Rebellion has consequences

This post was originally published in 2015 and was re-published once some time later. Today I am going to share it again — so many still need to heed the warning! Rebellion Has Consequences! And that goes for governments as well as individuals.

Why can’t I share something really uplifting, encouraging, hilarious, sweet, pleasant, funny, not more-bad-stuff-on-the-way gloominess? I asked the Lord one night.

Of course, I thought in the back of my mind, I don’t HAVE to post what he tells me, I don’t have to share it with anybody. And, some of what he says is uplifting. Sometimes.

There are many times when I’d just rather keep these things to myself, because after all, few people are paying attention, that’s obvious. Just read the newspapers, listen to the TV nightly news, surf the web.

Then Jeremiah 20:9 will pop into my mind: “But if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”

Here’s what the Lord showed me that night:

Remember when your children were young? You’d give them some instructions, something you wanted them to do, or not do. But they’d ignore you. Remember those times? What did you do?

You would devise consequences. Perhaps take away a toy for a while, or revoke freedom to do something they wanted like watch television, or go to a friend’s house. Nothing too drastic, but made to fit the situation. I’m not talking about simple mistakes or forgetfulness, I’m talking about rebellion. Determined disobedience requiring action.

Later on, as they were older, consequences for disobedience had to increase in severity, and if that still didn’t work, more severity. From withholding privileges, loss of allowance, to various kinds of restrictions, whatever had the best chance of success.

The laws of sowing and reaping were working then, as they always do. They are working now.

As I meditated on what he had said, I realized some things.

All of that necessary training, physical and spiritual discipline for my children, was to prepare their growing souls to function with self-control as adults. It was quite unpleasant occasionally… but it worked.

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Heb. 12:11)

And the Lord showed me, that is what’s happening in America. Warning after warning has been given. Disobedience and rebellion have been met with consequences, and the consequences have been increasing in severity. Unpleasant. Painful. Dire.

Fires. Floods. Famine. Disease. Lawlessness. The laws of sowing and reaping are still at work.

Consequences of rebellion cause anxiety, frustration and anger – even at God – for some who simply don’t or won’t believe His word (yet). But those same consequences result in repentance, prayer, intercession and pleas for mercy for those who do believe, some of whom had not been taking God’s word very seriously.

Is it time to quit warning people? That time will come one day, I know. It’s not time yet, but how much more severe do the consequences of sin and rebellion have to get, before people listen?

“If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.

“And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.”   (Jeremiah 18:7-10)