Let the Warning Sound Blow

I recently finished reading The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. It was fascinating to see the correlation between an ancient vow made by Israel and what has happened in America in the last few years. The one idea that kept going through my mind was "when things happen why do we try to fix it ourselves? Why don't we see them as warnings from God?" So often we see the bad things as attacks from satan, and they are, but they are also opportunities. Opportunities that can bring us closer to God, turn us away from bad choices, and protection from continuing down a path that will lead us astray.

Yet we don't see the good. We tend to focus on the bad, the attacks of satan. It is true that satan is attacking us, he is trying to separate us from God. He wants to keep us down, hurt, feeling guilty, feeling alone. But the Word says that God uses all things for good, even the attacks of satan, maybe especially the attacks of satan.

One of my favorite parts of the book came at the very end. The prophet was telling the main character about the warnings given in ancient times. When a danger was approaching a city the watchmen would pull out a ram's horn and blow it in warning. He asked how this would sound. The answer was simple: "jarring, disturbing, ominous".

The conversation continues with an explanation of why it needs to be that way. The prophet states that it needs to be that way to wake up the sleeping. Then he asks would it be better not to sound the warning because it is unpleasant and the people would not like it. Of course the answer is that the alarm needed to be sounded. Would the people have rather been killed or captured than inconvenienced by the horrible sound of the warning? Of course they would rather be inconvenienced, it's a no brainer.

Today we don't see the need for a watchman's warning sound. We get mad to be disturbed from our comfortable lives. We don't want to be told that we are being complacent and need to wake up to danger. We don't want to know that we are making bad choices, letting in corruptible influences, or are just plain old being blind to the evil around us. We rise up and rebuke the enemy without considering what warning God is trying to give us. We get counselling to fix us (not that counselling can't help, but only He is the answer) without looking to the Spirit to show us what He is trying to do in us. We get defensive and start spouting all the things we are doing right, whether those things line up with God and His Word or just what man considers good or not. We get religious or worldly and don't consider how we need to get in relationship with Him.

I am guilty of this as much as anyone. I want to just blame it all on satan and not heed the warning. Instead, I want to be open to see and hear the warning in the jarring, disturbing, and ominous things that happen to me and in me. I want to heed the warning and look to God, turn back to God, rest in God and be saved from possible calamity and grow in Him.