Greetings again my Brethren. WOW can you believe this is the last newsletter for the year 2024? I truly hope you are enjoying this series as much as I enjoy writing it. I learn so much from all of my writing and the research that is required from the word of God to put out a quality word for our good friends to consider. Please know our articles and columns are not cut and pasted from some commentary, like much messages in churches are these days, but time spent waiting on the LORD, personal experiences, and examples of how God is working in our lives. Anything else is phony, counterfeit, or another person’s revelation to what God is doing or has done in someone else’s life. We go to a church almost every Wednesday night, they have a time of eating then a kind of Bible Study. Now they do read some verses, but sadly they are read from their Sunday quarterly and go over the lesson in their quarterly and bypass the examples, situations, and context that are going on in the Bible. It is no wonder there is limited spiritual growth in most of the people they are studying the wrong material. They have chosen to look past the only book that, “is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Timothy 3:16). I have mentioned this grave error to individuals and corporately, but they are stuck in this wrong thinking, happy to read the lesson instead of learning from the word of God, happy sharing another person’s revelation and not allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to the people through the word of God. Yet, and after, (I will not call it a Bible Study) the pastor always thanks us for coming and filling in the cracks. May have to reconsider our approach and time.
Okay let us get into another new area that God can use to communicate with man. The word of God may be directed and used by God by using many diverse objects. I think the greatest object God uses to communicate with man is the cross, but this thought is worth more than a monthly column so I will move on to my second greatest object a fish. In Jonah 2:1-3 we read, “Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, 2And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. 3For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.”
In Jonah 1:17 we read, “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” God has His ways of getting our attention and persuading us to change our plans. God will go great lengths to save one
man and see His will accomplished. So, God prepared a “great fish” (maybe a whale, but the Bible does not say whale)
Make no mistake my friend God loves us very much and will move mountains to fulfill His plans in our lives. In the end God used Jonah and the “great fish” to deliver Nineveh, a Gentile city, from their sin. In Jonah 3:5-6 we read, “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” Another time God used a fish was in the Book of John. Here is where God uses five loaves and two fishes to feed 5,000 men and women and children. In John 6:9-13 we read, “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? 10And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. 12When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. 13Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.” What a miracle to communicate with man. Something that will fill their belly and with Jonah a miracle to fill the belly of the “great fish.” God will use whatsoever He wills to communicate with man. With Jonah not only was God saving Jonah’s life, but He also saved the life of the people of Nineveh. With the loaves and fishes in John God provided provision to the crowd and also for the disciples. God always does many things at the same time. Seldom does God do anything singularly. Who would of thought of using a “great fish” to save lives, provide provision to feed our body, and to communicate a deep message to mankind? We both know the answer to this question.
Next month we will continue to look at other diverse objects God can use to communicate with us as we look at the elements. Are you there my friend? In tough situations and circumstances? Have you heard His voice? Listen closely and you will. Written by David Stahl
