25/05/14

O Man of God why do your own thing

Jonah 1:3 - But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.


I got this message a few days back but God knew I would not be writing unto today for just yesterday I understood the purpose of this message. Yesterday I was with great Men of God but sadly they were like Jonah in today's message.

Jonah was a great Man of God who had a heart for God, a man who feared God, loved God and would do anything for Him. But his one great problem Jonah had was that he tried to correct God on how to run the Kingdom of God and this led to one of the greatest testimonies in the Bible which is today known even by small children. God knew this man inside out, so let Jonah do what he wanted in the start so that He (God) would be glorified more by doing what God desired through Jonah.

Jonah was given a mission to give the message of repentance to the people of Nineveh. Jonah knew in his heart if God sent him for the mission it would be accomplished and the people of Nineveh would be saved from the wrath of God. Jonah hated the people of Nineveh for the great evil they did and wanted them to be punished for the evil they did. When God told him to go to Nineveh and set a period for their repentance Jonah tried to go the other direction calculating his journey so that it became impossible to reach Nineveh within God set period and thus the people of Nineveh would not repent and thus get punished for their evil. Jonah did all this planning according to the limitation of his human mind according to his worldly thinking, he did not realized God is a God of the impossible and in His Kingdom there is no limitation.

Jonah calculations were based according to manmade transportation; he did not imagine God would put him in one of the fastest submarine made by Him (a whale) and would take him back to Nineveh in time to save the people of Nineveh.

Yesterday I was saddened to see great Men of God who fear God and see the glory of God every day of their lives, yet limit their plans for the Kingdom of God according to worldly thinking and worldly system.

In the Bible we have books like Acts and letters of great Men of God like Paul, John and Peter among others, so that we learn from them. If we ignore them and do our own thing then are we not running away from the presence of God like Jonah did? The presence of God is the where the glory of God is and His glory is where His Word in abided by.

The world is filled with yeast and even the Church and its people are so filled with yeast. Look around things like worldly traditions still run the lives of almost all Christians, Believers not spared. Till date the bread we break in Church has yeast in it like the teachings that are given in Churches. God is so true when He stated the daily sacrifice would be taken away by the little horn (Catholic Church / Vatican) for two thousand three hundred days (years).

It is time we open our eyes to the yeast we are filled with, stop thinking and doing things according to this world but let us do things according to the Kingdom of God / His Word and see the power of God manifest within us.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, we pray we do not go through the life and death situation that Jonah went through due to not obeying your instructions but going according to his thinking. Lord the Churches and Ministries today follow less your Word and more the understanding of the world, it is this reason we go through the life and death situations we are facing. Lord we pray You heal our minds and our thinking. Gove your people courage to fearlessly walk according to your Word not fearing this world but only fearing You...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference ]
Jonah 1:1-4, 9-12, 15-17
1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
4 But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was in danger of being broken.
9 And he said to them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who hath made the sea and the dry land.
10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said to him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
11 Then said they to him, What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea raged, and was tempestuous.
12 And he said to them, Take me, and cast me into the sea; so shall the sea be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
15 So they took Jonah, and cast him into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD, and made vows.
17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah 3
1 And the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the preaching that I bid thee.
3 So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and declared through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do to them; and he did it not.

Jonah 4
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
2 And he prayed to the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before to Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest of the evil.
3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
8 And it came to pass, when the sun rose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even to death.
10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not laboured, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than an hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also many cattle?

Daniel 8:9-14
9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
10 And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.
11 Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.
12 And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.
13 Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?
14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

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