Friday, 17 May 2024
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” – Psalm 51:12 NIV
Mr X, while doing his gardening, gets a minor cut under his toenail. He thinks little of it and goes by his day. Two days later the wound gets infected and oozes a bit of pus. He ignores this and continues with his life. The infection spreads around the wound and the skin around it gets slightly swollen and tender and develops an infection (cellulitis). As always, he ignores that and continues with his life. The cellulitis then spreads into his bloodstream and causes a blood infection (septicemia). His body reacts by causing him to have a fever and rigors (shaking and becoming hot and cold). He ignores these symptoms, and like before, goes on with his life. The septicemia then lowers his blood pressure and he starts feeling lightheaded and becomes fatigued. His body is warning him of the potential danger. Like always, he ignores this. His blood pressure plummets, and as a result, his kidneys shut down. He becomes dehydrated and stops producing urine. Because toxins in the blood accumulate, he then becomes confused. Still, he ignores this. Now that the body has toxins and a nonexistent blood pressure, all his organs shut down (multi-organ failure) and he goes into a coma. Throughout this whole process, the heart has been carrying all the organs and has been holding on for dear life till eventually it also succumbs to the sepsis and stops performing its function. He then goes into cardiac arrest and he dies.
From the initial injury to his toe, till his heart stopped beating, his body had been warning him of its impending doom. Either because of arrogance, ignorance, or indifference, he ignored every warning to his detriment. Every new development had a warning that, had he taken seriously and sought help he would have been saved. Yet he refused to listen to counsel (symptoms) that was there to assist him to survive his ordeal.
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear and heed My words” ( Matthew 11:15 AMP) and “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (Revelations 2:5 NIV). The Rhema comes at a specific season and time, and it’s meant to change and restore those who hear it to their rightful place or catapult them to an even higher level. When spoken to us, we need to heed its warning and its correction. GOD has spoken through this teaching that a revival is imminent and our posture, actions, and attitude have to be in line with it. Like the church in Revelations, GOD is calling us into fellowship with Him again, and that we need to return to our first love. This revival is for both personal and the corporate (body). It must first start with me before it spreads to the rest of the world. It’s like the Atomic bomb that was dropped at Hiroshima, it first starts with a spark that eventually leads to a chain reaction that can’t be stopped or deactivated.
Like the body warning Mr X about his impending doom, at every step in our fallen state, GOD, through His Word, has always given us counsel and instructed us to change and repent. If we continue to ignore or not take heed of these warnings, we do this to our own detriment or downfall. Like sepsis spreading from the blood to the organs, our disobedience to His Word pushes us closer and closer to our downfall.
“The LORD GOD of Israel had appeared to Solomon two times and warned him not to worship foreign gods. But Solomon disobeyed and did it anyway. This made the LORD very angry,” (1 Kings 11:9-10 NIV). GOD had appeared to Solomon and warned him about his wicked and blasphemous ways, yet Solomon refused to listen. So GOD punished him by taking his Kingdom from him (cardiac arrest). Can these dry bones live? The answer to that is determined by how we respond to the calling of revival. Do we listen and respond accordingly, or are we like Mr X, ignore and go on our ways?
“If we continue to ignore or not take heed of these warnings, we do this to our own detriment or downfall. Like sepsis spreading from the blood to the organs, our disobedience to His Word pushes us closer and closer to our downfall.“
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