WAKE UP, STAY AWAKE, THIS IS NO TIME TO SLEEP
Most people sleep at night. Strange things happen at night. When asleep you hardly know what is happening around you. If you suddenly wake up in the dark, you may be afraid, stumble or stagger. Remember about the thief in the night. How prepared are you for the thief that comes to you at night?
Psalm 119:105 which reads, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Here we see and understand that the WORD of God is a LAMP unto your feet (activity) and a LIGHT unto your PATH (YOUR DIRECTION AND DESTINATION). Sleep involves the subconscious. We can be sleeping spiritually, but you think you are alright because you are conscious of your actions; but spiritually you may not be alright.
The term, spiritual sleep, means insensitivity to the working and leading of the Spirit of God in one’s life. Ephesians 5:14 says, “Wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light.” “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (v. 11). Darkness and Light are totally different. In the same way, Sleeping and being Awake are totally different from each other.
There is danger in the whole world today. This is not the danger of what you see but that of what you do not see. What is going on in the world is not just human, it is satanic. The man of sin, like the snake he is; is now creeping and curling, unnoticed by the world. The issue is that many people call on our Lord Jesus Christ but do not take heed to his word. Read John 14:23-24, “If any man loves me he will keep my word.”
The words of the Lord that should keep every true believer thinking are found in the following passages of the scripture. Luke 21:36 which reads, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Another scripture is in Matt.25:13 which reads, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” There are more scriptures, but we shall think more on these two.
As we can see, the above-mentioned scriptures are words of caution from the Lord about his sudden and secret coming back. He warned not to sleep, but to watch and pray, not sometimes, but always. He knows the future which no human knows. It is better to listen to the words of the Lord in this matter. John 6:45 says, “It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God [studying His word by the leading of the Spirit]. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father (Jesus Christ) cometh to me.”
The Father, God, (Jesus Christ), had by the prophets talked about the end of the age and the secret coming of the translation moment. But God himself in the form of man Jesus Christ taught by parables and prophesied about His coming (John 14:1-4). He said, to watch and pray always because He is going to come when men are asleep, distracted, not focused and have lost the urgency of his promise of coming for his bride (the translation), like we see today. The question now is, are you sleeping instead of watching and praying always, like we have heard and have been taught by the word of God?
People sleep mostly at night and the works of darkness are like the night. Spiritually, people sleep for many reasons. We are talking about spiritual sleep. The Lord has tarried like in Matt.25:5, “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.” You know many people are physically walking around but are spiritually sleeping, are you one of those?
Let me point you to the things that make people slumber and sleep spiritually. Many of them are found in Galatians 5:19-21 which reads, “Now the works flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Additionally, other works of the flesh are mentioned in Romans 1:28-32, Colossians 3:5-8 and all through the scriptures.
When there is a quarrel between individuals or a couple sometimes, many of us go to bed in anger. This anger may last for many days. Meanwhile, each person continues to read their bible privately, pray and praise God, but remain angry with the other person, without making peace and repenting. If this is a picture of you, surely you are spiritually sleeping and do not know it. The bible in Ephesians 4:26-27 reads, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let the sun not go down on your wrath: neither give place to the devil.”
Expectancy and urgency of the coming of the Lord if not taken seriously as evidenced by harboring the works of the flesh, will cause sleep and slumber. The Lord wants us to wake up, stay awake by living a life as written in Galatians 5:22-23 that reads, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.” This is the best way to keep awake. You must believe every word of God and of his prophets, maintain expectancy and urgency about the coming of the Lord, and watch for the signs of the end times as prophesied in the scriptures and by the messengers of the Lord. Also, you must identify the former and the latter rain prophets and their messages to the people of God.
Here we are seriously concerned about the most important and imminent expectation of our day–the Translation of the elect of Jesus Christ. It has to do with light and darkness or sleeping and staying awake. You are either in darkness or light and you are either sleeping or awake. The choice is always yours. Jesus Christ in Matt.26:41 said, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” It is easy to think you are awake because you do your daily activities, including attending all your religious involvements. But when you examine certain areas of your life by the lamp and light of God, you will find yourself wanting. If you harbor anger and bitterness for a person till the sun goes down and rises again, and you are still angry but function normally; something spiritually is wrong. If you remain on that path soon you will be sleeping spiritually and not realize it. The same goes for all the works of the flesh as in Galatians 5:19-21, that are found resident in your life. You are spiritually sleeping. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, tell them to wake up and stay awake for this is no time to sleep. Sleeping spiritually means to be immersed in the works of the flesh). Once again, read Romans 1:28-32, these are other works of the flesh that make a person to sleep. The works of the flesh represent darkness and its works.
Staying awake is the opposite of sleeping. There are many examples of the contrast to sleeping [being awake] as spoken by Jesus the Christ. First, let us examine Matt. 25:1-10 which partly reads, “while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept,” this is another example of sleeping and staying awake because of the standard of preparation of each group, the foolish virgins and the wise virgins. Also read Luke 12:36-37, “And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching, (awake).” Also read Mark 13:33-37.
Wake up, stay awake, this is not the time to sleep. Watch and pray always, for no man knoweth what time the Lord cometh. It may be in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening or at midnight. At midnight a cry was made go ye out to meet the bridegroom. This is no time to sleep, wake up and stay awake. For when the bridegroom arrived those that were ready went in with him and the door was shut.