to his kinsmen, ‘Gather stones.’ And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. ⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. ⁴⁸Laban said, ‘This heap is a witness between you and me today.’ Therefore, he named it Galeed, ⁴⁹and Mizpah, for he said, ‘The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight. ⁵⁰If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.’ ~ Genesis 31:44-50

I think that’s crazy that Laban would make a covenant with Jacob, who served a different God, but still make the covenant around Jacob’s God. I mean that just shows how powerful the name of God is. Even though people may not worship Him, deep down they know that He is the one true God. He is the great I AM. He is Yahweh. He is Jehovah. I think that that’s amazing (in a sad not so good way) how that’s true today.

God put it in all of us that He is God. He put in all of us His voice. He stamped His masterpiece with His name, just as Andy, in Toy Story, stamped the bottom of his toys with his name. The sad thing is, just as Woody’s name was painted over, many people paint over God’s name on their soul.

They try to deny their conviction until it’s almost completely gone so that they can go on living their lives the way they want. They can go on worshiping whatever gods they want. But the thing they forget, is even though they may try to paint over it and cover it, God’s name is still there. And when they stand on Judgment Day, they have nothing to say because God has marked them from before they were even formed in the womb. Don’t allow your false gods and idols to cover up the one true God.

Peace. Love. Go forth and Erase the Paint.

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“¹⁷And as they brought them out, one said, ‘Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.’ ²³The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. ²⁴Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. ²⁵And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. ²⁶But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” ~ Genesis 19:17, 23-26

I wonder how many people become spiritually frozen because they keep looking back at their past. I wonder how many more awakened church members there would be, or how many more awakened spiritual gifts there would be if we would just let go of the past that God is trying to destroy for our benefit. But it’s hard, our flesh wants us to open that door God has shut. Or go back down that same path that just took us years to get off of. Or to look back at the past and hold on to it, instead of letting God destroy it and wipe it clean as He has promised to do. Why do we allow our flesh to dictate our lives?

Is it because we don’t truly want to change? Is it because we actually love that part of us? I think it’s because we ask God for forgiveness, but we stop there. We ask Him to destroy the past, but we don’t work towards destroying the past within ourselves. In other words, we don’t fight against our flesh because it’s hard, it’s intimidating, it’s scary, it’s tiring. But we have to fight. Imagine if Lot’s wife had fought her flesh and let go of her past, what would be different? Her daughters probably wouldn’t have gotten their father drunk and slept with him creating all those enemies for the Israelites. I wonder what would happen if we didn’t look back and spiritually freeze; I wonder how many enemies we would have saved ourselves and our children from, how many obstacles we wouldn’t have had to go through.

So today I challenge you to not look back. I challenge you to let go of the past and give it to God. And when that thought comes into your mind to just take a peek, cast it down. When that desires stirs up to step back on that path, get on your knees and pray. When the temptation to turn back to your old habits comes your way, do as Jesus did, quote scripture, and then pray. But whatever you do, don’t stop fighting.

Peace. Love. Go Forth, and DON’T Look Back.

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“And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” ~ 1 John 2:17

Ever notice how it is never ‘whoever loves God will abide with Him forever’? It’s always whoever does the will of God. We always say we love God and we put God first, but we don’t follow all of His commandments. We make exceptions and excuses for those we love, we make exceptions and excuses for those we admire, and we make exceptions and excuses for ourselves.

We play the “God loves everyone” card. We play the “judge lest you be judged” card. We play the “I go to church” card. We play the “I love God” card. But what does that matter? What does any of that matter, if you aren’t obeying His commands? Jesus said in John 14:15 “if you love me you will keep my commands.” Do we do that? How can we truly love Jesus when we constantly cheat on Him with sin? If this is like a marriage, would you stand for your spouse, or spouse-to-be, constantly cheating on you with another person? What if every time they do it, they remind you that they love you? What if they say, “it’s no big deal because you’re an understanding and loving person”?

If you wouldn’t stand for it, why do you think God would? Because you have spiritually fallen asleep. Now your flesh has taken over, and sin wants to control you, so together they help your brain rationalize why the things that God calls sin isn’t actually sin. They paint a negative picture of God in your head. They make Him out to be the too strict parent that doesn’t want their child to have any fun or enjoy life. They paint Him as a buzz kill. Or they paint Him as an overlooking, non-spanking, God loves everyone, everything goes kind of parent. God loves us, that’s indisputable, and He wants us to love Him. But God wants us to love Him and show Him we love Him by staying faithful to His Son, Jesus.

That means giving up each and every sin that you have. That means giving up alcohol. That means giving up drugs. That means giving up cigarettes. That means giving up pre-marital sex. That means giving up each and every idol you worship. That means reading your bible every day. That means praying every day. That means worshiping every day. That means having quiet time every day. That means putting God first, above everything, even yourself. Don’t allow the things of this world to keep you from reuniting with Jesus Christ.

The things of this world will pass away. Even the Earth itself will pass away. Don’t allow the temporary temptations of a temporary world keep you from the everlasting love of Jesus Christ, His Father, and The Holy Spirit. Choose today whom you shall serve, for tomorrow, is promised to no man.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be FAITHFUL.

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“⁹ As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below. ¹⁰ Paul went down, bent over him, and took him into his arms. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘he’s alive!’” ~ Acts 20:9-10

While Paul was preaching, Eutychus, the young man, got drowsy and fell asleep. Eutychus was hearing the Word of God but wasn’t engaged. His mind was somewhere else, and he couldn’t keep his focus on the Word of God any longer, and he fell asleep. A lot of us are like Eutychus, we go to Church every Sunday, we read our Bible, but we’re not getting anything out of it. We aren’t growing, we aren’t on fire, we aren’t filled with that passion anymore, so we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we spiritually die, as Eutychus died. But here is the saving grace, even if you have fallen asleep and are spiritually dead, you can be resurrected. Paul simply took him in his arms and spoke, “he’s alive,” and the young man lived.

The key to knowing whether you are spiritually dead or not is by how your Spirit reacts to the Gospel. Your Spirit should be on fire for God, so it should be excited by the things of God since that is its food. Therefore, if you are bored during Church, you no longer feel that excitement you did when you first got saved, or reading your Bible feels more like a chore and you can’t focus, or maybe praying feels impossible because you just fall asleep during your prayers or your mind is always somewhere else, then you are Spiritually Asleep.

But don’t be discouraged, there is hope, you can be revived, all you have to do is rekindle the flame. How do you do that? Repent and return to God. Why? Because if you are spiritually asleep or spiritually dead, then you no longer have a relationship with God and something else has taken His place in your life, which is why you no longer have that fire you once did. Once you repent, your heart will begin to beat in you again, once again igniting the flame.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ignite The Flame.

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“¹³ For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight.” ~ Romans 2:13

Often times we get caught up in the motions and no longer follow God, we instead simply believe that He exists. Our love for Him slowly dwindles, and we are stuck in a routine. We go to church every Sunday, but we have no relationship with God. We listen to the message be preached, but we don’t take it passed that. But we justify not living a life pleasing to God, by saying we go to church or we read our Bibles.

But what good are those things without a relationship with God? It’s about knowing Him, not knowing of Him. We have to fight daily to do what is right. We have to make time for God. We have to fight to make the right choices day in and day out. Don’t allow yourself to fall into a spiritual slumber because you are spiritually lazy. Fight for your relationship with God as if nothing else matters, because nothing else matters.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Do More Than Listen.

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