In my 70+ years I have encountered two or three people who shared with us that they didn’t need an alarm clock to wake up. They just decided what time they needed to wake up and they would just wake up at that time. Wow! What a blessing! For the rest of us, wakeup calls are a necessity of life. What form does our wakeup calls come in? Perhaps they were our parents when we were children; alarm clocks when we get older; how about warnings that our behavior is unacceptable from parents, spouses or other authority figures? I think it is reality that we all need other people in our lives that have our permission to bring a wakeup call when we get deaf, dumb and stupid. Hopefully, we say a big ‘thank you’ as we wake up and make the necessary corrections.
Sometimes our wakeup calls are sharp and startling, but other times they come softly and quietly. Sometimes the soft and quietly kind don’t achieve the desired results and therefore an increase in strength and volume becomes necessary. If that doesn’t work, pain in some form is usually required. Ouch! This pain is self-inflicted and obviously could be avoided if we would only listen and make necessary corrections.
How many Biblical examples of wakeup calls (warnings) can you think of? As children of God we should expect His intervention in our lives. What form that intervention takes is obviously up to Him and the situation at hand. Whether it is a person, an organization or a nation, it matters not. He is capable of bringing the proper opportunities for necessary course correction. All we have to do is listen and obey. Here is where the difficulty comes in. Yeah, that’s right; we are the difficult part of the equation. For many of us the thought of giving up control of our lives is difficult to comprehend. Our plans, desires, goals, priorities, hopes and dreams can be threatened with the thought of giving God control and doing what He wants us to do. We seem to lose sight of the possibility that Father might make our desires important to Him simply because they are important to us. That is what love does, isn’t it? He is not self-centered He is love-centered!
Now consider the possibility of this statement: “Anything we can’t control we fear, but love mitigates the fear and helps us release control.” This is a huge stumbling block to mankind in his relationship with God. Consider this: parents are looking for a caregiver for their children. What kind of caregiver do they want – one that puts the needs of their children first and foremost or one who is self-centered and does what they want at the expense of the children? Any loving parent would choose the first one for the benefit of their children wouldn’t they? Our Heavenly Father is the perfect example of the first choice, yet we treat Him as if He were the second choice. The first choice should be love and honor – the second choice feared and rejected. Sadly, this is a picture of much of the Body of Christ. For some of us, we live in the first choice with God. We love, honor and surrender to Him because we have experienced His love on a personal basis. For some of us, we live in the second choice and resist Him. We believe He is self-centered and doesn’t care about our priorities and desires and He will ask us to give up everything and do only what He wants. Thus, we fear Him and look away. This group of us desperately needs a wakeup call. Father, have Your way with us today!
Now, have you come up with any Biblical examples of wakeup calls? How about Gideon? What was his status when the angel showed up and brought his wakeup call? He was a man of low self-esteem, hiding in fear of his enemies. Yet the angel called him a Mighty Man of Valor! Gideon’s opinion of himself and his circumstance is the direct opposite of God’s opinion of him. Gideon’s self-opinion reflects his potential and his future which were dim at best. God’s opinion reflects Gideon’s potential and future if he surrenders control of his life and is obedient to God’s leadership. We know from the Biblical narrative that Gideon chose the latter and became the Mighty Man of Valor that God saw in him and he led the Israelites to victory over their enemies. Of course, their victory included God’s miraculous intervention, but in order to experience the miraculous and the victory Gideon had to surrender to the wakeup call and say “yes” to God and follow His instructions. Shouldn’t that prompt us to consider the question, ‘what does Father see in me that I don’t see?’ Answer: He sees the miraculous and the supernatural potential for all of us because that is Who He is. He wants His kids to be like Him – naturally supernatural! He wants us to rise up and live in the supernatural spirit realm with Him, not in the flesh. If we continue to live in the flesh with self in control we will be Gideon-like in our future and never reach our potential in God and fulfill our purpose and destiny in Him. This would require Godly wakeup calls attempting to rescue us from ourselves. Wakeup calls of increasing strength and power can become painful if they are ignored…just ask Israel. The numerous examples of God’s wakeup calls to His chosen people and their rejection of His calling to them to repent and turn back to Him resulted in painful and destructive judgment. Their repeated rejection of God’s calling them back to Him resulted in self-inflicted pain that was totally avoidable. Unlike Gideon, they would not surrender self-will (control) and eventually it cost them dearly!
Consider the quality of Gideon’s life before the wakeup call came and consider the quality of Gideon’s life after his obedience to God. They are total opposites. Now look at the quality of Israel’s life before their wakeup calls came and the quality of their life after they were conquered and taken captive. Can we not consider these opposites also? They were losers before their wakeup calls because they were rejecting God and His sovereignty. However, they were much bigger losers after judgement for their sin of rejecting God. This is where America is today as we speak! Wakeup Call!
God established and blessed this nation above all others until we became the most prosperous and most powerful nation on planet earth. In His grace we flourished compared to other nations. Our response to His blessings is despicable! Because of our blessings we have become self-centered instead of God-centered. We as nation celebrate self instead of God. We have become prideful, arrogant and self-sufficient. We need not fear anyone. We are the best…the top of the heap! We celebrate our nation’s birthday by declaring our independence rather than our God-dependence. We have turned to religion rather than relationship with God. This substitution leaves us in control of life. In our arrogance we have lost sight of the one enemy that can never be defeated! God Himself! The most ridiculous thing mankind can do is make God our enemy! So far America is ignoring God’s wakeup calls. This is the pathway to self-destruction. We have literally become Sodom and Gomorrah. Without repentance and turning back to God this country’s future destruction is assured.
What will it take to wake us up as a person or as a nation? As a nation I believe we are past ‘quietly and softly’. If seems like the shock of ‘loud and destructive’ will be required. But…God knows. After the shock of 9-11-2001, our churches filled up, but it was only temporary. It didn’t take long for the people to go back to their worldly ways and the churches emptied out again. That is because religion isn’t the answer. It is the substitute that fails every time. Our Heavenly Father wants a personal, intimate, life-giving relationship with each of His kids; a loving, conversational relationship that surpasses the flesh and the world.
In our rebellion to God, we can reach a time and place when His grace is removed and we no longer shelter there. His grace is essential to life as He designed it; therefore, without it we are left to man’s own destructive nature. This just popped up: “Flesh has no place to go in the absence of grace except into confusion.” This is a picture of our society today! Common sense is nowhere to be found except in God’s kids! We continue in His grace and carry with us the potential to bring supernatural influence to our world! Based on what Father has said to me several times over the last few years, I believe America has reached that time and place and God’s grace has been removed! I believe wakeup calls from now on will be more and more destructive until we surrender to Him and repent or we are humiliated and destroyed! We want to be in control bad enough to reject God. Well, we are. We control our own destiny. It is our choice. Repent or suffer the consequences. This is a personal as well as a national choice. What will we choose – life or death, blessing or cursing? I believe we all need a wakeup call. What do you think? Don’t get your eyes on what happens around you. Keep your eyes on Him!