Joseph Prince - When You Sleep, He Works The Night Shift

This is an excerpt from: Answers For Dark Nights And Difficult Seasons

So here, the name is there, he gives his beloved sleep. Now, I was very fascinated by this because some years ago, I meditated on this and I tried to get it. So, I studied on this verse a lot because I just want to, for my own sake, I have trouble sleeping as well during that time, and I just want to study this. But when I studied this, I went to Delitzsch, who's a Hebrew scholar, and all those different Hebrew helps and all that. And I found out that the Jewish people, they themself were arguing among themselves. It seems that the last line here is ambiguous. In other words, it can be interpreted two ways. One is that God gives the beloved, his beloved, sleep, and a lot of rabbis argue that this is the interpretation. But then another group of rabbis says, "No, it is saying that while you are sleeping, God is giving, even to his beloved".

So hence, you have this New King James version and the King James Version. Then you have the NASB, New American Standard Bible that gives this, look at the last line. "For he gives to his beloved, even in his sleep". So, because it's ambiguous, and maybe it's meant to be ambiguous because the answer is both. God gives his beloved sleep, but then while he's sleeping, God gives to him while he's sleeping. In fact, God can move when man is not. You got that? Maybe God can move even more, the Bible says in Job, in the night season, in the deep sleep, in the slumbers upon man, God awakens his ear. God speaks once, twice, why? To hide pride from man. Man is so proud that the only time God can speak to him is when he's sleeping, amen. So, God speaks to man while he's sleeping, but also he gives us sleep.

So, if you're having trouble with sleep and all that, number one, you need to realize that there is the provision where God gives sleep. Can I have a good amen? Ask God for it. But you need to understand that God gives his beloved sleep. You must have a sense that you are loved, establish that first. Don't struggle with sleep. Establish the fact, "I'm God's beloved". "But Pastor, what if that sense is not strong"? Then listen to my sermon about the secret of John until it's so established in your heart. Then at night when you sleep, you find yourself being cradled in his bosom, amen, amen? Also in John chapter 1 it says Jesus said these words, the Spirit God says the Son of Man who is in the bosom of the Father, present tense. But his feet was on earth, but the Son of Man who is in the bosom of the Father.

The Gospel of John is a story of bosom, of love. John rested on Jesus's bosom. Jesus rested on the Father's bosom, even when he was on earth. He rested on God's love for him, amen? When he was tempted, or tested by the devil in the wilderness, what do he say? "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God", right? That's the first temptation, right? And that was the first response. But what did the Father just tell him? The Father just said to him, "You are my beloved Son. In you, I am well pleased". And Jesus says, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word. You are my beloved Son. In you, I am well pleased".

I really think, it's my own personal opinion, that the first temptation the devil gave him the picture or a vision of two stones, and it says, you know, "Command that these stones become bread". Now, we think the stones, right? This is my take, I believe, had a revelation of this years ago. The devil presented the two stones, a picture of the two stones and says, "Command these stones to become bread. Find your nourishment from the law". And Jesus says, "No, I find my nourishment in every word that just came from my Father's mouth, every word of God. Man does not live but by that word". Oh, come on, hallelujah. You are God's beloved. You are God's Yedidyah, amen? Come on. Today is the return of the Jedi, Jedi, Jedidiah, Yedidyah. It's a nice name.

I shared this years ago with a friend, and he had a Chinese name and all of a sudden, his name became Jedidiah. See, God gives while you're sleeping. So, you know, at night when you look at your bed and all that, sleep will be different from now on. Say, "God, I wonder what you're gonna give to me while I'm sleeping". Number one, "Lord, give me the sleep I need and while I'm sleeping, restore my health, renew my youth", amen. And then say this, "Lord, work on all the problems, Lord, that I have while I'm sleeping". And a part of you will say, "Nah, unless you work, you lazy fellow, nothing will happen". But great things happen when we are sleeping.

The very first example we have is that, whoa, Wendy came forth for Joseph Prince when he was sleeping. When Adam was sleeping, the greatest and the crowning achievement and creation of God happened. All the creation of God cannot compare when he made man. When he made everything else the first day, second day, he says it was good, it was good. It was good. God saw it was good. It was good. When he created man, God saw it was very good. It was very good. But not only that, after man, he created a woman and that was the last sleep Adam ever had. I'm just teasing. We don't understand women because we were sleeping when God made you. But what a beautiful creation. Even the exclamation that Adam had, says, "Whoa man, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh", amen, isha in Hebrew. Hei came. With man's name, there's no hei, ish. But ish, you put a hei at the end, hei is a picture of grace. In the Hebrew letter, isha, woman, came to bring grace to man. Amen, isha.

So, I advise you, if you have a problem in your marriage, you don't know how to transform that woman, you're never meant to. Want good advice? Go to sleep, and before you go to sleep, you tell the Lord, "Lord, you did it once, you can do it again", amen? So, that when I wake up, I look at her, she'll be like, "Whoa man", amen? Either she changes, or the way you see her change. Maybe the problem is with you. I said, maybe the problem is with you. God will change something, amen. So, great things happen. I mean, God gives great things, wonderful things, good things while, to his beloved, while he's sleeping. So instead of worrying about your night season, and that's a picture of the night season as well, good things are coming your way in the night season. But we are so conscious, we see things.

"Are you sure it's the night, it's a good thing in this night season? Pastor Prince, I think it's a curse, not a blessing. This depression is a curse". But behind this depression, let me tell this, for many, many years, I could not sleep as a teenager, I could not. At night, I would feel things crawling on my body. Literally, I'm telling the truth. You know, I feel things pressing on my on my chest. I was involved in the occult, and it's things like the powers of darkness will refuse to let me go. And, you know, I would hear voices at night. I could not sleep. I hear voices that says, "You have committed the unpardonable sin".

This was before God opened up the gospel of grace to me. I was already a believer, but I could sense all this and hear all these things in the night season. So, I know what I'm talking about. All right, behind all this depression and all that, these things are real. It's not from God. But behind that is this ministry. Had I not gone through all that, I wouldn't have this honey from a hard place, a rock, to give all of you. So, in your night season, maybe you're going through something because out of that will come riches for others, amen, and for yourself as well.

And that's why you're going through what you're going through. In a way, it's a compliment. I suffered all that and look at my friends, none of them seemed to suffer that. Some of them were also involved in the occult, but when I got saved, I left the occult but it seems like the powers of darkness still, you know? And I'm telling you, church, by the way, don't mess around with the occult, amen? Don't go into horoscope and things like that. If you don't want a scope of horror in your life, leave horoscope, all right? That's why it tells you already, "You want horoscope? Come". They tell you. So, God gives to his beloved in his sleep. God justified Abraham, the teaching of justification by faith. All of us are justified by faith. That first happened to Abraham in his sleep, or in the night season, rather, amen? Genesis 15. Are you with me so far?