Before are asleep Second service Pastor Marco Vinicio Castillo Guatemala, May 15th Year of Abundance
Ex. 13:20-21 “And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.” This verse describes when Israel is starting to leave Egypt, where they were slaves for many years, and it shows us that Israel is a figure of our life, of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the spiritual Israel; therefore, Egypt must also represent a counterpart, the ways of this world. In that time, God sent a liberator in Moses, who faced Pharaoh; Moises is a representation of Jesus and Pharaoh represents the devil who, being defeated, had to let the people leave the world to celebrate the Lord in the desert. Now, when the liberation process started for Israel, Pharaoh put more work and burdens in them so they couldn’t leave the Earth, it is the same that the devil has tried in the life of the people of God, to stop us of being taken as God has promised so we can meet with the Lord in the clouds. We not only see all this representations and figures in the Bible, we also see the signs that Jesus said would happen as part of the final times, and this means that soon we will meet with Him face to face, and the parts of the previous verse is very important: “travel by day and by night”, in other words, we need to strive each day to reach that by which we were reached, work hard to untie our heart of the things of this world so we can reach holiness. Let´s remember that we are in God´s hand at every moment, we have relied on God, but there must also be an effort from us to please His heart; if we make that effort every day, when the night comes we must also try to not lose that communion and that even by night our heart is willing to reach being as He is. Gen. 28:10-12 “Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! This experience was so extraordinary for Jacob, he was so sure of his dream that he named that place “House of God and Door to Heaven” because that couldn´t be any other place; he had the conviction that the place was some type of dimensional place. Now, when Jacob went to sleep, he didn´t do it with haste as anyone would if they were tired of a long journey under the sun, what Jacob did first was find a stone that could not have been any stone, he had to discern which stone to use, he chose it to put it under his head and we could say that this somehow allowed him to have that extraordinary experience. This question arises: what does this have to do with us going to bed? Let´s remember that Saul had a spear as on top of his bed and the consequence was that he was influenced in a satanic way as few in the Bible were. Michal had an idol on top of his bed, which influenced her to idolatry. We are not trying to be mystic about it, but it makes us think in what we do with our time before we go to sleep, because that can influence our time of rest and our dreams. For this reason, we
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Before are asleep Second service Pastor Marco Vinicio Castillo Guatemala, May 15th Year of Abundance
need to take care our spiritual life, our relationship with God, so if we want Him to talk to us like He did with the prophet Samuel, then we must seek Him at all times, in day and night. Gen. 9:20-22 “Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.” Noah was a man of God but in this verse we see his attitude before sleeping; according to the Bible he was perfect in his genes, a righteous man, however, he fell to the effect of wine and this made one of his children abuse him. Ezk. 14:13-14 “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord GOD.” Noah reached a level of righteousness that was the same of Daniel and Job that not even their families would be saved, only they would be saved because of their righteousness; but Noah fell to the effects of wine which led to him having to curse his son. Now, if this happened to Noah, who are we to say that we are exempt of things like these to not keep us from playing with sin? Maybe for us alcohol is not a problem, but it may be that sin is getting into our hearts somehow, perhaps we are getting drunk on tv, videogames, pornography, even with things that look good but at the end they make us waste our time instead of using it to seek God. Jg 16:18:20 “When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up again, for he has told me all his heart." Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.” This Hero of Faith lost God´s presence because he played with sin before going to sleep. Ps 4:7-8 “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” How right is the Bible when it says we must not let the sun set and still be angry, because that won´t let us have a proper sleep. Pr. 3:21-24 “My son, do not lose sight of these— keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble. If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.”
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Before are asleep Second service Pastor Marco Vinicio Castillo Guatemala, May 15th Year of Abundance
This verse is a clear advice of the things we need to consider before going to sleep; certainly our life depends on God but regarding what we can do on our behalf, let´s do what is on our power to every day to please Him and move forward day and night, even while we sleep; let´s allow the Lord to minister our life, so we can have experiences as apostle Peter had in jail, when he was freed but he thought he was still sleeping: Ac 12:6-11 “Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, "Dress yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."
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