Speaking Engagements : A Fish, a Worm and a Wind : Notes and Audio
First—Let’s take a Revival Team of fiery, prophetic people to three upcoming ministry events! Join us THIS WEEK!
I’ll be teaching on Six Enemies of Fulfilled Destiny at IHOPE Detroit this Wednesday and Thursday nights. It starts at 7pm and you can see more info at www.ihopedetroit.org.
Also, this Sunday, June 27th at 10:30am I’ll be at Revival Nation Church in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Check them out at www.revivalnation.com.
Are you in the Detroit area? I’m boldly casting the vision for a mass gathering of 
likeminded, hungry and passionate people at Revival Church every Sunday evening at 6pm.
Simply, we need you! We’re looking for an expectant people to rise up and lock arms with the rest of us at Revival Church as we intentionally and strategically prepare for the upcoming outpouring in Detroit. If you can make a commitment to be with us every Sunday night, I’m fully confident your life will take a turn you never thought possible!
Last night I taught on part two of a message on Jonah. This one is titled A Fish, a Worm and a Wind.
Two key points were addressed:
- There is a ‘spirit of Jonah’ that’s rising up in the religious world right now. It’s a prophetic movement of tearing down men and women of God due to slight doctrinal differences, or due to their vindictive and proud disposition and desire to see fallible people renounced and eliminated from ministry.
- Jonah was known to be an emotional wreck. He went from gladness to depression in record time. Do you find yourself angry or depressed or sad often? You may find freedom as you repent of the same issues that drove Jonah.
Head on over to www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/teaching and listen now.
I got great feedback last week when I included my notes, so here are the notes for last nights teaching:
A Fish, a Worm and a Wind
I. Jonah
a. Jonah 2:10 (ESV) And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
i. If anybody in history should have understood mercy and grace, it’s Jonah.
ii. Jonah was a prophet of God, a minister, someone who had a massive life mission to change the world.
1. He was a highly esteemed Prophet of Israel around 786BC.
2. However, he had serious shortcomings.
3. He was vindictive and radically exclusive.
4. Nineveh was a bitter enemy of Israel.
5. He could be compared to the elder brother of the prodigal son who was angered at the father’s unconditional love, forgiveness and acceptance of his long lost son.
iii. Last week I mentioned the importance of not living a Jonah 3:1 life:
1. Jonah 3:1 (ESV) Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time…
2. However, you would think that Jonah, after his tragic error of disobedience, would understand the deep love and grace of God.
3. Let’s read his prayer from the belly of the fish that God appointed to deal with Jonah:
4. Jonah 2:1-10 (ESV) 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. 3 For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ 5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head 6 at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. 8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. 9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” 10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
iv. Jonah was saved by God’s mercy and in God’s grace he delivered the prophetic message he was born for.
1. It’s been said that mercy is God’s unmerited favor. Grace is God’s empowering.
2. A fallen minister went through God’s microwaved restoration process and was immediately back in the ministry. This still flawed man of God was called on to save an entire city. God’s grace was with him!
3. Jonah 3:10 (ESV) When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
4. Jonah was furious!
5. Jonah 4:1 (ESV) But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
6. If we are driven by grace, we will easily love and honor people. Our passion will be their life, not our life.
7. Jonah had a certain right to be angry. After all, he loved truth and was intent in seeing everything unholy and false destroyed. His problem though was simple. His love of truth that resulted in vindictiveness against people clearly showed that his revelation of truth was flawed.
8. However, Jonah had so much hatred for the Assyrians for their past oppression of his people that he could not rejoice over their
salvation.
v. Check out what he says in chapter 4 verse 2!
1. Jonah 4:2 (ESV) And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
2. Wow! That is an insane verse! We see more clearly now why he ended up in the belly of a fish. It wasn’t because he was scared of prophesying in Nineveh. It wasn’t because it was inconvenient. It was because he knew God was full of grace and mercy, slow to anger and abounding in love! He knew God’s love would prevail instead of judgment!
3. Matthew Henry- There appeared in Jonah remains of a proud, uncharitable spirit; and that he neither expected nor desired the welfare of the Ninevites, but had only come to declare and witness their destruction.
4. Jonah 4:3-4 (ESV) 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
5. He would rather die than partake in the grace and mercy of God.
a. We see a movement today that has this unhealthy spirit of Jonah fueling it.
b. We have to be careful not to be so focused on our righteousness and other’s failures, we can’t trumpet truth in such a way that it results in the destruction of others as it would be reveal an inaccurate revelation of truth.
vi. Jonah finds himself outside of God’s grace yet again.
1. He was known to have emotional mood swings—he was depressed yet again.
2. Heaviness, depression and anger can be an indicator that we are living outside of God’s grace, and God will do much to draw us back in.
3. We can’t presume to be delivered from depression without repentance and release of the ideals that put us there.
4. Check out what Jonah did.
5. Jonah 4:5 (ESV) Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.
6. Jonah reverted to the demeanor of a five-year-old.
7. He built a fort and pouted.
vii. So, what did God do? Did he send a wise man of God to counsel him? Did he reason with him? Nope. Jonah should know that God would do something bizarre. He should have remembered that God had previously appointed a fish to deal with his issues.
1. Jonah 1:17 (ESV) And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
viii. Now, in Jonah’s even more ridiculous situation, God appoints a wise and mighty plant.
1. This verse is hilarious:
2. Jonah 4:6 (ESV) Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.
3. Yeah! A plant! This emotionally unbalanced prophet went from depression to being exceedingly glad in a moment.
4. However, his joy is rooted in selfishness. He was rejoicing over his own comfort as he sat overlooking a city that he wished God would change his mind again and annihilate.
5. Now, God’s sense of humor in Jonah’s embarrassing state wasn’t done.
6. Jonah 4:7 (ESV) But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
7. Psyche! Just kidding! No comfort for you! You big baby!
8. God wasn’t done.
9. Jonah 4:8 (ESV) When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
a. Common to the Middle East, the wind was a dust-laden, furnace-like blast of heat that parches the body by evaporating perspiration.
b. He wanted to die because of this worm and wind. His own shelter couldn’t even comfort him!
10. Jonah 4:9 (ESV) But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”
a. His lack of mercy and grace resulted in deep depression from a worm and a wind.
b. But God caused him to deeply care for the plant. He loved the plant. He was mad at the worm and the wind and the beating down sun for killing his plant.
c. Are you in that place? Are you continually depressed or angry because of seeming ridiculous reasons?
d. Do you blame others for your condition? If so, listen closely, it’s possible evidence that you are operating in an unhealthy spirit of Jonah. That heart of blame is an indicator that we expect to be served instead of to serve.
e. Of course, God used this lesson to show how much God loved Ninevah.
11. Jonah 4:10-11 (ESV) 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
a. Bachman-the right hand is the symbol of the good realm, the hand that symbolizes power and righteousness. The left hand, by contrast, is the symbol of evil, the hand used to curse and used to clean oneself. Each realm is opposite to each other and
should not be mixed. So when it is said that Nineveh cannot tell their right hand from their left, it is saying that they have no discernment, no knowledge of ethics or the basics of life (Bachmann 54).
b. The last few words, “and much cattle” were intentional to display how far God’s grace extends.
c. The animals were included in the king’s decree for repentance in chapter 3.
d. Our amazing God won in dramatic fashion. His mercy and grace saved and entire city of precious people, AND he lovingly took Jonah by the hand and helped him understand God’s heart.
II. The Takeaway
a. If we are driven by selfishness, a religious spirit that embraces truth but despises people or by pride and selfish ambition, we can expect God to appoint a fish, a worm and a wind to our situation.