Ephesians 5:1–17 NKJV

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us … Let no one deceive you with empty words … .

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light … finding out what is acceptable to the Lord … Therefore He says: “AWAKE, YOU WHO SLEEP, ARISE FROM THE DEAD, AND CHRIST WILL GIVE YOU LIGHT.”

SEE THEN THAT YOU WALK CIRCUMSPECTLY, NOT AS FOOLS BUT AS WISE, REDEEMING THE TIME, BECAUSE THE DAYS ARE EVIL. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Colossians 4:2–5 NKJV

CONTINUE EARNESTLY IN PRAYER, BEING VIGILANT IN IT WITH THANKSGIVING: meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. WALK IN WISDOM TOWARD THOSE WHO ARE OUTSIDE, REDEEMING THE TIME.

Job 14:1–5 ESV

Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not … his days are determined, and the number of his months is with You, and YOU HAVE APPOINTED HIS LIMITS THAT HE CANNOT PASS.

Psalm 90:12 NKJV

SO TEACH US TO NUMBER OUR DAYS, THAT WE MAY GAIN A HEART OF WISDOM.

Psalm 39:4–5 NLT

LORD, REMIND ME HOW BRIEF MY TIME ON EARTH WILL BE. REMIND ME THAT MY DAYS ARE NUMBERED—how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. MY ENTIRE LIFETIME IS JUST A MOMENT TO YOU; AT BEST, EACH OF US IS BUT A BREATH.

Deuteronomy 20:1–4 NKJV

WHEN YOU GO OUT TO BATTLE AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES, AND SEE HORSES AND CHARIOTS AND PEOPLE MORE NUMEROUS THAN YOU, DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THEM; FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD IS WITH YOU, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people. And he shall say to them, “HEAR, O ISRAEL: TODAY YOU ARE ON THE VERGE OF BATTLE WITH YOUR ENEMIES. DO NOT LET YOUR HEART FAINT, DO NOT BE AFRAID, AND DO NOT TREMBLE OR BE TERRIFIED BECAUSE OF THEM; FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD IS HE WHO GOES WITH YOU, TO FIGHT FOR YOU AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES, TO SAVE YOU.”

1 Thessalonians 5:1–8 TPT

Now, beloved brothers and sisters, concerning the question of God’s precise times and specific seasons, you don’t need me to write anything to you. For you already know quite well that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly and as a complete surprise. For while some are saying, “Finally we have peace and security,” sudden destruction will arrive at their doorstep, like labor pains seizing a pregnant woman—and with no chance of escape! But you, beloved brothers and sisters, are not living in the dark, allowing that day to creep up on you like a thief coming to steal. For you are all children of the light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night nor to darkness. THIS IS WHY WE MUST NOT FALL ASLEEP, AS THE REST DO, BUT KEEP WIDE AWAKE AND CLEARHEADED. For those who are asleep sleep the night away, and drunkards get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, WE MUST STAY ALERT AND CLEARHEADED BY PLACING THE BREASTPLATE OF FAITH AND LOVE OVER OUR HEARTS, AND A HELMET OF THE HOPE OF SALVATION OVER OUR THOUGHTS.

Exhortation: Arise and Redeem the Time

The Urgency to Redeem the Time, Our Days are Numbered

The Church must arise and redeem the time because time is running out and the days are evil. As followers of Jesus Christ, to redeem the time, WE MUST SEIZE AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY GOD PRESENTS TO US THAT WE LIVE TO FULFILL HIS WILL—PURPOSEFULLY AND FRUITFULLY. We must treasure time by using it wisely and investing it wholly in doing the will of God and finishing His work here on earth. The Church must live with great urgency because the end is near, and the days are evil. Every second counts and we have none to waste. Ephesians 5:14–17 NKJV commands us, saying,

“Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” SEE THEN THAT YOU WALK CIRCUMSPECTLY, NOT AS FOOLS BUT AS WISE, REDEEMING THE TIME, BECAUSE THE DAYS ARE EVIL. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Time is a priceless gift of life from God, yet He has set it within limits. The measure of time He gives us is the measure of the length of our life—our days are numbered.

• Job 14:1–5 ESV–“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not … his days are determined, and the number of his months is with You, and YOU HAVE APPOINTED HIS LIMITS THAT HE CANNOT PASS.”
• Psalm 39:4–5 NLT–“LORD, REMIND ME HOW BRIEF MY TIME ON EARTH WILL BE. REMIND ME THAT MY DAYS ARE NUMBERED—how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. MY ENTIRE LIFETIME IS JUST A MOMENT TO YOU; AT BEST, EACH OF US IS BUT A BREATH.”

Knowing the brevity of our time on earth, we need to pray as the psalmist did in Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” A HEART OF WISDOM IS AWAKENED AND ARISING TO REDEEM TIME.

No matter the measure of our days, it is all fleeting like a breath. What we do within this one breath has eternal consequences. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to awaken us and give us the power and strength to arise to redeem the time. God in His love for His Church, is awakening His Church to the urgency of time, but it is up to the Church to heed His awakening and obey in arising.

How Do We Redeem the Time?

To redeem the time, we must be intentional, purposeful, and committed to making every second count by knowing God’s will, prioritizing its fulfillment, and pleasing Him through our obedience. It means to seize every opportunity He gives us to obey and glorify Him. Being fully aware that the days are evil, we must seek to understand God’s times and seasons and maximize them by His grace. These are steps to arise and redeem the time.

• Seize every opportunity, make the most of it, and use it for God’s glory (Ephesians 5:16)–If we believe time is a priceless gift, are we stewarding it wisely and fruitfully? Are you using it to gain for God’s kingdom? Time is not our own. No one can guarantee that tomorrow is ours; we only have today, which is given by God.
  Do not use it for evil or frivolously, but use it to glorify God.
• Be careful how we live. Do not act thoughtlessly, but live wisely–We must live with a God-given purpose. Depend and trust in the wisdom of God, not man’s, that we are discerning and selective about how we use time. We are not to live mindlessly as if time is ours to dispense as we like. Time is God’s; we only have the time given, and it is limited. Invest time in the eternal and do not waste it.
• Overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21)–Knowing that the days are evil, we do not succumb to evil but we overcome evil with good.
• Work while it is day (John 9:4)–The time we have left to serve God and do His will is fleeting. It is just a breath. Within this breath, intentionally live for the eternal and be God-centered in the temporal. We must prayerfully number our days and earnestly live as impelled by eternity and driven by the purpose of God. With this in mind, serve God relentlessly and work while there is still time.
• Remove all distractions that waste time–We must know God’s priorities and live by pursuing and fulfilling them. Do not be like Martha who became distracted by many things. Remove from our lives worthless things that are a waste of time because they do not align with God and His will. Pursue God’s kingdom and not the world. We must arise and purpose that the day must be first used to accomplish the eternal and essential to the kingdom of God.
• Live like we are dying–Live with the urgency of one who knows that their days are numbered and extremely short-lived. Live knowing that we are just one breath away from eternity. Whatever we do, do it as unto the Lord wholeheartedly. Do not procrastinate, and do not be in fear.
• Life is like a vapor (James 4:14)–We should always be mindful that our life is as brief as a vapor, but it holds the potential of immense, eternal consequences according to how we live. We must arise and redeem the time with eternity in view always. Understand the urgency by walking wisely and maximizing every God-given opportunity.
• Everything we do will be tested by fire (1 Corinthians 3:12–15)–Choose wisely what we do and how we do it because everything will be tested by fire. Do according to the will of God and do everything to please Him. Serve Him faithfully in complete obedience.

Fight to Arise; Now is the Time!

We must know what is putting the Church to sleep and then defeat it. The Church must no longer be ignorant and blind but understand that demonic spirits are working hard at lulling the Church to sleep. A sleeping Church lacks the conviction and strength to redeem the time. Spiritual slumber is not just slothfulness and apathy; it is a demonic spirit that must be crushed, and its oppression and stranglehold over the Church broken. It must be defeated and overcome. The Church must choose to arise at God’s awakening and be willing to relentlessly war against the spirit of slumber until we are set free. We must no longer tolerate spiritual slumber but loathe it. It is time to put on the armor of God and, with total dependency on the Holy Spirit’s strength, anointing, and power, arise and overcome.

It is not sufficient to be awakened. We must fight to arise, without which we cannot redeem the time. God, in His love, will shake His Church to awaken it to the urgency of time, but the Church must choose to arise in the power of the Holy Spirit. As we awaken, we must cry out to God for the strength of the Holy Spirit to arise so that we can stand and withstand the spirit of slumber and ultimately redeem the time.

Spiritual slumber is to succumb to the control of a demonic spirit of sleepfulness. This stronghold of slumber over the Church must be broken if the Church is to arise. What has mesmerized the Church, causing it to fall into slumber? What has lulled the Church to sleep? The Bible gave examples of servants of God who were chosen for great things but failed because they fell into slumber.

• Eli, the High Priest, had spiritually fallen asleep because he was backslidden. In his days the word of the Lord was rare in the land as Eli was not hearing from God because of his spiritual slumber.
• Samson, called to be a judge and deliverer of Israel, was lulled to sleep by Delilah and could not arise to deliver Israel. In his spiritual slumber, he was taken captive, had his eyes put out, and became a prisoner and slave to the Philistines, grinding at their mill.
• Jonah fell asleep at the bottom of the ship while running away from God in disobedience. God sent a big storm to shake not only the ship but also Jonah. He allowed the crew to throw Jonah overboard and had a big fish swallow him up. For three days in the belly of the fish, God shook Jonah to awaken him to arise to obey Him in going to Nineveh to warn them of God’s judgment.

IT IS TIME TO FIGHT TO ARISE! THIS IS WAR. THE SPIRIT OF SLUMBER MUST BE BROKEN OVER THE CHURCH. We must know what is putting the Church to sleep and defeat it. It takes a willingness to obey the word of God to arise to war until we are set free from sleep and apathy. We must war against demonic spirits that are working hard at oppressing the Church by lulling it into sleep and apathy, lacking in conviction and strength to arise. Now is the time to prepare our hearts and minds for action! Put on the whole armor of God with total dependency on the Holy Spirit’s strength, anointing and power arise and redeem time. It is time to arise, take a stand, and withstand against all the wiles and devices of the enemy. 1 Peter 1:13–16 TPT strongly exhorts all believers and followers of Jesus Christ:

SO THEN, PREPARE YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS FOR ACTION! STAY ALERT AND FIX YOUR HOPE FIRMLY ON THE MARVELOUS GRACE THAT IS COMING TO YOU. For when Jesus Christ is unveiled, a greater measure of grace will be released to you. As God’s obedient children, never again shape your lives by the desires that you followed when you didn’t know better. Instead, shape your lives to become like the Holy One who called you. For Scripture says: “You are to be holy, because I am holy.”

Recognize that This is War

There is a war going on for the heart and soul of the Church to distract, dishearten, disable, and paralyze the Church from arising to obey God. We must war against demonic spirits that are working hard at putting the Church to sleep. We are not warring in the natural against flesh and blood. This is a violent spiritual war “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” according to Ephesians 6:11–13 NIV. The Holy Spirit also warns us in 1 Peter 5:8 ESV, “BE SOBER-MINDED; BE WATCHFUL. YOUR ADVERSARY THE DEVIL PROWLS AROUND LIKE A ROARING LION, SEEKING SOMEONE TO DEVOUR.” The Holy Spirit also warns us concerning the type of warfare we are in and how to use God’s mighty weapons of war to defeat the enemy in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 ESV:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. FOR THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT OF THE FLESH BUT HAVE DIVINE POWER TO DESTROY STRONGHOLDS. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

RECOGNIZE THAT THIS IS WAR! WE ARE TO DESTROY ALL THE DEVIL’S WEAPONS OF WAR WITH THE WEAPONS OF GOD. Spiritual warfare is indiscriminately and violently disruptive, invasive, forceful, and vicious. These are not days when all things remain the same. This is a time of spiritual warfare in the last days! We must awake and war to arise and redeem the time. The deceiving phenomenon is that life seems to go on as usual, dulling the spiritual senses to the gravity of the time. Although we acknowledge that there are challenges, are we lacking the urgency, conviction, and strength to arise?

Matthew 11:12 ESV declares, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” The Church must understand that the kingdom of darkness fights with violent force against the Church to attack, oppress, and destroy. Satan uses force, violence, and aggression to damage, hold in captivity, and ultimately eliminate. He seeks to kill, steal, and destroy. What is the Church employing in this spiritual warfare to defeat the adversary and to arise to redeem the time? Are we spiritually violent in the power of the Holy Spirit in overcoming this warfare by force? It is a vicious warfare in the unseen realm of the spirit. Although unseen, it is true and ferocious. The Church has been lulled into being inactive, unengaged, and lacking wisdom and knowledge concerning this warfare, allowing ourselves to be easy prey for the enemy and offering no resistance and fight in this war. We must awaken to this warfare and fight to arise to redeem the time and restore the Church to its rightful position of authority in Christ. The people of God must engage in fierce warfare and by the Holy Spirit’s power to break and destroy the spirit of slumber that has oppressed the Church and held it in shackles to apathy, thereby incapacitating God’s people from arising and redeeming the time. What has brought the Church into this state? How do we fight? We must deny ourselves, pick up the cross, and follow hard after Jesus, giving no room to the flesh, temptation, and satan.

In Luke 10, Jesus sent out His seventy disciples to preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons, and bring a harvest of souls into the kingdom of God. The seventy came back rejoicing and telling Jesus in Luke 10:17 NKJV, “LORD, EVEN THE DEMONS ARE SUBJECT TO US IN YOUR NAME.” Immediately, Jesus said to the disciples in verses 18–20,

I SAW SATAN FALL LIKE LIGHTNING FROM HEAVEN. BEHOLD, I GIVE YOU THE AUTHORITY TO TRAMPLE ON SERPENTS AND SCORPIONS, AND OVER ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY, AND NOTHING SHALL BY ANY MEANS HURT YOU. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

Jesus saw in the Spirit satan being defeated and cast down like lightning by His seventy disciples according to His authority in them. It is time the Church must arise in the power, anointing, and strength of the Holy Spirit to war violently against the enemy and cast him down like lightning. In this end-time warfare, just like the seventy disciples of Jesus, the Church must arise and war in the authority of Jesus Christ to see “satan fall like lightning.” We must arise to redeem the time by preaching the gospel in power and seeing a mighty harvest coming in, and in the authority He has given us, we must heal the sick, cast out demons, and set captives free.

The Church Shall Overcome, Arise, and Redeem the Time

As we fight at God’s command, God fights for us and gives us victory. We are never called to be dormant, apathetic, passive, half-hearted, and laid back. We are born again, redeemed, empowered, anointed, and called to be spiritually violent, and invasive against the powers and kingdom of darkness. We are called, trained, and armed to be effective, and lethal soldiers of God violently taking down the forces of darkness in the spiritual realm and forcefully taking back spiritual territories where satan and his forces have invaded and occupied—be it personal lives, families, in different generations, societies, communities, and nations. We not only take back stolen territories, but we also advance and occupy all territories God has given to us as our spiritual inheritance—generations and nations. In Deuteronomy 20:1–4 NKJV, God commanded Israel concerning going up to war against their enemies:

WHEN YOU GO OUT TO BATTLE AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES, AND SEE HORSES AND CHARIOTS AND PEOPLE MORE NUMEROUS THAN YOU, DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THEM; FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD IS WITH YOU, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people. And he shall say to them, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL: TODAY YOU ARE ON THE VERGE OF BATTLE WITH YOUR ENEMIES. DO NOT LET YOUR HEART FAINT, DO NOT BE AFRAID, AND DO NOT TREMBLE OR BE TERRIFIED BECAUSE OF THEM; FOR THE LORD YOUR GOD IS HE WHO GOES WITH YOU, TO FIGHT FOR YOU AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES, TO SAVE YOU.

Has the Church fallen asleep as forces of darkness keep advancing? It is not too late. God’s kingdom, will, and purpose will never be defeated. According to God’s times and seasons, the Holy Spirit is very intentionally shaking His Church to awaken and empower us to arise to redeem time. We must hear Him, heed His shaking, and choose to obey and arise. Set our hearts and minds to war to overcome the spirit of slumber; God will give us victory!