Are you drowsy in your faith? Do you have a sleepy attitude about living the everyday Christian life? Is your approach to reading the Bible lethargic? Then you have a need to awaken your soul to God’s presence and to ignite your faith to change your world.

Bible Gateway interviewed Matt Brown (@evangelistmatt) about his book, Awakening: How God’s Next Great Move Inspires and Influences Our Lives Today (Leafwood, 2015).

In your book you say you want readers to “Live Awake, Live Inspired, and Live Influential.” Unpack what those mean.

Matt Brown: For the past 13 years I’ve traveled and shared the gospel in churches of many denominations from coast to coast across the US, as well as holding our own evangelistic events and conferences focused on bringing people together from different backgrounds around the gospel. I’ve seen firsthand so many times how encouraged believers are when they get a glimpse of good news about God’s activity around the world.

Even though more American Christians gather in church on a single weekend than all the NFL stadiums over an entire season combined, the vast majority go to churches consisting of about 120 people. Even believers in larger churches too easily get tunnel vision, and only know of a few things God is doing around the world. Acts 13:41 explains, “I’m doing something right before your eyes that you won’t believe though it’s staring you in the face.” The message of Awakening is that God is doing so many incredible things today, and it is so encouraging, and I want to help people awaken to that.

From there, I share lots of inspiring stories and Scriptures, and break down what I believe we can do to take these stories and Scriptures and be even more influential for the sake of the gospel with those around us.

What do you mean Christians today have tunnel vision?

Matt Brown: So many Christians have tunnel vision because they are only focused on their small corner of God’s kingdom. God is doing so much, but they limit their perspective to their church, a few churches around town, or their denomination. Think about it: two BILLION people around the world claim adherence to faith in Jesus Christ. How do we even begin to summarize or generalize something so staggering? When we look around—truly look around—we will see that God and the gospel and the church are much more glorious than we can ever begin to imagine. Scripture calls us to break away from our tunnel vision, saying “Keep your eyes open for God, watch for His works, be alert for signs of His presence.” (Psalm 105:5)

What is the scriptural precedent that God is at work all around us?

Matt Brown: We see in the Bible that many people missed the miracles and teaching that Jesus was doing right in front of their noses. There were even times that his closest disciples didn’t understand the significance of what was taking place. This is encouraging to know they were in the same boat, but also eye opening; and inspires us to take greater notice of what God is doing in the everyday—all around us.

John 21:25 says that “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” This is a shocking statement. And—since Jesus went to the right hand of the Father—God, by his Spirit, is moving in and through the church all over the world. And the same [as the verse] could be said. We wouldn’t be able to keep track even if we wanted to; but opening our eyes to this bigger story overwhelms and stirs our faith in a way that nothing else can.

Why is it important for Christians to hear that ‘Christianity is exploding around the world’?

Matt Brown: We hear so much negative news about faith in the news media, if it is even covered at all. But God is at work in the church in ways like never before in history. I believe that some of our heroes of the faith in generations before us would be astounded at what’s taking place today.

We get enough bad news. We need more good news for our weary soul. And you don’t have to look far within the church to see it.

I ask in the book: would the early church have experienced the growth it did if the apostles preached the way some preachers in America do today, when they share how our culture is falling apart, and how young people are leaving the faith in droves? Their message was, “The gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world.” (Col. 1:6) The gospel is growing all over the world today too, but too few people are preaching this because they don’t realize it’s happening.

What steps can Christians take to stay awake and inspired in order to be influential for the gospel?

Matt Brown: Of course, nothing feeds and awakens the soul more than the Word of God! But a good next step might be to pick up a copy of Awakening, and if it stirs your faith like I hope it will, share it with your men’s or women’s Bible study at your church, or go through it with a small group of friends, and pray with me that God will continue to move in greater ways across our nation!

Bio: Matt Brown is an evangelist, author of Awakening: How God’s Next Great Move Inspires and Influences Our Lives Today (2015, Leafwood), and founder of Think Eternity. He and his wife Michelle are impacting thousands of people with the gospel each year through live events and online. They also minister to more than 400,000 followers on social media daily.