"Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and
three nights." JONAH 1:17
"And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." JONAH 2:10
"Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he
answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given
to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the
Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." MATTHEW 12: 38-40
"And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign;
and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so
shall also the Son of man be to this generation." LUKE 11:29-30
"And he (the resurrected Jesus Christ!) said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet
with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets (Jonah included!)
, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third
day:" LUKE 24:44-46
"And we are witnesses (the Apostle Peter speaking) of all things which he (Jesus Christ) did both in the land of the
Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day (JONAH 1:17 , 2:10 ;
MATTHEW 12:40 ; ROMANS 10:19) and showed him openly;" ACTS 10:39-40
"For I delivered unto you (the Apostle Paul speaking) first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures (scriptures, in part, meaning the prophets, of which Jonah is!):" I CORINTHIANS 15:3-4
"Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the
dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ is not risen, then is our
preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of
God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is
not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is futile; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which have
died in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is
Christ RISEN FROM THE DEAD...! (exclamation point added)." I CORINTHIANS 15: 12-20
Hello all and God bless you! I hope the number and length of this postings scripture references hasn't scared you off!
If it hasn't...congratulations! There is a method to my madness and if you can hang on for just a bit longer I will
conclude this series of "Yes, You've Fallen....But You Can Get Up" with one final observation that I believe will bless
you and encourage you to continue to walk with God!
In the last posting, I was sharing with you a prophetic word, a rhema word that God had given me to give to those
who have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to them. This prophetic word or rhema word was centered around
what we know as God's logos word found in Jonah 1:1-2 and Jonah 3:1-2 where we read about God's command to
Jonah to, "Arise, go...".
The prophetic word or rhema word was this: If we will obey God's command to us to, "Arise, go...", He will bless us or
to say it another way, He will cause us to "Arise..."!
Apart from the truth of the prophetic word or rhema word that was shared, we looked to scripture and found that
God's logos word attests to this truth as well. Scriptures cited were Hebrews 11:6, 6:10, 12:2 ; Philippians 2:8-10 ;
John 12:26 ; Deuteronomy 28: 1-68 ; I Peter 5:6...seven scriptures in all.
We see from the above referenced scriptures that God's logos word confirms the truth of God's prophetic word or
rhema word as outlined in the previous posting (see "Yes, You've Fallen....But You Can Get Up! A Few Words From
Jonah PT. 3).
Now I know for some of you this is getting very difficult to follow and is very difficult for you to understand. For some of
you, the water is becoming more muddied rather than clearer. I encourage you to hang on. In this particular posting, I
am not going to take the time to define certain terms and teach on certain subjects, but I do believe that as you
continue to put yourself in a position to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that
what is unclear will become clear and that what is hard to understand will be understood (2 PETER 3:18 ; < PROVERBS
25:2 ; REVELATION 1:6> ; PHILIPPIANS 3:15 ; JOHN 6: 53-60, 66-69 ; PHILIPPIANS 1:6)! Hang on!
Before the Lord had put in my heart to "pen" what is now part 3 of "Yes, You've Fallen....But You Can Get Up", I had
struggled with whether or not to post that particular posting because, even though I felt I had a prophetic word or
rhema word from God and had ample biblical citations from God's logos word to allow me to proceed in peace knowing
that truth was indeed being spoken, I still did not see how this particular truth, drawn from the life of Jonah, played
itself out IN the life of Jonah, if at all! I nonetheless felt, based on the word that I received and the fact that God's
logos word attests to it's truthfulness, that it was something I could and ought to share. As you begin to grow in God,
you begin to discern His voice more readily and although you will always need the witness of the Holy Scriptures to
determine whether or not a voice is His voice, you won't need as many "witnesses" from scripture as you once did in
the past when you weren't as mature in Christ and as attuned to His voice (HEBREWS 5:11-14 ; DEUTERONOMY 19:15 ;
MATTHEW 18:16 ; JOHN 8:16-17 ; 2 CORINTHIANS 13:1 ; 1 TIMOTHY 5:19 ; HEBREWS 10:2
.
For example, scripture says that a matter should be established at the mouth of two or three witnesses. In the matter
of ascertaining whether or not the "voice" I was hearing was God or not, I had to hold what I was "hearing" up
against what has already been "heard", the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. Again, scripture calls for two or three
witnesses. In this instance, in terms of persons and trying to determine whether or not what I was hearing was of
God or not, there were three--the Spirit of God (who gave the utterance), the Word of God, which is Jesus Christ (who
verified the utterance as true), and myself (who received the utterance). Also, in terms of biblical or scriptural
"witnesses" there were seven as opposed to just two or three and if you count the number of people within those
seven biblical or scriptural "witnesses", there are five: the author of the book of Hebrews (and that three times!), the
Apostle Paul, Jesus Himself, Moses and the Apostle Peter!
I write all this not to justify myself to you but rather so you can be helped and encouraged as you continue to grow in
Christ and learn to more readily discern His voice! You see, Jesus said that His sheep hear His voice and they follow
Him (JOHN 10:27). A sheep is a grown or mature lamb. Likewise, a lamb is an immature or baby sheep. If you find you
are coming into a place where you are beginning to discern or hear the voice of God, congratulations my brother and
sister! You are maturing in Christ! You are fast becoming a "sheep", for only Christ's sheep hear His voice. Notice that
He didn't say His lambs hear His voice, but His sheep hear His voice!
As I was saying earlier, I didn't readily see how the prophetic word or rhema word that was spoken in Part 3 and was
verified by God's logos word played itself out specifically in the life of Jonah, if at all.
But then it came to me! According to Jesus' words (see scriptural citations at the beginning of this posting) Jonah's
experience with the big fish, three days and three nights in the belly of the whale and then, at God's command, being
vomited out upon the dry land, was a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ!
So, in what way was Jonah blessed of God for his obedience toward God in the thing that God had called him to do?
He had the privilege of displaying the Lord's death, burial and resurrection centuries before it ever happened,
prophetically declaring, by his life experience, what the experience of the Messiah would be hundreds of years later!
Jonah's experience with the whale was a prophetic picture of what Jesus Christ's experience with death, the grave and
hell would be hundreds of years later on our behalf!
Oh what a Savior! What a mighty God we serve! What a mighty good God we serve!
So now we see Jonah's reward for his obedience to God. And what a reward it is! To go down in history as a living
picture of our Lord's death, burial and resurrection hundreds of years before it ever occurred! What an honor it is! For
if there is no resurrection, we who call ourselves Christians are of all men most miserable and are without hope in this
world and the world to come. But thanks be to God that He has not left us hopeless! For Jesus did in reality what the
experience of Jonah merely foreshadowed, defeating death, the grave and hell so that whomsoever would believe in
Him (Jesus Christ!) would not perish but have everlasting life!
Right now, you who are not Christians, you who have not given your lives to Christ Jesus, you have the opportunity to
obey God's command to you and be blessed by God as Jonah was! For you see, the call to salvation is not an option
that God gives us that we say yea or nay to with no rewards or consequences to be had! No, my friend, the call to
salvation is a command from God, for the scripture declares that, "...God...now COMMANDETH all men everywhere to
repent:" (ACTS 17:30)!
Won't you repent and give your life to Christ today? Will you obey the command of God today and give your life to
Jesus Christ? If you do, the reward for your obedience to God is this...an eternal home in heaven with Him and life and
life abundantly now as you learn to walk with Jesus!
If you want to obey God and experience the blessing of God in your life and upon your life, pray this prayer with me:
Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. I know I deserve death and hell. But I am coming to you in obedience to your
command to repent and be saved. Lord Jesus, come into my heart and fill me with your Holy Spirit. I believe that you
are the Son of the Living God and that you died and rose again from the dead on the third day. I give you the reins of
my life and I now live to serve you and to do your will. Thank you, Lord, for the many blessings that are now mine,
which you will begin to unfold and pour out upon me over a lifetime as I learn to walk with you! Thank you, Lord, for
saving my soul! Amen!
May God continue to bless you as you continue to say "Yes" to His will and way for your life!
In Jesus' name,
AMEN!
Jeff Saenz
SLAVES WAGE
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