Saturday 15 September 2012

Zachariah 4:1 « Then the angel who talked with me returned and woke me up, like someone awakened from sleep. »

Song of Solomon 5:2 « I slept but my heart was awake.  Listen! My beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one.  My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night. »

Keith Green was perhaps one of the greatest messengers of his day.  In his famous song entitled “Asleep in the Light” he describes humanity as drowning in a sea of problems while the church sleeps in indifference.

Here is my favorite part of the song: The world is sleeping in the dark / That the church just can’t fight / ‘Cause its asleep in the light / How can you be so dead / When you’ve been so well fed / Jesus rose from the dead / But you … you can’t even get out of bed!

Throughout this week we have exhorted you to search your heart and to identify those things that have brought on spiritual slumber.  Slowly, the fog is beginning to clear and your heart is beginning to respond to His grace.  Keep it up.  This is only the end of the first week!

Zechariah had an interesting experience that many of you are having right now with the Lord.  He was fully conscious when the angel had begun speaking.  But at some point he “awoke” as though he had been sleeping.

For many of you, you have NOT been in the depths of sin; but rather you are simply hungering for more of Him and more of His presence.  He is awakening your heart, as though you were asleep.  And as the heart awakens, you will discover a new intensity and a new desire for Him that you had not thought possible.

Just as the woman in the Song of Solomon sung, “Though I was sleeping, my heart awoke.  My Beloved is knocking at the door.”  He is knocking at the door of your heart.  He wants to come into your life and make His residence there.

Today, will you surrender all to Him.  Today, will you overcome any fear and abandon your life entirely to Him.  Today will you willingly renounce the attractions and vain promises of this world and say, “I give my all to You, Jesus.”

He is knocking.  But He will not knock forever!