The Storm To Bring You Back

Did you know there can be a storm to redirect you back to your purpose?  It is important that Gods discernment is used to recognize what is going on around you.  Once it is recognized then you can respond appropriately in Gods wisdom.  God can send a storm in your life, to stop the very thing that you are choosing to do in your flesh.

God called Jonah to an assignment of going to Ninevah.  This city was a city called to destruct because of all the wickedness and sin that was taking place there.  Ninevah needed help.  This city needed a guide to show them the way out of their bondage and walk into freedom, newness, and deliverance.

After God called out to Jonah and revealed His Heavenly assignment to him, what did Jonah do?  What was Jonah’s reaction?

“³ But Jonah ran away to Tarshish to escape from
the presence of the Lord [and his duty as His prophet].
He went down to ^[a]Joppa and found a ship going to
^[b]Tarshish [the most remote of the Phoenician trading cities].
So he paid the fare and went down into the ship to go
with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord.”

-Jonah 1:3

He got up and went in the opposite direction of where He was called to.  He thought He could run away from from God by physically leaving the land and fleeing the opposite direction.  Jonah was filled with fear but the wrong kind of fear.

Has God called you to something?  Has God revealed your purpose to you?  What was your immediate reaction once it clicked and just hit you?

“God, you want me to go where?  God, you want me to do what?”  Have you been one of those whether now or in the past where all of a sudden, your mind got flooded with thoughts of fear and doubt?  Did you perhaps start to think along the lines of, “I can’t go there. Where again God?”

Trust me I have been there and I know what that feels like.  Jonah possibly hoped that if he just ran away the opposite direction, he could hide from God and not have to go to that assignment.  That assignment just looked so big and frightening at that moment to Jonah.

I felt the same way when God told me 12 years ago, “I am sending you to Ninevah”.   The first thing I did was go to the Bible and read the story of Jonah.  After I read it, the thoughts of my mind really went in the direction of what I described in the previous paragraph.  I fought God for 2 years on this.

This fear really came from a lack of knowledge and understanding in some areas.  Over those two years, God kept speaking to me about that assignment and I just kept reacting in my flesh trying to push it away.  I wasn’t at peace during that time because my flesh was fighting with His will.  At the end of the two years, I paused, threw my hands up and said, “God, what am I doing trying to fight you? You are God.  You know better.  Your ways and your thoughts are higher than mine.  Let your will be done and not mine.  Forgive me for not listening to you.  Yes Lord, I say yes to your assignment.  I will do what you ask of me.”   It was after I came to that state of realization and surrendered myself to Gods way and control that I felt the peace of God again.

This was quite the learning process.  In those two years, it felt like I was being tossed to and fro in the waves of the storm.  The reality is that I was running away from my call and a storm was sent my way to catch my attention.  During that time in my life, I was unintentionally running away from my call and God.  I had to learn “who I was” and “who He is”.  I needed to learn that it will not be my doing, that it won’t be by my own might and power but rather by His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6).  I lacked the knowledge of, being humble before God and knowing Gods ways are higher than my ways, and His thoughts are higher than my thoughts (Isaiah 55).  I had lacked the knowledge of knowing that obedience to God is a key to moving forward.  I had lacked so many things and because I lacked it, I reacted in the worldly fear instead of the fear of God.   I didn’t even know the difference between worldly fear vs the fear of God at that time.   Now, because of this process and many others, I do and it’s so different.

The lack of knowledge destroys people…

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge [of My law, where I reveal My will].
Because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge,
I will also reject you from being My priest.
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I will also forget your children.”
-Hosea 4:6 (AMP)

In Jonah 1:4, it says that suddenly the Lord flung a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to send them to the bottom.   Who caused the storm?  God did!  Why?  God caused the storm to stop Jonah from running away.  He caused the storm to stop Jonah from being disobedient.

This storm described in verse 4 sounds extremely intense because it was.  What storm have you been dealing with?  We must use God’s discernment to be able to recognize when it’s an attack versus when God is doing something.  Don’t be quick to react negatively.  Rather, ask God and wait upon His answer.  Ask and find out what season you are in so that you can respond correctly to it.

Vision: I see a maze and in that maze, a person is walking through it and God is big and looking down paying close attention to that person and their moves.  The person is moving slowly, thinking, “which way should I go?”  Then they turned left and almost immediately God took His hand and blocked it because up ahead what God saw before the person did, was a dead end.

Many times we end up reacting in our flesh without slowing down to hear what God has to say.  The decisions that come out of reacting in worldly fleshy fear are not good ones because one is direly afraid.  If you are afraid, you are not confident.  If you are afraid, you are restless.  We should be at rest and walking in the peace of God which passes all understanding that guards our hearts and minds.  Once we find that place, then through the wisdom and discernment of God, also through the power of the Holy Spirit we can make the right choices.

Know who you are and to whom you belong to.  Don’t let fear or lack of knowledge steal your identity from you.  This is a time to yield before God in “The Secret Place”.  You need to hear and receive divine strategies and divine insights for the next phase ahead of you.  It is vital and imperative that you do.

At that time, I hadn’t grasped the depth of “fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom”.  Now, because of certaing sitations and circumstances I had to go through, I learned it and understand.

A few weeks ago, I was standing at the edge of a beach and I clearly heard, “I have sent out the whales”.  He had sent out the whales to go after all the Jonah’s out there.  God had sent out the whales to redirect those who were running in the opposite direction to their true calling and purpose.  Pay attention and ask God to give you the clairty and divine insight you need for what you are going through.

Jesus loves you!  You are more able, capable, amazing, and stronger than you think you are.  You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philipians 4:13).  You got this and God’s got you!  Embrace the process you are in with joy, for the joy set before you!  God has a plan and you are a part of it.  He needs you because you are a piece of mosiac to His greater mosiac.  Everything you have gone through only shaped, formed, sharpened, and strengthened you for a time such as this.

The enemy has been afraid of what God has been making you into.  Get up and go.  The tides are turning and your time is here.  It’s going to be amazing!