REVELATION 9 v 12-21
Why do we ignore the warning signs?
This the sixth trumpet, just as the fifth one was an army of demons. The sixth is these four fallen angels. They are held down by God and released by God only to do what God allows them to do. The key thing about all the trumpets, seals and bowls is that God is in control, He has authority over everything. In these trumpets God's judgments takes away of third of the entire world has. But this is still not enough of a warning - verse 20 - "The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk." Do we see the warning signs God gives? If we see them how often do we ignore them?
In this trumpet it refers to the judgments as plagues, to destroy the world and free the Children of God from the choke hold of the world. This scenario has already been played out and I know how it ends. Exodus depicts what happens when Pharaoh has God's people in a choke hold and he sends 10 plagues. Even then the evil (Pharaoh) still comes after them and God just has to say enough is enough and destroys the evil that is chasing the Israelites. What does want to free you from? If we are still living in the sinful nature God will help us out but if we ignore His help then he will send warning signs.
Moses says these words to the people of Israel - "For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster will fall on you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD and arouse his anger by what your hands have made." (Deuteronomy 31 v 29). They ring so true because that is what the people went on to do and so have we. Except for us it may be a leader in our lives that moves on or dies, we don't have another mentor or leader already in our lives there is chance we could drift from God. The key thing is the accountable. Moses and the people we accountable to each other. We are all accountable to God at the end of the day. But to walk a life full of faith we need to support each other in the Church. Who are you accountable to?
The warning can come from all sorts of different places...
- Other People
- The Bible
- Prayer
- In Worship
Daniel was straight to the point with King Belshazzar and his family about worshipping the true God of heaven and not false gods - "Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honour the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways." (Daniel 5 v 23). We can end up worshipping the wrong things because of how we distribute our time. If we spend a lot of our time in a place that isn't God's presence then this can become where our worship is. I don't we all bow down to the TV, or books, or the internet. But we do give if more time than God. A lot of what we do in our spare time is great but what is our true focus? God or something else?
To be honest I don't want to be in a place where the major warning signs a happening but I want to MOT myself regularly so I look for the small signs in myself. If we go ahead and ignore the signs then this will frustrate God and life will not be to the full as we drift away from God.
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