THEME: THE EVER-PRESENT GOD
SCRIPTURE: JONAH 1:1-3
BY ELDER KANJELA ANDREW ON 10 NOV 2019
In our theme scripture, God reached out to Jonah and gave him an assignment of warning the people of Nineveh against their evil-doing. However, Jonah never wanted to partner with God for this mission so he decided to run away from the presence of the Lord. He got in a ship which was going to Tarshish but along the sea, God sent a great storm which almost destroyed the ship until Jonah got thrown into the sea and was swallowed by a very big fish. After spending three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, he prayed to the Omni-present God and his prayer was heard.
You see – in time of need, God is always present and so Jonah’s prayer was answered and the fish was commanded to spit Jonah on dry ground. After that encounter with the Creator of heaven and earth, Jonah anakololoka and went to Nineveh and preached such a pricking message that even made the king of that land to humble himself to a level of repenting in sack-clothes!!
Our God is the maker of the universe – He is everywhere and His eyes always roam to and from on the earth to save, deliver, empower and strengthen those who are committed to Him and are interested in partnering with Him in fulfilling His divine purpose – 2 Chronicles 16:9
When you turn to God and become a vessel to Him, He will never forsake you. When the enemy strikes, God will be there to save and deliver you because He is faithful. Every time you are in trouble like Jonah was, just call upon Him and He will answer you. God is always available, even in your situation right now – he is there and he is not leaving you alone.
- He was with Daniel in the den of lions and because He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the lions in the den could not touch Daniel – don’t worry about your enemies’ evil plots, God can even kill for you if you are steadfast in serving HIM like Daniel was.
- He was with Shardrick, Misheck and Abednego in the furnace of fire and because God is the consuming fire, the fire could not consume these saints – please worship God when you are passing through challenges of many kinds, God is preparing your elevation and His glory over your life will appear soon.
- He was with Paul and Silas when they were cast in prison but when these two began to pray and worship, the prison was torn apart by an earthquake all because of God’s mighty presence. You see, the God that we serve has a name and his name is Jesus. The other time Jesus said that where two or three are gathered in His name, there He will be in their midst.
The name of Jesus is a very powerful and highly dependable name that has been given to us. The challenges, problems and issues of life such as sickness, unemployment, stagnation, marital issues and the likes – these all dissolve in His presence. Every time we choose to go to church, cell gatherings and prayer meetings, we are actually choosing to get into the presence of God where solutions to our problems are made available. Every time we give excuses and don’t come to church services, we are running away from the presence of God like Jonah did and we are actually delaying our salvation, deliverance and healing. We should love to be in the presence of God because in Jesus, all things hold together – Colossians 1:16-17, Phi 2:8, Acts 4:12 and Mark 16:15.
PEACE BE WITH YOU
ELDER KANJELA ANDREW