阅读经文 

儿女年幼时，我会读故事给他们听，有时我会用一句说话来提醒他们“要留心听啊，”我会说：“现在要留心听接下来会有什么事情要发生了。”我这样说，是因为故事中有些情节是理解整个故事的关键所在。

当我们读到第七号响起的时候，我们需要特别留意和小心聆听。神的故事讲到这一部分，是我们明白自己的身份和在世上蒙召的使命之关键。身为神的见证人，我们需要知道，尽管这个世界有时似乎是全然败坏和被邪恶势力所控制，然而，神的国今天却仍然是在拓展中的。

这部分的故事，是由“天上就有大声音”高声宣告，并且有坐在神宝座周围的二十四位长老加入来烘托的。留心听这来自天堂的宣告：“世上的国，成了我主和主基督的国，祂要作王，直到永永远远。”(参启 11:15)

我们需要留心聆听，因为我们时常都不能领会天堂里充满欢乐的原因。在我们日常生活中，我们总以为神的国将来有一天会降临，那时，弥赛亚耶稣便要“作王，直到永永远远”了。

然而，这个宣告不是指将来的事的。第七号响起宣告，世上的国现在已经成了神的国了。现在这个事实，改变了每一个在耶稣里倚靠信心生活的人。

When our children were young, I sometimes used a "heads-up" call as I read a story to them. "Now listen carefully to what comes next," I would say. I did this because some parts of a story are key to understanding the whole.

As we read the story of the seventh trumpet call, we need to pay close attention and listen carefully. This part of God’s story is key to understanding who we are and what we are called to do in this world. As God’s witnesses, we need to know that God’s kingdom is advancing right now, even though it may seem at times that the world is thoroughly corrupt and controlled by the forces of evil.

This part of God’s story is shouted by "loud voices in heaven" and reinforced by the twenty-four elders seated around God’s throne. Listen carefully to what heaven announces: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever."

We need to listen carefully because heaven’s reason for rejoicing is often missed. In our everyday lives, we tend to think that God’s kingdom will come someday and that Jesus, the Messiah, will then "reign forever and ever."

But the announcement is not in the future tense. The seventh trumpet call announces that God’s kingdom claims the kingdom of this world now. And this present reality changes everything for all who live by faith in Jesus.