“Then He came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the time is near. The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.’” Matthew 26:45 (HCSB)
There are times when we must press into God, even giving up such things as food and sleep. This is such a moment! Jesus was facing His greatest test, being overwhelmed with sorrow and grief, He asked His three closest friends to watch and pray over Him while poured His heart out to the Father! In His moment of greatest need, they failed to watch and pray! Instead they slept, succumbing to the weariness of their eyes from the intensity of the previous week! Jesus found them asleep and asked “could you not tarry even one hour?” (Mark 14:37). Luke captures the intensity of this moment as he reports Jesus sweating great drops of blood (22:44), which shows the weight that was upon Him. Yet His three closest friends were fast asleep!
This week we are in one of those moments as well! Yes, many are weary from this previous week (season), yet this is not the time to slumber. Instead we need to fast, pray and perhaps lose some sleep! The Trump indictment on the eve of Passover is not accidental! His arrest is symbolic, even prophetic. I am not saying he is our savior, for Jesus Christ alone carries that role! But God uses people to accomplish His purposes. Many have prophetically heard that Trump is a Cyrus (see Isaiah 45). Nevertheless, this indictment is really against us, “we the people!” Evil is working overtime right now, justice has been perverted, and we must rise up and pray, fast and lose sleep! Remember, there is more going on than we can see, so fear not!!!
Gethsemane was the eve for Jesus’ trial, suffering and death, on what we celebrate as Good Friday. This Thursday I encourage you to fast and pray for our nation, for revival, for awakening, for wickedness to be exposed and removed, for true justice to be established, for blindness over the people to come off and see the hideousness of the beast operating in our nation and the need for Jesus as savior. Pray for the Church to wake up, to arise, to pray, fast and lose sleep in this hour of battle for the soul of our nation. Pray that our nation would not slide into civil war, but that the wind of the Spirit would blow over us, and the fire of God would fall upon us. Pray for conviction of sin, a sense of the fear of God and repentance to spread across our nation. Pray that your church doesn’t simply sleep through this hour of need!
