A Sleeping Man Has No Future ~Paul Amoako

The scorching sun is gradually going down, evening is arriving,the moon is appearing, spreading its glittering dim glow all over. Night, the time to embrace the bed, wow such a great time we always look forward to. One of the best things we can enjoy as humans is a good night’s sleep and one of the worst things we can ever go through is the inability to sleep. Sleep is an integral part of our lives; it gives power, strength and energy to sailthrough the day and it has always been the golden chain that tiesgood health and our bodies together.

In August 2019, under an empowerment program organized by Victorious Christian Fellowship Ghana, the guest speaker at the event, Prophet Prosper Jerry (Agabus) while ministering, made this statement, “A Sleeping Man has no future”. This statement grasped my attention and I quickly wrote it down in my diary for further research. Upon my studies, I came across interesting facts that inspired me a lot which I would like to share to inspire you also.

“A Sleeping Man has no future” literally does not mean there will be no future for the person who loves sleep or oversleeps,but metaphorically, he meant that there is no better future andgreat achievement for someone who loves to sleep. In other words, anyone who loves to sleep too much will have nothing to show in the future. It is not a sin or a taboo to sleep because the human body needs sleep (rest). In the course of sleep, scientists say the body heals itself and restores its chemical balance.Without enough sleep, the brain and the body system will not function properly. Catherine Offord, a scientist said, “One function of sleep is to repair DNA damage that has built up in the brain during the walking hours”.

There is the need for sleep but there is a big difference enjoying a night’s sleep and loving to sleep. A good night’s sleep is what we all enjoy every night as our resting period but to love sleep simply means always wanting to sleep whenever one gets a chance. In other terms , to love sleep means to be lazy, inactive or indolent. Most of the people who love to sleep too much are not workable, which is to say, they don’t love working and are not practical.

Again, in my research, I discovered that there is a direct link between poverty and oversleeping. Let’s check this scripture which points out a link between loving sleep and poverty. Proverbs 20:13 says, “Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have plenty to spare” (NIV). One of the exciting things about the Bible is that, it tracks things to its roots in order to destroy the roots. The Bible after tracing the roots of poverty says the predominant root of poverty is loving sleep. Man needs not to love sleep, otherwise poverty will strike on him and attack him like a thief to the extent that food to eat will be hard to come by.   

Every great future begins in the heart and mind. The things our heart and mind perceive are our dreams and aspirations. Everyone has dreams and plans for the future but it becomes irrelevant if it is stationed in the mind and heart. Many people ended up with dead future, having nothing to show though they were great imaginers and thinkers. What went wrong? They were impractical! They could not put their imaginations(dreams) to work. 

Once your dreams and aspirations are made clear, you cannot expect things to appear magically. The manifestation of your dreams into reality lies in your actions. Successful people are not only great in imagination but also hardest workers, that is,people who put to work their imaginations. While some people are sleeping and others sitting comfortably in their sofas changing channels and watching telenovelas, the people who want to make it in life are working on their dreams and goals.

People in this generation have all it takes to succeed and make it in life. I must say, “This generation has no excuse or reason to fail.” This generation is exposed to greater things like technology, information, resources and other things that willhelp achieve visions and dreams. The real problem? We are not ready to wake up from our sleep to put to work these visions and dreams! Manufacturing a car in 1909 will definitely not be the same as today, as a lot of resources, ideas, information and technology have emerged in these recent times which makes it easier to do than in those days. In the same way, achieving your dreams and aspirations in these days is less difficult than it was in those days.

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Achieving your dreams and becoming who you want to be is more possible than we think but they only happen in the confines of our actions. It must be made clear that, dreams and visions are not achieved in bed, neither are they achieved in the mind or heart, but it will only be possible if we wake up from sleep, switch off our televisions and leave our sofas to work.  

No matter how big or great your vision is, no matter how great the prophetic word of the Lord concerning your life is, if you do not work on it, it will always remain a dream and will never be realised. Your visions or dreams might not look big or brighter,but I can assure you that if they are put to work, you will be the next hero the world will celebrate. 

I want to use this article to admonish everyone especially the youth, that all things are possible for those who are ready to work for it. There is a lot of fraud, scamming, blood money, to mention but a few, these days, all because we are refusing to work but still want to achieve something. Many people want to achieve magically without working, which is not possible! One song writer said, “There is no shortcut to heaven unless you strive and work hard for it”. Let us all rise from our sleep and put to work our visions and dreams and I believe our efforts will materialize sooner than we imagined.

DON’T FORGET THAT:

THIS GENERATION HAS NO EXCUSE OR REASON TO FAIL.

THE PREDOMINANT ROOT OF POVERTY IS TO LOVE SLEEP (INACTIVE OR LAZY).

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE ARE NOT ONLY GREAT IN IMAGINATIONS BUT ALSO HARDEST WORKERS.