Continuing the Pattern
5/18/18
One thing that people can say about humanity is that once they start a pattern, we will do everything in our might to follow and then finish that pattern even when all hope seems to be lost. Many times this pattern goes nowhere and ends up in complete disappointment, yet we follow the road that we have chosen even though it cost us almost everything. The striving for success and completion is a noble cause but one that can be made so much easier if we turn to the Creator of everything instead of paddling against the current of the world. God does not mean for us to struggle when storms come around for He wants us to be sheltered in His Ways during these times, but there is no way for this sheltering to occur unless we relay and completely obey Him and His Ways. God never promised His children an easy path of life but knowing that He is always with us and leading us is the best guidance plan anyone can ever follow.
There have been plenty of times in my life that I have tried my best to complete a set that I began even when I know that failure will be the end result. I know I am not alone in this category and many of us who have followed this lead end up requiring stitches in the heart for the beating we receive for such patterns were brutal. The storms of this natural world we cannot control but the ones that we voluntarily place ourselves in we do have a say in what occurs, but for some reason, we stick to our guns while passing through these situations and then complain about all of the damage done afterward.
Most of you know that for a period of time in my life I lived as a divorced man and during this time of my life I experienced many ups and downs due to the devastation that this status brought me. I did not like nor did I approve of the statistic that I had become and the label that the world had placed upon my life. What I found so frightening is that through this worldly identification that I was living in was producing inside of me an attitude that resembled such label and it was haunting me and forcing me to comply with its ambitions. This battle inside me was not a pleasant one and it was one that began as a slow moving process but increased to a springtime flowing river that quickly overtook my heart. At times I felt comfortable with the feelings that I had inside but most of the time I resented the fact of how I allowed myself to be fooled for so long that the warning signs presented to me I ignored without hesitation thus commanding me to face my devastation process. God never left me during this time in my life and He did His best to teach me a thing or two while my consequences were being felt, but most of the time my mind was focused on getting through the storm without Him, a futile belief that did not truly change until I returned to His Ways.
It does not matter how long or how short the time we spend trying to buck God and His Ways to do things on our own like we have been told numerous times in these articles it is a noble cause but one that cannot be obtained with any great result. My time of selfish stupidity lasted for about 5 years with another period of rebellious time thrown in down the road and so far in this series with Jonah we have an unspecified amount of time given but we know that it did not take too long for Jonah to disobey and then run from God. It did not take Jonah any time to hop into a boat and go in the opposite direction of what God had told him to do, and it also did not take too much time for God to change Jonah’s world enough for him to understand that God meant business either. We cannot help but feel the effects of the world when we disobey God for God wants His children to live in obedience so that their lives can know and understand eternal freedom. Jonah knew this for it was the message that God wanted him to deliver to Nineveh, but Jonah did his own thing for a while and the results of which provide a valuable lesson for all of us who choose to do things on our own.
Jonah takes a huge gamble with the existence and proclamation of God when he states to the others how to calm the storm. This really did not come to anyone’s surprise on the boat because in all of historical and mythological tellings and beliefs bold statements made from those declaring their words from their gods are of a common occurrence. We cannot forget that human gods and the belief in any and all types of deities did not originate in our timeline but have been around for countless millennia. Yet, Jonah takes a bold stand as an example of God’s love and restoration, not as a potential martyr to those in the boat. In no way does God represent death, only the world can protrude such a lie to our Creation. Through the declaration that Jonah gives in verse 12 is not one of accepting the martyrship but complete trust in God for peace, calm, salvation, restoration, and life. It is through the words of Jonah here that provides us with the information that Jonah had known about God and was specifically chosen by God to fulfill the job that God needed to be done.
It is the first phrase in Jonah 1:13 that shows us the picture that exhibits the title of this article and also provides us with why the world is in chaos today as well. “Nevertheless the men” is the phrase that sets the stage of why Jonah was not believed and why Jonah made the statement that he did in verse 12. After Jonah had showboated his beliefs to the crew, they did not care what his point was for they immediately returned to their duties and began trying to return the ship to shore and ultimately to safety. But as verse 13 continues it becomes clear that the boat and the men trying to row towards safety is no match for the storm that encompassed them, but you must give the men credit for their efforts for they were only responding as any human being would during this time.
By the time verse 14 appears, it becomes visible that the men are beginning to figure things out where it comes to Jonah and how he was the one responsible for the calamity that they were “enjoying” at that moment. So, the crew begins to change direction from the inside out and start to call upon the name of the Lord to help them salvage their lives. While their prayers seem noble enough they are conducted in a selfish manner for it is obvious that everything they have tried so far has not worked in calming the storm, so why not try another approach and see if this Jonah person actually knows what is going on and has the answer for all involved. See, God sent Jonah on a mission of salvation and restoration to a specific place and when Jonah refused and ran that storm followed him by spiritual legal rights and it was up to God, through the true, holy and complete repentant heart of Jonah to provide the same salvation and restoration message to those in the boat as He eventually did over Nineveh.
I find an important detail here in verse 13 where it states that all the men return to trying to complete (continuing) the physical course by rowing, in other words relying on the ways of the world instead of God’s Way. But when we read in verse 14 their actions have turned from the physical and are beginning to focus on the spiritual or origin of the issue at hand. We see in this verse that it was all the men who participated in calling to the Lord. When all the men tried to rely on the world and its answers nothing could shake the storm but when they all united together in God things quickly turned and through the actions that Jonah had stated we see in the next verse of God in action through obedience. This single verse also demonstrates just how quickly things can change if we turn our hearts to God and begin listening and then following His Ways.
It is not in common sense that change comes easily for humans, for it means we must step out of our comfort zones and take steps that are uneasy and in an unfamiliar direction. We expect people who love the world to act like it and to produce such fruit but how many times has the person who claims to know God and who lives as such to act accordingly, but Christians have proven many times to shout boldly yet live unexpectedly and then wonder why we are not believed. Sadly, it is this continuance of patterns that may see us as now and therefore have no time for what we need to tell them. It was this type of words that Jonah finally spoke in boldness but the crew of that boat had no time for what he was saying. It is for this example alone that the world produces multimillion dollar blockbuster films that have complete violent content yet cry and scream at the same time about having gun control, and Christians enthusiastically attend such screenings. When we open the physical door of the world and step through its threshold the spiritual contents of the world has the right to invade because of the choice you made and the pattern continues without hindrance.
This passage brings us another important detail that we must consider here and keep within our hearts and that dealing with dominion. Yes, it is the same word that God gives us way back in Genesis when He was explaining the responsibilities of Adam to him, and we need to understand that Jonah was not operating in his given dominion. The dominion that God gave Jonah began when He gave the command to him to go and tell the people of Nineveh that they needed to repent. Anything that God gives a person and then instructs them to do so, that authority represents the dominion that God gave to Adam, you, and to me. This means that in order for Jonah to be able to operate and to fulfill God’s command he must be within his dominion which ultimately means obeying what God said in the first place.
As we will see in a few verses, all works out okay for Jonah and the crew of the ship but the question remains as to why we must continually challenge God when He says for us to do be a light unto the world. How much time, pain, sorrow, and effort would we be able to skip if we just obey His Word in the first place? The admission about God from Jonah to the crew had no real value to them because Jonah did not stand out from the others before the fingers began to point, Jonah was nothing more than someone who blended in, or tried to blend in, with the crowd and hide from the truth. When we align ourselves with the world and continue to follow in such a pattern for an extended amount of time, the words we say to them when troubles come around will not be taken seriously and the ones who need to hear about God will continue their patterns as is without any hesitation. It is this detail about our walk with God that is so very important and the one that we need to take into consideration as we rise every morning.
God is the only Being that can freely give out your dominion and to authorize you to dress and keep it. This is not some withered away doctrinal teaching that happened way back in the first book of the Bible and then forgotten it is a covenant principle that is still viable and living within us today. Jonah should have recognized this principle because his life was after Adam and Eve, Moses, Abraham, Joshua, and David and the first verses of the Book of Jonah gives us the reasoning that Jonah knew about God and what it meant to serve God by telling others to separate themselves from the world. Separation from the world is repentance and nothing less, and God had no choice but to grab the attention of Jonah along with the innocent bystanders around him. Keeping and dressing your dominion is strictly understanding the entire boundary of your dominion and then completing the task that God has given you to do. It is a guarantee that the task that God gives a person shall go totally opposite to what the world teaches and expects and if you are not completing such a task then your dominion is in dire trouble and is continuing the same pattern then it will become obvious that the people who need God will continue to row towards the shore under their own ways.
The first step in restoration is repentance and in order for us to do this we must acknowledge our sins and turn from our wicked ways. If we do not have the sincerity to complete this first step we will not be able to grab anyone’s attention even when a storm is around us. Jonah knew this and acted accordingly, but still, the men in the boat with him did not believe his newfound sincerity. They continued rowing or trying to row towards the shore, just as the world is currently trying to do during the storm warning that God has allowed for our nation to endure. We learned a while back that many people do not recognize the difference between a natural event and a natural event allowed by God to grab our attention. Why is this? It is because we do not recognize the importance of being separated from the world and when God calls upon us to change this standard we ignore it and continue our developed worldly patterns that we are secure in.
God is asking us a difficult question here and the question deals with our unity and who we are truly unified with on our intimate levels. The question being asked is: are you unified with self or are you unified with God? It is this question that Jonah deals with at the beginning of this series and it is obvious that he is unified with self instead of God. Do we realize that it is this question that we must face when it comes to our selfish denominational beliefs? It is the exact same setting as Jonah displayed and because of this presentation the life of Jonah turned dramatically until he changed his views, and our loyalties and hearts lay in tandem with Jonah through our denominational voices which cry out for recognition instead of unifying and coming together to teach the Gospel of Christ to a dying world.
It is for this answered question alone as to why people have soured stomachs for the Church and do not believe a word she is saying. How sad when the ONE living entity cannot turn the heads of the lost towards our voices but turns them away in the opposite direction due to the ineffective garbage of self-determination that flows from us. Jonah was a good man and he demonstrated to God that his heart was far better than what the world had offered others, but his heart ran from God in a specific moment and even though Jonah might have not wanted to travel to Nineveh God had other ideas for the salvation of that city and He chose Jonah for such a message. Jesus chose His Church to perform the exact same message to the world and it is our responsibility to do the command that He gave us to do, without selfish blame and self-guidance.
I find it so amazing that we would rather struggle against the issues at hand instead of listening to God for divine answers that would calm the storms around us. But on the other hand, I cannot argue the fact that I sometimes would rather row instead of listening and after I realize what is ongoing, correct it in the manner in which God wants, I look back and feel ridiculous for not understanding things in the first place but having to struggle with my own continual patterns. I must say that my life still needs a great deal of work from God and as each day passes He teaches me more about His Ways and how they are so much easier to handle than what the world can present.
Church, we have lost the holy fire of repentance and have doused the world with water instead of God’s Holy Word. Our watering down of the Bible has provided a wicked society that we now claim as our equal instead of rising above what the ruler of the world offers. God did not create us to be equal to sin, nor did He ever want us to fall upon our selfishness against His Word. Church, it is imperative that we stand fast in God and in His Word for if we continue the pattern that we have allowed to progress our world will change in such a manner that it shall never be recognized in like manner again. As each day passes we fulfill the Word of God but not like we have always believed for it is the sleeping Church that allows such horrors to come upon the lives of the innocent and it is time to stop proving the Bible correct in this manner. However, and speaking in truth, we shall continue our sinful ways and prove the Bible correct and usher in a new era of life that shall not be what we had planned all the while standing there in astonishment as the mute and empty church shouts of what to do.
DLB
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