Principles From Jonah Series

Jonah Principles 1

Practical Lessons

• Be sensitive to God’s word.

• Don’t try to run away from God. You can’t.

• It costs you to run away from God. You’re limited to your own resources.

• There are consequences of running from God that also affect the people around you.

• God will expose our rebellion. (Dice)

• You can’t sleep through God’s discipline.

• Even in the midst of discipline God brings about His purposes.

• Sometimes God is directly involved in a life event.

• Turn to the Lord even if you feel he has turned from you.

• Remember the Lord in the middle of your fainting.

• Thanksgiving before deliverance

• God is our only hope of deliverance.

• Talk to God about how you feel.

• Confess your sin.

• Make a commitment to change.

ELEMENTS OF PRAYER

Humble Honesty (tell it like it is)

Repentance = acknowledge sin / accept consequences (no bargaining)

Thanksgiving

Commitment

• Be sensitive to God’s word.

• Don’t try to run away from God. You can’t.

• It costs you to run away from God. You’re limited to your own resources.

• There are consequences of running from God that also affect the people around you.

• God will expose our rebellion. (Dice)

• You can’t sleep through God’s discipline.

• Even in the midst of discipline God brings about His purposes.

• Sometimes God is directly involved in a life event.

• Turn to the Lord even if you feel he has turned from you.

• Remember the Lord in the middle of your fainting.

• Thanksgiving before deliverance

• God is our only hope of deliverance.

• Talk to God about how you feel.

• Confess your sin.

• Make a commitment to change.

• Sometimes there are second chances.

• God not only tells us where to go but what to say.

• When God is in it, the message can be simple.

• God is sovereign over the hearts of men.

• God uses men but does not need men to bring people to Himself.

• God even uses stinking attitudes to reach people for Himself.

• Revival has never been permanent but God always maintains a remnant of true believers.

Chapter 4

• Examine your heart for the lost.

• Remember the declared character of God in difficult times; especially His compassion.

• Evaluate the source of your anger.

• Don’t use God’s actions to justify our disobedience.

• Hope for men’s deliverance not their destruction.

• Make sure your heart coincides with God’s heart; your will with His will.

• God directly causes live events to teach heart lessons. Plant, worm, sun.

• God can work in spite of our self-centered focus.

• Beware of murmuring against God.

• Keep a God-centered perspective

• Be more concerned about men’s souls than your personal comfort

• God’s compassion is not limited to the enlightened.

• Don’t expect God’s mercy to be limited to yourself.

Jonah is a lesson in God’s sovereignty and God’s mercy. Rom 9,11

Jonah Principles 2

Possible Pertinent Principles to Ponder Pulled from the Book of Jonah

Message 1

• Omniscient God is fully aware of the wickedness of people and nations.

• God must and will deal with sin both individually and nationally.

• God utilizes individuals to communicate His message.

• Sometimes God calls us to cry out against sin.

• God calls us into action from inaction.

• Seek to be sensitive to the “word of the Lord”.

• You can’t escape God’s presence

• Bitterness and prejudice blinds us to opportunity for effective ministry.

Message 2

• God ultimately gets His way.

• God deals with rebellion

• God sometimes stirs up a storm to get out attention.

• Our disobedience adversely affects those around us.

• Our sin numbs us to the trouble we are causing others.

• Our sin adversely affects our prayer life.

• The truth eventually comes out.

• Sometimes God uses pagans to call Christians to accountability.

• God sometimes increases the pressure to achieve His purposes.

• It is futile to resist the purposes of God.

• God employs whatever means necessary to bring us to repentance

Message 3

• God sometimes permits life-threatening peril to prompt life-changing prayer.

• God strategically uses trouble in our life to change our life.

• Don’t equate trials and discipline with God’s rejection.

• Never lose hope of restored relationship with God.

• No situation is beyond God’s intervention.

• In the dark times, return to basic truths.

• Always do what you promise

• God is the only source of salvation

• Sometimes God delays answering prayer for a greater purpose.

• God controls even the most frightening aspects of nature.

• Don’t begrudge the means God uses to deliver you.