Jonah 1: 4-6
Discipline From God and Satan’s Attacks Have Different Purposes
1.
Returning to the purpose of God
l Keep an eye out for changing circumstances and pay attention to hear
the voice of God.
l For Jonah, God changed his circumstances which cause Jonah to pray
and come back to God.
l When we’re faced with difficulty, it’s not the problem that we
should fight against. Rather we should turn towards God – return to prayer and
the Word.
l In order for our problems to be resolved, we must restore our
relationship with God.
2.
Discern if it is the work of
Satan
l When we face problems, we need to discern if it’s a message from God
or the work of Satan.
l God will sometimes use difficulty to save us and cause us to live
according to His will. But Satan causes
trouble and hardship to cause us to rebel and leave God.
l In this way, discipline from God and the attacks of Satan serve
different purposes.
3.
Do not fall asleep
l We must not lower ourselves and fall asleep spiritually. We must look up.
l We must not compare ourselves to the faults of others. Our role models must come from the Bible. We must look to Jesus.
l Disobedience to God is a state of being spiritually asleep. We cannot hear the Word of God and therefore
cannot react to it.
4.
Faith is how we interpret
l Ultimately our faith is about how we react to hardships.
l In need to be able to identify the discipline of God.
l For Jonah, he was someone that had great knowledge in the Word of
God but did not live by it. He did not
obey.
l Let us interpret through faith.
God loves us and wants to save us.
l Let us return to Him.