You, Me and Jonah
More in Common than You Think

By Mari Anne Andersen

April 8, 2024

 

Dear Family & Friends,

This article on Jonah and Nineveh was actually written back on November 21, 2023, but I did not send it out to you.  No, question God was speaking to me back then, but I did not release it until now.  This article was sitting in the “Press-Room” of God until the right time.

Throughout the lessons in my walk with the Lord of 49 years, I have come to rely on some of my favorite scriptures because I see the beauty in them, I see the wisdom in them, and I have lived in the reality of them.  Thus, I have experienced depth and truth in each of my favorite passages:

  1. He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in His time.  Ecc. 3:11 (Amp.)
  2. And we know that to them that love God ALL things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28  (American Standard)
  3. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. Luke 16:10 (NIV)

So, with that being said, let’s dive into the book of Jonah who has great insights of God’s amazing grace and His abounding love especially towards the prodigals, towards the Christian who has a hard time speaking up for truth, and for those who are sitting on the fence where America is concerned with compromise, wickedness, and wokeness.

I pray that this little bitty book would open your eyes and heart even more to an all-consuming, all-compassionate God who is gracious, slow to anger and abounding in amazing love. We will also see in this book of Jonah how the Spirit of God “Loves His Enemies.” Furthermore, we will see God’s great merciful heart towards Jonah himself even when he get’s angry with God, has a pity party, and sulks because God’s enemies turned from their wicked ways and repented.

I also pray that you will see the significance and importance of what is happening on April 8th with the Solar Eclipse and with America, along with what God is calling us to do – which is R E P E N T.  (More about the eclipse at the end).

Sit back, get a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, and sip in each word of this article because I believe God has released something in me to give to YOU in your season of your life and in the season of our times.

Know this my friend, YOUR prodigal, like Jonah himself, cannot outrun God for He is everywhere in your prodigal’s life and is always pursuing him/her to come home.  Just think, a city that was so hell-bent in sin, idolatry, evil, and perversity, yet God destined the people to not perish but be saved and redeemed.  The entire city turned to God and God saved them all!  America needs to see this happen NOW!

America is in a place in which all hell has been released, America is in a place of an “Anti-Christ” spirit, and America and the White House are going against God’s Holy Word bluntly celebrating dreadful acts of stupidity, foolishness, and insanity while serving up evil nationwide.
I pray that the eyes of your understanding will be opened to see how many of us have a “Jonah-like” attitude in our nature.  The places of selfishness, the places of anger and even the places of “NO’s” with God in what He is calling for us to do in our walk with Him as mature sons and daughters.

Therefore l, that call is to stand up for truth when lies are being preached, when the “softness” of the Gospel is being shared (meaning don’t offend anyone with God’s truth) in His Word.  God is calling on each of us to get out of our “Comfort-Zones” or out of our “Pet-Sins” of compromise and out of our smelling stench of rebellion.

This is a very strategic and pivotal time in our history, and it’s not a time to run away from Nineveh nor is it a time to hide in the belly of the boat.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai:  Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before.”  But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.
Jonah 1:1-3 (NIV)

Nineveh, as many of you might know, was the capital of the Assyrian Empire and was a large and prominent city in its day.  It was not a city of Israel at all; God called Jonah to go to a very pagan and very evil Gentile city and call them to repentance.  The Ninevites were the most wicked, brutal, and evil people who ever lived on this earth – The Assyrians.

Sadly, to say, America has turned the corner and is beginning to smell like Nineveh – the stench of evil and the hand of corruption and the celebration of immortally along with brutality of murdering the innocent and the youth rising up to go against the law of the land and inciting violence against police.

Our nation has not completely gone to the depth of the Assyrians; however, we have been on the road to major destruction with wokeness, being above the law, and acts of Anti-Christ thinking with idolatry of power, greed, and evil.

Where are YOU being like Jonah trying to escape what God is telling you to share with others about God’s truth?    Where are YOU running away from God’s call and purpose in your life?  Are YOU disobeying God’s directive and running in the complete opposite direction of God’s plan and will?

Jonah determined in his mind and heart that he didn’t want to go to Nineveh and tell them to repent  from their wicked ways, to tell them they are headed for disaster, annihilation, and extinction.  I’m sure he felt it was a treacherous and dangerous task as well as a very uncomfortable message to preach.

Thus, Jonah buys a ticket for Tarshish, and flatly refuses and disobeys God and runs into the most remote part of the world in the opposite direction to Tarshish.  He was running towards isolation and separation, while distancing himself from God. My friends, we are all created with a purpose, a mission, and a destiny.  And IF you don’t believe that or understand that, you will run far away from your God.  And we will take different journeys in our life and in the process we will prolong, delay, and even sabotage His glorious plan for our lives.  God wants us to NEVER lose sight of our purpose and our destiny on this side of eternity.

Have you lost your way and are you running to Tarshish?  That could look like turning the other way of what is happening in our nation today.  That could look like burying your head in the sand, and it could look like escaping into apathy and compromise.  Where is your remote place of escape which takes YOU down to the ship of sleeping and slumbering and closing off from the world like Jonah tried to do?

UNTIL a pretty bad storm begins all around us and it’s getting darker and dimmer day by day.  No matter where you turn you see craziness in allowing illegals to invade our borders, seeing all the crime and its broken laws from judges and officials.  Our nation has degenerated faster than we imagined, resulting in tragedy after tragedy.  Severe unrest in the Middle East, the world on the brink of war, murder rates like never before, laws being past to harm our children through manipulation of the transgender world and hatred for Israel that is rampant and widespread.

Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.  All the sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own god.  And they threw the cargo into the seas to lighten the ship.  But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.  The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep?  Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
Jonah 1:4-6 (NIV)

God is calling YOU to get up—to awaken from sleep—and is calling you to repent so that America will NOT perish.  God is calling YOU to have a holy fear of what is happening all around us.  He is calling YOU to speak out, speak up, and to address sin as sin and not to sugarcoat it any longer.  Whether you are a priest, a pastor, or an everyday Christian, we cannot be silent any longer.  We cannot run from God any longer, and we cannot bury ourselves in silence any longer.

We pray, O Lord, please do not let us parish for this man’s life and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You. 
Jonah 1:16 (NKJV)

There’s something my mother used to say when we get to an intersection of our lives or at a crossroads in our life that needed to make a drastic change.  Honestly, I believe it’s not just the believer at a crossroad now, but America is at a crossroad.  Rose Marie Borrelli would say it this way, “What, So What, Now What.”  

Friends, we are at the “NOW WHAT.” There are people of our nation saying the same thing: O Lord, we pray, please do not let us parish. 

I believe God is giving us a message for today that is clear and precise of warning and of redemption if we take heed.  Jonah had many struggles with what God wanted him to do. However, through his struggles and rebellion, God did grant Jonah a second chance to do what was right in the sight of the Lord.  I think he thought long while sitting in the smelly belly of the whale that God is one of compassion and mercy and will go to any lengths to get our attention to turn from our evil ways to see His ways of love, truth, and freedom by and through repentance.  The Body of Christ and America has strayed far away from God’s ways and have fallen deeply into sinful, indifference, and compromising ways.

And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk.  Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”  Jonah 3:4 (NKJV)

This is a time in our nation, in our history and in our individual junctures to embrace the warning signs and the messages of a nation NOT being under God. God is extending, calling and inviting us to embrace this time for repentance and for reformation and for turning from our sinful ways.  PLEASE – PLEASE! Let’s return to God’s loving embrace and grace.

God poured out His enduring mercy to the Ninevites and I believe He will pour out His enduring mercy to the Americans IF we turn – IF we repent and IF we stand up and speak out for His truth.   He is calling for YOU and for ME to be a Jonah.  We need God’s transformative power and they only way we can receive it is by repenting for our own ways of apathy and then going out to witness truth to others.

I believe there is much prophetic urgency regarding the April 8, 2024, total Solar Eclipse and how it will complete an X over the US.  I also believe this is America’s wake-up call to give us a second chance and we need to continue to pray for true repentance in our land and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and salvations.  Our land is in desperate need of healing.  America is profusely bleeding out, and the ONLY one who can stop the bleeding is Jesus Christ through the gift of repentance so that we can receive his grace and mercy.
Through and in this Solar Eclipse I believe God is speaking to us and below I have given you links and articles to learn more about how God is speaking to us and how the signs in the heavens are equipping us with spiritual strategies so that we can navigate these times.

The Heavens declare the glory of God 
(Psalm 19)

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from night; and let them be signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth. And it was so.
(Genesis 1:14-19)

Excellent Resources to Learn More

  1. Episode 1333: April 8th Solar Eclipse: God’s Hidden Message To America – Lance Wallnau
  2. #daystar #daystartv #daystartelevisionnetwork #TroyBrewer #SolarEclipse #April8 #April8thEclipse #TimesandSeasons #SignsandSeasons #HeavenlySigns #SignsintheSky #Significance #EndTimes #Interpretation #Meaning
  3. Decoding Heaven’s Message: Spiritual Meanings of the 2024 Great American Eclipse – Charisma News (mycharisma.com)
  4. In an exclusive interview with Charisma News, Pastor Troy Brewer shares a powerful message, delving into the spiritual meanings and biblical signs behind the Great American Eclipse.
  • Comparing life to a ship, he urged everyone to shift from a laid-back “cruise ship” attitude to a more alert “battleship” mindset. The key, according to Brewer, is to live as though we’re truly in the End Times, keeping our focus on Jesus and holding onto a deep respect for God.
  • A major highlight of Pastor Brewer’s talk is the upcoming Great American Eclipse which will take place April 8.
  • Referring to Jesus’ words about signs in the sun, moon, and stars in Matthew 24, Brewer pointed out the significance of this celestial event, signaling the start of a crucial seven-year cycle since the last major American eclipse in 2017.

Let’s Prayer

Dear Sweet Father God,
We thank You that You are a great and awesome God, and YOU always fulfill your promises and fulfill your covenant without fail, for You are always intentional and always purposeful in our lives and in our nation. And Creator God, You are always speaking to us through signs, seasons, and the heavens for they do declare Your glory.

Father, you have called us to be truth seekers and truth-tellers, so I ask in Your name, Jesus to help us to walk in Your truth, to share Your truth even if it feels uncomfortable. Stretch us, O Lord, so we can engage with Your Spirit of power and light to release love and truth in these turbulent times.  Give us courage, give us bravery, and give us the inner fortitude to stand in the gap for our bleeding America.  Father, let us get real with what is happening today.  Open the eyes of our understanding—not the world’s understanding but of Your kingdom’s understanding.

Father, may we all be aware of our personal sin and may we be aware of not only what we need to do for our soul but also for the soul of America.  Give us the ”gift of repentance.” Give us the backbone in prayer to stand in the gap for those who rush in to do evil and to do harm to our families, our children, and churches as well as our nation.

Give us a clean heart. Give us pure motives and give us intentionality to seek Your forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name. Father, You promised that if we confess our sins, You will be faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.  Father, let us confess our desperate need for You.  Help us to turn around and help us to head into the direction of Your sovereignty and purity.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

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Also, I would love to pray for YOUR MIRACLE!  Please send me your request for YOUR miracle via email, and I will faithfully stand with you to see your miracle come into reality.  

With My Expectant Heart for Your Miracle and My Grateful Heart for Your Donation,

With My Burning Heart of Love & Thankfulness,

 

Mari Anne Andersen

Director, Freedom House Ministry