Jonah

When you leave His presence..Part 1

Jonah 1: 3”But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”

When you disobey God, you actually may feel free but you are fleeing from His presence, which is very dangerous. If you watch the bird’s nest , it is so secure, protected, sheltered, pretty sturdy, located in a hiding place far away from the reach of people , but if the baby bird ventures out and strays away from the nest, imagine what would happen! It would be open to predators, enemies , bird may fall down and get lost. Walking away from God’s nest and rest is like walking into a moving train. Caveat!

When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost the presence of God, when Cain sinned he became proud and left the presence of God, when Saul sinned he left the presence of God , hence evil spirits came to dwell inside him which eventually killed him. Being in the presence of God is like standing in the midst of a rose garden, the aroma of the flowers will surely rub off on you. Say Amen. Bilquis Sheikh, a prominent Muslim woman in South Asia, author of ‘I dare to call him Father’ had a wonderful encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. The chapter of her encounter with Jesus is breathtaking, one day, while she was alone in her garden, she could tangibly feel the presence of another person next to her, though she was not able to identify that it was Jesus, later she understood that Jesus visited her in the garden. This would give you goosebumps! This further leads to her pursuit of Jesus and finally she gets saved and also becomes His servant. The presence of God transforms your life!

Jonah was not ignorant of the ways of God, in fact, he was a servant of God, yet, disobedient and he very well knew the consequences of disobedience too. His disobedience in fact put the other people inside the ship in jeopardy too. One disobedient person in the family can hamper and impede the blessings of the entire family and put them into misery as well. Friend, do not be careless about obeying God’s commandments, there will be consequences that you may have to face, just like the way Jonah was thrown into the raging sea. This message comes as a caution to make you turn to God!

Part 2- Make the right choice!

Jonah 1:3”..he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.”

Twice in the above scripture, it is mentioned that Jonah went away from the presence of God, he coolly went to Joppa, found a ship, purchased a ticket and went to Tarshish, just direct opposite to what God commanded him. Now, just because a ship was right there, it doesn’t mean that he had to board it, folks who would want to go their way would say, ‘ I take that as a sign from God’, ‘the ship would not be there if it was not the will of God’, listen friend, Jonah heard the word of God to go to Nineveh and no more debates on that, likewise when the Bible commands you to do something, then you don’t have to pray about it, just obey. If God said, ‘do not be unequally yoked’, then don’t pray over an affair that you have got entangled with a man of another faith, and now you are fasting and praying about it. Answer is already given in the Bible, take your Bible and read it every day if you want to be in the will of God.

I advised a young man who was on fire for God to stay away from evil friends, he replied nonchalantly, ‘no problem, I’ll take care!’ Sadly, the devil took care of him and also took him away from God. It’s been several years since I have heard from him. We live wilted, wasted and worn-out lives because we refuse to take the right path! I’m talking about broken homes, divorces, rebellious kids, demon possessed children, bankruptcy and much more. The myriad woes is because of your myriad errors! This message comes with a caveat not to ignore godly advice and to stick to good friends! The Bible says: Proverbs 13:15 "The way of the transgressor is hard." 16 In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly.”

Jonah disobeyed God because he was scared to go to Nineveh and felt it was a tough job, at times, the present place where God sends you may not be comfortable, may not be cozy, may not be prosperous, may not be a place of all that you had dreamed about; yet, I advise you to stay where God sends you – the blessings would surely follow. After my miraculous healing, birth of my son, my encounter with God and my salvation experience, I was confident beyond doubt that God would bless me profusely. Before joining work after delivery, I would write scriptures of prosperity, blessings and happiness and would claim it every day. I was all decked up for a great start! I joined back work only to face heaps and heaps of problems! I did not get promotion or increment for the next nearly four years – I stayed like a piece of rag in my department. Let me tell you the flip side of the story: I had started a prayer cell at office which boomed awesomely, my ministry was growing, my outreach ministry was stretching, God opened doors for evangelism and much more! At times, there is a cross that we need to carry for the sake of Christ! God was working magnificently in my life!