Several years ago, a news item was released about a young man who had been involved in a serious automobile accident. He sustained severe head injuries, and, after remaining in a coma for three weeks, he continued in a state of unconsciousness for eight years. Daily his parents would prop him up in bed, and then transfer him to a chair braced with pillows in order to feed him.

Suddenly one day, to the amazement and joy of everyone, the young man woke up! Eight years had passed, the world was already a different place, but at least he had the chance to live again.

Can you imagine sleeping for eight years? I believe God, with His mercy, has given us Romans 13:11 to awaken us. It says, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.” And then it goes on to say that we need to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, not in our pajamas.

“The work is fast closing up, and on every side wickedness is increasing. We have but a short time in which to work. Let us awake from spiritual slumber, and consecrate all that we have and are to the Lord. His Spirit will abide with true missionaries, furnishing them with power for service.”1

“God calls for a spiritual revival and a spiritual reformation. Unless this takes place, those who are lukewarm will continue to grow more abhorrent to the Lord, until He will refuse to acknowledge them as His children.”2

Joel preached to God’s people in Judah just before the Babylonian armies destroyed Jerusalem and took God’s people into exile. He cried out for them to repent, so that God could spare the land from the coming invasion. His words of warning are applicable to us even today.

The Lord says: “Turn ye even to me with all your heart. . . . And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. . . . Blow the trumpet in Zion.” (Joel 2:12-15).

God calls for a spiritual awakening. He is sounding an alarm. He is crying out to His people saying, It is time to get out of bed! God was not counseling Judah, He was telling them. God did not suggest them to wake up; He told them to wake up. He was very specific. It was not an option, but an obligation. The church has to rediscover the majesty and the holiness of God, and the sinfulness of sin.

“Wake up, brethren and sisters, wake up. Sleep no longer. . . . Whoever has received the Holy Spirit will make it manifest; for all his powers will be employed in the most active service. All who actually receive Christ by faith, work. They feel the burden of souls. God now calls upon everyone who has a knowledge of the truth, who is a depositary of sacred truth, to arise and impart the light of heaven to others.”3

“Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar” (Verse 17). Revival must start with the leadership. Revival will come only when the ministers and the leaders get right before God. Now the Lord addresses the people also: Verse 16 says, “Sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children,” and even the nursing infants. In other words, get everybody together - it is going to take pulpit and pew, leaders and laity. We all need a revival and a reformation. “Rend your heart, and not your garments.” “Weep between the porch and the altar.” Surrender your heart and say to God, “Spare Thy people, O Lord. Do not make us a reproach among the nations.”

“God requires of His people according to the grace and truth given them. All His righteous demands must be fully met. . . . If they fail to do this, their light becomes darkness, and their darkness is great in the same degree as their light was abundant. . . .

“Light, precious light, shines upon God’s people; but it will not save them unless they consent to be saved by it, fully live up to it, and transmit it to others in darkness. God calls upon His people to act. It is an individual work of confessing and forsaking sins and returning unto the Lord that is needed. One cannot do this work for another. . . .

“Let the work be thorough, the consecration to God entire. He calls for a full surrender of all that we have and are.”4

The headline on the front cover of Newsweek says, “Be Worried. Be VERY worried.”5 Time is almost extinct. We are in the last movements of a dying clock of time.

“Wake up, brethren; for your own soul’s sake, wake up. Without the grace of Christ you can do nothing. Work while you can.”6