When God speaks to us, He doesn’t speak to our mind, He speaks to our spirit. Our spirit knows things that our mind hasn’t caught up with yet, so we must quiet the mind enough to hear what our spirit knows. Although our spirit knows things, until it dawns on our mind, we can’t walk it out. What the Holy Spirit communicates to our spirit will float up and enlighten our mind.
The mind and flesh can be loud, but the spirit is quiet. So as we learn to quiet our mind and body, then we can more easily hear the Holy Spirit speaking.
Our success in everyday life comes from being a doer of the Word and from obeying what we hear God say to us by His Spirit. We must follow the Word and the Spirit.
Worshipping the Lord helps us turn toward our spirit and away from the mental arena, helping the mind to grow quiet. As we worship and talk to Him, we are to shift our attention away from our mind and toward our spirit.
One of the times our mind is least active is as we are falling off to sleep or first waking up, so it’s at those times that it’s easier to hear the Holy Spirit speaking to us. You may be able to look back in your own life and remember times God spoke to you as you were falling off to sleep or first waking up. So, take full advantage of those times in bed to commune with God.
Let’s look at a few scriptures that speak to us in line with this.
Psalm 77:6 reads, “I call to remembrance my song IN THE NIGHT: I COMMUNE with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.”
Psalm 4:4 in the King James Version tells us, “Stand in awe, and sin not: COMMUNE with your own heart UPON YOUR BED, and be still.” The Living Bible translation of that verse reads, “Stand before the Lord in awe, and do not sin against him. LIE QUIETLY UPON YOUR BED IN SILENT MEDITATION.”
Too many times, we are lying in bed with our phones or other devices as we are falling off to sleep and when first waking up. By keeping our mind active with these devices, we can miss what God would say to us at those times. Doing those things drowns out God’s voice.
Using phones and devices is not bad when they’re rightly used, but there’s a right time to use them and a time when it’s not best to use them.
We can develop bad mental habits by having our mind active at bedtime with these devices, which will affect our spiritual life, robbing us of the opportunity to hear that which God may say to us.
I am not saying every time we are falling off to sleep or when first waking up that we will hear God speak to us, but I am saying that we can set the atmosphere for Him to speak to us, and we don’t want the atmosphere we set to be one that robs us of hearing from Him.
It matters what we are thinking on and focusing on as we are falling off to sleep.
Song of Solomon 5:2 tells us, “I sleep, but my HEART WAKETH: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me….” This verse shows us that even while we are asleep, our spirit isn’t sleeping. That which we feed into our spirit continues to move within while we are sleeping.
What you do last before falling asleep is what talks with you while you sleep. If you fall asleep while watching a movie or looking at social media, the contents of that will keep cycling through your spirit while you sleep – a phrase, a song, a scene, a post – either good or bad. But if you fall asleep worshipping and fellowshipping with God, or meditating on a scripture, that will keep moving within you while you sleep.
The flow we fall sleep with is the flow we will wake up with. If we fall asleep with our heart turned toward Him, we can wake up with our heart already in His direction. It matters what we are doing or thinking on as we are falling off to sleep at night.
The Amplified Classic translation of Psalm 127:2 reads, “It is vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of [anxious] toil—for He gives [BLESSINGS] to His beloved IN SLEEP.”
There are different ways God can bless us as we sleep. If we are facing a problem, we are to cast the care of that into His hands before we go to sleep, refusing to fear, and refusing to worry about it. We are then to go to sleep in faith, expecting Him to work on the problem. While we sleep, He will work on it, and we can wake up to find the whole problem resolved. We didn’t have to do anything to resolve it – He resolved it for us. His blessing was working for us while we were sleeping.
Another way He will give “blessings to His beloved in sleep” is that He gives us answers while we sleep. If we talk to Him about something before falling off to sleep, while we are sleeping, He can communicate His wisdom and answer to our spirit, and we can hear that when we first wake up.
Many times, as I’m falling off to sleep or when first waking up, I will hear answers to things I have been talking to God about.
Having said all that, I am proposing a challenge to you – when going to bed, practice growing mentally quiet by putting your phone and devices away from your bed (so that you can’t reach them while lying in bed). Using devices in bed will drown out hearing God. Don’t give a device the time and the attention that God wants as you lay in bed at night and first thing in the morning.
Practice good spiritual habits, even as you go to bed at night. Practice quieting your mind and turning toward your spirit and toward God. He has blessings awaiting to bestow upon us, even in our sleep!