"Wake Up" June 7, 2011

So there are multiple times during the day that Ryan will come up to me, grab my shoulder and say, "Wake Up!  Wake Up!"  Obviously, I am very awake and I tell him that.  "Yes, Ryan, mommy is awake!"  But the other day when he did this, the Holy Spirit very gently said, "Nicole, are there places in your life that are 'sleeping'?  Have you "fallen asleep" in some areas in your life?"  Wow.  I was taken aback at first.  As I was pondering about this question and folding laundry I was taking an assessment of my life.  Now I have to say, I didn't feel condemned in the least!  God wasn't trying to hit me over the head or anything...He was just gently using the Holy Spirit to reveal to me some areas that needed to wake up!  The area that really stuck out to me was speaking truth and life into my circumstances.  The verse that was highlighted after that revelation was Ezekiel and the dry bones (Ezekiel 37: 1-14).  When God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones (dead places) and the bones awaken...that hit me hard!  But I like how the focus is not on Ezekiel, but on the LORD!  "Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.  I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.  Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord."  We merely rely on the Lord for guidance and He does the work!  He breathes life into the dead/asleep places in our lives when we walk out the obedience!  Whew...all that with one simple phrase that my little Ryan says to me all the time..."WAKE UP!!!"  Thank you, Lord, for using my wonderful 3 year old boy!!!