Spiritual Sleepwalkers – by A.W. Tozer

When the Bible says “Awake to righteousness and sin not,” it indicates the possiblity of a sudden awakening, like when an alarm clock going off rouses you out of sleep. There is such a thing as being asleep and suddenly being wakened, and this is surprising to people. People often say, “You know, I was living a life displeasing to God. I was a church member, but though I didn’t know it, I was displeasing to God. My life wasn’t right. Then suddenly I was wakened by God. It was a surprise.” . . . People who are awakened from moral sleep say, “Well, what’s the matter with me? I’ve been living a life that’s been displeasing to God, and I simply did not know it. “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it. . . . This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven'” (Genesis 28:16-17). Jacob must have been rather disconcerted when he awoke and found that he had been in the presence of God all the time, but he had been asleep. He was not morally dead; he was not cut off from the covenant–he was merely asleep.

A life set apart

“Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus, being powerful in the Scriptures…This one having been taught in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things about the Lord,…proving through the Scriptures Jesus to be the Christ.”
—Acts 18.21,22,33

This man was so moved by the Holy Spirit of God and he so loved and devoured anything spoken by God. He became powerful in the Scripture, the written words that God has spoken from eternity into time. O for men and women so thirsty for God! Who have embraced the Son of God, the Holy Spirit and anything God is speaking. O for those who will hear the calling of God and respond, and forsake the temptations of sin and the so-called “treasures” of this world, and detach their hearts from them, that they may be attached to God and God’s purposes and plans! Respond, you who have ears! Have ears to hear when that Precious One speaks and calls you aside unto Himself! Father God let it be so I ask in Jesus’ Name.

All by the grace and mercy and peace of God. In loving tenderness and genuine affection toward all.

Captured

I don’t want to see you captured by the world
when its face can seem so beautiful
don’t let them tell you it’s OK
to keep a little for your own
it’s a trap that some will never overcome
Oh, you’ve been set free
with blood that cries mercy
Oh, at such great cost
the Father’s very Son