The kiss of a prince
“And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light.” Romans 13:11-12
As most of you know, I am a proud father of five lovely children, all of them under the age of thirteen. Having a young family brings many benefits: I get to watch cartoons, jump on trampolines and go to the movies to watch great films I would not probably go and see if I did not have kids.
As a parent I also get to read stories to the children, stories that were read to me when I was a kid, classics like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Jack and the Beanstalk. There is one classic tale that most of us will remember that I would like to look at in this issue of Empower, and that is the story of Snow White.
This story tells the tale of a princess called Snow White, who has an awesome destiny in front of her. It also tells of an enemy – the wicked queen, her stepmother – who is intent on ruining the life and future plans of this young lady.
As you read through the story a sad plot unfolds: when this queen with a rotten heart is told by her mirror that she is not the fairest of them all, she goes after the one who is, namely Snow White. She sends a woodsman to take Snow White into the forest and kill her, but the woodsman, when he sees her, cannot harm her because her beauty and innocence touch his heart.
So the queen takes the matter into her own hands and comes up with a subtle yet effective plan to put Snow White to sleep. Snow White did not see this one coming. One morning she takes an apple from an apparently harmless old lady – the wicked stepmother in disguise. After the old hag passes by, Snow White takes a bite of the apple that had been poisoned and falls into a deep, death-like sleep.
Whenever I read this story I cannot help recalling what happened in the Garden of Eden, where the bite of an ordinary apple sent the whole of mankind – in Adam – into a sleep of separation. Only Christ could awaken us from it by, many years later, going to the cross and giving His life.
Back to the story: after falling into a deep, deathlike slumber, Snow White remained asleep for a whole year, while daily life continued around her: birds kept singing, vines kept growing, flowers kept blooming – it was only she herself who was entrapped in an unfeeling, catatonic state.
Now for the good bit! One day, a prince is riding in the forest and comes across this cottage where Snow White has been kept in a glass coffin by her friends, the seven dwarfs. He finds her lying as if dead. He bends down and kisses her cold lips as if to say goodbye for ever, but it is his kiss that breaks the power of the poisoned apple and she awakes; her life is taken off ‘pause’ and she begins to live again. The rest of the story is about destiny fulfilled, marriage and, as in every good story, they live happily ever after.
Nice story, but what has it got to do with me?
OK, you may be asking yourself at this point, ‘why is Andy telling us a fairy story?’ The key message, of course, is a good one: if you want to live happily ever after, just ‘wake up’! But there are further parallels that I believe can motivate our walk with God and diffuse certain slumbers in our life, if we take time to look at them.
We need to understand that, like Snow White, each of us was born with a unique destiny – a ‘God plan’ for our life. This God plan is activated to its full extent when a person comes to salvation and places their life in His hands.
Equally, every Christian (believer in Jesus) has a very real enemy, the devil, who has his own plans concerning their life. Like the rotten queen, he once held a beauty of his own as a worshipping angel but became so obsessed with the beauty of another that he lost his own and dedicated his life to the ruin of others. We see a glimpse of this in the book of John.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
Satan’s plans are blatantly obvious: to kill, steal and destroy you, to separate you from the abundant life that God intends for you. He will do this through plans of death and destruction but when he can’t touch you with these because your life abides under the shadow of the Most High, he will attempt a subtler plan, get you to fall into a sleep of apathy or mere religious routine.
This sleep is unlike the sleep you are used to at night in that you are awake physically. You still go to church and you still look alive to those around you but in reality nothing touches you like it used to. Worship does not feel as intimate as it once did; the Word does not cut as sharp as former times; the messages preached, the appeals for help that the church makes, you hardly hear any more – in fact, you are spiritually sleepwalking. How do I know how to describe this so well? Because I, too, have fallen asleep at different times only to be awoken by God’s goodness, as I believe everyone who has walked with God has done at one time or another.
It’s not your fault
When you find your Christian walk in this condition its often not your fault. You did not notice the subtle apple coming that contained the poison that sent you into slumber.
The devil would rather have you asleep in church than backslidden. If you backslide, another Christian may come after you and bring you back to God. A much subtler plan is to desensitise you with apathy and spiritual tiredness.
This often happens over a process of time where you gradually stop praying and reading the Word, then you stop seeking after Him with the passion and intensity you once did; then, all of a sudden, there is the sound of snoring.
How to boil a frog
Apparently, if you want to boil a frog to death (who knows why someone would want to?!) you don’t drop the frog into boiling water as it will feel the radical change of temperature and respond by jumping out. No, what you do is place the frog into tepid water and heat it gently until it boils (not that I advocate doing this!). The frog apparently will stay in the pan and be boiled to death, unaware of the gradual change in temperature. The devil’s plans to bring sleep upon your walk with God always start with tepidness. That’s why we are to avoid all compromise and apathy.
God loves you too much not to wake you
Like every princess or sleeping child you probably look lovely when you’re asleep but God thinks you’re lovelier when you are awake and involved with what He is doing. So He sends the kiss of His prince, Jesus, to awaken you from your sleep. The kiss of the prince is the moving or touch of God’s Spirit that disturbs your slumber. Have you ever fallen asleep somewhere public, like on a train or in an airport, and you must have started snoring or drooling and someone ever so gently touches you and you awaken with a jump, because you did not realise you had dropped off?
When people are in traffic accidents due to tiredness, ask them and they’ll tell you the same thing – they didn’t know they had dropped off. It’s the same with many Christians that fall into spiritual slumber, they don’t know they have dropped off until they are woken up.
Thank God for His Spirit, who comes at times when the apple of the enemy has done it again and awakens us with His gentle yet all-awakening kiss upon the lips of our spirit.
Not time to sleep now
I say this to members of my family when they pick the wrong time to fall sleep; my kids, when we have just arrived at a destination after a long journey, or my awesome wife Gina, who will sometimes fall asleep at the funniest point of the film: there is a time to be awake!
This time in which we are living is High Time. Remember what the opening verse said about what time it is? The New King James version puts it this way: “that now it is high time to awake out of sleep”. Our generation and our region needs us wide awake and engaged in what God is doing in this hour.
Stand, stretch and get re-engaged
“Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.” Isaiah 60:1 (NKJV)
As I said before, most Christians at one time or another have experienced this sleepiness upon their walk with God. Many have also known that kiss that awakens the sleeper to consciousness again. Maybe this article will awaken some that never realised they had dropped off. Maybe this article will warn those who have never understood the very real power of apathy. Wherever you are with God, make the decision that you’re not going to eat the apple or be a ‘sleeping’ princess because being an ‘awake’ one is more fun and has a much happier, ‘ever after’ ending.
The parallels:
(Parents: why not use these to present the story in a new way to your kids at bedtime)
The sleeping Snow White – typical Christian at some point in their walk
Bad queen – your enemy the devil, and his intentions and intimidations
Apple – His subtle ‘put-to-sleep’ plan
The Prince – Jesus
Kiss – touch or move of His Spirit
Happily ever after – the life awakened with God.
God bless, and stay awake! You don’t want to miss what God does next.
