Revelations 8 (Part VIII) Plague of Flies

By Odon Bulamba (Friday 1st July 2005)


Revelations 8:8-11




THE THIRD PLAGUE OF MOSES; FLIES

The third plague is about flies. I saw these types of flies when I visited Sudan. If they bite you it is similar to a scorpion’s bite. I don’t know if you have seen someone who has been bitten by a scorpion. It is really horrible and when those flies bite you, you start to feel the pain within a minute. Minute after minute, the pain will increase to the point that some people, especially children can die of pain.


Today the church is going through a struggle and that struggle is that servants of God, people of this world will use their knives (let me call them knives) and stab Christians. If you want to be hurt, go and talk to your pastor, with what comes out of his mouth or what he does, you will feel completely disappointed (some of the pastors not all of them). You will say, “Is he really my pastor or not?” Things that your Christian colleagues and friends will tell you, can lead you to reject Christianity completely. Now we who are awake, we must be alert to control our words and our actions in front of people. What are we supposed to do to not destroy others? It would be really good to make an effort and do it.


The Bible tells us to be humble like pigeons or doves and wise like snakes. A snake will never use its poison without a target. It will first make sure he wants to attack and if the time is right, he will use its poison. A snake will come in this room and pass in front of your legs without problem unless you try to push it or attack it, it will then react and behave to defend itself.


Our defence as Christians is not to attack people but to commit everything into God’s hands because God says that vengeance belongs to Him. He didn’t give us the ability to avenge ourselves, this belongs to Him. If someone does something wrong against you, the Bible tells you to give him another chance. If someone slaps you on the left cheek, you must give your right side too. But if you want to avenge yourself, the Bible does not say okay stand up and do it. No. You must wait and God will do it for you. Let’s live in a way that will not do wrong to others. We have to control our actions, anger and thoughts so that we are not putting others in trouble.


The flies were no surprise to Pharaoh. What did he do?

Exodus 8:20-22

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus says the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. 22 And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth”.


So Pharaoh started to feel something serious was going on and agreed to give the people a chance to offer sacrifices to their God. Please do something today.


Our countries are trying to corrupt the church, and this is happening everywhere around the world. They want to use the church to manipulate people. They tell Pastors or Bishops and say: “Do this and this. Tell your people, inform them, even about elections or such and such. If you do this we will give you freedom to continue your activities, there are advantages for you just, pass the message on”.

 Many servants of God, Ministers and Christians are not acting like Moses who said no, they accept to manipulate their people. Moses told Pharaoh they were not supposed to offer their sacrifices in Egypt, but out of Egypt.


If you want me to do something and cover it by the Word of God, then I must remember I am adding something to it and we know whoever adds something to the Word of God, something also will be added to his life later. So, let’s be alert and remember that whenever we don’t act for God’s glory, we’ll pay the price of its consequences.

 Many countries today say, “Let’s pray for our politicians.” That’s not bad but when we start praying for political parties, a system, or things that are misleading the church then it becomes a danger. It’s the time where God stands up and says “Second angel, blow your trumpet!” By doing so, the second angel says that something like a mountain of fire comes down from somewhere. The mountain was not thrown on the earth, it went directly into the sea and a third of the sea was changed to blood. Things that were living in that area were killed and sheep that were supposed to help people to go to the other side of the river were destroyed.


Today we are living it. God has sent a big fire in the church. The fire of Joel chapter 3 is there to inspire us when we talk about the Word of God and things to come, having dreams and such and such. But that fire will not only help the church to be saved but will destroy the world. That spirit today is destroying a third of the world. Once and long ago, in the church, God inspired a prophet with a misleading spirit. God prayed the power to his prophet and a spirit that was not of the truth led them. Now, as we are talking, this very spirit is acting. The spirit of God is everywhere as the book of Joel says but many people who are led by that spirit are not chosen by God. They are just there to give prophecies and those prophecies will not be true ones.



Why does God do that?


The answer is because he wants you and me to ask for discernment. Many Christians in the world are lazy to pray for discernment. Few of them will tell you ‘I spent 5 minutes kneeling down asking God for discernment.’ Most of us pray to God to give them the power to heal, the power of bringing back death to life or the power of earning money etc but we forget about discernment.


So God advises us to ask for it and with it, we will understand things like Elijah. It is true that 400 prophets had prophesied about this and that. However we need to be on the Mount Carmel, which is the mountain of judgment. On that mountain, we will see something that the world will not believe but it will be true and possible. When Elijah had that problem with the other prophets, the Bible records a discussion between them. We are on the mountain, we’ll put the sacrifice there and we’ll pray to our God. The majority of the prophets believed Baal could do something, and they prayed to him, knowing their god will be the one to manifest himself. Elijah poured water over those animals and prayed for fire. The fire came from heaven.



Today we are praying for fire but before the fire can act properly it must be mixed with water. First of all, water must be poured on the sacrifice, and then we can call for God’s fire. But here it is different, God asked the angel to send the fire down. Because people don’t ask for it and are not prepared, time has gone when we were supposed to put water everywhere on the sacrifice. It has gone.

 God will say “Okay time has gone, fire must come down and burn something, so what will it burn?” What sacrifice have you prepared for the fire of God to burn? Nothing at all. However the people of this world have been trying like those prophets of Baal to “cut themselves”s for money. For example, some people can work 36 hours in 2 days or more than 59 hours in 5 days. They kill their bodies because of money; others kill their time by over studying and so on. But we, who have the living God don’t really need any physical effort. We only need to take the Word of God and pray with it over the sacrifice.


Unfortunately we don’t do it and God has decided that time is up and He must intervene. He is not intervening in a proper way but with anger, because the church doesn’t understand. So that day He will send fire down and that fire according to some people is called chemical weapons. I don’t believe in all of that. Some want to stop Iran making those weapons. I don’t care about that because the Bible says that fire will come from heaven and when it comes, it will come straight down into the sea, and the creatures will die. Firstly, in order to punish the church, God will send a fire, which will take away grace and salvation. They will go somewhere else.


As for us, we don’t sincerely kneel down and ask God for forgiveness because we don’t feel the fruit of repentance in us.


Whenever I tell someone, “Can you please fix the problem with your sister?” they say, “Oh who is he to tell me that? I don’t care, leave me alone, I don’t have time for that” and walk away.


God will harden our hearts so that we will not allow the Word of God to penetrate us and everything we receive from Him will be just like a fire.


Whenever I tell Odon, “Please Odon, the Word of God says this and this please repent”, it will be just like a fire on me, I’ll get angry and I’ll break everything in my heart. I might go and argue with the person and talk against him.



That fire is on earth today. If the church today defends things that do not please God, it’s a shame. If we, as a church start showing the world that ‘it’s alright, God is everywhere and we are expecting Him to come one day”, but in the meantime we continue our daily life as if nothing was coming, it’s a shame. We are supposed to tell people that something is coming. When God sends down fire and people hear that God is punishing the church, burning the church and destroying all the sheep, they will say “Oh things are getting serious, we need to change our ways” What will be that change?



I can tell you at that time and for 3½ years, the gospel will be for the people living in the Middle East. So we can put aside this big part of the world as well as other areas around the world: they will not be accountable straight away, but Europe, America, Africa and us in NZ we will go through it. So why don’t we prepare ourselves? God in His anger will ask the third angel to blow the trumpet. We read that a big star will come down.