Last time we looked at the Benchmark God always uses, His plumbline – Love. That we Love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and that we Love our neighbour as we love ourself. That we keep on our Lens of Love and see others and situations through the Fathers Lenses of Love.
So with those 2 in mind let’s begin.. Remember we’re in Jonah, feel free to read it again it’s only a small book. Here’s a few verses just to ponder over as we examine how Jonah sees at present.
V1- 2 “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me”.
Straight forward God gives Jonah His word to go and preach against Nineveh as it’s time for them to choose embrace repentance or not, Jonah, go or not?
V3 “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord”.
Jonah responds he is out, he doesn’t like the message from the Lord. Continue the story for yourself and see the Fathers provision all the way through to speak Love, and I love you Jonah to him and restore his heart back to The Father. Unrelenting, unstoppable Love.
Throughout this story we see Jonah’s heart position and posture (as judge and judgemental) towards and over the people and place Father loves and wants as His own again. God’s desire is for His children to know Him and turn their minds back to worshipping Him, so much that Jonah was chosen by Father for this mission, share the message of Father’s heart and will to advise, encourage, warn and decree God’s will.
However Jonah’s heart attitude is closed off to any of the Rs, Redemption, Reconciliation, restoration, Resurrection, and believes that God’s goodness, grace and mercy, has an expiry date, and is unavailable; it’s judgement time according to Jonah’s timeline.
Ooh any names or places coming to mind that you’re thinking I hear you Jonah yep they are done, they have rejected God, lived in the world for too long, that nation, country, is so far from being Christ like, surely God’s saying it’s judgement time and time for His justice to be served?
If we were having coffee together about this the first thing I’d say is are you God? For my bible says no one knows the mind of God but the Holy Spirit?
Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself? Job 15:8, and
“For who has discovered how the Lord thinks or is wise enough to be the one to advise Him in His plans”? Romans 11:34 TPT
“For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God”. 1 Corinthians 2:11
Here I’d pause, be praying, and waiting for that to digest and say is it possible like Jonah that you are seeing it or them through cracked, limited, restricted, narrow lens? And that’s because the Word of God says no one knows the thoughts God has apart from by the Holy Spirit as Isaiah 55:8 says “His thoughts are way higher than our thoughts, and His ways greater than our ways”.
So if only Holy Spirit knows the mind of God, let’s ask Him how does the Father see these ones, this nation, country, situation? Would you do that now? Pause, ask, then listen to hear what Holy Spirit says, then bravely write it down and ask Holy Spirit for help to choose to now see them this way and even start praying God would bless them. Do it, Flip the script.
That’s what God, Father, Holy Spirit, Jesus do, have done and will continually do, they flip the script and choose to see everyone through the lens of Unconditional Love, Wholeness and Authentic, Blueprint of who He created, intended, purposed, them to be, son or daughter of God.
Speaking of invitations, God is inviting Jonah to ‘call up’ Nineveh, to His original design of each precious one! Notice God’s not inviting Jonah to call out or call down but CALL UP, exhort, and encourage them with truth of who they are and how God sees them. Right now Holy Spirit could be naming some ones or places He is inviting you to ‘call up’ in truth and righteousness for the kingdom, will you do so?
And Jonah is invited to shake off self, the restrictions, lies, chains of the enemy and self, to literally become a NEW CREATION IN CHRIST and walk into a greater level in relationship with Him. Now this new relationship won’t be without tests, trials, and challenges to overcome. Read that again, relationship is not free of tests, trials or challenges to overcome, they are part in parcel of seeing that God can trust us with more, He wants to give.
Remember this with Faith and rejoice: “there’s no testimony without the test, no message without the mess, and no triumph without the trial first”. So get excited when you are experiencing trials, tests or challenges, because Father is checking He can trust You with what He has for you.
We’ll pick up Jonah’s story and more God’s been teaching me next time.
Challenge time: Grab your journal, space, and be with the Lord to record all He says.
1. First thing in the morning, when you wake, ask Holy Spirit to put on the Lens of Love over your eyes, and be with Him to record what this looks, feels, sounds, smells, tastes like (involves all your senses)
2. Then will you ask Him for invitations and opportunities to apply these Lenses of Love and ‘call up’ and exhort people and situations to Truth and Righteousness as God sees them, and record what happens in your interactions.
3. Lastly will you share with someone your testimony of God encountering you, before Jesus, then when Jesus met you, and now your life with Jesus.
Worship Time – I’m loving the song Too Good to Not Believe by Brandon Lake and I Speak Jesus! Have a listen and see what Holy Spirit fires up in you.
Father God, thank You for the Lenses of Love that You have given us, help us to ‘call up’ people and situations to your original intent and would you give us boldness and a burning in our heart, to share our testimony of “But God” to see the ones as He does, and ‘I speak Jesus’. In Jesus name. Amen.
Paula Blackie.
Itinerate Pastor
Encounter Ministries
