The storm rages and Jonah is thrown overboard into the violent sea! You know the story. Is America throwing “church as we have known it” overboard? Statistics say they are. Is traditional church being rejected? And yet Jesus is not traditional church, and he rises above!
Have you ever noticed in your walk with God, how if you “defile” yourself for a time, then it takes a little while to get that intimate Anointing back? As Priest of God we’ve all been there. It’s a most basic lesson of understanding the power and Anointing of God. The Old Testament spoke of it symbolically as eating or touching unclean animals. Or if you had touched a dead thing. The O.T. painted us a picture how intentional sin can “defile” us, and then there was a time period of cleansing before the Priest could perform his priestly duties again. I call this our 3-Days in the belly of the fish.
Jonah was in a heck of a predicament, wasn’t he? And yet it took him 3 days before he could pray a prayer that God actually answered! Are we in that same spiritual condition?
“… And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish.” (Jonah 1:17b & 2:1)
Jonah had definitely slid into a distant relationship with God, and was sailing farther and farther away until the fish brought him back, and even then Jonah still had an attitude. God continued working on him even as God was saving Nineveh.
What is it going to take to get the church back into a position of power and Anointing with God? I believe I see the great fish coming! We are in the storm now, Jonah has been woken by the unbelievers and told to pray, but he has not yet admitted to this storm being his fault! It is his fault because he is not preaching God’s message that was given! Not only that, but he is sailing AWAY from the will of God, choosing to go to Tarshish rather than Nineveh, because those people were so evil! They deserve to die! (He decided.) Hard hearted.
Jonah was planning on living a blessed life in Tarshish rather than preach to the heathens the warnings and judgments of God. Have we not done the same? The storm is here! We have been woken and told to pray! But Jonah’s prayers were no good until after 3 days in the fish belly! We’ve not had our 3 days yet. We’re not Skypeople living by our wings. We’re destined for fish food.
So…what kind of a fish, and what kind of a belly does God have “planned” for us??? God is very intentional in these things, you know.
Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea…
Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah.
In our New Covenant God also warns us about a life of sin, unholiness, defiling our temples, which have become our very body. We are called to be Skypeople, not Earthdwellers living in defilement! We have forsaken our sacred ways! We don’t live by our wings, but we live as normal men! A life below, not above! A kingdom below, not above! A life of carnality, not Priesthood! We’d rather live in Tarshish!
We have much better means of forgiveness and restoration now, through Christ Jesus, but believe me, in severe cases, God still has his GREAT FISH! And the last verse of the O.T. is still a warning ending in the word “CURSE”! I believe we are there. We have pushed God’s buttons too many times and crossed an invisible line.
Now the heathens have not thrown us overboard yet, but they sure are beginning to think about it. HATE SPEECH! RACISM! GENDERISM! ABORTION, CONTROLLING POLITICS, HOMOSEXUALITY! EQUAL RIGHTS IN THE CHURCH! They have a lot of reasons already prepared. We’ve actually gone soft on these subjects, but they don’t see it that way, nor do they want us to have a chance to get stronger.
During the time of this election, they are throwing their lots and asking their gods for a revelation of who is the cause of this perfect storm? We already know who the lots fell to, Jonah. We have caused a political storm they will no longer tolerate. So the tolerant will cease to be tolerant in the name of being tolerant.
In 18 more days the “50 Day White House Siege” begins. The lots are being rolled. The storm continues raging and it will not go away until God’s people get right with God again. Until they can pray the prayer that God hears.
Leviticus 18:24- > “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in all these ways. Because the entire land has become defiled, I am punishing the people who live there. I will cause the land to vomit them out.” (Like the fish vomited Jonah?)
The land is defiled with hate, violence, lies, murder of babies, divorce, adultery, lust, materialism, selfishness, homosexuality, perversion, and how much more can it stand? In all this the church has been asleep. Now the storm is upon us. If God will hear our prayers as he did Nineveh, perhaps we can shorten out time in the belly. It’s up to us, the church, God’s people who paid the price for a ticket to Tarshish rather than following Jesus.
“The night watchmen found me as they made their rounds. They beat and bruised me and stripped off my veil, those watchmen on the walls.” (S. of S. 5:7)
Path Without End 