It's time to wake up

And no, I am not refering to the need for me to wake up in the physical. I am actually quite awake as I type this at 1:00pm in the afternoon. What I am referring to is the need for us to wake up spiritually. What? am I questioning your spirituality? For all intents and purposes and to stir up some discussion....YES! We should all be challenged and pushed on a regular basis. We should never be "comfortable" where we are at. While it is good to be in a familiar spot with the Lord, we should never want to just maintain our relationship where it is currently at. We should be striving to dive into a deeper relationship with the lover of our soul.  For those who are married it would not be suggested to just maintain your current relationship with your spouse. Many if not most couples, in fact just do enough to get by with their relationship.

What happened to the excitement? What happened to the butterflies? When we are dating or courting our love, we are always thinking of new and exciting ways to show our love towards the other person. We are always trying to outdo our previous best. We are creative and wanting to try new things with our new love. We go new places, we try new things and we can talk for hours about anything and everything and not even complain about how tired we are the next morning when we get up for work or school. But as soon as the relationship turns into a marriage it seems a good portion of the excitement and adventure disappears. I am guilty and will be the first to admit this happening. After I "caught" my love in dating I knew I didn't have to do anything else to impress her. She was mine and no one else's. So as soon as we said "I Do" it seemed as though I said I don't to the excitement and adventure. While we did enjoy going places and doing things...things began to change....especially when children came into the picture. When this happened a lot of the adventure and ability to do things on a whim suddenly changed and we had to have more structure and an actual plan to prepare to take our little ones anywhere.

Forgive me for getting off subject, but I am trying to make a point. We need to keep the fire burning with our spouses at all times regardless of how long we have been married or together. We must keep it interesting as well. We must be creative and unpredictable. Not only must we do this with our spouses, but God wants this from us as well. He knows us intimately, but how well do we know HIM? He wants to have an exciting and adventurous relationship with us, but often times we are too busy for it and we have other things to do. Satan is real good about keeping us busy and preventing us from having a closer walk with our Creator. I was reading my Bible last night and was reading a story I have heard many times, but it struck me and I would like to share what I felt. 

The story comes out of Ezekiel 37 and is the story of the valley of dry bones. Basically there is the army of Israel that is dead in this valley and there is nothing left but bones. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy over these bones to come back to life. To make a long story short, he follows the orders God gives him and the bones do come back to life in the form of a vast army. God breathed life back into these lifeless bones and an army rose up.

What struck me was this and it is for the body of Christ. Ezekiel 37:12 .."Therefore prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Oh my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord."

What God was speaking to me in regards to these verses was that it is time for us to rise up and wake up....one of the songs we sing at our church that was written by several of our worship team goes something like this, "Its time to wake up....I'm prophesying to dry bones...God's army stand up....He's breathing life back into His own." There is much more to it, but if you heard it the annointing of God would come upon you and you would feel excitement and energy.

God wants us to wake up. He is calling for His people to wake up and rise back up again. Many of us have given up and are left for dead. The enemy, Satan, loves to see this. We are not a threat to him when we are lying around and not doing anything. God is opening up our graves and breathing life back into us. The choice is yours. Will you allow God to breathe life back into your dry bones and allow you to rise back up and fight the good fight of faith? or will you just continue to lie dormant and do nothing for the kingdom? God doesn't want to hear excuses of why you are beaten down and tired, He just wants to know if you are ready, willing and able. He will supply you with everything you could possibly need to fight. He just needs to know that you are willing to accept the challenge. Once He breathes life back into our dry, dusty bones rivers of living water will begin to pour out of us. God wants to pour His spirit back upon the dryness of the land and He wants to saturate us with His presence. 

It is time to quit living as though we are dead and begin to live. We must be contenders for the kingdom of God. We must be willing to sacrifice and persevere. We must be willing to give our First love everything and show Him we are wanting to have a relationship with Him. Most people who love someone are willing to lay down their lives for the one they love. Are you willing to lay down your life for God? The word of God declares in John 15:13, 15, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends...I have called you friends." 

In Matthew 16:25 it also states, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

So it is time for us to lay down our lives for the sake of Christ. If we are more willing to just lay down, play dead, not do anything and "save" our lives, we will lose it. God is breathing His life into us and bringing us back from the grave. It is time for the bride of Christ to wake up! The time is now and time is short. If we want change in this nation, we must make a stand and not just sit back and watch it. Our nation is under a lot of duress and we must rise to the challenge. It's time to wake up and allow God to breathe life back into our dry bones. It is my desire to Contend, Blaze and Worship for my King. I will not sit back and watch from the sidelines. I will be on the front lines helping lead the charge against the principalities of darkness. I am tired of seeing Christians want to ride the tails of others who are blazing the trails. It is time for everyone to pull their weight and do their part. We need to take a stand and do our part. It's time to rise up and be counted! Are you willing to contend for the King? or be dead weight for the world?

Provoke my hunger for you oh Lord! 

Provoke me to want you and thirst after your Living Water.

Breathe your Life back into these dry bones.

May I contend for your sake and not my own.

Less of me and more of You. 

Fill me with the desire to contend for your kingdom.

Amen!

Blessings! Coach