The Jonah Paradigm
My prophetic post about America on Oct 2nd ruffled some feathers. I liken these people to Jonah. At some point in Jonah’s journey, he decided to delight in God’s wrath being poured out onto Nineveh. As the story goes, Jonah was told by God to go speak to Nineveh about their sins. Jonah said nope, not going to go. He found a boat and went on his merry way. Well, the ship ran into a storm, and the crew came to the conclusion that Jonah was the source of their problems, so overboard he goes. Now at this point, Jonah is witnessing personally the different sides of God. It is clear from scripture that Jonah had an in body and out of body experience while inside the fish. He saw hell and what awaits those that do not repent. Jonah seemed to have reached a major transformation in who God is. Jonah got mercy at the end of this moment, which appears to be an overwhelming up-welling of gratitude from his heart.
Now, the next part is really important to let sink in. Jonah shows up to Nineveh and says what God was going to do AND the people immediately listened and repented. This is the part that Christians fail to see every single day. It is by the Holy Spirit that anyone listens and hears the message into their spirit, mind, soul, which leads to a turnaround and shift in their actions. The Holy Spirit already prepared the people’s hearts for the change, God just needed a Spark to ignite the fire, which was Jonah. God being God, knew the people would repent and no harm would come. Their eyes were open and their ears could hear.
Jonah 4:1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. I will say this mindset is one that comes up often in the prophetic world.
In our world, there are three main voices/frequencies; The Voice of the Lord; the voice of the enemy; the voice of man's opinions.
There are MANY who are shouting the Voice of the Enemy believing the worst for every nation. They have the mindset of Jonah who was ANGRY that God spared Nineveh. After Jonah visited hell, why would he ever wish for destruction?
Prophetic people: I don’t care if you are mature in your anointing or gift or still learning how to be accurate- Stop doing this. Stop being like Jonah. First, God will only speak these messages through a mature prophet. You have to be in the Office. Just because someone has a prophetic gift or receives occasionally through the Holy Spirit does not make them in the Office. The Office carries a daily Weight and Responsibility commissioned only by God. If you are not in the office and you think God is giving you these kinds of warnings, I want you to seriously consider that you are hearing the enemy or your own opinions. There are no other options before you. Lower level prophetic people will get words of Edification, Comfort, and Exhortation. God will not give someone words of correction if God has not anointed them with the responsibility to deliver the message correctly. God holds the Prophet in HIGH standards and will deal heavily with the prophet for mistakes made. Look anywhere in the Bible. Moses didn’t go into the Promised Land because of his temper that plagued him throughout his life. He dishonored God. Nothing has changed. Assignments from God have a power and authority behind them that God takes very seriously.
So next we go into why Jonah didn’t want this assignment and it is so bad that he wants God to just kill him. Probably a little dramatic.
Jonah 4:2-11
2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still in my country? That is why I ran to Tarshish, because I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and great in lovingkindness, and [when sinners turn to You] You revoke the [sentence of] disaster [against them]. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, just take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 Then the Lord said, “Do you have a good reason to be angry?” 5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat east of it. There he made himself a shelter and sat under its shade so that he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the Lord God prepared a [a]plant and it grew up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head to spare him from discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about [the protection of] the plant. 7 But God prepared a worm when morning dawned the next day, and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When the sun came up God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he fainted and he wished to die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have a good reason to be angry about [the loss of] the plant?” And he said, “I have a [very] good reason to be angry, angry enough to die!” 10 Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 [innocent] persons, who do not know the difference between their right and left hand [and are not yet accountable for sin], as well as many [blameless] animals?”
Many are aligning with the enemy’s vomit because they can’t see how God works. God right now is preparing hearts and minds! Stop thinking that God does not win and that the Holy Spirit has no power. God is indeed exposing the deep deep darkness in America and other nations. God is realigning America. Stop thinking that everything bad is God’s wrath and judgment. God’s wrath was poured out FULLY upon Jesus. There is nothing left in the wrath well for God to draw from. God is fair in His judgment and PATIENT that all will come to Him. Do not let your end times beliefs cloud your viewpoint and perspectives. We need to stop being opinion driven. Otherwise, we run the risk of speaking the enemy's voice because we can't discern the difference. God is not finished at all with His plans for the world. The Kingdom is here on Earth, if we will just choose to see it.
If God is speaking turnaround and prosperity once more, Pray into that and not against that. Pray into the hearts and minds becoming open to the Holy Spirit. Stop rejoicing when calamity happens. This is not the heart of God!
~Many Blessings,
MaryEllen Replenished Hope Ministries Replenished HopeReplenishedhope.com