God is a God of strategy and intentions. While we desire that God rescue us out of the storms of life, God is purposing to deliver us by those exact storms. He knows that if He rescues us from the storm prematurely, we can simply come up out of the storm, but the storm can and will remain in us. It will simply manifest and perpetuate itself in other areas of our lives. God is a God of spiritual operation. This isn’t just about Him yanking us out of the storms of life to rescue us. This is about Him molding and shaping us to and for His glory; even if we put ourselves in the storm. Jonah’s fish saved him. He repented and praised God while he was still in the belly of his fish (the consequences of his own actions). After which, God delivered him from the belly of the fish that had been strategically prepared for him to be delivered from himself 1st. Some of us need to realize that we’ve been swallowed up in storms that have been divinely designed to deliver us. We need to be delivered from our own wills. And we need to be delivered from our sin. Some of us are so consumed with coming out of the belly of our fish that we failed to realize that we aren’t fish. If God had left you in the seawater of your own disobedience, you would have drowned. The fish is the consequence of your will; not God’s will. The fish is God’s mercy and plan to deliver you from you. You are not having a Job experience this time! Your righteousness didn’t qualify you to be considered for this storm. You are having a Jonah experience. It was your unrighteousness that put you in the belly of that fish. You have to be honest with where you are in your walk with the Lord. You are not a victim of happenstance. You are not being persecuted. You are not under the attack of the enemy. You are under the influence of the enemy. And because you’ve allowed yourself to be influenced by the enemy and have walked in disobedience, God has prepared a fish just for you. You are experiencing the consequences of your own sin. So you have a choice to make. Do you stay in denial about the sin in your life and keep being swallowed up fish after fish? Or do you do like Jonah did? He repented and God delivered him? He was delivered from his wayward will before he was rescued from the fish. Jonah realized the fact that the water that surrounded him and covered him was the real threat to his life; not the fish. The seawater was his consequences. The fish was his saving grace. Don’t abuse the grace.
*Tressa Jo
BeyondSeeLevel 