Tag: Awaken From Spiritual Slumber

Romans 11:29 NKJV

²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “Use it, or lose it.” But when it comes to God’s gifts and calling, that saying does not apply. What God has given you cannot be lost or revoked. Paul encourages his young protégé, Timothy, to “stir up the gift of God which is in you.” (2 Timothy 1:6).

We need to do the same thing—we must stir up the gifts given to us. Just as natural talents and skills are sharpened through training, practice, and repetition, spiritual gifts are activated the same way—by putting our faith into action.

We will never see the sick healed if we never pray for the sick. We will never exercise authority over demons if we never act in faith in the Name of Jesus when those situations arise.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Stir To More.

Revelation 3:1-3

[1]  “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of Him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. [2] Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. [3] Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.’”

Jesus gives seven different instructions to the seven different Churches. To the Church in Sardis, He tells them that He knows their works then hits them with “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” See, Jesus saw through what they were declaring and presenting. Jesus doesn’t look at the outer, He looks at the heart. He sees what we do in public and what we do in secret.

In today’s world, we have so many people who don’t just claim Christianity, but are known and recognized as devout Christians, but you can’t watch any of the movies they’re in or music they make because of the language and religious exclamatories. If they make clean music, they go on tour with and make music with those who do those things, some even openly talking about consuming the blood of their partner for rituals, They are known for Christianity, but bear no front, They have the reputation of being alive, but they are dead. It’s not enough for the world to see you as a Christian. You have to bear fruit. You have to make a stand for righteousness.

Jesus ends His letter with a call to repentance. A warning that if they don’t wake up, He will come against them like a thief in the night. In other words, the LORD has given them a chance to repent. An opportunity to return to Him before He comes against them. When we claim to be alive, but are dead, we lie. We make ourselves an enemy of God, an enemy of Christ. Therefore, don’t waste your opportunity. Today is the day of salvation, tomorrow is promised to no one.

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

Revelation 2:1-7

[1]  To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. [2]  I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. [3] I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. [4] But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. [5] Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. [6] Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. [7] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

There’s a fisherman I often watch videos of who explained that lobsters are biologically immortal. Once they get a certain size, they don’t have anymore predators. The only thing that can kill them is shedding. Once they reach a certain age, they no longer have any energy to shed. So, they’ll get stuck in their shell and they’ll end up starving to death. It made me think of Christians.

When we’ve been in church our entire lives, we often take it for granted. We don’t necessarily give into sin. We do our best to keep the commands of God, but we end up spiritually dying anyway. Why? We lose the love we had at first. Our love runs cold. Our love for God.

The passion we once had to search the Scriptures, learn new things, and grow in the Spirit slowly dies as time goes on. We become so complacent in our faith that we die to Christ, instead of living to Him. We’ve become that lobster. We’ve run out of energy to just keep going because we’ve stopped feeding our spirit. We stopped feeding our relationship with Christ.

Fasting, praying, worshipping, praising, reading and studying our bibles just come to a stop. And often times, it’s gradually, so we don’t even realize it’s happening. We become numb to it. Then we just lie down and starve to death. Our relationship with Christ just dwindles and He let’s us go.

It’s something that happens often in the Church, and the only way to avoid this fate, is to build up your spiritman. That is your source of life. Your relationship with Christ. The Father. The Spirit. It all depends on you reading and studying your Bible, praying, worshipping, fasting, and praising. It’s all about your quiet time. How you spend time with God matters.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Prepare To Shed.

Proverbs 17:12,

¹² Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.

King Solomon, the wisest fully human who ever lived, wrote that it was better to meet a she-bear whose cubs had been taken than a fool in his folly. Why? I believe there could be multiple reasons. Solomon often wrote about the anger of the fool and how unhinged it was, so that could be a reason. But I think it might be more so that the fool in his folly is deceptive, as he also wrote.

See, when you don’t know the Truth or why you believe it, you can easily be less astray. You can easily be deceived. You can easily become Eve in the Garden of Eden. Ignorance is probably the biggest killer of souls in the Church today. We have the most and the easiest access to the Bible than any other generation before us, yet we read it the least. Our Bibles on our phones, tablets, computers, etc. even read to us, yet for some reason we still refuse to read it.

This makes us a perfect victim for the fool in his folly. The she-bear might take our life, but the fool in his folly might just take our soul. I know people who, though they were raised in a Christian household, have easily been led astray by foolishness that makes no sense. Why? Because they never read their Bibles. They still refuse to read it in its entirety. Instead, they chose to listen to the fool who cherry picks and half quotes Scripture.

Now, in they have become a fool in their folly. Consumed. Drenched in deception that can only be removed by the Holy Spirit. That can only be removed by the reading of the ENTIRE Scripture, and not just picking and choosing random verses out context.

The Scripture builds a shield around you, lest you be deceived. Lest you be spiritually killed by the fool in his folly. Therefore, read and study to show yourself approved. To show yourself righteous. To be safe from the deception that has destroyed so many in the Church.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Choose The She-Bear.

Jeremiah 8:20 ^ESV

²⁰ “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

Look around at the condition of the Church— or the so-called Church: We have mega-church pastors championing a godless agenda, pushing racism, and defending the right to slaughter helpless unborn babies in their mothers’ wombs. We have “bishops” boldly stating that they “are of the opinion that we need a third Testament, because the Bible has become problematic.” The Church is in a mess and it’s as if we don’t even realize it.

We don’t recognize the times that we are in and when we do, we do nothing to prepare ourselves or others. The Church, we as a whole, has been lulled to sleep. It’s as if the alarm has gone off and we keep hitting snooze. The alarm may quiet for us in those few moments before sounding again (until it eventually stops all together) but the times continue. No matter how many times we hit snooze, time keeps propelling us forward at a high rate of speed.

The LORD said that the fields were white on to harvest. In other words, the fields are so ready to be harvested that it is at the point where the crop could go bad and be lost. Jeremiah and his people missed the harvest. They went into captivity because of their sin. Their transgression. Their slumber. The Church is no different.

A time is coming when there will be tribulation on the earth like never before. Man’s wrath on the Church let loose without restraint. All because we fall asleep in times of safety and prosperity. It’s in these times that we have to awaken and prepare. We have to get ourselves ready. We have to make sure our family is ready. We have to wake up and pay attention to the times. Because the end is right around the corner.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Hit Snooze.

¹⁶ Who will rise up for Me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for Me against evildoers? (Psalm 94:16).

This is a very pertinent question: God is asking, “Who will?” God has given us dominion over the earth. We have been commissioned to rule and to reign, to subdue, and to correct and to bring into submission to our God all inhabitants of the earth. Teaching what is right and correcting what is wrong by the Word of our God. We are the hands and the feet of Jesus, often referred to as His body. Now He is asking, “Who will rise up for Me against the Wicked?”

But instead of rising up, the Church has submitted its authority. We’ve compromised with the enemy and have gone to sleep on our watch. We no longer sound the alarm when the enemy is approaching. We no longer tell of the goodness of God. But why is that? Are we too busy trying to be like the world that we no longer are trying to save the world?

Church leaders are guilty of the same sins the world is guilty of, and some have taken it even further. God instructed His people, His Church, to come out from among them and touch no unclean thing. But the Church has stained her garments with the juices from the fruit of evil. Once in the book of Isaiah, God looked around for one man to stand in the gap to intercede for the nation so that He might not destroy it, but He found no one either willing or able. So, in Isaiah 6, He asks again, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?”

God is always looking for someone to rise up, someone to stand up, and someone to go and tell. Is that someone you? Will you rise up? Will you stand up when no one else will? When all are satisfied slumbering, will you get up and seek the face of God on behalf of someone, maybe a close relation, or a good friend? Maybe for your country and your government leaders. Do you complain about what’s happening in the world and especially in your country, or are you seeking the LORD, are you standing in the gap for your country and calling upon His Name that He might not destroy or bring His wrath? Will you say, here am I, use me?

Father, here am I, if You can use anything, use me. I will go where You send me, and I will say what You tell me; only be close to me and help me hear and understand Your voice and instructions, in Jesus’ Name, amen.