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More Than Conquerors - Dave Smith

We Must Wake Up

August 2017

“And that, knowing the time, and now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” —Romans 13:11

“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” —I Thessalonians 5:4-6

A person who is physically asleep dreams, does not respond to activities, has limited mobility and interactions, cannot see, loses time and opportunities, and has decreasing kidney function. There are spiritual parallels to each of these.

Dreams are fantasies created in a person’s mind. To a small degree, they are like hallucinations—hearing, seeing, and feeling things that are not real. This is similar to those who are asleep spiritually because they allow themselves to be influenced by things that are not real. Thus, it becomes difficult to distinguish between good and evil, light and darkness, and bitter and sweet (Isa. 5:20).

A person who is spiritually asleep is insensitive to the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. This increases when he is exposed to and rejects God’s truth. He becomes calloused, hardened, and blinded to the things of God, which means it will be harder and harder to submit to God and easier and easier to submit to the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

Just as a person who is asleep physically is very limited in what he does, someone who is spiritually asleep is not influenced very much by the Spirit of God to do His will. It is like a person who is lame or paralyzed and has little control over where he goes and what he does. He can be easily “carried about with (by) every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness” to be deceived (Eph. 4:14).

A person who is asleep is focused on himself so he has little interaction with others. Similarly, someone who is spiritually asleep is self-centered, so he is not concerned about the interests of others, and is not esteeming others more than himself (Phil. 2:3-4), much less the things of God.

A person who is asleep has his eyes closed like a person who is blind, so he cannot see. The same is true of those who are spiritually asleep, which hinders everything they do.

Like a person who is physically asleep, one who is spiritually asleep loses time and opportunities. That is why God tells us to redeem the time (Eph. 5:16; Col. 4:5), or to take full advantage of opportunities that are available. The Israelites wasted 38 years wandering in the wilderness when they should have been in the Promised Land.

When a person is asleep, the functioning of the kidneys decreases. That means that there is less filtering of liquid wastes out of the body. Something like this happens when someone is sleeping spiritually. The ability to have victory over sin decreases.

One of the responsibilities I had when our daughters were younger was to make sure they were awake and getting ready for school. One daughter was a very sound sleeper and was difficult to wake up. I would tell her loudly to wake up. I would sing to her, pull her covers off so she would get cold, sprinkle water on her, and even put some ice on her because it was very important for her to wake up on time. How much more important is it for the church to wake up so we are not deceived, we can serve God, and we can be ready for the rapture? Time is running out, and we cannot afford to not take advantage of the opportunities that are available.

Could it be that God is trying to wake up His church so the saints are aware of what is going on around them, and so they will know how close they are to the rapture, and can focus on His priority of souls in these last days?

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