Tag: Awaken From Spiritual Slumber

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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it on all sides of the altar. ¹³ They brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, along with the head, and he burned them on the altar. ¹⁴ He washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar. ~ Leviticus 9:12-14^CSB

When we think about forgiveness, oftentimes, we only think of the picture-perfect love of our Heavenly Father embracing us. Rarely do with think about the extremely painful price that had to be paid. There was never a time when forgiveness didn’t cost someone something. An innocent animal had to be slaughtered so Adam and Eve’s shame could be covered. Innocent animals had to be slaughtered in order to cover the sin of mankind after the flood. Innocent animals had to be slaughtered in order for Israel’s sin to be rolled over another year. Jesus, the innocent Lamb of God, had to be slaughtered on a tree in order to wash clean the souls of those who would accept forgiveness.

Forgiveness isn’t pretty. It isn’t sweet. It’s a cold and broken hallelujah. The moment we realize the true cost of our actions is when we begin to understand the price Jesus paid for us. The image of the altar of the Old Testament can be seen as a foreshadowing of the body of Christ. No longer does God come down on the Mercy Seat to meet us; He dwells in us. No longer do we sprinkle the blood of an innocent animal on the altar; God covers us in His perfect, blameless blood.

Love isn’t sweet and innocent. It’s painful and heartbreaking. Jesus had to take the sin of the entire world onto Himself and die in order to cancel the debt of sin. Then after He rose again, He had to cover us in His blood.

The cost of sin isn’t cheap. It’s the cost of a life. One day, we will all stand before the LORD, and on that day, He’s looking for His blood. Those who aren’t covered in His blood will have to pay their own debt. They’ll have to spend eternity in Hell away from the LORD. But to those who have been covered in the blood, they will dwell with Him forever and ever on the new earth that He will create for us and Himself.

Dear LORD, please help me not to be ungrateful for the price that You paid on the cross so that You could cancel my debt. Thank You that You gave Yourself for me so that I might escape my well-deserved fate. Thank You for Your love. Help me to realize the weight and severity of my own sin. Teach me to love You with all my heart, mind, and soul. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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⁴ When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness. ⁵ You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. ~ Deuteronomy 9:4-6^CSB

It’s very easy to justify sin when you’re seeing a harvest of plenty. Everything you do seems to be profitable. You have no lack, nor do you have fear. So, when you’re corrected, you justify your actions by the way you’ve been blessed. Blessings from God don’t always mean you have His favor and support for your life choices and decisions. How is that possible?

Jesus said that the Father pours out rain and sends the sun to shine on both the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). Blessings from God don’t always reflect our standing with Him, but sometimes they are the fulfillment of prayers, promises, and gifts from the generations before us. Sometimes the LORD blesses us and elevates us, not because of us, but because of the prayers and faithfulness of our ancestors and the promises the LORD gave to them. And if we’re not careful, these generational blessings will lull us into a spiritual slumber because of the false safety they fill our hearts with. It lies to us, having us believe the darkness in us is actually light. If the light in you is actually darkness, how great is that darkness?

Even though we receive blessings from the LORD, we can still be outside of His covering blood. We can still be outside of His love and on our way to an eternity without Him. This is the importance of continually asking the LORD to search you. To bring anything that is unclean to the forefront that you might remove it from you and from your life all together. We will never reach perfection on this earth, but we never stop seeking it because if we aim for perfection but miss it, we will land among excellence.

Dear LORD, thank You for all the times You blessed me, and I didn’t deserve it. Thank You that no matter what I do, You always want me to come home to You. There’s never a time You abandon me or discard me as unimportant or undesirable. Please search me, and show me anything within me that must go. Please remove from me anything that isn’t of You. Please give me a Spirit of Discernment that I might rightly discern good and evil. That I might have a heart for the things of God and not the things of the world. Please awaken my spirit man within me that I might overcome the flesh. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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²¹ Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ~ Matthew 7:21^CSB

Whenever you hear a celebrity is a “devout Christian” they use examples of going to church every Sunday, praying before each meal and before bed as reasons why they are so devout. Whenever I would hear this in the past, I felt annoyed. These aren’t even the minimum requirements of God, yet somehow the have the audacity to call themselves devout. Then it hit me, I’m no better than them.

When Christ asked Peter, James, and John to pray with Him and they all feel asleep, Jesus asked “could you not watch with me one hour?” Jesus did this twice. The third time, He left them sleeping. What a terrifying thought. The bare minimum Jesus asks for is one hour watching with Him, when the average Christian, including myself, struggles to pray for 10 minutes straight without your mind wandering off or getting distracted. What a sad state of the Church.

We can’t spend 10 minutes in prayer but wonder why God isn’t moving in our lives. We can’t spend 10 minutes reading our Bible but wonder why God isn’t showing us His glory. We’ve become a selfish Church. We want God to give us rewards for the least amount of effort.

Abraham stayed up all night protecting his sacrifice. Jacob wrestled with God all night. Daniel fasted for 21 days. Moses communed with God for 40 days. All of these men who received great blessings and were used greatly by God sacrificed their time for a chance to see the glory, blessings, and fulfilled promises of God.

Time is speeding up right before our eyes. There aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. So what are we to do? Prioritize the Kingdom and the rest so fall in place. We put our relationship with God above all else. We take a step closer to God every day. We strive to build the Temple of God, our spirit man, in order to give God more than the scraps off the table. We’ll never be able to give God all that He deserves,  but it’s time we stop giving Him offerings that cost us absolutely nothing.

God already died for us and gave us everything we need for salvation, it’s now up to us to draw near to Him. He opened the door and split the curtain; now it’s time for us to run to Him.

Dear LORD, I’m sorry for all the times I put the things of this world above You. I’m sorry for not making You my main priority in life and not making You the center of my life. Kindle the flame in me that I might never take You for granted or offer You a worthless offering. Soften my heart and renew a right spirit in me, that my soul might pant for You as the deer pants for the water. Help me to crucify my flesh and build up my spirit man within me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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¹⁴ And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. ~ 2 Corinthians 11:14^CSB

I’ve heard many say that the enemy’s greatest weapon is convincing people he doesn’t exist, but I have to disagree. I believe Satan’s biggest weapon is convincing people he isn’t evil but is good. In the Garden of Eden, Satan deceived Eve into thinking he was trying to help liberate her from the constraints around her mind that God had set. Today is no different.

Satan convinces people that what he did in the Garden was an act of love. That he tried to give knowledge to humanity instead of keeping them in the dark like God. People who don’t even believe he’s a real person follow his example and name their religions after him. Some even believe he and God are one.

The enemy doesn’t care if we believe he exists or not; he cares whether we believe his lies or not. This is why he is the Deceiver of The Whole World. He isn’t an angel of any kind. He’s a betrayer of mankind and an accuser of the Church. He isn’t for us but always against us.

Dear LORD, please help me to see the difference between good and evil. Help me to discern right from wrong. Fill me with the Spirit of Discernment that I might be able to see through the deception and lies of the enemy. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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¹⁴ So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. ~ Joshua 9:14

The people of Israel had just entered their Promised Land. The Gibeonites heard all about what Joshua and his army were doing to the other cities in the land, and they were afraid. So, they came deceptively and tricked the elders of Israel. They showed them worn-out clothes and shoes, stale bread, and worn-out wineskins and told them they had come from a very distant country.

The elders believed what they heard, confirmed by what they saw, and they made a peace treaty with them. They gave those men their word without input from God. Three days later, they heard that those same men had tricked them and that they were actually their neighbors.

Now that these elders had given them their word, they could not break it because they swore it before God.

The key, or the problem, rather, was that the elders did not consult God about the matter.

Christians today make the same mistake. They make alliances with people they should not make alliances with. They go to places they should not be at. They accept favors from their enemy without even knowing it. Because they make these decisions with their flesh. They sample the wares. They look with their own eyes and listen with their own ears, but they don’t consult the LORD their God.

Spiritual laziness and prayerlessness have become the downfall of today’s Church. The Christian thinks with their flesh, driven by their greed and desire. It is like Jesus said to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for you do not have the things of God in mind, but the things of man.

So, the next time you have a decision to make, consult God. Before you forge unauthorized relationships, consult God. Before you fall for the biggest lie of the century, consult God.

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¹² Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. ~ Philippians 2:12^NLT

I saw a short of a devout Muslim man whose wife had just given birth to their first child. He explained that he was so scared of evil eye and, therefore, losing the child that he didn’t tell anyone, even his mom, that his wife was pregnant. This made me feel so sad. This man is a devout Muslim who prays daily, goes to the mosque, fasts, knows his Quran, but there’s nothing to protect him from evil eye with all that he does. Think about it.

We Christians are promised to be covered by the Blood of the Lamb, a hedge of protection built around us, angels of God concerning us, the prayers of Jesus Himself for us, and the authority of the name of Jesus to cast down and tear down all manner of evil spoken against us, yet we don’t even pray once a day for 10 minutes. This man isn’t even promised eternal life by his god, yet he’s devout to his god. Whereas Christians are promised eternal life and more, but we don’t give God the time of day.

We as Christians get so caught up in the love of God that we forget that there is likewise a wrath of God, which then makes us complacent. This complacency renders its users useless in the art of winning souls and disciplining the nations. True, God is love. True, it’s His love that saves us and keeps us, but never forget that that same love can turn to wrath if trampled upon. Therefore, serve the LORD in the beauty of holiness and work out your salvation with much fear and trembling.

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me. Please help me never to forget my purpose or to become complacent. Give me the strength and the boldness to be a witness for You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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⁴⁵ A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. ~ Luke 6:45^CSB

I remember being in university, and a friend of mine told me that they were starting to subconsciously take the LORD’s name in vain when something happened, and they didn’t like it. I don’t remember what my response was or what happened after that, but I remember her saying that. See, at the time, we weren’t living our best Christian lives. We were listening to secular music and filling ourselves with darkness for a period of time. During that time, her subconscious had become darker than light.

See, it wasn’t that we were only filled with darkness that was the problem, but it was that the darkness began to spill over because it had grown more than the Light. As humans, our soul is a vessel that will either have good or evil. It will either be a light or a shade. The state of the Church is much like my friend was while we were acting like heathens.

The Church has a form of love for God, but we don’t fill ourselves with Him; we fill ourselves with the world. And if we seek out God, it’s only on Sunday mornings. Monday through Saturday, God doesn’t hear a peep from us; Sunday morning comes around. We show Him a few moments of our time, and then we’re back to being with the Devil until next Sunday.

Our thoughts are a reflection of our hearts. If it’s filled with foul language, anger, lust, etc., it’s because those are the things we’ve been feeding our hearts. If we want to change our thoughts, we need to change our hearts. How? Repenting of everything we’ve done that we weren’t to do and then replace it with Godly action. We do this by spending time in prayer, worship, and Bible reading daily. We fill ourselves with the good things of God and not the evil things of the world.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Fill Up On The Good.

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