Wake up!

Revelation 2:29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

We are living in a time, maybe more than any other, when we need to have our ears tuned into what the Spirit of the Lord is saying. In many places, the church is sleep covered in a blanket of apathy, and the Lord is saying “Wake up, Church!” Webster defines apathy as ‘having a lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal, indifference, impassiveness and a lack of emotion or feeling.’ Apathy causes people to just go through the motions out of a sense of duty or obligation and we then have empty rituals without the leading of the Holy Spirit. Apathy causes people to ignore sin, cover up those things that need to be dealt with in the light and maintain the status quo, because that is the easy way. Apathy leads to paralysis and lukewarmness. It is one of the biggest enemies of the church today.

Revelation 3:1 And TO the angel of the assembly (church) in Sardis write: These are the words of Him who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your record and what you are doing; you are supposed to be alive, but you are dead.

In Revelation 3:1-6 we see Jesus speaking to the church in Sardis, and he says they have a reputation of being alive, but in actual fact they are dead. At sometime they must have been on fire for God, but they had succumbed to the apathy of their secure state as a city and lost their fire. Sardis was a city that seemed impenetrable and had twice fallen because of lack of vigilance and complacency in the people. At the time of John’s writing, they were once again wealthy, and sin was rampant. The church in Sardis was being given a wake-up call.

Revelation 3:2 Rouse yourselves and keep awake, and strengthen and invigorate was remains and is on the point of dying… Is this a call to us today? The Lord tells them to strengthen and invigorate what remains. There are those in our midst who stand strong, who are not going to give up without a fight and who believe that the Lord has a plan and a purpose for the Anglican Church. We need to under gird the remnant with prayer, encourage each other and stand strong even in the face of persecution.

Revelation 3:3 So call to mind the lessons you received and heard; continually lay them to heart and obey them, and repent… In a society always wanting the new to titillate our sense; don’t let us become like Sardis complacent in our wealth and position. We need to remember and call to mind those lessons we have learned. The Gospel still works; it is still relevant today, and we can still apply it to our lives, feed on it daily and pray it effectively. James tells us to be doers of the word and not just heedless hearers. Apathy causes us to hear and not do, we listen to the word read on Sunday, and go away forgetting the message we have heard. Apathy causes prayer to become a mindless ritual with little or no fruit.

James 1:22-24 But be doers of the Word and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves. And repent… Lord, forgive us for being apathetic, for becoming lukewarm, for not being alert to the enemy’s schemes. Awaken us, Lord.”

My cry has been for the Lord to restore to me the joy of my salvation, to cause me to remember my first love and how I would do anything for Him, talk to anyone about Him, read the word endlessly and pray continually. There is a trumpet call to arms; the watchmen need to be on the wall; the prophets need to prophesy the word of the Lord. The battle is fierce, but the reward is great and my prayer is that the Lord will strengthen us, cause us to be fully awake and watchful, because the enemy is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour… BUT … we are more than conquerors and in Him we can do all things. We have had a wake-up call. We slumbered, were complacent and allowed the enemy to gain a foothold, but God in His mercy and grace, has anointed us and appointed us to walk in the victory He has given us. Thanks be to God, whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask for imagine. He is in us, let us walk in Him and see Him confirm the word with signs and wonders. My prayer is that we may be found to be worthy and deserving to walk with Him in white.

Revelation 3:4 Yet you still have a few names in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes, and they shall walk with Me in white, because they are worthy and deserving.

Scripture from the Amplified Bible

Jane Jones
National Prayer Coordinator

Jane Jones is an elder at St Peter's Okotoks, Alberta and the National Prayer Coordinator of ARM.

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This page was posted on June 23, 2006.