Which Side are you On?

Despite the current trends of the world where nothing can ever be known for sure, the Bible is very clear. There is no confusion in that book whether it is gender, or marriage, sexuality, finances, race, you name it. There is a disparity that is quite flagrant between what the Bible teaches and what our world teaches. As I continue my reading in the book of Revelation, I could not help but notice how vast that disparity is, and it shows itself in the two camps that exist: the people of God versus the people of the world. The battles that we read about in Revelation are mostly between the devil attacking God’s people and God judging the devil for his actions against His people. The main question that comes up is really: “which side are you on?” because you cannot claim to not have a side. Either you are on God’s side, or you are on the devil’s side which is the world’s. There is no middle ground as our society would want to tell you. If you are a born-again believer, that is, one who has repented of their sins and placed their trust and confidence solely on the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross on their behalf, then you belong to God and you must live like it. There is no time to be wavering, having one foot here and the other elsewhere, no, you must be genuinely giving yourself wholeheartedly for God. If you are not a born-again believer, that is, you have not repented of your sins, nor have you trusted in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross on your behalf to redeem you from the punishment that was already standing upon you (Ephesians 2:1-4), then let me caution you that you must know what side you are on, you must know that you are against God and you must know that the one you are following is the devil and he is a liar who has already lost the battle. In other words, he cannot give you what he has promised you. Therefore, choose wisely and think it through, like God beckons in Isaiah: “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword’ For the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 1:18-20). The call to repentance is quite clear from the Lord and His hand is extended to you in this very moment. “If you hear His voice, do not harden your heart”, as we read in Revelation, a time will come when you will not have this gracious and loving opportunity to come to Him. My encouragement in today’s post is to show you what will happen as an incentive to come to the Lord or to remain in Him in these times we are living in.

Being a prophetic book, Revelation foretells what is going to happen, but it also tells what has happened and what is happening. It is that powerful, indeed. However, for our purposes, I will focus on what will happen particularly talking about the End Times. There is a popular phrase in the Bible which is “the day of the Lord”. Many prophets prophesied about that Day, and that was the Day when the Lord would come in judgement or in triumph over His enemies. I personally believe that it became just a catchphrase to many to say “it is not going to happen” a bit similar to when people compare the return of Christ to a joke. However, in Revelation, we see the Day of the Lord unfolding in its majesty. We see the Lord enacting His judgement on the devil and all who followed him in the world. We see God finally avenging the blood of His martyrs and we see Him bringing justice, long awaited full justice to the world. The book of Revelation is there to tell us that the Day of the Lord is coming, in fact, it has already happened, we just need to see it unfold in our world. The beauty with the Day of the Lord coming is that victory is ours! Our God is victorious, in fact He has no rival, there is no competition in this matter. As the great multitude in heaven say in their worship of God “Hallelujah, Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgements” (Revelation 19:1-2). This is our God in action, this is the God we serve, He is powerful beyond measure, and He is in control. This is the God you want on your side, He is also called the Lord of hosts, the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). You can be assured that having Him by your side will set you for life, scratch that, it will set you for eternity for He promised to always be with us. In Isaiah we read “the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God your glory.” (Isaiah 60:19; do read the whole chapter, you will not regret it), isn’t that so beautiful? I pray this makes you long for more of God, I pray it makes you see the futility of the life this world offers, and I pray it puts you back on the quest for more. So, as a child of God, know and believe Revelation, Christ is coming back, the Day of the Lord is arriving, and your life will be bliss from then on but for the others what does this mean?

Like I mentioned earlier, there are two clear camps in the book of Revelation: the people of God and the rest which is composed of the devil, his agents, and those who love the world or the world to keep it short. Chapter sixteen tells us about the seven bowls of God’s wrath being poured on the earth one at a time. This is the wrath of God, or His judgement being reflected on land, sea, rivers and springs of water, sun, on the beast (devil), the Euphrates river and on the air. There was not an escape from this wrath of God, it touched every area of the world and cosmos, everything would be affected. What is of particular interest is how the world fared, how the people who followed the beast fared. We see that when the wrath of God affected the beast and his kingdom, “men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done” (Revelation 16:11, italics mine). Moreover, the attitudes of the people of the world or of those who love the world is that of sheer opposition to God and the things of God. In the following chapter we are introduced to another woman, this one is very different from the one we met in chapter twelve, this woman is seating on a scarlet beast and her title was “Mystery. Babylon the Great. Mother of Prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth” (Revelation 17:5). Similarly, the scarlet beast she was sitting on was “covered with blasphemous names”. It is quite clear that this combination of creatures can not amount to anything for the kingdom of God. Their names alone tell you that they are in direct opposition to God and God too is opposed to them hence the judgement. For the woman who represented “the great city that rules over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:18), the fall had come. The very beast she sat on destroyed her and this all under the sovereignty of God as part of His plan to bring justice to his saints. The future is not bright for those who are opposed to God. It is so scary that even those who loved the woman and had transactions with her will see the swiftness with which her fall happened. Many of them will marvel at the fact that it only took an hour to bring her down, she who was so mighty (Revelation 18:10, 17, 19)! There will not be any life left in that great city, nothing that brings joy will be present such as harpist, musicians, workman of any trade, the sound of millstone, the light of a lamp will not shine again, the voice of the bridegroom and bride, etc. I am not sure if you can picture such a place and what it means for God to eradicate a city, this land will become bare. No one would want to live there if given the chance because there is no life, no joy, no purpose. I was struck by the note that “work” is a sign of life in a nation. Can you imagine?! We love to loathe work, but it is a good thing!

I do not know where you stand today but in light of the above, I urge you to get your priorities straight. This life we live is not about us, it is all about Christ and His kingdom. “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10) So let us not waste our time bickering about what we do not like about each other, or amassing the wealth of this world or some other meaningless pursuit we do but let us focus our efforts in promoting truth, in fighting corruption in all forms, in making God’s name great as it is. We are God’s ambassadors; we are light because His light is in us. We can no longer live for ourselves but for Him and we are not alone; the Holy Spirit is with us and the seven thousands who have not bowed to Baal are here too (1 Kings 19:18), just as one of the verse of the day this week encouraged us to be steadfast in our faith, keeping our minds stayed on God at all times for He will keep us in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3). So then, “Be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:9).