Awake, O Sleeper — Rise, and Christ Will Shine on You.
It was one of those quiet, heavy moments that come after months—perhaps years—of steady, unseen labor. Day after day, I poured myself into writing truths that burned in my heart, truths I believed were from God. Yet no one seemed to notice. No encouragement came. No shares, no messages, no sign that anyone understood or even cared.
In the monotony and loneliness, doubt crept in like frost.
Why am I doing this?
Who is actually being helped?
Am I just wasting my time, shouting into an empty void?
It was in that place of weariness that the Lord met me with a vision.
I saw myself in a vast, snow-covered landscape under a pale sky. All around me, people were walking slowly, casually, as if enjoying a winter stroll. But I knew something they did not: they were dying. Their bodies were losing heat faster than they could produce it. Hypothermia was setting in.
I ran from person to person, shaking them, calling out, “Wake up! Move! You’re freezing to death!”
But most did not resist me with anger. They barely responded at all. Some smiled sleepily. Others mumbled, “I’m fine… it feels warm now,” before drifting back into stillness. A few even lay down in the snow, folding their hands peacefully, eyes closing in what looked like rest.
Then I understood: this was not early-stage hypothermia with violent shivering and panic. This was the advanced stage—the most dangerous one. The body’s defenses had failed. Blood vessels dilated, a false warmth flooded in, and a deceptive calm descended. Drowsiness felt like peace. Movement seemed unnecessary. The victims no longer recognized the danger because the cold had numbed their judgment, alertness, and discernment. In that false comfort, they were moments from death.
The vision shifted, and the Holy Spirit spoke without words:
This is the spiritual condition of many in this hour. They are not fighting you because they feel threatened by the truth. They are indifferent because they feel comfortable. The slumber itself is the danger—and it feels good to them.
The Deceptive Calm of Spiritual Hypothermia
In severe hypothermia, the paradox is cruel: just before death, victims often feel warm and content. They may even remove clothing, hastening their end, because their body tricks them into believing all is well. Survival demands movement, friction, external heat—but the drowsiness convinces them to rest.
So it is spiritually. Many today are not raging against God. They are not openly rebellious. They are simply… asleep.
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest (Proverbs 6:10).
It feels harmless. It feels peaceful. Entertainment, comfort, distraction, compromise—all offer a soft blanket in the snow. And in that deceptive ease, core temperature drops. Discernment fades. Urgency vanishes. The soul drifts toward eternal separation while feeling, paradoxically, at peace.
The Scriptures Cry the Same Alarm
God’s Word has been sounding this warning across centuries:
“And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.”
— Romans 13:11–12 (NIV)
Salvation is nearer today—than it was yesterday. Time is shorter. The cold is deeper. Yet many sleep on.
“This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”
— Ephesians 5:14 (NIV)
Notice the tenderness and the terror in this verse. It is a quotation—possibly an early hymn—spoken as if Christ Himself is leaning over the drowsy soul, shaking gently: “Wake up. Rise. I will give you light.” But the sleeper must respond. The light does not shine automatically on those who persist in choosing the darkness of slumber.
“How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.”
— Proverbs 6:9–11 (NIV)
Spiritual poverty. Scarcity of truth, of life, of God Himself. It does not come with trumpets. It comes quietly, like a thief, while we rest.
The Answer to My Doubt
In the vision, as I stood exhausted and questioning the point of it all, the Lord reframed everything.
Waking the sleepers is never wasted effort.
Even if most turn over and close their eyes again, the act of calling—“Awake! Move! Live!”—is itself obedience. It is love. It is mercy in a moment when time is short.
Rescue workers in blizzards do not stop shaking victims just because many do not respond. Every life that stirs, shivers, and stumbles toward warmth justifies the labor. And even for those who do not awaken, the call was still the right thing—the loving thing—to do.
So it is with us who labor to speak truth in a drowsy generation. Our measure of success is not visible response. It is faithfulness.
A Call to the Sleepers and to the Watchmen
To the sleeper reading this:
If a quiet unease stirs in you as you read these words—if something in your spirit says, “I’ve been too comfortable, too long”—do not dismiss it as discomfort to be soothed. That stirring may be the Holy Spirit shaking you before the false peace becomes irreversible.
Wake up. Rise. Move toward Christ. His light is ready to shine on you the moment you open your eyes.
To the watchman—the one who feels alone in the cold, sounding an alarm no one seems to hear:
Take heart. Your labor is seen. The grace that sustains you is divine. Keep calling. Keep writing. Keep shaking.
You are not wasting your time.
You are rescuing the perishing, one shaken soul at a time.
And your Father sees every effort.
The hour has come to wake up from slumber.
Salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
Awake, sleeper.
Rise.
And Christ will shine on you.
Bob, the Lord asked me to read this beautiful article again. It is the first one that I read from you while researching a topic in the Bible. I do not think that I can convey to you what this teaching did to give me understanding and real peace. Having not been brought up in a Christian household and with nearly no exposure to God’s Truth, the Lord saved me at age 37 in 2000. He touched me and literally made me feel washed, renewed and breathed Life into me when I called out to Him from the depths of lonliness and despair. Some of this I have written to you about. I poured myself into the study of the Word which began changing me from inside out. The people that I interact with every today, and who did not know me back then can’t believe that I used to “cuss like a sailor” and “drink like a fish.” I went into jail ministry and served there weekly for about ten years pleading with the men who were looking at years, even decades of prison for murder, rape and worse. I called out to them to receive this Gift of Life and wake to the reality that they were meant to be world changers. The God of all Creation was calling them into relationship with Him and not only wanted to set them free, but empower them to become precisely who they were created to be. “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.” Some heard and were miraculously transformed by the Lord. Some of those were shortly thereafter released while others went on to serve longer prison sentences for what they had done. So many evenings I would cry out from the depths of my heart for them to hear and receive God’s Love and forgiveness, but left feeling like I had made so little difference. The Lord spoke to me, as He did to you, and said “do not grow weary in doing good, for in due season you shall reap, if you do not lose heart.” I wasn’t failing Him, I was planting seeds that others later would water. I was honoring Him by refusing to listen to the voice of the enemy that hated and despised the fact that I was there to stir and wake them from sleep and separation from God. I have been asked by one or two churches to lead a small groups and have attempted to offer simple concepts from God’s Word to encourage them to believe that He TRULY is good. I have had people in those groups get furious with me for teaching that God is not the One who gives cancer and sickness and disease to people to put them in line or teach them obedience. Others would leave the room when I teach from Psalm 91 God’s desire to watch over them and keep them. I am probably opening up a “can of worms” with you on this topic, which really was not my intent. Most believe that God is the One that is killing, stealing and destroying them, but the Lord Jesus make a clear distinction in His Gospel. Thank you for your obedience. You are making an impact that neither one of us will see and understand until we see Him Face to face. This ended up being much longer than I intended, but I want to encourage you to please continue to run and fight. You are loved and appreciated more than you know. David
David,
I want to be honest with you about something. Out here, the work is mostly done in dry ground—long stretches with no one around to say whether any of it matters. So when you wrote, “You are making an impact that neither one of us will see and understand until we see Him face to face,” it undid me. I do not often hear that. I read it, found myself in tears, and then in prayer for you.
Thank you for writing that line. It carried more than you probably intended.
Ten years of showing up weekly inside a jail, pleading with men staring at decades or a lifetime for murder and worse—that is not a small thing, even on the nights when it felt as though nothing was landing. You were never failing Him. The Lord has spoken that same word over me: do not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap. It seems He has kept us both planting long before either of us saw a harvest.
And the question you raised is worth opening, though it deserves careful handling. Scripture does not permit us to make God morally indistinguishable from the thief who steals, kills, and destroys. Neither does it permit us to deny His sovereignty in suffering, discipline, judgment, or providence. But the easy claim that every sickness is something God directly sends to teach a lesson can badly distort His character and burden wounded people with conclusions Scripture itself has not given us. Let the whole counsel of God govern what we say—never diminishing His sovereignty, and never attributing to Him the malicious delight in ruin that belongs to the thief.
Keep speaking what Scripture has made clear, brother, and do not mistake a room’s discomfort for proof that you have spoken wrongly—let Scripture decide that.
Grace and strength to you.
This is one additional thought concerning the response I just sent you. I teach and encourage men and women of the Goodness of God. I do not believe in an “easy Gospel.” We have been given Grace for “obedience to the Faith.” (Rom 1:5) We are to submit (be under obedience) ourselves to God, resist (actively fight against) the devil and he will flee from us.” (James 4:7) The Grace of God teaches us to deny (disavow) ungodliness and worldly lusts.” (Titus 2:12). I am total agreement with you on a person completely surrendering to God and not just repeating a prayer. I do suspect though that you and I may somewhat disagree on whether God, under the New Covenant, uses tragedy, poverty, sickness and disease to motivate or beat a person into submission. For it is the Love of God that draws us to Repentence (Rom 2:4), and His Grace teaches us and His Word is “profitable doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Tim 3:16) I try very hard to keep my responses to you brief in respect of your time, but His Fire in me compels me:) Love you brother. David
David,
I hear you, and I suspect we are much closer than the phrase “beat a person into submission” might suggest. I have never taught that God cruelly batters people into obedience. His discipline is never the malice of the destroyer. It is holy, fatherly, and purposeful.
I gladly affirm Romans 2:4: the goodness of God leads to repentance. But Scripture does not present goodness and chastening as opposites. The same Word tells us that godly sorrow works repentance, that Christ rebukes and chastens those He loves, and that the Father’s discipline—though grievous for a season—afterward yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
Romans 2 and Hebrews 12 are also addressing different relationships. Romans 2 confronts the guilty person who presumes upon God’s patience. Hebrews 12 speaks of sons being disciplined by their Father. A judge’s patience toward the guilty is not the same thing as a father’s correction of his child, though both arise from His holy goodness.
So the question is not whether God is good. We both stand there without reservation. The question is whether His goodness excludes discipline, testing, affliction, or painful correction from His dealings with His people. Scripture will not allow us to say that. “Before I was afflicted I went astray,” the psalmist says; and again, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.”
On sickness specifically, I would never assign every illness directly to God. Scripture gives us more than one possible cause: life in a fallen creation, personal sin, satanic oppression, bodily weakness, and, in some cases, divine chastisement. Paul even tells the Corinthian church that some among them were weak and sickly, and some had died, because of their conduct at the Lord’s Table. So sickness cannot simply be removed from the category of what God may sometimes govern in judgment or fatherly discipline.
The wisdom is in refusing both extremes: never making God morally indistinguishable from evil, and never limiting His holy sovereignty to the pleasant means by which He forms His children.
I do not believe God beats people into submission. I believe He is holy love—and holy love sometimes corrects precisely because it loves.
Love you too, brother. Never soften His fire in you—feed it.