Category: Awaken From Spiritual Slumber

¹⁵ Elisha responded, “Get a bow and arrows.” So he got a bow and arrows. ¹⁶ Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Grasp the bow.” So the king grasped it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. ¹⁷ Elisha said, “Open the east window.” So he opened it. Elisha said, “Shoot!” So he shot. Then Elisha said, “The Lord’s arrow of victory, yes, the arrow of victory over Aram. You are to strike down the Arameans in Aphek until you have put an end to them.” ¹⁸ Then Elisha said, “Take the arrows!” So he took them. Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground!” So he struck the ground three times and stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times. Then you would have struck down Aram until you had put an end to them, but now you will strike down Aram only three times.” ~ 2 Kings 13:15-19 CSB

Elisha told the king to do two very specific actions: shoot an arrow and then strike the ground with arrows. After the first command, Elisha explained the meaning of the action, but the king missed the importance of the second action.

See, Elisha told the king that the first action was a sign of his victory over Aram, but the king didn’t take into consideration that the second action would be tied to his victory. Therefore, he only struck the ground three times.

The king’s spirit man was asleep. It wasn’t in tune with the Spirit of God, so he missed his opportunity to completely defeat his enemy. Today, we are given the same kind of commands. We are urged by the Holy Spirit to act, but it’s not until we’ve obeyed or it’s too late that we find out the reason for the command.

The only way we can be sure to never miss the opportunity of the LORD is to awaken your spirit man and grow him until he is in tune with the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who guides, leads, and protects.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be In Tune.

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³⁰ And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. ³¹ And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. ³² He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. ³³ And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. ~ 1 Kings 16:30-33

Not only did Ahab walk in all of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, but “…he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.” What was so bad about that?

Jezebel was a worshipper of Baal and a woman of great wickedness who killed the prophets and urged her husband to do more to provoke the anger of the LORD than all the other kings that were before him, according to verse 33.

Ethbaal, Jezebel’s father, was king of the Sidonians, whose land belonged to Israel, according to the Promise. He, too, worshipped Baal. So, instead of being an enemy to God’s enemy, Ahab joined them, uniting with them in marriage. He took a sacred covenant God Himself established and perverted it by marrying not only himself to evil but the entire nation of Israel.

King Ahab didn’t see the evil, nor did he understand the weight of his actions. His entire household perished in the end because he refused to be an enemy to God’s enemy. That doesn’t mean that he needed to hate them, but that he needed to make a stand against them. That he needed to refuse an alliance with them and, even more so, to refuse to welcome and endorse their evil customs.

Today, many of us are marrying the enemy. We’re not just supporting evil, but we are promoting it. And just as Ahab used the sacred covenant of marriage to turn from God, we are perverting the sacred love of God to turn away from God. We are called by God to love people, but not their sin. We don’t accept nor do we endorse sin. We don’t give it a sign of approval and then say, “Well, God loves everybody.” This is called perverting the love of God.

Peter told us to be sober-minded and watchful because the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. We can’t allow the world to lull us to sleep with lies of unity because, in reality, the Devil doesn’t truly want unity; he wants division between us and God. Therefore, wake up from your spiritual slumber and pay attention to the Word of the LORD. Don’t allow the world to convince you that it’s wrong to follow Jesus and believe every word that comes from the LORD.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Divorce The World.

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³³ And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar, and the men of Israel who were in ambush rushed out of their place from Maareh-geba. ³⁴ And there came against Gibeah 10,000 chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was hard, but the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was close upon them. ³⁵ And the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and the people of Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day. All these were men who drew the sword. ³⁶ So the people of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. ~ Judges 20:33-36

Do you recall the Gibeonites? Well, they were the people who came deceitfully and lied so that they could make a peace treaty with Joshua and the elders of Israel. And they tricked them into signing the peace treaty because they did not consult the LORD. Because of the peace treaty, they could not totally destroy them as the LORD God had instructed them to do. So, the Gibeonites lived among the Israelites as slaves, but I am sure they passed on or transferred their way of worshiping their gods to the Benjaminites, who took possession of that portion of land, which included sexual immorality.

The Israelites were fighting against the men of Benjamin because an Israelite traveler had stopped in at Gibeah with his concubine and his servant to spend the night. Some worthless men of the town came to the house to have sex with the man and his man-servant. The man sent his concubine out to them, and they raped her and mistreated her all night long, and in the morning, she was found dead with her hand grasping the threshold of the door.

The man took his concubine and cut her up into twelve pieces and sent each piece to the different tribes. The decision was made that the Benjaminites must pay for their crime against the man and his concubine. So, they went to war against Benjamin. The Scriptures tell us that the battle was hard on this day, and all though the Benjaminites were fighting undauntedly, disaster was looming near and they did not know it.

There are two lessons to be learned in this story. When you become one with people that are not of God, you become like them. Birds of a feather flock together. It is also like the other proverb: bad company corrupts good character. And that is what happened to the Benjaminites; they did not know or did not realize disaster was about to strike them. That happens when your conscience becomes seared. Your conscience becomes seared when you keep ignoring the warnings of the Holy Spirit. And when you keep ignoring the warnings, you make God your enemy instead and not your ally. When that happens, God will fight against you in order to get your attention and bring you back into right standings with Him.

Therefore, do not become one with wayward people. We are in the world but not of the world. Then, do not harden your heart against the warnings of the Holy Spirit.

Dear Heavenly Father, please help me to be obedient to Your warnings so that I can always be in right standings with You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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²⁸ Jehu eliminated Baal worship from Israel, ²⁹ but he did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit — worshiping the gold calves that were in Bethel and Dan. ³⁰ Nevertheless, the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in my heart, four generations of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel.” ³¹ Yet Jehu was not careful to follow the instruction of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins that Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit. ³² In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout their territory ³³ from the Jordan eastward: the whole land of Gilead — the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the Manassites — from Aroer which is by the Arnon Valley through Gilead to Bashan. ~ 2 Kings 10:28-33^CSB

Jehu was told to remove the house of Ahab from Israel because of their wickedness, which he successfully did, and he was expected to follow the instructions of God with all his heart, but he failed to do so. Because of Jehu’s obedience, four generations of his sons would be on the throne, but because of his lack of dedication to the LORD, Israel began to decrease in number. Jehu, when directly told exactly what to do, followed instruction, but when it came to him seeking and trying to follow God for himself, he fell short.

God isn’t always going to hold your hand and tell you exactly what to do. He’s going to show you the first few times and then He expects you to be paying attention, learning, and preparing to do it on your own through Him. Here’s what I mean. God expects us to be able to listen to the gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit after He has led us into green pastures and showed us righteousness. God expects us to grow, not continue as a small baby. God wants us to mature in Him so that we might have discernment, wisdom, and understanding so that one day, we might be able to lead others to Him the way someone led us to Him.

Where Jehu dropped the ball and led the people of Israel astray and decreased their numbers, we are to hold on tightly to the ball (the Word of God) and spread the Gospel, tear down strongholds, grow in the Spirit, and harvest many souls for the Kingdom of God. When we drop the ball in this area, our physical lives may not be harmed in any way. Jehu’s descended were kings, but his people decreased in number. Our physical lives may not be harmed, but our spiritual lives and those around us begin to decrease when we refuse to learn right from wrong and fail test after test. When we refuse to remove the strongholds in our lives and our family’s lives.

We’re in a spiritual war and if we’re not careful, we’ll fall asleep without even realizing it because we have no spiritual discernment. Our physical lives are going good, we’re prospering, our children are prospering, so we think God is with us, when actuality we turned away from God long ago and didn’t even know His Holy Spirit left us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Prepare To Do It Alone.

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³⁰ As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ ³¹ And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. ³² And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it. ~ Ezekiel 33:30-32

Imagine this: suppose this ‘son of man’ is the Church, and ‘your people’ are its members, ‘the walls’ are the church buildings, and ‘the doors’ are communication devices, such as cellphones, computers, and social media. Then, this would be a direct rebuke to a lukewarm church, such as we have today. The brethren invite each other to church on Sundays, saying, “Come to church this Sunday; Pastor is starting a really interesting sermon series. Come on out and listen; it’ll be fun.” Or, “We have a visiting evangelist who is just on fire. Come on out and hear his message; it’ll blow you away.”

But God says, “They come. They sit. They even take part in the praise and worship. They even chip in when the offering plate is passed around. They amen the good points and even jump to their feet and clap their hands enthusiastically in response to the exciting points the fiery preacher makes. They hear the preacher say that they must make a change in their lives. That they must seek holiness and pursue righteousness, but they will not do it.” They believe that part was for their neighbor. They needed to hear that, but not them. They, themselves, are doing good, real good. No change is needed here.

God says that the reason there is no change is that they are full of lustful thoughts that are expressed in lustful talk because, after all, ‘God wants me happy.’ He is ever interested in my happiness. He loves me too much to correct me. I can love whomever I want to love. I can be with whomever I wish to be with because God is for me. He came that I might have happiness and happiness more abundantly.

The pastor says, “Love the LORD your God, with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” But they hear lustful songs with beautiful voices and well-playing instruments singing, “Do what thou wilt, there are no consequences. Do what thou wilt, with all of your strength, for I AM for you.” And they heap upon themselves all sorts of perverseness and all sorts of debauchery and say to themselves, “God loves me too much for anything bad to happen to me. Because a good and loving God will never send anyone to a fiery eternity in a lake of fire.”

But verse 33 says, “When this comes—and come it will!—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.” When what comes? Sudden destruction. Sudden judgment. An eternity in the Lake of Fire. When these things come, and come they will, then they will know. The problem, however, is when it does come, it will be too late, way too late. God said today is the day of repentance; tomorrow is promised to no man.

Dear friends, there are consequences for your actions, and the consequences will come. Make no mistake: the warning has been sounded; you need to listen and obey the voice of your God and seek His holiness.

Heavenly Father, please help me to hear and recognize Your voice, and to seek Your face, and to call upon Your name, that in the great and dreadful day of the LORD, You will find me doing what is pleasing to You, in Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. ~ Philippians 4:8-9

Look at Paul’s instructions to the Philippians. He said, What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things. There are four sources.

1. What you have learned
2. What you have received
3. What you have heard
4. And lastly, what you have seen in me

Far too often Christians will sit through a good sermon where God is speaking directly to them, and they will turn to their neighbor and say, “This one’s for you.” No it’s not, that one was for you. Or they will participate in a really good conference with all kinds of tips and helps and are energized at the conference but as soon as they leave, two days later, they’ve forgotten everything that they were so excited about. What we, as Christians, need to do, is to put into practice what we’ve learned, and what we’ve received, and what we’ve heard and what we’ve seen. Now, I’m not saying that we ought to blindly do all of those things, we must first match all of that up with Scripture.

Because Paul doesn’t leave it to our own interpretation, he says, if it is honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, having any excellence, and is praise worthy, think about these things, or in other words, put these things into practice. He gives us a guide to follow so that we will not be easily led astray with useless things. We must make a conscious effort to find these things, or notice these things and then put them into practice.

What I am saying is we need to put more of what we have learned, received, heard, and seen in Godly Saints, pastors, and teachers into practice. It is no use having all of the best tools but never using them, or only using them for a very short period of time and then go back to the old way. So, let us determine to put what we’ve learned, received, heard, and seen into practice if it lines up with Scripture.

Heavenly Father, help us to put into practice all that we’ve been taught, read in Scripture, and seen in other saints of God. Help us not to become stagnant, but moving forward in growth and maturity in the things of God. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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¹⁹ Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, ²⁰ even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness. ~ Ezekiel 14:19-20

No matter how good we think we are, we can’t deliver anyone but ourselves from the wrath of God by our actions. If, LORD forbid, we were to die tonight, it’s not based on our parents’, grandparents’, aunts’, uncles’, cousins’, or friends’ prayers for us that will save us. No one but ourselves can make the decision to follow Christ.

We like to try to preach people into Heaven after the fact, but those touching, heartfelt words mean nothing when we’ve lived a life of continual sin, never once clinging to the savior for help. We do this as a false sense of hope and relief for ourselves, but it further teaches others that it doesn’t matter how we live our lives; Christ still will accept us in the end.

The righteousness of Abraham didn’t help Ishmael be a part of the chosen people. Lot’s righteousness didn’t help his descendants be a part of the chosen people. Isaac’s righteousness didn’t help Esau be a part of the chosen people. Our actions are what we will be judged on. It’s our actions that will either save us from or condemn us to the Wrath to come. There’s nothing else that can save us but our own decision and action of accepting salvation and following Christ with all that is in us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Rely On Others.

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¹² For it is not an enemy who taunts me—then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—then I could hide from him. ¹³ But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. ¹⁴ We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng. ~ Psalms 55:12-14

In this passage, David has come to the sudden and heartbreaking realization that it’s not an enemy or some obscure adversary that has opposed him but his familiar friend who walked in the throng up to the house of God with him.

Today, that would equate to a fellow Christian. A fellow pastor. Someone you used to worship with in church. You attended Bible studies together, and as iron sharpens iron, so you all would encourage each other. Now, that person has turned their back on you. They are in a backslidden state and are causing confusion in the Church.

They propagate holy and pious-sounding mysticism like, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words when necessary.” I have no clue where that saying came from, but I’m hard pressed to believe it was Saint Francis of Assisi, whom it is often attributed to.

St. Francis was committed to a life of poverty as an itinerant preacher begging for his food while preaching, and apparently, a very powerful preacher at that. It’s said that he would sometimes preach in up to five villages in a single day. Often speaking from a bale of straw or a granary doorway in the country, and from a box or on the steps of some building when he preached in the town. Even more, it is said of him that he preached with such passion that his feet moved as if he were dancing.

Doesn’t sound to me like someone who said, “Don’t talk about the Gospel, only live it.”

No, that comes from the silencers. Those who want to hush up the Gospel. They will attribute things like that to heroes of the faith, and Christians will grab hold of it and propagate it, silencing the Church without even realizing what they are doing.

Thus, they become the silent watchers themselves. Because, after all, you cannot preach the Gospel without words.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Use Words.

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²⁴ He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵ but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.” ~ Matthew 13:24-25

Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. This didn’t just happen randomly. It wasn’t out of nowhere. It was while his men were sleeping. And that is where the Church finds itself today … just waking up from a long nap and finding weeds have been sown among the wheat.

Because the enemy came and sowed weeds in our wheat field while we were asleep. While we were busy dividing ourselves by race and political parties. While we were busy following the media and celebrities instead of reading the Word of God. Now, we find ourselves surrounded by weeds and unable to differentiate between Truth and lies.

Jesus told us that we will know true believers by the fruit that they bear, but how can we do that if we’ve been asleep so long that we don’t know what fruit is. We’ve allowed words to define themselves, most famously:

Love is love.

What does that even mean? How can you define a word by repeating a word? While we were sleeping they’ve been able to remove the definition of the most important fruit that we can bear. Love is the only mandatory fruit that we must bear, yet we lost the ability to define what it is.

We’ve lost so much while we were sleeping. It’s time for a wake-up call. It’s time for the sheep to separate from the goats. It’s time for the sheep to sound the alarm when wolves in sheep’s clothing are near. It’s time for the Church to wake up and return to Christ.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Notice The Weeds.

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