Good morning, Saints. I come before you today, leaning not on my own understanding, but fully dependent on the help of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who gives the message and the meaning. This morning, He has laid a crucial word on my heart, a warning and a wake-up call titled: “Sleeping While Awake.”

Now, we all understand what it means to be physically awake. When you are awake, you are not sleeping. Your body is full of energy, your mind is active, your chromosomes are in rhythm with the timing of the earth. Whether you are here in the sport of life, whether you are tired and relaxing, or even if you are sick on a stretcher bed—the physical presence, the physical functionality of your human body, is awake and operating. You are using your mind to think, your hands to work, your feet to move. This is the corruption and the cooperation of human design in our daily lives.

But I am here to talk about a deeper reality, a spiritual condition that is affecting many believers today. I am talking about the state of being physically awake, while being spiritually asleep. How can you be sleeping while you are away? How can these two opposite things—sleeping and being awake—collaborate in the same moment? This is the deep understanding we must grasp.

You see, God created you as a tripartite being: spirit, soul, and body. When your physical body goes to sleep at night, your spirit does not have to sleep. In fact, it is often when your flesh is silent that your spirit is most awake! That is why you obtain dreams. That is why you receive visions. That is why your spirit can be taken, traveling into different dispensations and locations in the spirit realm. Your spirit is designed to be eternally connected to God.

But the problem, the great danger, is when this order is flipped. When you are up and about, your body is awake, your flesh is active… but your spirit is fast asleep. You are awake, but you are sleeping. Something vital inside you is dead, is resting, is disconnected. What is sleeping? It is your spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit within you is being put on rest mode while you go about your day.

And what causes this? What makes our spirit fall asleep while our body is still functioning? It happens when we begin to dabble with the world. It happens when we see the things of the world as normal, acceptable, and not dangerous. We put our own spirit on rest. We put the Holy Spirit on rest. We put our faith in God on the shelf. We silence that still, small voice and instead, we operate solely on our earthly, physical senses. We start using only our earthly mind, our human intellect, our physical strength to navigate life.

This, people of God, is where the danger partner is revealed! You see people trying to use what they think is good to survive, but they are not listening to or following the principles of God. Someone just decides, “I want to make money.” It’s a physical desire. And so they ask, “How do I make money?” And without a awake spirit to guide them, they conclude: “I must sell my beauty. I must sell my body. I must sell the things that God gave me to glorify Him, all to make money and satisfy this earthly life.” They are forcing themselves, running after the things of the world because they want to satisfy the body. And you can only satisfy the body in this ungodly way when your spirit is sleepy, when it cannot protest, when it cannot sound the alarm.

Some of us are running around, frantically looking for a spiritual help, a prophet, a word, a sign. But I tell you, that very search is often a physical one, not a spiritual one. Because when your spirit is truly awake and connected to God, you don’t have that frantic intention to find external help. The help is inside you! The Governor, the Holy Spirit, is inside you!

When your spirit is sleeping, the decisions you make will make you suffer tomorrow. The connections you form are ungodly. You see, God placed inside every believer spiritual sensors. They are like reflection centers, like a light sensor that automatically flashes when something passes by. When your spirit is awake, you pass by a temptation, and the sensor goes off: “Warning! Don’t go there!” You face a decision, and the Holy Spirit reflects: “This is the way, walk in it.”

But when your spirit is sleeping, those sensors are disabled. You can walk right into sin, right into a bad contract, right into a destructive relationship, and there is no reflection. There is no alarm. You just pass through, because the center of your spiritual guidance system is shut down. Your spirit is sleeping while you are awake.

So what is the word of the Lord for us today? What must we do? I want to encourage you with this: you must be mindful. You must force yourself to be intentional. While your flesh is awake and active in this world, your spirit must be awake in the realm of God. This is not a one-time prayer; this is a slow, daily forcing of yourself to lean into the Spirit. It is something you must ask the Holy Spirit to help you with every single day. “Holy Spirit, help me! Awaken my spirit! Let my inner man be as alert as my outer man!”

You need your spirit awake so that you can reflect upon every good thing God wants you to do. You need to reflect on your God-given purpose here on earth. You need to operate in the help of the Holy Spirit. That is why the Bible declares in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” They think they are doing right in their own eyes, but they are not. They think they are in line with God, but they are not. They are asleep at the wheel.

So right now, let us pray a prayer that will lead us into a permanent awakening. Let us pray that from this day forward, each and every time our physical body is awake, our spirit will be powerfully, sensitively, and dominantly awake to God.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you, acknowledging our condition. Forgive us for the times we have put our spirit to sleep while we walked through our days. Forgive us for relying on our flesh, our mind, and our strength. Today, we ask for a great awakening. Holy Spirit, breathe upon the dry bones within us. Awaken my spirit! Let it rise up and take its rightful place of leadership in my life. Activate my spiritual sensors. Let me hear your voice clearly, sense your direction strongly, and feel your conviction immediately. From this day forward, let me never operate with a sleeping spirit again. I declare that I am awake, both in body and in spirit, to the glory of God. In the mighty and awakening name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.