Timely Insights into God's Word from Khandielese Reyes

“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 to 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.  But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.  Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that wee in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them.  But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay and was fast asleep.  So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper?  Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.  And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us.  So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.  Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation?  And whence comest thou?  And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.  Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this?  For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.”  (Jonah 1:1-10) 

The very first thought that came to mind upon reading these passages of scripture from the book of Jonah was “Stop Running”, and simply “Surrender to His Calling”!  For there is no where to run, nor any place to hide from the ALL seeing, ALL knowing, ALMIGHTY GOD.    Many feel they can escape the calling of the Lord and/or his commandments by simply running the other direction and attempting to hide amongst the crowd, but there is no where one can hide and eventually you will be plucked from the crowd and brought back to the place HE desires for you to be.  Whether it would be through a series of circumstances that would lead one back or one becomes spiritually exhausted from running and simply yield to Him.  Sooner or later tiredness will set in and you WILL return. 

Jonah was called by God to prophesy to the city of Nineveh of the coming destruction that would fall upon them should they choose to continue in sin and not repent.  However, Jonah had a problem with being chosen by God for this calling.  It was not out of fear, of difficulty he desired not to prophesy to the city of Nineveh, but it was out of bitterness towards the people and exalting himself above others.  He believed God should show his compassion only towards the elect of Israel as after all, He is the GOD of Israel.  Thus, in his eyes the people of Nineveh had no covenant with God, they were wicked and he believed they deserved harsh and severe punishment from God NOT compassion.  Therefore, he had no desire to give them forewarning of coming destruction if they choose not to repent of their sins.  Let them remain in sin that they may suffer the consequence of sin, this was in the heart of Jonah.  Ironically, this calling upon Jonah’s life by the Lord was actually for HIS benefit more so than for the city of Nineveh as Jonah needed correction and to be taught that God is merciful to whom HE choose, and compassionate on whom HE desires for we make not this decision, it is solely the Lord’s choice, for who are we to dictate to the Master.  Thus Jonah was the perfect choice for this calling, for not only would the people of Nineveh repent, but so would HE!   

The scriptures begin by saying: “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 rather than heed to the word of the Lord, Jonah chose to do the opposite and fled with the foolish notion that he could somehow hide from Almighty God.  Perhaps he felt that if could hide himself from the presence of the Lord, Father would then become fed up with his running and would loose interest in seeking him, and possibly then seeing his blatant unwillingness to go to the great city of Nineveh, He would then choose another more willing, more obedient vessel to prophesy to the people.  However, it didn’t quite work out as Jonah desired, for everywhere he went the Lord followed and got his attention in some manner or another.  The Lord first got his attention by troubling the waters of the sea so that the ship nearly fell apart.  Afterwards, being thrown overboard by the men on the ship, Jonah was then swallowed up by the great fish.  It was in the belly of the fish that Jonah repented and sought forgiveness of the Lord and once out of the belly of the fish, he then surrendered to the voice of the Lord and arose to preach the message the Lord gave him to the city of Nineveh. 

Today, within the Body of Christ there are many like Jonah who for whatever reasons have attempted to run the opposite direction from the calling of the Lord.  There are many that desire “greatness”, but so very few that desire to SERVE.  They lack the spiritual understanding that greatness in the eyes of the Lord does not depend upon how many spiritual gifts one possess, how much one is loved by the people, how many one has laid hands upon and such have recovered from sickness and disease, how many prophetic words are give, NO…. In the eyes of the Lord, greatness BEGINS and ENDS with SERVING!  In serving God is glorified, but in desiring to BE SERVED man seeks glorification.  Thus for some, if they are not given a position where they may be “noticed” and “praised” by man, they may attempt to reject the true calling of the Lord seeing it as small, menial, unimportant, not “great” enough. Then, there are those who run from the calling of the Lord out of fear. Fear of what people may think and/or say.  Fear that what the Lord may have chosen them to declare in speech, may cause them to lose many friends and family members.  For such, his/her focus is MORE on pleasing man and NOT God.  Then, there are some that have the mind and attitude as Jonah, where they think of themselves as being “more highly” than others, and refuse to share the Love of Christ and the message of salvation with certain “types” of people or certain nationalities of people.  Having this kind of spiritual ignorance is EXTREMELY unacceptable to the Lord for Christ died FOR ALL.   Every human being on the face of this earth has the RIGHT to know that the Lord LOVES them, and has the gift of eternal life for whoever is willing to repent of their sins and receive him as their savior.  NO ONE, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE should be shunned, and pushed aside based upon who they are, what they look like, what their nationality may be, or what sins they may be bound by.  Remember that WE ALL are sinners, as there is not ONE who has lived an absolute sinless and perfected life save JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!    

Every single one of us are called to do something for the Glory of God and ALL of us are called to LOVE one another and share his message of Love to others.  And, in EVERY calling the Lord is desiring to teach the one whose called AS WELL.  For the one who desires a great position, yet the Lord has called you into serving, perhaps the lesson for you would be to HUMBLE YOURSELF, and seek that which would glorify HIM, not yourself!  For you are use to being served, praised, lifted up and glorified, thus it may be time for you to begin serving, and through your serving HE will be praised, HE will be lifted up, HE will be glorified, and then YOU will be considered great in the kingdom of Heaven.   For the one who fears to speak words of truth for fear of losing friends, congregational members, and family, perhaps the Lord is trying to teach YOU to put HIM FIRST.  For your dependency may be too much upon man and not God.  Thus, he may have placed you in a position where you must at times STAND ALONE, a position where you will be rejected and despised of man, whereby then you may truly seek HIM as the source of your joy, the source of your happiness, the source of your peace, and where HIS love IS then SUFFICIENT!   And for the one who thinks of his/herself more highly than others, who are called to share the Message of Salvation, but refused to do so to certain types of people, perhaps it is time YOU LEARN the TRUE MEANING OF LOVE!  It is time that you stop talking about the love of Christ to ones you feel deserve to hear, and begin DEMONSTRATING THE LOVE of our Lord Jesus to ALL!   It is time you understand that had no one shared the truth with you, YOU to would still be lost.  It is time you RECEIVE the heart of the Lord and share His heart with ALL you come in contact with!   For salvation is not just for a “selective” few, but is a GIFT FOR ALL who are willing to receive.

Remember that the Lord specifically chose YOU for whatever he’s called you to do.  The calling will not only benefit those you are sent to, but you will be taught a great lesson through it all and ULTIMATELY God will be GLORIFIED!  Therefore, it is time to stop running, time to stop making excuses no matter how legitimate you may think they are, time to stop hiding for you cannot amongst the crowd as HE knows where you are, time to stop questioning his voice for YOU know what he’s spoken in your heart, now is the time to simply SURRENDER….. Just “Surrender to His Calling” for there is no place to run, no place to hide and if you are TRULY a child of God, The Holy Spirit will not let you run, nor rest…..UNTIL YOU SURRENDER TO HIS CALLING and do the perfect will of God.

I Love you all so very much.  Have a blessed week in the Lord and remember: Whatever we do, do ALL for the GLORY of GOD, who ALONE is worthy of the GLORY and the PRAISE! 

The Lord be with you this day and always!  Shalom Uvracha (Peace and Blessings)…….. 

Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh,
Adonai Elohim Tzeva-ot
Asher Hayah Va-ho-veh VaY’vo 

Holy, Holy, Holy
Lord God Almighty
Who was and is and is to come!

Khandielese
Daughter & Servant
   of the Lord God