Born Again and Sometimes I Wake Up From My Sleep
Sleep is precious, and the experts tell us that we don't become enough of it. That's why in the past when woke up during the night for whatsoever reason, I'd do everything within my power to get back to sleep every bit quickly as possible. I'd bring the baby to bed with me. I'd ask my husband to check out the strange noises. I'd take an antacid, recall happy thoughts to forget the dream, count sheep. . . whatever it took to get back to sleep. But what if information technology'due south God who rouses you? One night I woke from a dream and then vivid that I didn't want to go back to slumber and forget information technology. I lay there savoring its images. In the process, God began to speak. This isn't dream of no consequence. I'm trying to tell you something.
I got out of bed and groped in the nighttime for writing materials. Tiptoeing to the bathroom, I closed the door, turned on the low-cal and scribbled what I had visualized and heard in the dream. The next night I was wide awake at 2 a.m. This fourth dimension my center beat in anticipation. "God, is in that location a purpose in this?" Yes. During the twenty-four hour period your mind's too cluttered to hear Me. At night I refresh and clear your heed, and then I wake you so I can make full yous with My thoughts.
God brought to my attending a friend who was going through a deep spiritual boxing. I interceded for her, praying like I rarely prayed during the mean solar day. This friend later confirmed a heavy burden was lifted that night. Within a few days, I began to anticipate my middle-of-the-night rendezvous with God. For several weeks, I woke every dark. I found it easier to concentrate on the Holy Spirit's vocalism when not fully engaged with daytime responsibilities. God continues to nudge me awake at times. When He does, I thank Him and intercede for the people He brings to mind, write down the revelations He gives, or contemplate the dream still fresh in my thoughts. I call it "sleep fasting." This is not some kind of wacky, new fast. There is biblical precedent for it, and the practice has been a part of godly comport since ancient times.
Slumber fasting attunes our ears to God's nighttime songs.
The oldest example of this is in the book of Job. "But no ane says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night'" (Job 35:x). Yet what purpose could songs in the night fulfill that songs in the daytime would not? One time a number of years ago information technology was Satan, not God, who woke me in the nighttime. But God gave me a nighttime song to escape the enemy's schemes. My family was serving in overseas missions. We had been nether a lot of stress. Our health, reputation, and goals were all under burn down. I awoke that dark feeling hot and sweaty, so I attempted to push the crumpled comforter off the end of the bed with my feet. However, information technology felt like in that location was a body rolled up inside. The comforter wouldn't budge. Instantly, I knew it wasn't a body, but a demonic presence resisting our work. I went limp and couldn't utter a word, not fifty-fifty able to nudge my married man awake. had never felt the demonic so close and existent before, so poised to destroy all that had been accomplished through the mission. Then a song of victory over the powers of darkness welled upward in me. As the Holy Spirit brought to listen the words, the evil presence vanished. Three days later when I finally had the nerve to chronicle the incident to my hubby, he confirmed he'd gone to bed that night in excruciating pain but hadn't told me. In the morning when he woke, the pain was gone. Our other concerns also were resolved chop-chop. Waking up with a vocal of deliverance is confirmed in the Psalms: "Past day the 50 ORD directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life" (42:viii). Another reads, "I remembered my songs in the night. My centre mused and my spirit inquired" (77:half-dozen).
Sleep fasting opens our ears to God's voice.
"On my bed I remember you; I call back of y'all through the watches of the night" (Ps. 63:6). One time a little male child named Samuel woke to the phonation of God calling him. It took a while for him to pinpoint the source, since God rarely spoke in those days. However, when Samuel responded to the phonation, he received foreknowledge about his guardian'southward sons (1 Sam. three:ane-18).
I believe God speaks to united states when we are still and tranquillity. My daytime prayers are oft so consumed with my calendar that I can't hear God's voice even when I endeavour to exist still to mind. So God wakes me at night in order to take a run a risk to speak before my mind and oral fissure are in gear! I normally can stay awake to listen for only a brief fourth dimension. Jesus, nevertheless, often sleep fasted all dark. On at to the lowest degree ane of those occasions, He spent the entire fourth dimension in prayer. Every bit a result, He heard His Father tell Him which 12 men to cull for traveling partners the next three years (Lk. 6:12-16).
Sleep fasting triggers supernatural intervention.
Sometimes we sleep fast in club to obtain miracles for others. The apostle Peter was once the recipient of such intercession. He was chained in prison house, awaiting trial the next morning. While the church conducted an all nighttime prayer meeting for him, Peter slept soundly. And so soundly, in fact, that when an angel came in answer to the believers' sleep fasting prayer, he had to kick him in the side just to rouse him. The chains vicious off Peter's wrists, he walked by two sets of guards, and on through an fe gate to go study to the church what God had done in answer to their prayers (Acts 12:5-12). Virtually of us take heard stories of prayer warriors who awoke sensing a need to pray for a struggling missionary, or a loved ane in danger, or a persecuted believer facing death. No i knows just how many lives take been saved by sleep fasters' prayers. Are you being chosen to sleep fast? Here are some guidelines to make those nighttimes with God more than effective:
- Trust God to give you strength for your slumber fast.
Many times those who fast from nutrient say they don't even feel hungry because God nourishes them. The aforementioned often holds for slumber fasting. If God calls you to abjure from sleep in guild to pray, then you tin trust Him to refresh y'all in the morning so yous do non feel groggy and miserable. - Write downwards what you feel God is speaking to you during the night . In the forenoon, however, read it prayerfully, with discernment. Always check what you've written with the Word to make sure it doesn't contradict something God has already said.
- Don't share every dark revelation with others.
Some are just love notes and assurances between you and God. Some are intended to intensify your prayers for a person or situation. Others are to be recorded for hereafter reference to increase your faith or that of the ane you lot prayed for. A few are to be shared publicly. Enquire God for discernment. I still enjoy my slumber as much as anyone. But I've come to realize that even though slumber is precious, late night prayer dates with the Lord are even more precious—to me, to Him, and to those for whom He calls me to intercede.
RUTH MELLINGER is a pastor'south married woman and church secretary at Agape Fellowship of the Mennonite Church building in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. She and her husband, Jim, assisted national church building planters in Caracas, Venezuela for three years. They accept also lived in Republic of costa rica and Belize. Ruth enjoys writing seasonal dramas for her church.
Used past permission of Pray! Copyright © 2003, Issue 38, The Navigators. Used past permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. world wide web.navpress.com.
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Source: https://www.navpress.com/sites/thedisciplemaker/2016/05/fasting-from-sleep-gods-call-in-the-night/
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