I’ve been hearing from the Lord “Just stay awake. Don’t go back to sleep.” We, as a globe, have experienced a strange rest or pause this year.
Rest is not bad. In fact, the Sabbath was a commandment because we need both mental and physical breathers. “Even our sleeping state is not outside the active involvement of God, who neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Bakers Evangelical Dictionary of Bible Theology). This past season, much like natural rest, has been a time in which God gave us dreams and visions. There was an increased intimacy and a stillness that allowed us to draw into Him again and gain clarity.
There has been, however, PROFOUND movement beginning spiritually in the past month or two. Times have changed spiritually. The temptation now is to continue “as it has been”, go back to previous seasons, or live in a suspended paralysis of comfortable inactivity. To go back to sleep. God began to show me how sleep in the natural is a state in which we LACK MOVEMENT and are UNAWARE or DISCONNECTED from reality. God is using the dreams and visions gained from our time with Him this past season to now call us OUT of sleep paralysis and into the NEXT STEPS. He is bringing you an awareness of the spiritual reality around you and giving you inspiration to move forward. Expect for new ideas, new hobbies, new ways of doing things to GROW far beyond what you anticipate.
It is ALWAYS at PIVOTAL times (Gethsemane and the Day of the Lord, etc...) when Biblically we see the request made to NOT GO TO SLEEP. I believe that we are coming into something new and profound that you won’t want to miss!
“2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.” Revelation 3:2-3
As I read that passage, I felt the Lord stirring a joy. Your deeds are NOT YET DONE. God is strengthening you. God has more planned for you to do, and He’s about to release you into the next exciting chapter He has written for you. He’s asking you to recall what you’ve received and heard from Him. Don’t forget what He’s said! He is faithful. He is not done.
Of course with great calling comes great conflict, and there is certainly a resistance trying to get us to go back to sleep. God reminded me of when I was younger and would visit my grandmother. She would tell me (as a wiggly child) that the best way to fall asleep is to lie still and shut your eyes. Curious, I had tried it, and the next thing I knew I was waking up the next morning. I used to play a similar “game” with my son before bed where we would lie “still and quiet” as long as we could without falling asleep. Inevitably he would always fall asleep. Sometimes I would too accidentally! So how can we stay awake?
DON’T stay still. This has nothing to do with changing your physical location but everything to do with forward progress on what God has called you to do. Whatever you are feeling called to, take whatever steps (even microscopically small ones) towards it today!
DON’T stay quiet. Don’t stop speaking to the parts of the body (the global church) that He has put you in touch with. At a time where isolation is easy- REACH OUT.
DON’T close your eyes. Ask God to show you His perspective on your past, present, and future. Ask Him to illuminate His truth and His path ahead for you. Then look for the answers!
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:
“WAKE UP, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Ephesians 5:8-17
Whatever it looks like for you, make the most of each day. Press into the Lord and what His plans are for that moment, that day, and this season. As you press in, I think you’ll find you/we are on the cusp of something very, very good. The light is dawning on it. Don’t go back to sleep.