SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/2/2015
8:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Release of Demons PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
9:13-14
Message of the
verses: “13 Then the sixth angel
sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is
before God, 14 one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release
the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."”
We have been talking about the altar of incense in both
heaven and the one on earth in our last SD and although this is not exactly the
main point that is in these two verses it is a very important to understand
these points that we have been making.
One of my favorite people was a missionary from Brazil who is now with
the Lord, and he used to speak of the Spiritual Diaries that I would send him
as veins of gold that were mined from the gold mine of God’s Word. Sometimes when you study the Word of God the
Holy Spirit directs you to different sections of the Scripture like we are
doing in this passage as we talk about the altar of incense. As we continue in this section we are still
in what I would call a difficult section of the SD.
We begin by saying how shocking it is for this altar of
incense to be associated with mercy to hear words of judgment come forth from
near it. We realize that our God is
merciful and that He is also gracious and compassionate yet we read the following
from Genesis 6:3a “"My Spirit shall not strive with man forever.” Just as in the days of Noah when God judged
the earth with a flood He will now continue to judge the world with the
judgments from the scroll that we were first introduced to in chapter
five. When we see this trumpet of
judgment sounded which is the second woe the time for mercy will be ended. Now I am not saying that people will not be
saved from this point on, but I truly believe it will be difficult for this to
happen because of the repeated times we read about the hardness of men’s hearts
knowing that these judgments come from the Lord yet we read that they will not
repent.
Let us look at Hebrews 10:28-31 “28 Anyone who has set
aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three
witnesses. 29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has
trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the
covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30
For we know Him who said, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY." And
again, "THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE." 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of
the living God.”
Okay now let us take a look at verse 14 and discuss what
is going on there. “one saying to the
sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at
the great river Euphrates.” Now as we
see the words “release the four angels” we can surely believe that these are
demons for God’s good angels do not have to be bound, but we have already been
talking about some demons coming out of the pit that Satan opened up so perhaps
these four demons may have been the ones who, along with others, came out of
the pit. “And angels who did not keep
their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal
bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day (Jude 6).” “For if God did not spare angels when they
sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness,
reserved for judgment (2 Peter 2:4).”
One more example to look at is in Revelation 20:1-3 “1 Then I saw an
angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain
in his hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the
devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he threw him into
the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the
nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things
he must be released for a short time.”
MacArthur writes “God’s control over demonic forces is complete—they are
bound or loosed at His command. The
perfect tense of te participle translated ‘bound’ implies that these four
angels were bound in the past with continuing results; they were in a state or
condition of bondage until God’s determined time came for them to be released
to execute their function as instruments of divine judgment.”
Now there is a lot to say about the Euphrates River and
we will save that for our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Many years ago I
was listening to a Pastor on the radio, one my mom use to listen to on many
mornings, a program called “Morning Sunshine,” Pastor Ralph Neighbor was the
Pastor I was listening to and he spoke of how the Holy Spirit can move in a person’s
heart as they study the Scriptures to make other portions of Scripture come
alive with the ones they are looking at.
I believe this is true as God has been moving in my heart to look at
prayer and although this has been going on over the past year or so it is
exciting to me to see how the Spirit shows me different elements of prayer.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to continue to teach me more about the love of Christ
and to better live in that love.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Egypt” (Hebrews 22:27).”
Today’s Bible
question: “Whose vineyard did Ahab want?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/2/2015 9:35 AM
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