Rise from your spiritual slumber

In 1 Kings Chapter 3, we see a case of two women fighting over who owns a living child. It happened that one of them had carelessly lain on her newborn and the child died.

Upon noticing her folly, she rose and exchanged her dead child for her neighbour’s living baby, while she was fast asleep.

This incident reveals that the leeway through which the devil and his cohorts have access into our treasure chest is our spiritual slumber. Spiritual slumber is the situation in which the believer is weak, weary and worn out.

At this instance, he is too lazy to pray, fast or engage in Bible study. He finds it boring to participate in church activities. Rather, his attractions are for the things of the flesh.

It never ceases to amaze me how a woman could be fast asleep that she did not know when her living baby was exchanged for a dead child. A lot of exchanges take place each time we permit ourselves to go into spiritual slumber.

My joy, however, is that this woman eventually got out of her slumber. When she got out from her slumber, she recognised that there was a satanic exchange. She refused to accept the dead child as hers. She pressed her case until judgment was given in her favour.

“Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” Ephesians 5:14.

Beware of slumbering spirit. Are you experiencing days of spiritual low percent in your church as a pastor? Perhaps you have gone to sleep and you need to awaken.

Slumbering spirit is the primary cause of powerlessness and sin we see in the Body of Christ today.

Do you live the way you like and this seems right to you? It means you are now living with dead conscience and you need to awaken.

Paul, in Romans 13, put the Roman brethren on alert mode because of the dangers of spiritual sleep. In fact, they were backsliding without being aware of it and they were drifting off to sleep.

He enjoined them to put aside the deeds of darkness and sinful desires of the flesh that causes spiritual slumber and put on the armour of light, which is righteousness. He instructed them not to live in drunkenness, sexual immorality, bickering and worldly pleasures, but to dress themselves in Christ.

We are exhorted by the Holy Writ to wake up from our spiritual slumber and get revived. The dangers of spiritual sleep cannot be over emphasised, as we saw in the case of the two disputants over a living child.

Spiritual sleep can cause us spiritual havocs and we need to awaken. We must awaken unto righteousness, holy living, witnessing for Christ, deeper life in Christ and devotion to kingdom purposes.

In my Christian walk with God, I discovered that we go to sleep, especially when our outward circumstances are pleasant. I must tell you that that is the most dangerous time and you need to be alert in the spirit.

Are you asleep, while men and women in the church are praying all around you? Was there a time when you didn’t miss a Prayer Meeting? Was there a time when you never neglected a time of personal devotions? The time has come for you to wake up from your slumber.

Today, God wants us to rise from our spiritual slumber; to reject every negative and dead situation the enemy has placed around us. God wants us to reclaim our inheritance by regaining our spiritual vibrancy.

It is important that you pause and do a spiritual check up. If you have gone into slumber, take practical steps and come back now.

You cannot afford to die in this spiritual condition. What is ahead of you is greater than what has happened in the past.

Today’s Nugget: Spiritual slumber leads to spiritual and physical losses.

Prayer: Lord, restore me to spiritual fervency in Jesus Name, Amen.

Prayer lines: 09078154261.

E-mail: evangelgospel@yahoo.com

Dr. Chidi Okoroafor, General Superintendent, Assemblies of God Nigeria.