Sleep: The Secret to Untold Wisdom, Riches and Mysteries
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
Genesis 2:21 (NKJV)
We are looking at the ways and systems God employs to bring His people into their inheritance. We are concerned with what He has for us, and we know it is beyond our highest dreams and aspirations; that is why we seek His ways, so that we may understand how to receive the promises and desires God has for us.
One evening during prayer I heard a voice in my spirit say these words: "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam." They came as a surprise, because I was not praying or thinking along those lines, but I knew the voice was quoting Genesis 2:21, and so I went to investigate. I looked at the word "sleep," and I was astonished. I had not seen it before, though the revelation had always been there: sleep was instrumental in the creation of Eve.
Sleep is spiritual. The first time sleep is mentioned in the Bible, it is in reference to God; it was the operation of the Spirit for bringing something forth from the man. In the natural, doctors must put you into a deep sleep to perform any major operation, but this method originated with God. It is spiritual, and it is potent.
The phrase "deep sleep," tardemah, is used seven times in Scripture, and it always refers to the Lord doing something with, or to, a man. The Lord used sleep to carry out His objectives in the lives of men; it is one of the many ways the Spirit of God works. The most important things in the lives of men like Adam, Abraham and Solomon took place while they slept: Eve, the covenant, wisdom and riches. God uses this method to produce, impart, reveal, guide and prosper His people. It is the ancient way of bringing spiritual things forth onto the earthly plane, and sleep provides the tools needed to position the soul to prosper.
It is amazing how something as simple as sleep can transform lives. Could it be that we have missed great blessings because we have not been as open to this operation of God as we should be? We regard sleep as a means of resting our bodies and minds, but the Lord says it is a platform for the miraculous. Notice how this kind of sleep was responsible for:
- The building of Eve
- The covenant God made with Abraham, and the revelation of the four hundred years
- The unconventional secret given to Jacob for creating wealth
- The saving of men from the pit, and the sealing of divine instruction
- The wisdom and riches of Solomon
- The end-time revelation given to Nebuchadnezzar
- The confirmation of the birth of Jesus
- The guidance of the wise men, of Joseph and of Paul
Search the whole Bible and you will discover that sleep transformed the lives of many. I believe the Holy Spirit has illuminated this truth to restore faith in this work of God, because in these last days great supernatural deliverances and workings of God will take place through this medium. The next inventors, businessmen, miracle workers, deliverers and millionaires in the Kingdom will be created by sleep, the sleep of the Lord.
While this operation is induced by the Lord, there are things that can be done to catalyse it. Sacrificial offerings, for instance, seem to trigger this spiritual operation more than anything else, and prayer, praise and worship, fasting and meditation can produce the atmosphere needed for such things to take place. What is important to understand is that God is going to use this ancient secret more and more in these last days. Get ready.
A last note: we spend half our lives asleep, and these are times when we are wholly yielded and at rest. Could this be the mystery behind Christian perfection?