Focus: You've No Idea Who's On The Plane!

Text: Jonah 1:3

"But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD."

As I was getting ready to go to the airport for my flight to the USA, right in the bathroom, the Lord used the story of Jonah to press home afresh to my heart of the need to consciously and seriously pray for all my trips, because it is always hard for any of us to tell who's on the plane with us. But then the Lord also made me understand that the message was much more than just the issue of traveling. So listen very keenly!

Jonah boarded a ship that was bound to the West when indeed God wanted him to go to the East. Jonah entered the ship going to Tarshish out of rebellion to God. The original route was to Nineveh.

Jonah was running away from God. He rejected the mandate of God upon his life, and immediately turned himself into an enemy of God. That Tarshish-bound ship was the wrongest place for Jonah to be in, and he was the wrongest person to be there. Jonah himself tells his own story. He says, "But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken" (Jon.1:4).

God released a catastrophic storm against the ship. While everyone made great effort to lighten the ship, Jonah was fast asleep and couldn't care at all whatever happened to his fellow voyagers. Every one in the ship cried out to their individual deities for rescue, but Jonah was soundly asleep. We read, "Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep" (Jon.1:5). Then the people decided to consult the gods to ascertain the cause of the calamity. Jonah writes, "And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah" (Jon.1:7). As they cast lots in order to find the culprit, the lot fell on Jonah. That means that Jonah was the reason everyone else was suffering. The voyagers lost their properties to the storm, courtesy of Jonah, and they were at the verge of losing their lives because of one disobedient and rebellious individual by the name of Jonah.

A lot of people carry bad omen about, and like the devil, they go about seeking whom to devour. They operate with strange spirits. They are a bad business to associate with. They are going in the direction they were never meant to go.

You are not always the reason behind your own suffering or problems. Sometimes someone else is. Jonah was the reason behind the suffering of others in that ship, and at the same time, he was responsible for his own woes. Jonah was the foe causing everyone's woes.

When Jonah revealed his identity to his fellow travelers, the Scripture says, "Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, WHY HAST THOU DONE THIS? For the men KNEW that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them" (Jon.1:10). Jonah was the culprit, and every one was suffering because of him. There are wrong people in your life. They are in your life and going in your direction, but they are never meant to go there. They are clogs in the wheel of your life. You need to jettison them. As long as God is against them, they will be against you. The curse of God follows them everywhere until they yield to the will of God and do His bidding.

The people asked for solution, and he said, "Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you" (Jon.1:12). The people had a good heart. They wanted to save his life, but they found out that they could not, because the storm persisted and became even more dangerous. At that point, they prayed and pleaded with God to pardon them for what they were about to do, and after that, they jettisoned Jonah out of the ship. Then we read, "So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging" (Jon.1:15). Did you get that? "The sea ceased from her raging." The tempest stopped as soon as Jonah was thrown out of the ship.

I pray for you: may you not die untimely death because of 'Jonahs' in your life! I pray that your business shall not be shipwrecked for the sake of bad companies! May the Lord grant you the sensitivity to identify your errors of judgement and of the wrong crowd or a God-forsaken individual! Loving everybody doesn't mean everybody is meant to be in your life. Jonah is not a bad person; it is just that God has a different agenda for him. Leaving his own agenda to join you amounts to courting disaster.

Do you know where the fish that swallowed Jonah vomited him? It was right before the gate of Nineveh. The fish took him from West to East.

There is something you need to see in Jonah 2:10. The Scriptures says, "And the LORD SPAKE unto the FISH, and it VOMITED out Jonah upon the dry land." The fish knows its maker and owner. God speaks to the fish, giving it a specific instruction, and the fish heard and hearkened to the maker's voice. 

O yes, the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof! Your God is the commander-in-chief of all the forces and elements of nature.

Your Jonah is not to be hated, but jettisoned to go fulfill his destiny, especially when his destiny is not directly connected to yours.

Let me ask you, and be honest in answering it: Who is responsible for your suffering? Yourself, others, or Satan? Someone God has scores to settle with is in the same plane with you; you simply have no idea who he is. Hence the need for you to take prayer seriously. Wherever you go and in whatever you do, learn to call upon God to keep you from harm. Always commit your journey to God. Always pray whether you are traveling alone or with others. Be wise! Be prayerful! Be sensitive! The Tarshish-bound voyagers survived the storm because they did the right thing. As a matter of fact, they made sacrifices to God as a way of expressing their gratitude for their survival, and they got to their destination safely. I declare that you will safely reach your destination in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter