Awake Our Spirits

Judges 16:28 “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more…..” The Book of Judges tells us of Samson. Samson was a man with supernatural strength that came from his hair not being cut. Samson saw 1,000 Philistines fall at once, carried the gates of Gaza off and tied fox tales together……He was the original comic book character. However, He was a man that could be easily swayed and lured into temptation. In chapter 16 of Judges we see that Samson falls to the lowest as he falls for the lowest of women in Delilah. Delilah cuts his hair. He is arrested, and his eyes are gouged. Samson is no longer a comic book character but a comical character. This setting is where we hear this cry from Samson……Lord please strengthen me one more time. Samson yearned for the Spirit one more time in His life, and God brings. Samson grabs a hold of the pillars and pulls down the entire building on all the enemy and in His death does more damage than in his entirely life before. Oh God send your Presence one more time.

The Church has found itself without the Spirit, and we haven’t even noticed. We need to pray…..God send your presence and awaken our Spirits. As Samson died in his greatest accomplish we as New Testament Believers must die to ourselves to see God do His greatest work. When we die to ourselves spiritually and allow Christ to reign in our lives, the Spirit of God will come and do the work God intended for the Church to accomplish. We need to cry out for the Lord to send His Spirit to us one more time. We have slept for too long, and it is time for us to see Revival, an Awakening and an outpouring in our Lives. The Church need the Spirit of God to come and reveal Himself to us in 3 ways

• Fire
  • The Fire of the Spirit will purify us
  • The Fire will also urge us as Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 20 that His word was like a Fire shut up in His bones
• Wind
  • As Wind can
    • Form
    • Bring Transportation
    • Bring Power
    • Can be heard
  • The Spirit of God is seen as coming like a wind and in this form The Spirit can Form us spiritually, Move us, Empower us and can be heard by people around.
• Rain
  • Jesus said in John 7:38 that out of our belly living water will flow
  • Rain is seen as
    • Refreshing
    • Causes Growth
    • Flows
  • The Church needs to experience Rain of the Spirit
  • We need to be refreshed, experience growth and see the Spirit flowing in our services and our lives outside the Church.

My prayer is that we will experience the power of the Holy Spirit. We have been the valley of Dry bones for too long. We desire the Lord Almighty to blow on us, rain down on us and burn in us, so we can experience an Awakening in us like never before.

Awake

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

As I researched sleep there was some benefits from the rest. It is during the rest that the body gets into the anabolic state where the body grows and develops. However, when you look at being asleep spiritually there are no benefits at all scripturally. The Church has found itself asleep spiritually and being asleep has cause an anemic church to arise. When studying the effects of sleep there are three things that we can correlate  to being asleep spiritually. These three effects are ……

1. You lose control of your voluntary muscles (You lose control of spiritually muscles)
   1. No Prayer
   2. No Word
   3. No Righteousness
2. You find your self in an altered state
   1. The Church is to be identified as the church
   2. When the Church is asleep they alter their state and can not be identified as the Church
3. You lose connection with your surroundings
   1. The Sleeping church slips into the state of not being connected to the surrounding areas
   2. The Sleeping church only focuses on themselves and the connections they have to themselves

Spiritually when you look at the Sleeping Church you see these qualities shining through but when God awakens the Church we see a revival take place. When The Church that is asleep wakes up from its slumber it is like waking up a Sleeping Giant. The church should be slaying Giants, Dancing in the Fiery Furnace and Walking on water but we will never see this happen as long as we are asleep. God is wanting us to wake up and arise to be the Church that the Gates of Hell will not prevail against. When we wake up we will see three things happen……

1. The Church will Arise
   1. The Sleeping Giant will sleep no longer
   2. Giants will be played and Fires will be walked through
2. The World will Notice
   1. The church will once again have interaction with it’s surroundings
   2. The Mission of the church will once again be about spreading the gospel and not living in our prosperity
3. The Church will Be Amazed
   1. The Body of Christ will be Amazed about what God is doing
   2. We will see pews filled, Disciples developed and Miracles Happen

It is Time for the Church to Wake up and Be the Church God intended us to be. When the Church Wakes up the World will forever be shaken.  Let me echo the word of Paul in Ephesians and end by saying this …..”Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light.”