The Sign

As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. (Luke 11:29-30 NASB)

And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17 NASB)

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD." Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land. (Jonah 2:1, 9-10 NASB)

At last, we come to the sign of Jonah. In his rebellion, Jonah became a prodigal. He ran as far as he could to get away from the call of God on his life, then boarded a ship and went even further. He was determined to avoid obedience, but that determined avoidance came at a terrible price. 

God responded to Jonah sin with a powerful storm that engulfed all those around him and threatened to turn deadly at any moment. The sailors, veterans of many storms, were terrified by this one. Desperate for answers, they turned to Jonah. "Save yourselves and throw me overboard," he told them. In desperation, out of options and as a last resort, they did. 

What no one could have known was that God had already made a provision for Jonah, and a giant fish was waiting for him. When Jonah was tossed overboard, it appeared that all hope was gone. He sank into the depths and, at just the right time, the great fish swallowed him whole. In that inky darkness, Jonah rediscovered his faith and his Lord.

He repented of his sin and promised to obey what he had vowed to God he would do. For three days and three nights, Jonah was in the belly of the fish before it vomited him onto dry land. When his feet his dry land, Jonah was a changed man.

When Jesus told the people of his day that the only sign they would receive was the sign of Jonah, this is the sign of which He was speaking. 

As Jonah was in the fish for three days and three nights, so Jesus would be in the belly of the earth for three days and three nights. 

As Jonah was changed by his confinement, so Jesus would be changed. 

As Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so Jesus would be a sign to be the people. 

As Jonah's confinement in the belly of the fish was God's response to sin and rebellion, so Jesus' confinement in the belly of the earth was God's response to sin and rebellion. 

The vital difference in the two situations is that the sin and rebellion in Jonah's situation was his own. The sin and rebellion that led to Jesus' entombment, his death, was ours, yours and mine. His resurrection serves as proof that He has conquered the sin and rebellion we could not.

Jonah served as a sign to the people that there was no sin so great that God could not forgive, no prodigal escape so far away that God could not reach, no situation so hopeless that God could not intervene. Jesus' death served as the once-and-for-all payment for that sin, the once-and-for-all rescue for prodigal escapes, the once-and-for-all intervention for all hopeless situations.

Like Jonah, we are all prodigals. Some of us are running prodigals and some of us are staying prodigals. We all wander from God in our hearts, even when we do not run with our feet. It's a simple problem of rebellion. There is a God and we are not it. We want our own way, but His is best. Rebellion will not change those facts.

Aren't you tired of being a prodigal? Aren't you tired of seeking your own way, rather than God's? Aren't you tired of the storms that  result from your rebellion? Consider the sign of Jonah. Resurrection and a fresh start are available, and they can begin right this minute if you are willing.

From the belly of the darkest place on earth, Jonah called out to the Lord and He answered Him. He will do no less for you and me. Jonah found that salvation comes from the Lord. It still does. Call out to Him. He will not fail to respond.

The Second Chance

As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. (Luke 11:29-30 NASB)

And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17 NASB)

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk. (Jonah 3:1-3 NASB)


The detour should be at an end, but I turned the page and remembered the fish finale. It was too important to skip.

In the belly of the fish, Jonah, the runaway prodigal, came face to face with himself and his situation, if you can call being trapped alone inside a big fish in the depths of the ocean a "situation". Jonah knew he was dying. BUT. He was dying BUT God brought him up from the pit. Jonah had been close to the pit of death but "while I was fainting away", just before he died, "I remembered the Lord."

Jonah had a near death experience. In it, he came to a new understanding of God, and it changed him. Our hard times should do the same for us. Crisis should give us an understanding of our inadequacies in the face of adversity, drive us to God, and leave us both humbled and changed.

When Jonah landed on dry ground, God gave him a second chance. Jonah did not waste the opportunity. Despite his extreme prejudice against the people of Nineveh, he went as God had commanded. He did what God said. It was hard physically and emotionally, but he did it. He did it because of his experience in the fish.

I will never find myself in the literal belly of a fish, but my rebellion has landed me in a "belly" experience before. Maybe yours has, too. Once my "belly experience" was over, you can be sure I never wanted to repeat it again. It changed me. Rebellion and disobedience did not look so attractive. It looked abhorrent because of what I knew it could cost me. When my second chance came, like Jonah, I jumped to obey.

Are you in the midst of your own "belly" experience? How terrible it would be to waste the adversity. How foolish to go through a time of trouble, of discipline, and refuse to change, to learn from the experience that God has allowed. 

Let's not waste our "belly time". Allow it to change us, to humble us. Allow it to cause us to see God in a new way. Allow it to give us obedient hearts.

Greet the day with expectation that God will have some way you can serve Him. Greet Him with a heart ready and willing to do whatever He says. 

The words of an old hymn come to mind:
Will you live for Jesus? Then let His love make you what you ought to be. 

The sign of the prodigal

As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. (Luke 11:29-30 NASB)

{I'm taking a little detour today because I found something important on the way from here to where I intended to go. We'll come back to this soon.}

To understand the sign of Jonah for the Ninevites, we need to understand the story of Jonah. (This is the Leanna paraphrase of his story) He was an ordinary man who was grumpy with God, openly rebellious, and had a judgmental, condemning spirit. He was a lot like us. (okay, me) Nineveh was sin city, wicked through and through. God spoke to Jonah. "I want you to go to Nineveh and cry against it, because the people are wicked through and through."  

This next part shouldn't surprise me, but it does, even though I've done the same thing before. I can speak with experience on Jonah's action. He didn't tell anyone God had called him to Nineveh. He didn't seek wise counsel on this move. He didn't discuss it with God or argue with him. Jonah said, "I'm not doing that," and he took a ship in the opposite direction. He headed as far away from Nineveh as he could go. 

Jonah became a prodigal. 

Jonah 1:3 makes me shake my head at his foolishness. Jonah knew when he bought his fare to Tarshish that he was trying to flee "from the presence of the Lord." Surely he knew that God was omnipotent and that he would never escape His presence. Regardless, he made a good try at escaping God. If you've ever tried to run from God's pursuit, you know how well that worked. It didn't work at all.

God didn't take well to Jonah's antics. "The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea." I have the mental image of a major league pitcher winding up, leaning back, and hurling a fast ball at the batter as hard as he can throw. God hurled the wind and whipped up a storm. 

The sailors, who were professional sailors and not usually terrified out of their minds at a storm, were terrified out of their minds at this storm. They knew it was extraordinary and that they were about to die. First, they cried out to their gods to save them. When their gods didn't help, they started throwing the cargo overboard to lighten the load. 

Finally, someone noticed that Jonah was missing. The captain found him, asleep in the hold, peacefully thinking that he was escaping from God. The captain couldn't believe it. "We're about to drown and you're sleeping? Get up and ask your God to save us. No one else's god has been any help at all." I can imagine that Jonah thought, "No way am I talking to God about this." When you are a rebellious prodigal, the last thing you want to do is talk to God about anything, even if you might save your life in the process. (Being a prodigal is a foolish thing on many levels.) 

The sailors decided to find out who was to blame for the calamity. They cast lots and Jonah got the blame. This frightened the sailors because Jonah had already told them he was fleeing from God. These pagan sailors thought, "This man is running from his God and his rebellion is about to cost us our lives." They were right. 

What we never seem to realize is that our time in the "far country" as a prodigal affects more than just ourselves. When we choose to go our own way, to seek our own pleasure, there is fallout. People are endangered by our rebellion and wounded by our choices. Those wounds can be far reaching and long lasting. They don't just go away because we wish it. Saying I'm sorry doesn't make wounds evaporate. It might be easier if it did.

If we haven't had a time as a prodigal, we've probably been the older brother. You remember him. He was a stay-at-home prodigal. Openly obedient, he was inwardly rebellious and angry. Even when we are not actively rebelling against God, we can have those prodigal moments when we think, "No. I'm not doing that, God. I'm not making a spectacle of myself. I'm not forgiving him. I'm not serving her. I'm not..." Those prodigal moments, if allowed to continue, can have devastating results, as Jonah can attest.

For today, let's stop here and consider our bent towards being a prodigal. We've all done it, and some of us have more fallout from out choices than others. Let's ask God to show us the consequences of our decisions and actions in the lives of those we love. 

There's mercy and grace available for all of this, but sometimes we need to "own" our choice and it's result so that God can bring healing. It's what Jonah did. The sailors said, "Jonah, this is your fault," and Jonah said, "Yes. It is." What God did with that confession is truly remarkable. Today, let's do some "Yes, it is" of our own. Confess our own failings and ask God to do something truly remarkable with our failure. Jonah's story changed with that admission and ours will, too. 

Teach us to pray, part 66: Distinguishing of spirits

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" (Luke 11:13 NASB)

But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.  1 Corinthians 12:7- 10 NASB 

Our current series started as a study on the Model Prayer as given in Luke 11. The chapter continued with lessons on prayer and, in Luke 11:13, Jesus promised that our heavenly Father would give the Holy Spirit to us if we ask for Him. To understand what receiving the Holy Spirit involves, we have taken a detour through the passage in 1 Corinthians 12. Today, we come to the manifestation of the Holy Spirit whereby the recipient has the ability of distinguishing of spirits. 

Matthew Henry describes this as the ability or power to "distinguish between true and false prophets, or to discern the real and internal qualifications of any person for an office, or to discover the inward workings of the mind by the Holy Ghost. (One example would be Peter/Ananias in Acts 5:3) MacArthur clarifies this further. "Christians with the gift of discernment have the God-given ability to recognize lying spirits and to identify deceptive and erroneous doctrine." 

Discernment is critical, for, without it, we are easy prey for any scheme of our enemy, Satan. This manifestation works for the common good in several ways.

1) To discern false doctrine: The "prosperity gospel" is certainly appealing but even a cursory examination of Scripture will reveal how unlike Christ that idea of God's blessing leading to great wealth is. That's an obvious example, but without discernment, people can easily be led astray by doctrine that has the appearance of truth but does not actually agree with Scripture.

2) To discern deceptive leaders: Some years ago, several friends who were members of a mega-church invited me to attend services with them. They had a very popular minister who was widely known, and they were eager for me to meet him. When he approached us, I felt uneasy. By the time I had met him, listened to his message, and sat through the service, I wanted to run out the back door as fast as possible. There was something about this man that made me so uneasy that I did not trust him. My strong reaction was so unlike that of my friends and the people in their church that I distrusted it. Several years later, I learned of his involvement in a terrible scandal that had been ongoing at the time I met him. I wept that I had not said something about my uneasiness earlier. It was a Spirit-given manifestation of discernment that allowed me to avoid being swept up in enthusiasm for this charismatic leader.

3) to pray effectively for each other: When, as believers, we are burdened and oppressed by the enemy, it is helpful to recognize the lying spirit doing the oppressing. For example, when someone is overwhelmed by worry, fear may actually be at the root of the problem. In that situation, 2 Timothy 1:7 is a helpful focus Scripture. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind." When we are overwhelmed by fear, we can know that is not from God and we can claim the promise that not only has He not given us fear, but He does give us power, love, and a sound mind. In addition, discernment allows us to pray effectively, whether for ourselves or for others.

4) to to effectively battle evil: (This is closely related to #3) Ephesians 6 is very clear. "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." The purpose of the armor of God is to not only protect us from those forces but also allow us to do battle. Our only offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. When we have the discernment to recognize the enemy against which we are to battle, we can more effectively use Scripture as a weapon, whether that enemy is fear, anger, greed, lust, death, idolatry or some other spirit. I tend to think of these "spirits" in terms of the Ten Commandments: idolatry, rebellion, pride, murder/death, adultery/lust, stealing/coveting, and lying. In general, most sin falls into one of those big categories, and Scripture can be used to ward off our propensity to indulgence in those sins. Recognizing the spirit of the sin helps us to combat it. 

5) to restore our focus: Our battle is against the spiritual forces of wickedness, but our focus should not be on the spirits of the battle. Our focus should always be our Lord. When we recognize (discern) the deception of the evil one, that discernment should point us back to the Lord and away from the deception. Redirecting our focus, however, requires that we discern the misdirection. The Holy Spirit, then, manifests in such a way that our focus can be restored and we can be protected from heading in the wrong direction.

6) to protect us from ourselves: Humans have a tendency to listen to the loudest voice and follow the most persuasive leader. Christians are as susceptible as anyone (perhaps more so) and this should not be. I am often shocked by the way we embrace alarmist doctrine and causes without actually checking Scripture in an attempt to discern truth. Before we run off in every direction, we would do well to ask the Holy Spirit for God-given discernment so that we can recognize truth and discern falsehood.

One of the reasons I have sometimes made stupid decisions that have had costly consequences is that I have not always asked for discernment. Jesus was clear. If we ask for the Holy Spirit, He will give Him to us. My lack of discernment is no one's fault but my own.

The manifestation of the Spirit that allows "distinguishing of spirits" is critical if we hope to live effectively and victoriously as disciples. It is critical if we hope to pray for ourselves and others, and it is critical if we hope to effectively battle evil. The only way to be certain of our decisions is to have the aid of the Holy Spirit, and the only way to have that is to ask. Just ask.