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.
Message 4
• God sometimes offers second chances to obey.
• Great salvation involves responsibility.
• God uses people to proclaim His message
• Salvation is by faith alone
• Fasting does not guarantee Divine intervention
• True faith involves genuine action.
• God is the primary source of revival.
• God responds to repentance
