One of the places that man suffers his major defeat is in the bed. The sudden trouble of a lot of people started on their beds. One wonderful thing that God can do for you in life is to give you power over the battle of the bed. When you win that battle you will start moving the way God wants you to move. You will not become a prayer warrior if you are still in the bondage of the bed. You will not be useful to the Almighty if the bed is still your cell. You will not become anything powerful to the Almighty if you spend too long a time on your bed.
I read the story of a man who died at the age of 75. He spent almost 25 years sleeping and about six months praying, out of 75 years. It is clear that the fellow had gone to hell fire. He spent one-third of his life sleeping. If you are still caged by the bed then you cannot make any headway spiritually. The major spiritual battles that many people won in their lives were won after midnight.
Matthew 13:25: “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares, among the wheat, and went his way.”
The enemy does not come to entertain. Sometimes, we start firing at the enemy when he had already planted his evil seed and is gone. We start firing when the destruction has already been done.
Sometime ago, a friend of mine boarded a vehicle to Lagos from somewhere in the eastern part of the country. He sat beside the driver and as they were going he noticed that the driver was dozing. He told him to park the vehicle and sleep for a while before continuing on the journey, to avoid an accident. But the driver abused him and told him that he was not sleeping. He slept off again and before they knew it, they had ended up in a pit. The accident occurred because the driver was sleeping but did not admit he was doing so, like many people would do. Some people allow the spirit of slumber to operate their spiritual life. Today, they are awake and tomorrow they are asleep. Witches and powers of darkness look at many of us in amazement because they don’t sleep. They don’t need coffee to remain awake. I know of a fellow, a child of the devil, who decided to hold night vigils against a person for one month. For the one month, from midnight to 3.00 am, he was cursing the man. The person being cursed was busy sleeping until he started seeing himself walking into a coffin.
Please, at this juncture I would like you to pray like this: “You the powers of the night, my life is not your candidate, in the name of Jesus.”
If you are the kind of person who sleeps so heavily that you cannot wake up at the first tap, you need deliverance, because it means you are going deep down and to the level that anything could happen to your spirit man. If your spirit man can sleep that far, there is a problem.
Romans 13:11 “And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”
Paul said they were sleeping and had to wake up. If physical sleep is very bad what about spiritual sleep?
Sleep is a period of rest during which the sleeper loses the awareness of his surroundings. So, the danger in sleep is the loss of awareness. The elder brother of sleep is what medical people call “coma.” Some people are in spiritual coma. Messages and prayer do not worth anything to them. They may be at church service but would not hear what the preacher is saying because they are already dead spiritually even though they are alive physically.
When a person falls asleep, all his physical activity decreases, his muscles relax and he could have a nightmare. Occasionally a person sleepwalks. A person who is sleep-walking can rise up, go to the kitchen, drink something go back to the bed and continue to sleep. And if you say, “Who drank this thing?” He would say, “I never stood up, I did not go there.” This is not common in Africa though. I pray that it will not happen to you, in Jesus’ name.
Some people even discuss in their sleep. That is why a local proverb says that sleep is the friend of death. It is during sleep that the agents of Satan in our environment lay evil eggs in people’s lives and they try to make sure that their victims do not know what they have done, because if they know, they will shake off the evil eggs. That is why the Bible says that while men slept, his enemies came quietly, planted evil and went away. It is not all enemies that will attack you directly. In fact, most enemies will not attack you directly. They just come, lay their evil eggs and go away.
When you lose the battle of the bed, you lose all battles. Satan has destroyed so many good things because of sleep. When you are addicted to sleep physically it is bad, but it is even worse when it is transferred to the spirit man. Sleep gives the enemy a chance to sow tares. While men sleep, many human tragedies occur. For example, fire, hurricane and tornadoes sweeping homes and cities away sometimes before the victims wake up. So, sleep is a time of insecurities, you cannot protect yourself at that time. It is a time of inactivity and a time of delusion when you assume that all is right only for you to wake up to see a great change. So, we need to be aware of the dangers of spiritual slumber. Great changes may occur for the enemy would be at work.
Some people would say, “When I went to sleep last night, I was okay but by the time I woke up, I had become another person." Some people go to bed sound only to wake up mad. The powers of the night waited for them to sleep and planted things in their lives.
Please, take this prayer points: “Every seed of the power of the night, roast, in the name of Jesus.”
The Bible categorizes spiritual sleep into many classes. We will look at some of them. This will help you to know whether you are awake or not. The fact that somebody’s eyes are open does not mean that he is not sleeping spiritually.
1. The sleep of Jonah: Jonah 1:5-6 : “Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SLEEP OF JONAH
It was an unrealistic sleep, a sleep of illusion. The storm was raging, men were in danger but Jonah did not realize it at all. Likewise many people today think that they can put a cover over their head and all the bad things they are seeing around them would go away simply because they are sleeping. No, they will not go away. The sailor confronted Jonah, “What meanest thou, O sleeper arise, call upon thy God. Can’t you see what is happening around?” There are many people like Jonah, a lot of things are happening around them, yet they are sleeping. Many, today are roaming about sleeping unrealistically. Their sin is raging like the hurricane and is as dark as the night and the danger is great but they want to believe that everything is going to be all right. That is why Paul warns: “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and the light of Christ shall shine upon thee.
Unfortunately, many will die under this delusion because their eyes are covered, they think that the world will just go on like that and that nothing will happen. They believe that politicians will be politicians, military men will be military men, governors will be governors, etc. No, very soon, things will happen. If you are sleeping like Jonah, I pray that the Lord would deliver you, in Jesus’ name.
Some people have the call of God upon their lives and God has told them where to go but they have slept off like Jonah and have also decided to go another way. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh but he headed for Tarshish and slept off on the way. Eventually, he went from his bed of sleep into the mouth of a fish and was there for three days. He did three days dry fast in the belly of the fish because of unrealistic sleep. He was running away from God and consoled himself by sleeping.
2. The sleep of the apostle and the sleep of the disciple: What is the nature of the sleep of the disciples? It is the sleep of weariness. Mark 14:37 says, “And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour?” He first called him Peter and later called him Simon. There is a difference between the two names. Peter means rock while Simon means reed. Anytime Peter began to do a slow motion in the Bible, Jesus would not call him Peter, He would say Simon. And when he was doing well, He would call him Peter.
When Peter left Jesus and began to fish after the resurrection, Jesus said, “Simon son of Jonah lovest thou me…” Here He called him Simon which means a reed, somebody who shakes here and there. “Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour?” That is, could you not do one-hour night vigil? There are many people like that. The only night vigil they do effectively with minimal sleep may be the ones organised by the church. Such people are deceiving themselves. When you cannot sit down and do a personal vigil for at least one hour, you are sleeping the sleep of the disciple. Jesus asked His disciples to pray for danger was coming. The betrayal was to come that night and soldiers were coming. Perhaps if Peter had prayed that one hour prayer, he would not have denied the Lord. When danger came, they stood up and were wide awake but that could not help the situation. I pray that you will not wake up when it is too late.
I read the story of a man who died at the age of 75. He spent almost 25 years sleeping and about six months praying, out of 75 years. It is clear that the fellow had gone to hell fire. He spent one-third of his life sleeping. If you are still caged by the bed then you cannot make any headway spiritually. The major spiritual battles that many people won in their lives were won after midnight.
Matthew 13:25: “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares, among the wheat, and went his way.”
The enemy does not come to entertain. Sometimes, we start firing at the enemy when he had already planted his evil seed and is gone. We start firing when the destruction has already been done.
Sometime ago, a friend of mine boarded a vehicle to Lagos from somewhere in the eastern part of the country. He sat beside the driver and as they were going he noticed that the driver was dozing. He told him to park the vehicle and sleep for a while before continuing on the journey, to avoid an accident. But the driver abused him and told him that he was not sleeping. He slept off again and before they knew it, they had ended up in a pit. The accident occurred because the driver was sleeping but did not admit he was doing so, like many people would do. Some people allow the spirit of slumber to operate their spiritual life. Today, they are awake and tomorrow they are asleep. Witches and powers of darkness look at many of us in amazement because they don’t sleep. They don’t need coffee to remain awake. I know of a fellow, a child of the devil, who decided to hold night vigils against a person for one month. For the one month, from midnight to 3.00 am, he was cursing the man. The person being cursed was busy sleeping until he started seeing himself walking into a coffin.
Please, at this juncture I would like you to pray like this: “You the powers of the night, my life is not your candidate, in the name of Jesus.”
If you are the kind of person who sleeps so heavily that you cannot wake up at the first tap, you need deliverance, because it means you are going deep down and to the level that anything could happen to your spirit man. If your spirit man can sleep that far, there is a problem.
Romans 13:11 “And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”
Paul said they were sleeping and had to wake up. If physical sleep is very bad what about spiritual sleep?
Sleep is a period of rest during which the sleeper loses the awareness of his surroundings. So, the danger in sleep is the loss of awareness. The elder brother of sleep is what medical people call “coma.” Some people are in spiritual coma. Messages and prayer do not worth anything to them. They may be at church service but would not hear what the preacher is saying because they are already dead spiritually even though they are alive physically.
When a person falls asleep, all his physical activity decreases, his muscles relax and he could have a nightmare. Occasionally a person sleepwalks. A person who is sleep-walking can rise up, go to the kitchen, drink something go back to the bed and continue to sleep. And if you say, “Who drank this thing?” He would say, “I never stood up, I did not go there.” This is not common in Africa though. I pray that it will not happen to you, in Jesus’ name.
Some people even discuss in their sleep. That is why a local proverb says that sleep is the friend of death. It is during sleep that the agents of Satan in our environment lay evil eggs in people’s lives and they try to make sure that their victims do not know what they have done, because if they know, they will shake off the evil eggs. That is why the Bible says that while men slept, his enemies came quietly, planted evil and went away. It is not all enemies that will attack you directly. In fact, most enemies will not attack you directly. They just come, lay their evil eggs and go away.
When you lose the battle of the bed, you lose all battles. Satan has destroyed so many good things because of sleep. When you are addicted to sleep physically it is bad, but it is even worse when it is transferred to the spirit man. Sleep gives the enemy a chance to sow tares. While men sleep, many human tragedies occur. For example, fire, hurricane and tornadoes sweeping homes and cities away sometimes before the victims wake up. So, sleep is a time of insecurities, you cannot protect yourself at that time. It is a time of inactivity and a time of delusion when you assume that all is right only for you to wake up to see a great change. So, we need to be aware of the dangers of spiritual slumber. Great changes may occur for the enemy would be at work.
Some people would say, “When I went to sleep last night, I was okay but by the time I woke up, I had become another person." Some people go to bed sound only to wake up mad. The powers of the night waited for them to sleep and planted things in their lives.
Please, take this prayer points: “Every seed of the power of the night, roast, in the name of Jesus.”
The Bible categorizes spiritual sleep into many classes. We will look at some of them. This will help you to know whether you are awake or not. The fact that somebody’s eyes are open does not mean that he is not sleeping spiritually.
1. The sleep of Jonah: Jonah 1:5-6 : “Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SLEEP OF JONAH
It was an unrealistic sleep, a sleep of illusion. The storm was raging, men were in danger but Jonah did not realize it at all. Likewise many people today think that they can put a cover over their head and all the bad things they are seeing around them would go away simply because they are sleeping. No, they will not go away. The sailor confronted Jonah, “What meanest thou, O sleeper arise, call upon thy God. Can’t you see what is happening around?” There are many people like Jonah, a lot of things are happening around them, yet they are sleeping. Many, today are roaming about sleeping unrealistically. Their sin is raging like the hurricane and is as dark as the night and the danger is great but they want to believe that everything is going to be all right. That is why Paul warns: “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and the light of Christ shall shine upon thee.
Unfortunately, many will die under this delusion because their eyes are covered, they think that the world will just go on like that and that nothing will happen. They believe that politicians will be politicians, military men will be military men, governors will be governors, etc. No, very soon, things will happen. If you are sleeping like Jonah, I pray that the Lord would deliver you, in Jesus’ name.
Some people have the call of God upon their lives and God has told them where to go but they have slept off like Jonah and have also decided to go another way. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh but he headed for Tarshish and slept off on the way. Eventually, he went from his bed of sleep into the mouth of a fish and was there for three days. He did three days dry fast in the belly of the fish because of unrealistic sleep. He was running away from God and consoled himself by sleeping.
2. The sleep of the apostle and the sleep of the disciple: What is the nature of the sleep of the disciples? It is the sleep of weariness. Mark 14:37 says, “And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour?” He first called him Peter and later called him Simon. There is a difference between the two names. Peter means rock while Simon means reed. Anytime Peter began to do a slow motion in the Bible, Jesus would not call him Peter, He would say Simon. And when he was doing well, He would call him Peter.
When Peter left Jesus and began to fish after the resurrection, Jesus said, “Simon son of Jonah lovest thou me…” Here He called him Simon which means a reed, somebody who shakes here and there. “Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour?” That is, could you not do one-hour night vigil? There are many people like that. The only night vigil they do effectively with minimal sleep may be the ones organised by the church. Such people are deceiving themselves. When you cannot sit down and do a personal vigil for at least one hour, you are sleeping the sleep of the disciple. Jesus asked His disciples to pray for danger was coming. The betrayal was to come that night and soldiers were coming. Perhaps if Peter had prayed that one hour prayer, he would not have denied the Lord. When danger came, they stood up and were wide awake but that could not help the situation. I pray that you will not wake up when it is too late.
