Breaking from Slumber – Pastor Julius Suubi

The city of Miri recently encountered a prayer awakening with visitors from nearby regions, including Brunei converging at SIB Canada Hill here.

Speaking for the first time, Apostle Julius Suubi and his team saw a packed crowd at the Prayer Awakening Conference. “You will never learn prayer by just teaching. You learn prayer by understanding and impartation,” he said, adding that the greatest prayer anointing comes when you pray.

Apostle Suubi shared about breaking the spirit of slumber in the church, “The spirit of slumber is a powerful spirit invading nations and churches. The spirit of slumber is one of the signs of the end times.” Matthew 25 talks about the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.

“The church has to rise up in Malaysia to break this spirit,” he called. The apostle was at a prayer conference in Canada a month ago with Dr Chuck Pierce when they realized how much the church has fallen in prayer. He was also in Sweden and met people who did not even believe in prayer. “It’s a sad situation,” he said. “The same spirit is reigning in Malaysia.” There are some points that God is pointing out in Isaiah 56:9-11.

All you beasts of the field, come to devour, All you beasts in the forest.
His watchmen are blind, They are all ignorant; They are all dumb dogs, They cannot bark;
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
Yes, they are greedy dogs. Which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand;
They all look to their own way, Every one for his own gain, From his own territory. (Isaiah 56:9-11)

“We are praying tonight and breaking these forces from the church!” he called.

For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. (Isaiah 56: 7)

“What God desires is that His house is a house of prayer,” he said. He was speaking at the time when the church was not praying. God desires His church to become a house of prayer today.

“A church that is not praying is in a state of slumber. That means that there is a spirit of prayerlessness upon the church,” he continued. Church is an individual person and you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Some churches have very little prayer or no prayer at all. Prayer comes in different levels and not all prayers are effectual.

Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:16)

“Not all prayers are effective; there are different levels just like anointing, which has different levels,” he said. He compared this to the different levels of fuel. At the paraffin level, you can make the lamp burn but you cannot make a car move. At the diesel level, you can make a car move but it is not as flammable as petrol.  Petrol can also make a car move but if you want to fly a plane, you cannot use diesel. It is another level to fly a plane and another level to fly a rocket.

“There’s a prayer that has no impact that even the laziest demon in the gates of hell cannot go away!” he explained. “By listening to people praying, I can immediately know your level.” There is a worshipper’s voice and a ‘praying for food’ voice.

“You can know a voice that has been praying. You can know a voice that has spent hours in the presence of God,” he said. “God is raising up an army; an apostolic kind of people.” Some of us when we say, ‘let us begin to pray,’ we are done in a few minutes because of the sleeping anointing!

God is calling the beasts of the field to come and devour. These are not lions or cheetahs but these are demons! There are many beasts and power of darkness coming and devouring His people. God is giving the invitation for the power of darkness to come.

“God has called His people to wake up!” he said. When God moves away His protection, it is an open invitation to the power of darkness to devour His people. One of the greatest strategies the devil uses is the spirit of comfort.

There are two mega strategies the devil uses to destroy nations.  One is the strategy of comfort; where he lets the people be comfortable. It has worked successfully in the Western world where people have the best things like home and comfort. So, they are not seeking the Lord. The other strategy is giving people many problems like those in the African countries and poor Asian countries. People are sick and they lack on every side. So, they do not see the goodness of the Lord. “When people have so many struggles in their lives, they cannot see God,” he said.

The spirit of comfort is also working in Malaysia where you find people in the church so comfortable. “God has blessed this land; you may have trouble quite a bit but you can thank the Lord you are a Malaysian!” he said. There is a very strong sense of comfort in the church where people are not taking the Lord zealously and passionately because they have all the basic necessities of life.

“The Lord has been blowing the trumpet to rise up the nation,” he said. At some level of comfort, people don’t feel the need to arise and pray. God does not make you comfortable to make Him irrelevant in your life.

“God is not going to be sitting around with Jesus and the Holy Spirit; there is a fish waiting for you!” he said. God knows where to touch you to make you wake up. Jacob was a proud man and a professional con-man. He wrestled with God the whole night. Then, his pride was gone. When Esau met Jacob, he immediately forgave him because he no longer walked with his head up high – he was limping!

“If you don’t rise up, God knows where to touch (you)!” he called. Don’t play with God! When the church doesn’t rise up, the enemy becomes unstoppable and unchallenged. “If you don’t rise up, you find corruption increase and immorality increase because the church has the legal entity to stop the power of darkness!” he continued. On a personal level, with certain challenges, if you don’t say enough is enough, these challenges are going to continue.

“Things are happening here like you have never seen before. If you don’t rise up, that’s the beginning. It’s an indicator for you to rise up now!” he said telling Kota Kinabalu and Sarawak are the green trees of Malaysia; and West Malaysia is a dry tree because there are more moves of God here than in West Malaysia. “Somebody, you have to rise up for the nation and not just pray for yourself,” he said.

I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.  (Daniel 7:21-22)

“Until the Ancient of Days” means until the church rises up! Isaiah 56:10 talks about blindness. The watchmen cannot see even with their eyes open. The watchmen cannot see the spiritual atmosphere because many times what’s going on in the spiritual are different from our naked eyes.

Five years ago, the apostle was in Malaysia telling the people what God has impressed on him. There will be judgment to the land. Some people say it was impossible and it could not happen. Many see with their physical eyes. You can’t see in the realm of the spirit until you spend quality time in the presence of God. God says open your mouth and I will fill it with good things. So pray loudly!

“The watchmen are all ignorant; ignorant of what?” he asked, “Because they don’t read the Word of God.” Many people don’t read the Word but many people read the newspaper. Some men and women of God read to get sermons. If you read five chapters per day, is that too much?

One of the greatest revivals that will take place is hearing the Word of God.

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it.

“In that day the fair virgins
And strong young men
Shall faint from thirst.”

(Amos 8:11-13)

There will be vast of people who want to hear the Word of God, seeking the Word of God, and the revelation of knowledge. When you are in slumber, the love you have for God dries out. The passion of this first love is not there. Their lamps went out. Many people who have fire for God don’t have fire anymore; those who were passionate are no longer passionate.

And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. (Mathew 25:8)

“The oil has gone out and that’s very unfortunate,” he said. There is no fresh manna from heaven and no revelation flowing because the oil is not there. “When the spirit of slumber sits on somebody, there is a sense of hopelessness.” When we see bad things happening to our nation and our families, we do not feel the urgency to rise up and pray. We talk about the situation and we do nothing about it.  We discuss politics and watch television but we do not pray. You would think, “Even if I pray, what will it do?” This is because you have prayed before and nothing happened.

There is also no desire to read the Word of God. There is also no revelation even when the Lord is saying this is happening, you cannot rise up because of the spirit of slumber.

“I have been here many times,” he said of Malaysia telling some churches to rise up but some just cannot rise up. They still can’t see because of the spirit of slumber. “After all that have happened, you expect the church to be filled,” he ended.

Apostle Julius Suubi was in Miri, Sarawak for a three-day conference and night rallies. He is the Senior Pastor of Exploits Worship Centre in Nairobi.