SCRIPTURE

“Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.” —Proverbs 20:13

“Therefore He says: Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.” —Ephesians 5:14

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INTRODUCTION: THE SILENCE BETWEEN HEARTBEATS

There is a realm of sleep that is deeper than the body’s rest. It is the sleep of the soul.

It does not close the eyes; it closes perception. It does not silence noise; it silences discernment.
You can walk, speak, even pray—yet remain unconscious of the world pulsing invisibly within and around you: the realm of spirit.

This essay is a call to awaken—not from physical slumber but from spiritual unconsciousness.
This is a meditation on the phronēma pneumatikos—spiritual consciousness (Romans 8:6)—and the necessity of remembrance, perception, and wakefulness if one is to walk victoriously in the unseen kingdom.

While you were sleeping, something sacred may have been stolen. While you were hypnotised by physical limitations of the natural realm and distracted by the incessant noise shouting for your attention you have forgotten who you truly are.

THE INVISIBLE WARFARE OF PERCEPTION

Our lives unfold between two planes—the visible and the invisible.

The physical senses interpret the former, but only the awakened spirit can perceive the latter. Paul wrote,

“The natural man [psychikos anthrōpos, soulish person] does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.” —1 Corinthians 2:14

The danger of living by your senses (mainly sight) is that perception becomes possession. What you perceive defines what you access. And if you perceive only the material world of physicality, you will draw from a realm that perishes and built a life from the remnants of a decaying corps.

This is why many Christians live defeated lives. They try to fight spiritual battles with physical means. They quote Scripture intellectually but it’s intellectual not alive and real to them. They recite promises without inner resonance. Their prayer life is cerebral—not born of the deep knowing of spiritual perception. Thus, divine reality remains abstract and aloof, related to the realm of the abstract and intellectual.

The thief’s strategy is not always violence. Sometimes it is simply sedation (hypnos).

“The thief comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” —John 10:10

How does the thief steal? By putting the soul to sleep. When spiritual perception dissipates, discernment weakens; and when discernment weakens, one can be robbed while still believing all is well.

“IF YOU KNEW WHEN THE THIEF WAS COMING…”

Jesus once said,

“If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.” — Luke 12:39

The parable is not a warning about external threats, but a summons to inner watchfulness — to spiritual wakefulness.
The “house” is the inner sanctuary of the self, the hidden temple of one’s interior life. To “stay awake” is not to resist physical sleep, but to remain spiritually conscious.

It is entirely possible to be bodily awake and yet inwardly asleep—to move, speak, and even pray, while the soul drifts in unconsciousness. In such a state, one may cry out, “Where is God?” unaware that God has not withdrawn at all. Rather, it is the self that has wandered into sleep, losing sight of its true nature and the ever-present divine reality right under ones nose.

To sleep spiritually is to live unguarded—vulnerable to deception, fear, manipulation, and debased in consciousness.

It is no accident that sleep in Scripture so often functions as a symbol of spiritual passivity and neglected awareness. When Jesus found His disciples asleep in Gethsemane, His rebuke cut far deeper than physical fatigue: “Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40).

The Greek verb gregoreō—translated “to watch”—means to be awake, vigilant, fully alert, alive to what is happening around you. It describes an inner posture of attentiveness rather than mere bodily wakefulness. This idea closely mirrors the Hebrew concept of shāmar (שָׁמַר), to guard, keep, watch over, a word frequently used in covenantal contexts to describe conscious, attentive faithfulness.

This is precisely why Jesus is portrayed as the Good Samaritan in the parable.

LUKE 10:25-37.

In Hebrew thought, Shomroni (שֹׁמְרוֹנִי) is linked to the root shāmar—to watch, to guard, to keep. The Samaritan, then, is not merely a compassionate outsider but symbolically “the watcher”—the one who keeps watch over the human soul, the one who sees what others pass by, the one who remains awake when religious functionaries move on in blindness.

Where the priest and the Levite operate from routine, external laws, rituals, and distance, the Samaritan operates from spiritual positioning and perception. He notices. He stops. He acts. In this sense, Jesus is the true Watcher—fully awake to human suffering, fully attentive to the wounded soul by the roadside.

The parable quietly teaches that salvation does not flow from status or ritual, but from spiritual awareness. The one who sees is the one who saves.

In both languages, watching is not passive observation but active spiritual awareness—the disciplined guarding and cultivating of spiritual perception—the inner garden of God (cf. Gen 2:15). To sleep, then, is not simply to rest, but to relinquish that inner watchfulness, leaving the soul exposed at precisely the moment vigilance is most required.

To be spiritually awake, then, is not merely to know truth but to perceive it in real time—to to be awake to the reality that awareness that God is present, active, and communicative in every breath.

1 SAMUEL 19:1-3 — THE PARABLE OF HIDING

“Now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted greatly in David. So Jonathan told David, saying, ‘My father Saul seeks to kill you. Therefore, please be on your guard until morning, and stay in a secret place and hide.’” —1 Samuel 19:1-3

Hidden within this historical account lies a parable of spiritual warfare.

Saul (Sha’ul, שָׁאוּל)— embodies the self-willed desire of the flesh corrupted by the devil. He represents the lower nature that resists the anointed purpose (David) within us.

In Hebrew phonetic resonance, Sha’ul sounds akin to Sheol—the grave, the underworld, the realm of shadow i.e. Satan, the devil. Thus Saul symbolically mirrors the adversary—the one who draws the soul back into death (Thanatos).

David, whose name (Dāwīd, דָּוִד) means beloved, is the Christ-nature in man—the awakened heart after God.
Jonathan, meaning Yahweh has given, prefigures the Spirit of grace—the divine Advocate warning the soul to hide in God until the morning light.

When Jonathan tells David, “Stay in a secret place and hide,” it is an image of prayerful retreat.

1 SAMUEL 19:2

To “hide” (sāthar, סָתַר) in Hebrew means “to conceal, to withdraw for protection.” It is the same root used in Psalm 27:5:

“For in the day of trouble He shall hide [yisthirenī] me in His pavilion.”

To hide in God is not fear; it is faith. It is spiritual recalibration. It is the soul awakening to the higher consciousness of divine protection. Thus, hiding becomes a sacred metaphor for turning inward to the indwelling Spirit—the practice of retreating from sensory noise to dwell in the awareness of God (cf. Matt. 6:6).

But Saul—Sheol—is relentless. He attacks when vigilance fades. Hence the plea:

“Be on your guard until morning.”

Morning (boqer) in Hebrew stems from a root meaning to seek, to inspect, to break forth. Dawn, then, is not merely the rising of light; it is the revelation that comes through seeking. To awaken spiritually is to enter the dawning of spiritual consciousness—when perception shifts from darkness to light.

THE PHRONĒMA PNEUMATIKOS—THE MIND OF THE SPIRIT

Paul’s phrase phronēma pneumatikos (Romans 8:6)—“the mind of the spirit (small ‘s’”—is the epicentre of this meditation. In short it refers to the awakened, enlightened perceptions, awareness, consciousness of the renewed human spirit.

In Greek, phronēma derives from phrēn, meaning “the diaphragm”—the seat of feeling, perception, and intention. It implies an inner disposition, a way of thinking shaped by one’s essence. Phronēma pneumatikos is not intellectual thought but spiritual perception. It is the inward attunement that interprets life from the spiritual standpoint.

By contrast, phronēma sarkikos—the carnal, physical, biological mind—interprets life through sensory data and self-preservation. It is the animalistic body that is focused on survival of genetic material.
Paul warns:

“To be carnally minded [phronēma tēs sarkos] is death [cut off from spiritual life], but to be spiritually minded [phronēma tou pneumatos] is life and peace [the result of being spiritually connected.” —Romans 8:6

Spiritual unconsciousness occurs when phronēma pneumatikos is neglected.

It is when your inner antenna has gone silent, when divine frequency is drowned out by the static of fear, desire, or distraction. Then the soul walks in darkness, unable to access the inheritance already given in Christ.

THE THEFT OF UNREALITY

To be “robbed while sleeping” is to lose awareness of one’s true wealth which is summed up in one word—identity.

You can have every spiritual blessing in Christ yet live as though bankrupt because your consciousness is tuned to lack.

EPHESIANS 1:3

This is the paradox of the modern believer—filled with resurrection power yet functioning as if still in the grave.
Unawareness (unconsciousness) is the adversary’s favourite weapon. He does not need to destroy what you never realise you possess.

Hence Jesus’ lament:

“They have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear.” —Mark 8:18

Awakening begins not with acquisition but with remembrance.

REMEMBRANCE AS AWAKENING

The Greek word for remembrance, anamnēsis, literally means “to call back to mind”—literally the opposite of amnesia.

It is not mere recollection but re-participation.

When Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of Me,” or more correctly translated, “Do this so that you will remember [perceive] Me,” He invited us not to think of Him nostalgically but to enter again into His consciousness—the very definition of spiritual consciousness.

In Hebrew, remembrance is zākar (זָכַר)—to recall, to mention, to make present again. When God “remembered Noah” (Genesis 8:1) or “remembered His covenant” (Exodus 2:24), it signified the activation of divine consciousness.

Likewise, when we remember God, we awaken to His present reality. Remembrance is resurrection. It revives the awareness that we are already one with Him.

Spiritual practice, therefore, is not about reaching for God but remembering Him, that is, becoming aware of Him.

Prayer becomes less about petition and more about perception—a returning to spiritual consciousness.

HIDING, WATCHING, ABIDING

Throughout Scripture, the verbs that describe spiritual awareness often carry physical metaphors: to hide, to watch, to abide, to stand. Each expresses an aspect of vigilance in the unseen.

• To hide—represents retreat into God (Psalm 91:1).
• To watch—means inner alertness, guarding the gates of thought (1 Peter 5:8).
• To abide—indicates continuous awareness of divine presence (John 15:4).
• To stand—symbolises stability and authority in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:13).

When any of these dimensions collapse, consciousness slips. The enemy thrives in forgetfulness.

That is why Jesus warns: “What I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” (Mark 13:37).

The command is not paranoid vigilance but spiritual lucidity—to live as one who sees (is awake to) the unseen.

THE BODY CONSCIOUS VS. THE SPIRIT CONSCIOUS

The fall of man was not merely moral but perceptual.

Adam’s eyes were opened—to the physical—and in that moment, he lost spiritual vision. The awareness of Christ-consciousness through divine intimacy gave way to self-consciousness:

“I was afraid, because I was naked.”—Genesis 3

Since then, humanity has oscillated between two centers of awareness: body consciousness and spirit consciousness.

→ Body consciousness defines reality by appearance and sensation.
→ Spirit consciousness defines reality by divine essence and truth.

Paul delineates this tension in 2 Corinthians 4:18:

“We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are unseen are eternal.”

When you are body-conscious, you live reactive—driven by circumstance.
When you are spirit-conscious, you live responsive—aligned with divine movement.

The one is exhausting; the other, empowering.

WHEN THE MIND SLEEPS, THE ENEMY SOWS

Jesus explained this mystery in the parable of the tares:

“While men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat.” —Matthew 13:25

Sleep here represents unawareness because of unconsciousness. The field is the soul; the wheat, divine ideas; the tares, false perceptions planted through distraction and fear.

When vigilance wanes, the enemy sows lies—seeds of separation, shame, scarcity. They sprout unnoticed until harvest—until life bears fruit inconsistent with divine intention that resembles hell on earth more that the divine will of heaven on earth (cf. Matt 6:10).

Spiritual practice uproots cooperate with Heaven to make sure God’s sovereign will of restoration is implemented.

THE HEBREW SYMBOLISM OF HIDING AND AWAKENING

In the Psalms, hiding is a sacred motif.

David often declares, “You are my hiding place” (seter, סֵתֶר, Psa. 32:7). The root s-t-r implies both concealment and intimacy. To hide in God is to be drawn into the secret chamber where revelation dawns.

The opposite of hiding in God is hiding from God—as Adam did in Genesis 3:8. One is born of intimacy; the other of shame.

Thus, spiritual unconsciousness is not mere ignorance; it is the soul’s attempt to conceal itself from divine light.
The first symptom of the fall was hiding. The first call of redemption was awakening: “Adam, where are you?”—not geographical but existential.

THE SLEEP OF RELIGION

Many live in the illusion of wakefulness because they engage in religious activity. But religion without revelation is a dream without awareness—movement without meaning. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees not for ignorance of Scripture but for blindness to its Spirit:

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; but these are they which testify of Me.” —John 5:39

Knowledge without consciousness breeds pride; consciousness without knowledge breeds drift.
True spirituality marries both: the informed and illumined mind of Christ.

PRACTISING SPIRITUAL WAKEFULNESS

How then do we awaken?

Spiritual wakefulness is cultivated, not conjured.
It grows through disciplines that align attention with Spirit.

1. Stillness: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
   Stillness dissolves noise and restores perception. The Hebrew raphah (“be still”) means to let go, to cease striving.
2. Meditation: “Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2).
   To meditate (hagah) means to murmur, muse, or imagine. It trains the mind to visualise divine truth until it becomes internal reality. You are what you eat (cf. Matt. 4:4).
3. Remembrance (Anamnēsis): continual recalling of God’s presence through practice. Whisper His name throughout the day; every remembrance re-aligns the soul.
4. Watchfulness: “Be sober, be vigilant” (1 Peter 5:8). Guard thoughts, words, and emotions; each is a gateway of perception.
5. Fellowship of Spirit: community quickens consciousness. The Spirit within another often awakens what sleeps within you.

These practices are not religious duties but instruments of perception—lenses polishing the inner eye.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF SPIRITUAL UNCONSCIOUSNESS

To remain spiritually asleep has tangible consequences:

1. Vulnerability to deception: Without discernment, lies appear logical. (2 Corinthians 11:3)
2. Chronic defeat: You cannot win battles fought on the wrong plane. (Ephesians 6:12)
3. Emotional exhaustion: Life becomes reactionary, dictated by circumstance.
4. Loss of inheritance: The treasures of heaven remain unopened. (Ephesians 1:18)
5. Diminished authority: Sleepers cannot reign; they can only dream.

But those who awaken reclaim dominion. They live from heaven toward earth, not from earth toward heaven.

THE AWAKENED LIFE

To awaken spiritually is to see as Christ sees.

He lived fully conscious—hearing the Father in every moment, perceiving the invisible currents beneath visible events. His miracles were not interruptions of natural law but expressions of higher awareness.

When He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do” (John 5:19), He revealed the secret: perception precedes manifestation. To see the Father is to participate in His activity.

The awakened life, therefore, is not mystical escapism but practical dominion. It is the ability to translate divine perception into daily living—to speak peace into storms, multiply loaves through gratitude, and walk through death unafraid.

SYMBOLS OF WAKEFULNESS IN SCRIPTURE

Scripture abounds with wakeful imagery:

• Morning light: revelation (Psalm 30:5).
• Oil in the lamp: sustained consciousness (Matthew 25:4).
• Open eyes: illumination (2 Kings 6:17).
• Trumpet sound: divine call to awareness (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Each symbol points to the same reality: awareness of God as the ground of being.

Even the Resurrection itself is the ultimate awakening—humanity rising from unconscious separation into union.

To “awake” is to resurrect daily into that truth.

WHY SPIRITUAL PRACTICE IS NECESSARY

You cannot awaken by accident. The gravitational pull of flesh and distraction is too strong. Hence the need for spiritual practice—disciplined remembrance.

Practice does not earn grace; it aligns with grace that is already available in order to access it. It tunes the mind to the Spirit’s wavelength until awareness becomes natural.

Think of prayer not as reaching upward but as becoming inwardly still enough to hear the eternal conversation already happening. Think of meditation not as escape but as participation in divine awareness— the new reality available in Christ.

Think of confession not as guilt but as alignment—speaking the same (homologia) as God about your identity.

CONFESSION = HOMOLOGIA = “SAYING THE SAME” = AGREEMENT

AMOS 3:3

These are the mechanics of wakefulness—not rituals but rehearsals of remembrance.

A FINAL WARNING: DO NOT SLEEP THROUGH YOUR INHERITANCE

Paul’s urgency echoes through the ages:

“It is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” —Romans 13:11

Every moment of forgetfulness is a moment of forfeiture. Heaven’s storehouse remains open, but perception is the key.

DEUTERONOMY 29:29

Do not let the thief rob you of joy, vision, or purpose while you are asleep at the gate of awareness. Stay awake. Keep your lamp lit. Remember who you are and Whose you are.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” —Deuteronomy 29:29

Because in every age, the tragedy is the same: they were robbed while they were sleeping.

THE END OF THE NIGHTMARE

A nightmare does not end because you fight the shadows within it—It ends the moment you wake up.

You do not reason with a dream, negotiate with it, or overpower it by force. The struggle itself belongs to the dream-state. Freedom comes through awareness—through the sudden, quiet realisation: this is not reality. And in that instant, the nightmare dissolves.

So it is with the spiritual life.

Much of what we call warfare, resistance, or endurance is often the labour of an unconscious soul trying to solve a spiritual problem from within a diminished field of perception. We exhaust ourselves wrestling images, symptoms, and circumstances, never realising that the true issue is not the battle before us, but the sleep beneath us.

The answer is not to fight harder. It is to wake up.

Spiritual awakening is not an emotional event or a rare mystical moment. It is a cultivated state of consciousness—a practised attentiveness to the unseen reality that has always been present. As awareness is restored, fear loses its authority, deception loses its grip, and the thief finds no open door. Light does not argue with darkness; it simply reveals it to be nothing more than absence.

When spiritual consciousness is activated, life is no longer something that happens to you, but something that flows through you. You stop reacting to shadows and begin responding from truth. What once felt like chaos is recognised as illusion. What once felt like abandonment is revealed as forgetfulness. God was never absent — only unseen.

This is the great invitation of the spiritual life: not escape, not striving, not endless conflict—but awakening.

To remain spiritually awake is to live from a place where nightmares cannot survive, because dreams cannot exist in the light of consciousness.

The night ends not when the world changes,
but when you open your eyes.

A PRAYER FOR AWAKENING

Father of Light and Giver of all awareness,
I come before You not to strive, but to awaken.
Where my soul has drifted into forgetfulness, call me back.
Where my perception has been dulled by noise, distraction, or fear, sharpen my inner sight.

Wake me from every form of spiritual sleep.
Restore to me the phronēma pneumatikos—the mind of the Spirit—that I may see what You are doing, hear what You are saying,
and live from heaven toward earth, not from earth toward heaven.

Help me to guard the inner house of my heart.
Teach me to watch, to keep, to shāmar what You have entrusted to me.
Let me not be robbed through unconsciousness,
nor wounded by battles I was never meant to fight in the flesh.

If I have asked, “Where are You, Lord?”
and the truth is that I have wandered into sleep,
gently awaken me again to the nearness of Your presence.
Let remembrance become my refuge
and awareness my daily devotion.

Make me like the Watcher—seeing the wounded, hearing the whisper,
responding in love, moving in authority,
fully alive to the Kingdom already among us.

I choose wakefulness.
I choose light.
I choose to arise.

In Christ, who never sleeps nor slumbers,
Amen.

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