Co-Laboring With God
I don’t know about you but I have found that there seems to be a certain time of the day that God works on me. For me, this is generally about three in the morning.
As grateful as I am that God spends time with me or working on me, I find that His intervention at three in the morning leads to some very bleary-eyed days.
Generally, I find that at 3am, I wake with wonderful ideas swirling around in my head; ideas that I would not have normally thought of but that make me realize that it must be God trying to work through me and my writing.
Sometimes, I lay in bed trying to decide if I should get up or not. I have found that it is those times when I decide to not get up and I fall asleep again that the ideas that I had in my head leave by the time I wake and they are gone forever. In the morning, knowing that I had those great ideas and that I lost them makes me regret not having gotten up.
Over time I have learned to heed the calling to wake up and write while everyone else around me sleeps.
A few years ago God started stirring within me. At first I listened a little bit not really knowing it was God. I just thought that it might have been something I ate that was keeping me up at night. But as I tuned into Him more and more and the words that I was supposed to write became clearer and clearer, I knew it must have been God stirring in my soul rather than a late night ham sandwich rumbling around in my stomach.
So, here I am again at 3am writing. I just went through the same struggle with myself: do I get up or do I sleep. I must admit I tried sleeping but as I lay there I knew I needed to get up and do some work with God.
One thing that I truly believe in is “co-laboring” with God.
Besides writing, I run a small business. As with any small business, it has its share of headaches and heartaches. Sure, some of the rewards are great such as being your own boss, setting your own hours, etc… But there are also the problems of managing cash flow, making sure there is enough money to pay employees, etc…
As a small business owner there is no one to fall back on but yourself and God. There are times when things get very scary and I pray to God to help me out. When I do pray, I don’t just ask Him to be sure I get a check in the mail that day. Rather, I ask Him to help me find work for my business. I tell God that if He can help me find the work I will do it. I don’t ever ask God for anything for free.
Basically, I let God know that I will work as hard as I need to. I only ask Him to help me find the work to do. All I need is for God to unlock a door once in a while for me to be able to open and walk through.
This is how I “co-labor” with God.
And, I need to tell you that God has been very, very good to me. There have been times when things have looked the darkest for me and some anxiety starts to set in about finding new work or managing cash flow over the next few months when miraculously a new job appears and God saves the day.
I have asked God to “co-labor” with me many times and every time He has come through for me.
So when God calls on me at 3am and gives me inspiration to write, that is the time He is asking me to “co-labor” with Him.
After all He has done for me, how can I say no to Him?
I agree God wakes me up at 3am and when I arise (when I’m not letting my flesh overcome me and fall back to sleep) I pray, read my word and ideas for things I’m working on comes to me like a snap of the finger. So yes I do experience 3am awakings and I have become more obedient to him at 3am because I don’t want the ideas and whatever else God wants me to receieve to fade and never return… God is my help and without him I don’t have anything!!! I love this website and keep up the GOOD WORK!!!
1WOW!! Thank you.
2I really love what you do with your website and your daily posting on FB as well as the emails.
I am a creative person and I always go to sleep struggling with what to do next on a project or how I am supposed to proceed with soemthing I am struggling with during that day. I awake at 230 and sometimes 6 only to get back in bed instead of listening to what God has implanted in me.
Thanks for your inspiration. I will devote all of myself to co-laboring with God.
Chanel
3isnt that the truth… its so difficult to not do what we want to do… yet… when we listen to Him and actually “co-labor” with Him…He does usually come through… sometimes when i am really really tired… i have a difficult time and i keep wondering how He is saving the day when I really just want to sleep…
4you know what i mean…
I’ll tell you about llistening to God at 3 in the a.m., this is before I became a true believer, 3 years ago I was going to florida, myself & my 2 dogs, we were going to go to florida, party, get wild, have not a care in the world Thurs at 3 a.m. I heard a voice literally, I sat straight up from my bed and looked around, there was no one there, the voice said I need to take my mom to florida, (now I loved my mom, she was my best friend) but I just wanted to go by myself, a free spirit. I started to cry and I prayed, I said God what do I do, I want to go alone. I cried all night. I took my mom to the doctor the next day and I said to her “mom I have a favor to ask you” and she said do you want me to watch your dogs when you go to florida…I said NO I WANT YOU TO GO WITH ME. My decision came over me. We went to florida, had 10 wonderful days togetther, memories I will never forget. We came back to St. louis and went out to breakfast, she said “I love you lolly” I said I love you mommy and that night she was dead.
THANK YOU GOD,, THANK YOU GOD for waking me up at 3 in the a.m. I am so grateful that I listened to your wonderful words. I love you so much God
5when God has been good…as He always is… especially as He has been in your life… you just cant say no to Him… you just cant. Especially in matters of LIFE or death… I understand completely what you are saying… especially when He has made it very clear to you.
6i am so very tired…i am going to sleep now…
love and many prayers
h
The post from Erica broke my heart. So sad she lost her mother so quickly. But she has precious memories that death can’t take away.
7God works on me in the same manner. Awakens me in the wee hours of the morning , sometimes 230 or 3 a.m. I have heard God audibly call me like a voice of thunder from Heaven. As I slept one night he called me, “Betty”!! I sat up in bed and said , “Yes, Lord” and as I sat quiet I saw a circle of light float from my side of the bed to my husbands side. I did not fear, it was so peaceful. When I layed my head back down on the pillow I heard the purest sound of angelical music anyone could ever imagine. Was absolutely beautiful. When I raised my head up to see where it was coming from it disappeared. When I layed my head back down it started up again. I fell back to sleep with that orchestrated sound only from my Lord, Jesus Christ. What an experience.
I know without a doubt that God deals with us during the fourth watch of the night. My son had been sick and I prayed for him at night when I went to bed. Some mornings I would awake thinking “I went to sleep before I finished praying”. One night at 3:19, my son called me to say “Mom, I want you to know I haven,t done anything I can,t get forgiveness for”, we talked for awhile and I knew God was dealing with him during the fourth watch of night. My son “Marty” passed away Nov. 12, 2005 at the age of 36 yrs 2 months 23 days and approx. 14.5 hours. From the time of his death, I was awakened every night at 3:19AM for more than a year. Every morning I was awaken was the most peaceful time of my day. Praise God
8It is amazing how many people have experineced God coming to them at about 3am. If you haven’t been to the FaceBook page for The Whisper of God you can do so here: http://www.facebook.com/TheWhisperofGod.com You don’t need to be a part of FaceBook to go there and see the comments people are leaving there.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us and thanks for being a part of The Whisper of God community.
Elmer
9I am so glad to see that I am not alone, being woke up by God between 2:30 and 3 a.m. God has been speaking to me this way for several years. He has given me knowledge about things in my life. He has shown me dreams/visions that have been sermons. He has lifted me up beyond measure.
I have adopted my four grandchildren who were abused and molested by their biological father. Prior to that my Father and I had a lot of interesting early morning conversations. I knew of the abuse and could get nothing done. God protected those children from death and brought them out of that situation. The 7 year old asked Jesus into his heart on Good Friday this year.
God still wakes me up even though the kids are safe. He teaches me and commands me, bringing wonderful scripture to light in a way I have never noticed before.
I hope you keep this site going I am glad to be a fan.
John
10YO that is bananas he wakes me up around that same time too alot. I don’t know sometimes what God wants me to do and sometimes I do. I don’t get up everytime but these testimonies encourage me to. I dream alot of dreams of things I think God is telling me. I nelieve he speaks to me in many ways.
11i want the world to reunite themselves with what is totally real and thats whats in our hearts when i think of God and Jesus i get this feeling in the pit of my stomach kinda like being head over heels in love its so awesome. what ever happened to the realness of feeling with our hearts instead of our bodies whats going on ?
12I have been thinking I have a sleeping disorder as I lay away at 3:00 AM. If I am not careful, I do not fall back to sleep. I too am concerned about reading or writing for fear that later during the day I will be tired, my eyes tired and lack productivity. And, all my problems seem to be magnified as I cry out to the Lord to help me find sleep.
13It did not dawn on me that God maybe probing me to seek his word or write at this desolate time of the night.
GUESS WHAT? I happened to find YOU about 3 am this morning (PST). You showed up in my Windows Media Center. I don’t even know how.
I have always felt close to GOD between 2:30 to 6:00 am. I work the late swing shift 6:00 pm – 2:30 am. When I get off work, this is my time with the Lord. It is peaceful, quiet and I can listen to what HE has to say. Even when I was in college, I can remember getting up and I would treasure those peaceful hours. I would always feel empowered and inspired.
I am so happy that so many of you have shared similar experiences. This builds all of our faith.
The Bible does say to seek the Lord early (early a.m., early is life?, early in the morning?)
14Weaping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.