Written by Dr D K Olukoya
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.
- 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.”
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.
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