Snoring Christians
Judges 16:14 So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web]. And she fastened it with the pin and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin of the loom and the web.
This was no ordinary sleep! Delilah took the seven locks of his hair and wove them into the web and fastened it with the pin, all the while our ‘hero Samson’ was snoring away to glory on Delilah’s lap! How could anyone sleep like this? And watch this, she didn’t ask, ‘hey, let me know where your strength is’, but she specifically asked him, ’tell me where your power lies and how you may be bound to afflict you." Very clearly she speaks about subduing and afflicting him and still this guy clings on to her lap, why, why?? Samson was too overconfident about His power and he was intoxicated with her as well . Did you hear me? Why would some men leave their lovely wives, children and run behind another woman and at times, they divorce and marry the other woman and live with her for several years. How could one be so callous, heartless and devoid of feelings? Intoxication.
WHILE YOU ARE ASLEEP: The devil knows your weakness and that’s why the plan to destroy his strength is done during the night, while putting him to sleep. Jesus told a wonderful parable in the book of Mathew about this subject of ‘sleep’: Mathew 13:24-Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. Mathew 13: 25But while everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and slipped away.” What are the tares? The tares are the wicked people of the world who are mentioned in Ephesians 2: 3” they live in the lusts of flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
Did you see that, when it was sowed it was good seed but during the course of time, while the farmer or the in-charge of the field slept, the enemy sowed tares among the wheat. Caution! You know what, you don’t need any nurturing for the weed, the scripture says, that the enemy sowed tares among the wheat, and slipped away’, he didn’t stay back to water it, they grew wildly on their own; however, the good seed needs watering , pruning and caring, if not it would wither away. I loved one particular boy Mathew so much in my Abide School, that one day I just carried him when he was in class 6 but slowly as he grew, within months when new students joined he started changing and became ruthless, bold and arrogant. After completing class 7, he left our school, but later I was told, he stole money from his own house and was warned by the police. Very sad.
Hey friend, your church is a support system that teaches you the Bible, you got to do the homework of reading it yourself and obeying every commandment in order to succeed.
Even in the midst of such chaos, sickness, heaps of corpses, Corona virus haunting the world, ICU ward, despite of it all, our lovely Christians are sleeping. They refuse to wake up for Night prayer, Morning prayer….nothing seem to bother them. If not now, then when? Why this spiritual lethargy and carelessness? Where are the tears over the perishing? Where is the groaning? Where is the fasting and hard prayer for our loves ones who are lost, people we work with and for people who have never heard the Gospel??
I once traveled 14 hours in the train to go to another city to pray for a particular family who were in severe problems. We had prayed a lot, specially we prayed for the husband of that sister to be at home when I visited their home, so that I could pray for him. Since they were idol worshippers, I had to prepare a lot for this visit; well, when I visited their home everyone were there and finally the time came for prayer. Let me tell you what I heard, the man was there in his room in the first floor and when we called him for prayer, all we heard was his snoring sound that reached us in the ground floor, the enemy succeeded in putting him to sleep. The family refused to wake him, saying he would get angry if he is disturbed. I came back very disappointed.
Eutychus :We see another incident in Acts 20:9, when a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead.”
Apostle Paul was preaching a farewell sermon and he continued his speech until midnight; but this young man fell into deep sleep and fell down dead. What we learn here is that we got to be careful while hearing the Word of God and not blame satan for our carelessness, listen to me the Bible says that “ There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together.” (verse 8) It was not a small gathering but lot of people and lot of lamps were burning there also, but except this young man, none of the others seem to have fallen asleep. Let us prepare ourselves before hand, if we are planning to attend a night prayer or early morning prayer and be alert to the subtle devices of the devil. There are wonderful servants of God who preach their best sermons midnight and the ones who are alert, passionate and desperate receive the anointing. Say Amen. I attended a seminar of Berachah Ministries by Prophet Ezekiah Francis and one just cannot be a careless listener in his session, he would call out people and request them to be attentive. This is a must! The humble ones with a teachable spirit get blessed; however, our leaders do not want to offend the church, people and thereby are churches are sleeping. VERY SAD.
Church wake up! We have slept enough and allowed the enemy to plunder our cities, homes and children! We need lights in churches to burn in the wee hours of dawn for prayer, MID NIGHT PRAYER, Afternoon prayer and all kinds of prayer, let us stay awake and destroy the works of the enemy.
