The Belly of the Whale, Part One

Jon 1:1-3 ¶ Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Mt 6:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Have you ever been caught or trapped in a terrible situation which confined you or limited you to do the very work you believed God called you to do? Every direction you turn you have faced opposition and couldn’t figure out why the cruelty was so prominent but no one could see it as you did. Your name was slandered and you were made to look as the enemy and not the victim? People lost trust in you and even your family advised to find another ministry or another job? You ask yourself, AND you asked God, “How long, Lord? How long do I continue?”

May I help? You continue until God says, “ENOUGH!” How do you know when enough is enough for God? Enough in our eyes and reasoning may be less than enough in God’s care, my friend. We must be willing to be used for God’s work at ALL cost!

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. Think about this….God created this world, every inch of it! Nineveh was God’s delight as everything He creates is His delight. You are God’s delight. Don’t forget that! Man has interrupted God’s delight, therefore, God interrupts man! How long this interruption lasts is up to God. How it ends, is His business and the outcome is basically His decision. You and I can have the mind of Christ, but we are not GOD’S MIND! Christ who is God’s mind, is in us, therefore we can know the mind of God.

1Co 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ

Back to Nineveh…..There were two prophets sent to warn Nineveh to turn to God. I would read all of Jonah at one sitting and then read all of Nahum in one sitting.  It will help you as we look first at the belly of the whale. Sometimes I look at my own belly and think, “Good night, how did this happen! Where did you come from? How do I get rid of this belly, NOW!!!? But this blog is NOT about my belly but the belly of God’s whale!

Nineveh’s leadership was pagan; therefore, the followers of that leadership became the same. God needed them to know HIM.  This blog has been dedicated for you and me to get to know God better while we help those following to get to know God better and so the passing on of that knowledge to one generation to another. Nineveh was in trouble! So is America, my friend, so is America! This information can be passed on in today’s society quickly around the world through technology. God will require it at our hands. We can use this technology for His use or for ours. It is our choice. Help us by getting on board.

Could there have been a woman in Nineveh who knew their leadership was wrong? Could there have been a family who loved God and absolutely had no power to change leadership?  Could have been. We do not know. BUT God did and God still knows!

1.        He parted the Red Sea. Don’t ever forget that! He can do it again! The people, a people who believed one minute and not the next… were running away from the enemy as their leadership believed strongly for them.

2.       God gave barren Hannah a child. Can He do it again? Absolutely! She believed in God and trusted Him to hear her.

3.       God healed the woman with a spirit of infirmity for 18 years.  Can He do it again? Absolutely and it is recorded, Lu 13:12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.

Search the scriptures and you will read one example after another of a believing people who saw the miracles of our God. Now, in a different flavor, think about Jonah. He was delivered from the belly of a whale. God can do it again! I really have no desire to find out if God can do it again. Do you? BUT….. Sometimes we find ourselves in the belly of the whale.

We can surmise why Jonah was there but at the same time God’s Word records the reason Jonah was trapped in a messy, stinking and unhealthy sewage.   

Jonah 1:10 “Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.”  Jonah was running from God!

When we run from God, afflictions will come at the hand of God. He loves us that much! Sometimes afflictions come and we had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with it and cannot for the life of us figure out the “why” asking “how long Lord will this last?”…. Are you with me? Either way, God can deliver. Remember though, God’s ENOUGH may take you by surprise as it did Jonah. What will you do?  Trust? Run again? Blame someone else?

When the storms of life blow and the waves toss you back and forth, you may not be able to do anything but ride the waves and survive, my friend. God knows your limit. Maybe, it’s time to stretch your limit! You didn’t know you could do what you are doing nor going through what you are experiencing, did you?

You didn’t know that you had more patience. You’ve become more flexible whereas before everything had to be on schedule without changes. You didn’t know you could love the unlovely. You didn’t know you could breathe slowly and move more slowly. You were always fast paced, running through full force and maybe knocking down some precious people while flying past them. Right?

You didn’t know God’s Word was more than just words for everyone else. Now, you find The Word speaks to you more than ever. You didn’t know…….you didn’t……KNOW!

  

NOW YOU DO!

So, what do you do with your lovely self? You’ve just been vomited up by a whale. There you are in all your glory on the beach. No sun tan. No beautiful shape anymore. Your eye sight is dim but you can see better than ever. Your limbs are weak but you are stronger. You can’t run the hundred yard dash, but you can run a hundred miles if needed. Your skin has turned an ugly color but you have become tough skinned to the world’s way. Your hands are spotted, nails broken, but these same hands are beautiful and now able to reach out to those without hands, without food, without the Word of God! You didn’t know, but now you do.

Your perfectly white teeth have become discolored and separated by the weeds and garbage that hit you like a ton of bricks right smack in the face and so hard, you found yourself spitting while trying to breathe all at the same time!

There you are…..stretched out…..thinking “I’m alive, barely, but I’M ALIVE! I am a mess, but I’m ready to get up and take off running with God’s leading. I can touch His garment because He is right in front of me. I can see Him! I can hear Him while we run together! I am free, free for the first time in my entire life! I am not the same, but I don’t want to be the same. I’m becoming older but younger in God’s eyes. He sees me behind Himself. I only need God as God saw that my need was the

BELLY OF THE WHALE!!!

Go gettim, Jonah!

And Go gettim, Friend!

Until next time, Lord willing

Sharon