Conditional Calling Day 3

In the last segment of the Conditional Calling Series let’s review the results of our disobedience on the lives of other people and how our choice to be rebellious can influence the way we are handled by others and change our own fate and this is best exemplified in the story of Jonah. How many of us can say that we have ever found ourselves in the mouth of a great fish?

In the story of Jonah, God called him to prophesy to the Ninevites concerning their future destruction in attempt to bring them to repentance. Jonah refuses because he believed that salvation should not be for gentiles specifically these wicked gentiles. After his strong refusal he runs from God and boards a ship to Tarsish that he believes will carry him in the opposite direction and thus God causes a great storm affecting him and the mariners on the ship he had passaged. Jonah confesses his disobedience and as a result the crew throw him from the ship and immediately the storm subsides and in attempt to save him from drowning, God throws him in the mouth of a great fish. Other people’s lives are affected by our disobedience, perhaps the Lord would have been merciful and spared the lives of the others on the ship because of their innocence but we can also consider the fact that they worshipped other gods. The God of heaven and earth can punish off of a technicality if he so wishes and idolatry is a huge offense to God. Yet even still in their transgression, after praying to their own false gods, collectively they gathered enough sense to pray for to Jonah’s God for mercy on account of how they would handle Jonah by throwing him off of the ship as a result of Jonah’s rebelliousness. The Most High is multifaceted and granted them mercy and a lesson in that moment of who the true god is while simultaneously keeping the matter between him and Jonah at that point and spared the men further calamity after calming the storm. Before we make the choices that we do we must always consider the others involved and not just ourselves. We cannot foresee what is ahead in the spirit realm and we have no way of knowing if our choices are changing others destinies and not just our own. If you find that God has given you a calling consider that it can be conditional and use that as encouragement to stay obedient. The three stories, all different in requests and responses, show us that we cannot run from God and he will have patience with us but we also should take note from these stories not test his patience because there are consequences for doing so. If he is calling you to do a hard task, one that may hurt others such as severing a relationship, quitting a stable job to pursue entrepreneurship or even telling a group of strangers uncomfortable truths he has placed in your spirit, ask him to give you the strength to do so and he will. Obedience is more than sacrifice to god and reflects the ways of the righteous and the prayers of the righteous availeth much (James 5:16).