It's Time to Wake Up and Stay Awake. 3 Things We Should Be Doing Daily as Christians

In today's episode we will discuss what it means to wake up and stay awake, and I will be giving three things that we should all be doing in order to stay awake. I will be pairing this with prayer and scripture.

First, I want to say a quick prayer: "LORD, I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. Please open up our eyes to see the truth our your words. Open up our ears, our hearts and our minds to you, LORD. LORD, wake us up and keep us awake. Give us the strength to be able to stay awake and to be able to stand firm in our faith and do all that you call us to do. I thank you so much for everything that You do and will continue to do. Holy Spirit consume me, and move me to do the will of God the Father. Work through me to make an impact in other people's lives and use me as a vessel for Your work. LORD I remove myself from this message, Holy Spirit give me the words to speak and help me to know exactly what to say. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen."

First let's get into some scripture:

“Be on your guard, so that your minds are not dulled from carousing, drunkenness, and worries of life, or that day will come on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come on all who live on the face of the whole earth. But be alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man.” -Luke 21:34-36

"Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he told the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with me one hour?" -Matthew 26:36-40

"Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things. Therefore, do not become their partners. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light— for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth— testing what is pleasing to the Lord. Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret. Everything exposed by the light is made visible, for what makes everything visible is light. Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead,and Christ will shine on you." -Ephesians 5:6-14

"Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” Come to your senses and stop sinning; for some people are ignorant about God. I say this to your shame." -1 Corinthians 15:33-34

“Write to the angel of the church in Sardis: Thus says the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God. Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy." -Revelation 3:1-4

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you. Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world. The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while. To him be dominion forever. Amen." -1 Peter 5:6-11

"About the times and the seasons: Brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. When they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark, for this day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. So then, let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing." -1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Now I don't know when the end of the world is going to come. I'm not here today to say these Bible verses and tell you "the end is coming near." None of us know when the end is coming, but there are some things that I do know about the time that we are in today. I do know that we have to, as a church, wake up and stay awake. Now is not a time to be cowards. Now is not a time to be asleep. Now is not a time to completely disregard the wickedness in this world and to have this mindset of, "Well if it's not effecting me directly then it's completely fine." If it's effecting one of our fellow believers then it's affecting all of us. We as the Church should be one. We all have the same savior, Jesus Christ. We are all, as followers of Jesus, going to go to heaven when it's our time to go.

If you've been keeping up with what has been going on in this world today, then you know that some revival is happening and it is amazing. There are still so many people that are asleep and there are so many people that are being deceived and so many deceivers in this world today.

Here are 3 things that we need to do daily:

1. Stand firm in our faith

   
   

   "Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Do everything in love." -1 Corinthians 16:13-14

"Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand." -Ephesians 6:10-13

"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." -1 Corinthians 15:58

So guys, we have to stand firm in our faith. There is a real spiritual battle going on right now. Just like it says in Ephesians, we are not fighting against flesh and blood. We are fighting against the demonic forces, and we have to stand firm in our faith, stand on truth, and stand firm with love. We have to strengthen ourselves in the word, we have to get in our quiet time with the LORD, ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us, and keep in step with the Spirit. It is so important for us to walk in obedience and keep in step with the Spirit. If we are not listening to the Holy Spirit and we are not doing what the Holy Spirit says, it's going to be very easy for us to give into our flesh. If we are keeping in step with the Spirit, He will equip us with everything that we need to fight off the devil and his evil schemes,

2. Speak up for the truth

   
   

   "The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, to fill all things. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part." -Ephesians 4:10-16

“Therefore, don’t be afraid of them, since there is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered and nothing hidden that won’t be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. What you hear in a whisper, proclaim on the housetops. Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." -Matthew 10:26-31

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” -John 8:31-32

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. When something goes against the word of God, we have to speak up against that. It's also very important to have godly community around you and be a part of a ministry where people are pouring into you and speaking truth into you. All that we do should be done in love. That doesn't mean to just hold back whenever people are deceiving other people or doing things that are completely against God's words and what He commands of us. We have to speak up. We cannot be silenced.

We cannot just sit around and be cowardly and just go about our day living our lives not worried about what other people are doing. It is so important for us to wake up and stay awake. If we see things that are not okay based on the truth of God's words and what He has told us in our quiet times, and we don't say anything about it to the people that are doing those things, we are doing a disservice for them. We are not doing any good for anyone by staying quiet and just letting people live their life the way that they want to, because they are in the darkness and we are in the light. We have to shed light on the things in the darkness, speak truth in love, and let them know that we cannot condone what they are doing, spread the truth of God's words to them, and shed light in the darkness.

If there are things that you've seen and you are not sure if they are okay or not, get in your quiet time with the LORD and ask Him to show you the truth. Ask for discernment, knowledge and understand and get in the Bible. The Bible has specific commands, directions, and answers to so many things.

3. Spread the gospel of Jesus Christ

   
   

Then he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes; if they should drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well.” -Mark 16:15-18

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith." -Romans 1:16-17

"Who then will harm you if you are devoted to what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear them or be intimidated, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil." - 1 Peter 3:13-17

So, we as followers of Jesus Christ, should be spreading the gospel to every person that we come across. Regardless if they want to hear it or not, we should be equipped to give a reason as to why we hope in Jesus Christ and to do it in gentleness and love. Spreading the gospel to other people is the most loving thing that you can do for someone. When you spread the gospel, that is opening up a door for people to be able to be saved by Jesus. There are a lot of times in the US when you spread the gospel, where people will already know about Jesus and there may be people that just blatantly do not follow Him and don't want to hear anything about Him. We still have to do our part and spread the gospel to everyone that we know and come across. You never know when that seed you plant will grow. You never know what impact that could do on someone's life. It may not happen immediately or in weeks, but that seed that you plant of the gospel could grow in their lives and that could lead to them getting saved by Jesus in the future. Jesus commands all of us, as His disciples, to spread the gospel to all nations.

Now more than ever, we have to go out there, stand firm in our faith, speak up in truth, and spread the gospel to others. We cannot sit down and be cowardly. We have to stand up in our faith, and we have to wake up and stay awake. We know of the greatest gift that could ever be given, that is the gift of eternal life. We can only receive that gift from believing in Jesus Christ. He freely gives that gift to anyone that asks for it, but they have to come to Him, repent, and ask Him to forgive them of their sins. If we do not let other people know about this gift, how are they going to receive it? If no one tells them, how will they know about it? Even if they already know about it, us spreading the simple gospel to other people in love, could give them a whole new perspective of Jesus that they had never seen before. Maybe other people that told them about Jesus gave them a skewed perception of Him and they were never actually told the true simple gospel.

We have to equip ourselves, get in the word, get in our quiet time with God, pray, strengthen ourselves, get in godly community, stand firm, speak up for the truth, and spread the gospel to others. I love you guys so much, but we have to wake up. We have to stay awake. Jesus Christ, our LORD and Savior, will come one day. We don't know when that day will come, but we have to stand firm, be ready, and be watchful for when He comes. Alright, that is it for today's episode. Stay tuned for next week's episode.

I love you guys so much.

Never forget to choose faith over fear.

-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)

p.s. If you'd rather listen to Faith-based, spiritual growth, mindset, and mental health tips, then check out my podcast. There I will share my personal experiences, stories I've never told before, and bring you along with this hot mess life of mine. New episodes every week.

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Scripture taken from The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.