ANOTHER JONAH< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

Jonah 1, 2

Disobeying the word of God is denying the presence of God. Disobedience is a destroyer. At anytime we refuse to be obedient to the word of God, we have denied His presence. The Word of God is God and God is His Word. Jonah 1:1-2, ÒNow the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 ÒArise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.Ó Jonah did not obey the word that came to him but he rather fled from the presence of God. Jonah 1:3, ÒBut Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish  from the presence of the LORD.Ó The Word of God is His presence. Jonah set himself up for destruction because there is no way on earth to fail in obeying God and then pass into being safe from destruction. Glory and thanks be unto God because despite our inconsistency, He remains to be consistent. He is a merciful God and will always hear us when we call back to Him to help us from our own self destruction. Jonah could not run nor hide from the hand of God. Just like Jonah, in your running away from Him it will only take some time for you to end up in the stomach of a great fish. Jonah ran from the presence of God and the disobedience that was set to destroy him landed him inside a great fish. Jonah called on God for deliverance from his own self destruction. Have you been swallowed up by any situation because of your disobedience? The ground where you are now standing is not a familiar one and it is not where you want to be as a child of God. Go and humble yourself.  Pray; seek His face and turn from the path that led you to be swallowed by your situation. God will answer your prayer for it is never too late for Him to answer.