Transform Work Ambassador and Transform Prayer Leader David-Isaac Arinze
Awake From Sleep: A Call to Faithful Living in Our Time
It was 2:00am on a Tuesday morning.
I had been working on a small project and completely lost track of time. Suddenly alarmed, I jolted upright in my chair, realising I needed to be in the office by 8:00am. I hurried to bed, hoping to squeeze in at least four hours of sleep. Thankfully, once my head touched the pillow, the Lord did what Scripture promises: He gives His beloved sleep.
Then my phone rang.
It felt like barely an hour later. I glanced at the screen; it was my mum. I answered with a deep yawn and a hoarse voice. After exchanging greetings, she said calmly,
“Isn’t it time to wake from sleep?”
That’s when it struck me to check the time.
It was 8:00am.
You can imagine the rest. I leapt out of bed and rushed straight to the bathroom. My morning prayers had to begin in the shower.
Yet in that hurried moment, something deeper was taking place. The Holy Spirit used a simple phone call to echo a far more urgent message; one the Apostle Paul delivers with striking clarity. In Romans 13, Paul exhorts believers to love their neighbours wholeheartedly. Love, he says, is not optional; it is our ongoing assignment. Jesus Himself commanded us to love one another as He loved us—sacrificially, selflessly, even while we were still sinners.
But Paul doesn’t stop there.
He issues a warning: while we must be diligent in love, we must not be asleep on duty.
“Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light… But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
(Romans 13:11–14)
Paul’s message is clear: understanding the times we live in should awaken us to purposeful, faithful action.
This Is Not a Time for Spiritual Slumber
We are living in a decisive moment; one that calls for spiritual alertness from the Church and from every individual believer. This is a time to be fully engaged in our Father’s business: seeing lives transformed and people brought into the knowledge of truth.
Jesus warned that while people sleep, the enemy is at work. In His parable, weeds are sown among the wheat “while everyone was sleeping.” Spiritual passivity always creates space for corruption to grow unnoticed.
If we fail to awaken, to righteousness, to grace, and to responsibility, we risk missing the opportunity to shine Christ’s light in an increasingly dark world.
Sleep is comfortable, until we realise how much time has passed and how much remains undone.
What Spiritual Sleep Looks Like
Spiritual sleep is subtle. It doesn’t always look like rebellion; often it looks like comfort.
-
It looks like a prayer life that has grown inconsistent.
-
It looks like indifference toward the souls around us.
-
It looks like tolerating sins and weights that slow us down in the race God has set before us.
-
It looks like busy lives filled with personal ambition yet disconnected from God’s redemptive purposes.
When we are asleep, our eyes are closed to reality. We turn away from the light. In the same way, when our spirits are asleep, we may continue “going through the motions” of work, faith, and life, while God’s agenda remains unattended.
A Wake-Up Call for Our Work and Witness
The Father is calling. The phone lines of our hearts should be ringing. Scripture says: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” This is a call for us, particularly in our workplaces and communities, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ in tangible, visible ways.
What does that mean?
-
LORD We put on His Lordship — responding obediently to what He asks of us.
-
JESUS We put on His salvation — living daily from the reality of our new life in Christ.
-
CHRIST We put on His anointing — being empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve, influence, and love others where we are placed.
This is how Christ is made visible through our work.
A Practical Commitment
As believers seeking to live out our faith in the workplace, our shared commitments should be clear and intentional:
-
Consistency in prayer, both individually and together.
-
Courage in testimony, sharing what God has done in our lives with those around us.
-
Cooperation with the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to work through us to bring wisdom, solutions, and hope to others.
Now is not the time to sleep.
Now is the time to wake up: to love deeply, to live intentionally, and to work faithfully for the glory of God.
If you feel challenged and would like help with being woken up... please do join Transform Prayer online calls every weekday.
Transform Work Prayer meetings are every week day
Monday, 5:30pm-6pm. led by David-Isaac Arinze
Tuesday, 5:30pm-6pm. led by Andrew Humphreys
Wednesday, 5:30pm-6pm. led by David-Isaac Arinze
Thursday, 7:30am-8am. led by Steve Matthews
Friday, 5:30pm-6pm. led by David-Isaac Arinze
| As the body of Christ, we are gathering across the UK and beyond; to humble ourselves, repent and pray for lives to be transformed by Jesus, as a spiritual awakening continues in the nations. |
| From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is filled with miracles, moments when God's power visibly changed lives and transformed impossible situations. |
| We’re calling every Believer in the workplace to band together under this biblical principle:
choose three colleagues, commit to consistent, sacrificial prayer, and watch God’s transforming power
at work in their lives. |
| Transform Work have partnered with our Associate Anne de Leyser from Local Houses of Prayer (LHOP) to bring you a framework she developed for speaking blessings over your workplace or sphere of influence. |
| Workplace leaders have pre-recorded prayers for their specific sectors. Why not watch and pray along with them? Please do share these with your church and prayer networks. |
| Listen to these workplace testimonies and be encouraged. If you have a testimony please email us your video or story so we can share with others. |
| Below are 28 prayer points that you might like to use. Feel free to pick the ones relevant to your organisation... |
| When praying in the group, it is especially important that the different Christian traditions represented by group members are respected and reflected in how you pray. |
| Generally prayer walks can be used when you are praying for the organisation, for the work that goes on there, and for its employees. I |
| Set up a facility for anyone within the organisation/workplace to request prayer for any issues they would like. |
| Frequently an organisation has Christian groups that meet in buildings in different locations, often some distance from one another. Conference calls are a great way to keep connected across the organisation. |
| The amazing story of how an office prayer network grew rapidly and saw astounding answers to prayer |
| A simple and attractive way of offering to pray for staff, used within Network Rail - a bright red postbox. Prayer requests are prayed over at the CWG's weekly meeting |
| A week of prayer is a specific week set aside for prayer where a range of different prayer activities are held. Although this probably works best among the larger groups, the idea can be applied within a group whatever the size. |
| Remember that it is important to keep your managers and HR involved in what you are doing. In most cases your prayer activities and the means by which you advertise them will require permission from senior managers and HR. |
David-Isaac Arinze, 10/02/2026