AWAKE

Eph. 5:14 “That is why God says in the Scriptures, “Awake O sleeper, and rise up from the dead; and Christ shall give you light”. (TLB). To “awake” means to rise, to get up, or to stir up. God has deposited so much in you that you need to stir up. When God is depositing things in you, He is not thinking about you but others.

To awake means to arise at a time like this.  This is the message of the moment. When everything seem to be sleeping, when darkness seem to have pervaded and covered the whole world, this is the best time to arise. You will see the same command in Isa. 52:1 “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion …”. This is the clarion call of God to His people. If you read through Isa. 52, you will see God’s command to break away from Babylon. What does Babylon represent? It represents the system of the world, a world that is already judged. It is a system that is about to collapse.

The church is becoming worldly; you cannot have the world and have the Word. You cannot be one with the world and be able to change the world. God wants His children to awake.  The system of the world is designed to make you slumber, a system that make people chase money to old age. Unfortunately, whatever you chase will always be ahead of you. You don’t really need to much to live a peaceful, joyful and purposeful life. However, the devil keeps selling dummy to people to chase money to the grave and eat the bread of anxious labour! Eventually, the devil afflicts them with incurable sicknesses and when they eventually die, they will discover that they have lived for nothing because there is no relationship with God. May this not be our portion in Jesus Name. (Amen). This is why you need to arise.

Until you arise, you cannot shine, until you wake up, you will not align. You don’t have the glory, it is God’s glory, all you need to do is to position yourself so that the glory of God will shine through you and you will become a reflection of His glory. The moon does not have any light; all it does is to position itself along the axis of the sun. That is how a true child of God is supposed to be a reflection of His glorious light.

Babylon is a place of bondage; the world will put you in bondage. Money cannot give you joy, money can give you a fine house but not a home, money can give you a fine car but it cannot give you peace. Why? Because peace and joy are the fruits of the Spirit. Many Christians don’t understand the spirit of the world and that is why they celebrate it. The greatest problem of the Church today is compromise. That is why with very little worldly evangelism; Christians succumb easily. This is because we don’t have spiritual technocrats who understand who they are and what infuriates God. Anyone who fails to awake is already conquered. Until you arise, there is no shinning.

Five Reasons Why You Need to Arise

1. Only the living praise God – those who fail to awake are dead and gone. You can have physical activity but not the flow of the Holy Spirit. Wherever the Holy Spirit is not actively involved, there is no life. God wants your life to constantly flow in praise of His Name.
2. Only the awake can shine. Anyone who fails to arise cannot reflect the glory of God. The glory of God shines through only those who are alive and plugged in. Before there can be a flow, there must be a connection.
3. Those who are awake are those that will fulfil God’s purpose. It takes being awake to be able to fulfil the purpose of God. The reason why God did not take us away immediately we gave our lives to Christ is to be His ambassadors, to continue the work of Christ – to continue from where He stopped. Therefore, we are here to represent Christ.
4. When men slept, the enemy came to sow tares. Those who fail to awake are in serious trouble. If you fail to awake, the enemy will score goals against you. If the Lord open your eyes to the enormity of the spiritual battle ragging over your life, you will marvel. Most of the terminal diseases are as a result of goals scored by the enemy and Doctors are hopeless in treating spiritual matters. The first thing the enemy does before he strikes is to isolate an individual from fire, from the presence of God. In Matt. 13:30, Jesus gave the divine prescription for tares – fire. It takes being vigilant to keep the enemy away. When the enemy decides to fight, he fights dirty. The best thing is to be vigilant in order to keep him away.
5. Only those who are awake can bear fruit. God had called us not only to bear fruit but that our fruit should abide. God wants us to bear both spiritual and physical fruit. He wants our Christianity to be productive. He wants to bless you to the extent that your Christianity will be a blessing to your generation.

Vs 15-16 “So be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don’t be fools, be wise; made the most of every opportunity you have for doing good”. Make the most of every opportunity you have. Every opportunity is like a window that can be closed at any time. It is like planting a seed and if you don’t know the right time to plant, you will not have the right harvest. Make the most of every opportunity to evangelize, to pray, to touch somebody’s life, to represent Christ properly, to be a healing agent in a sick world and to deposit something into your account in heaven.

TO BE CONT.