Does the enemy swallow you up when God gives you a Command

Jonah 1

When God gives you a command and the Holy Spirit convicts you, you learn a lesson that you just cannot ignore. Jonah learnt this lesson in a very hard way. He did not like what God was instructing him to do and he tried to avoid the assignment by running from God. And really!!! Who can run from our God?? We can never outrun God or His commands.

By running we are actually rebelling, and rebellion toward our heavenly Father so often happens either by our outright disobedience, or by quietly pursuing our own agenda while disregarding the very commands that we do not like and what God gives us unction to fulfil. And whatever way we pursue our running away from God, we cannot silence Him because His Holy Spirit convicts us and will follow us to the end of our life. No distraction will make a difference.

We need to understand that our Lord is willing to strip away all the distractions and will allow negative consequences to happen in order to get our attention. He is a loving Father, but He also disciplines us if we continue to run the path of disobedience. 

Our God will never leave us nor forsake us, but our relationship with Him depends on our willingness to do what He tells us to. Jonah is such an example that running away causes suffering and consequences that are really unnecessary if we had to just promptly obey the commands He gives us. 

When Jonah was swallowed up by the whale, he had nowhere to run. Sitting in that dark, wet belly and having regrets and feeling sorry for himself, he called out to God and came to the decision that obedience is better than being swallowed up by the enemy. It caused him to reconsider his actions. 

Today we have the world and the distractions that is around us (including our finances) that swallow us up and keep us in rebellion. It also keeps us from following our calling. The enemy will use whatever means around us to swallow us up so that we will not fulfil our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be obedient and promptly do what God commands us to do so that we don’t need to first be vomited out of that dark place before we will be obedient. We just need to be obedient and do as He commands us. It is as simple as “Yes Lord Jesus”.

Prayer:   Father-God we call upon Your Holy Spirit to bring obedience into our lives in every area that You need us to be set free of rebellion in. May we move the moment you command us to so that we can stay in the will of the Father. We rebuke the enemy’s strategies that keep us from following what you deem right for us to do. Help us in our doubt and rebellion Abba, and may we know the blessing of obedience in our lives. In Jesus might Name. Amen 

Blessings

Toby

Dr Marishjean Paton Dr.Div PhD

Melqowsh Ministries and Melqowsh Bible College

Our thanks to Toby for this month’s Blog contribution

If you were blessed by this article, please do share it with others