Have you noticed lately that you haven't found many people that follow the Lord like you do? That you have had friends in past times that have turned their way from God? Do you feel like Elijah who was sitting in a cave and thought he was the only one left? One night when I was praying about these issues in my heart, I heard the Lord say: " They need to get out of the belly of the fish"! I understood what the Lord was saying with this message and I felt a word coming forth while praying. As I started pondering about this text more and more, the Lord started showing me a great scheme of Satan, attacking ministers and leaders with potential and destiny all around the world. Ever since I have received this revelation I couldn't rest until I would write these words down for you and me to read.
As I set out to show you the meaning of this text I pray that wherever you are in your live at this time, you will feel the power of the Holy Spirit to bring back a passion for the Christ. Only this passion will bring you back to following God to the fulness of the anointing He has placed upon you. We have been pastoring a local church over 4 years from now and it has been a struggle to see the word of God change peoples lives. I felt many times to walk away from it, for it seemed not to produce any fruit! It is almost impossible to count the amount of Sundays my husband and I would come home after a Sunday service, totally drained and without energy.
As guest preachers came in our meetings, not one of them would tell us that it was time yet to quite! " One would chase a thousand and two ten thousand" , which was prophesied time and time again by various guest ministers from around the world. Because of these words I could not let go of this church that we were pioneering.
Full of fire and zeal we would preach our heart out of our longs to bring truth back to the body of Christ every Sunday. Aren't we fighting for a good cause? But why does it feel that the heavens are shut up and the rain is not falling? I read a book the other day and the only scripture that stood out to me was in Dan 7: 25: " He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time."
An other word for the word used in this text for " persecute" is " to wear out"! I had to read this text over and over again to understand what is was actually saying here. Satan is scheming in the last days to wear out the saints of the Most High! He shall even succeed in it, for the saints shall be given into his hand. It dawned on me that this was exactly what was happening with us! We would feel drained and tired after doing good and walking in the destiny that was placed over our lives! But this made me also realize that if I had not realized this revelation I would have become part of those saints that would be given into his hand and would give up on the vision that He has given us. Then God started to show me about some characteristics of the life of Jonah. Jonah the son of Amittai was destined by the Lord to cry out against the city of Nineveh. But instead of following God's instruction he fled to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, completely West instead of going Northeast to Nineveh. (Jonah 1: 1-2).
Sounds familiar?! God has spoken to you but instead of obeying you have chosen the opposite direction, because circumstances made it to difficult to obey? I have met several men and women in my life that were called by the Lord with powerful destinies and anointings that made you tremble just to taste from it. But not many of them have I seen in their " Nineveh" so to speak. The road to walk on, for those that are called by the Lord with specific tasks, as in bringing truth to the body of Christ, are being under attack. If Satan can take them out, he can take out a whole generation that they were supposed to lead! As Jonah was found in the middle of a storm on a boat, it still didn't dawn on him that God was trying to communicate with him. Do not be mislead, if you have chosen a different direction for you life, God will cause some storms to happen so you may realize that God is communicating! Did you experience some communication lately of the sort that can be labeled as storm?
I am always amazed that God still cares so much that He wants to set you back on the right track. If you are a leader, a minister and you have given up on your calling because of circumstances, I pray today that your eyes might be enlightened as you read this truth. This calling, this anointing or word that He has given you is not for you, but to save a family, a nation and a generation! God wanted to teach Jonah compassion for the people who were perishing because of his words. He must have been the greatest evangelist ever, on his first day's walk all the people immediately believed! ( Jonah 2: 4). But Jonah's lack of a divine perspective makes his unrepentance a greater problem than the repentance of Nineveh. Jonah is forced to see that he has more concern for a plant than for hundreds of thousands of peoples lives! (Jonah 4: 4- 11).
Your destiny can cause hundred of thousands of people to be saved from eternal damnation. Is your little situation as important in comparison to this great task? I am ever more determined to see our local church come to the place that was prophesied over it. We will not be a handful, but thousand upon thousand that will resist the devil and will not let themselves be wearied out! These are serious times were we can not be occupied with our materialistic lives that are set out to consume. The world out there is dying in sin and if leaders are not setting the right example, Christ cannot come back to a church that isn't blameless! I'm exhorting you in Christ to come out of the belly of the great fish! Repent and turn back to your calling and finish the task that was set before you. Let Satan not weary you out but let us build to " equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ., till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; " (Ephesians 4; 12-13)
Yours in Christ
Pastor Marjolein
(All scripture qouted out of the New King James version)
