Jonah and Stunted Revival

Very few believers love Jonah.

But this is not the reason I am writing this.

I want us to look at the whole topic of revival, using Jonah as our subject.

That Jonah refused to go to Nineveh is clear to all. That he even protested the pardon of the city after their repentance due to his ministry is also clear.

The fact that he even protested to God for that pardon tells the kind of heart this man of God had towards his enemies.

That God had to use an object lesson to make him understand His nature is telling.

That is where I want us to start. Allow me to ask a few questions.

Do you think God was only interested in the Ninevites just repenting? Do you think that was God’s end game?

Let me ask a related question.

Was the birth of Isaac God’s end game for Abraham?

I am sure you will say no.

That is what I want us to examine when we are looking at Jonah.

Repentance was the gateway, the key to a grander plan and purpose for Nineveh. It was the starting point for what God had in store for that heathen city.

God’s purpose for Nineveh was a complete spiritual transformation that was to be activated by that repentance.

God had wanted to create another centre of worship, if I may use such crude words.

Did it happen?

We know it didn’t because later Nahum proclaimed similar judgment on them.

Why did it not happen?

I believe Jonah was the reason. And you will allow me to demonstrate why.

God never sends a random message to a person or nation.

He sends a complete program of action with the capacity of turning around everything.

He also releases implementers of that program to ensure that it is not aborted or stunted.

Jonah was one such person.

God did not send him with the singular purpose of proclaiming that judgment and awaiting its fulfilment. He was sent to supervise and entrench the revival that the repentance was bound to birth. He was God’s messenger of restoration.

But he failed like many other prophets before and after him.

Though from his complaint he knew that God was about restoration, he had no place for that restoration in his heart. No wonder he was so bitter to God about His forgiveness, a forgiveness he knew was bound to happen even before reluctantly taking on that assignment.

That is not my problem, though.

My problem is that even after God demonstrated why He had sent him to Nineveh, he did not complete his assignment.

What was his assignment? I know you are wondering.

His assignment was to stay in Nineveh and teach them God’s ways so that the revival lasts.

Allow me to also give you another Biblical example.

Remember Elijah and God answering by fire?

Yet what happened after all the false prophets were slain after such a national turning to God?

Nothing much. They were shortly back to their old ways.

You see, Jeroboam had expelled the Levites who were the custodians of God’s word. This means that the revival went on autopilot since there was nobody to guide it since even the catalyst of the same fled from the scene. And with no Levites, they did not have the word to guide their revival.

Passion and revival are not related.

However genuine and deep repentance is, it must be built on God’s word to last.

That was the main purpose of the calling of the Levites.

They were the custodians of God’s relationship with His people. This explains why they were let off all other responsibilities.

In the absence of the Levites, God will require a similar servant to take on the responsibility of spiritual formation and instruction after repentance.

Leaving the repentant to their own devices is akin to leaving a newborn to cater for all his needs which in spiritual terms is not much different from a still birth, only more painful just like the death of a child is more painful to a parent than a miscarriage.

And it is not because the repentance was not genuine just like you cannot call the conception of a stillbirth or miscarriage fake.

It is because, just as a child needs nurture to become somebody, a revival needs nurture to last. Otherwise, it will be a small blip on the graph of spiritual activities.

I do not know whether you realise that most revivals had young people at the forefront. By young I mean below thirty years and many times unmarried.

At that time the whole world is before them and they fear nothing.

This means that taking risks is normal.

What happens when this person gets connected to the call of God?

They will literally fly off without a care in the world. They will respond to God without caring what anybody and everybody is saying and thinking. They will pour their last coin, even empty their savings, to do what they know is right or congruent to their passion.

But life is not that romantic. It is real, with enough warts to deter the most determined.

In a short while, their investment runs out. Their savings dry out. Their passion is sat on so heavily that they are unable to breath. They discover their passion had enemies probably more passionate in their opposition than they were in their pursuits.

What then happens?

Not only will they have run out of steam, they could be devastated.

They might eventually resort to thinking that God is not worthy of that sacrifice and abort what they had poured their all into.

That is the focus of this post.

I was once a young man and was as passionate as the best of them. Yet I am still passionate about God and His call when many of my compatriots let off steam, some completely deserting the faith or simply became perennial pew warmers.

What was the difference? You may wonder.

To add fuel to the fire, allow me to give you an incidence in my life.

I joined the media school around the time my faith was brimming to overflowing, not long after I had responded to God’s call in my life. I was in no doubt that God is the One who had taken me there.

For one, I did not apply. Some other people did it for me as I was busy serving God very far from the city when the opening came.

Secondly, they even wrote my names incorrectly. And I am not talking about the arrangement of my names. The names they used did not agree with my ID or certificates.

Thirdly, the competition for the college was insane. Plus a few other things that ought to have locked me out completely.

But I found myself there.

When we went for the first attachment and I told the guys who were working at the station I was sent that I was saved, one of them called me aside. This is what he had to say.

Do you know the history of media? Nobody remains saved. (Incidentally it was the only broadcasting media house in Kenya then).

He went on to give me example after another of people who joined on fire and the kind of life they led. He then gave me three months to be just like them.

I told him that if it was me standing, that time would be too long. But since Christ is the one in charge of my spirituality he could wait for as long as he wished.

Incidentally, after the attachment, over a half of the ones who used to attend fellowship stopped. By the end of the course, only four of us were still professing our faith. The rest fell by the wayside.

I am not writing this so you think that I was any special than any of those who fell by the wayside. I am writing to let you appreciate the essentials that made me stand amidst that history.

The first thing is that after responding to God’s call in my life God created in me such a hunger for His word that I was able to read the New Testament in that one month. I was able to complete reading the Bible in a few months. And I have been consistent in that over the years, reading at times up to three times in a year.

The second is that God sent a couple to get me into the discipleship journey.

That is what kept me in focus.

Over the years people have said that the faith of youth is like a fire from stubble. And as someone who responded to God’s call as a teenager, I know that the statement is not way off the mark.

However, allow me to quickly add that God knew that when He released His word. He knows that when He calls young people into His service. He knew when creating people and made those phases a part of who we are.

How does stubble burn?

Very quickly and then runs its cause unless a wind carries some flecks of that fire elsewhere to ignite other fires.

It would be impossible to cook food requiring a consistent amount of heat with stubble because of its sporadic nature.

But stubble is not useless. It is immensely useful in the making of a fire.

Stubble ignites very fast, making it ideal for starting fires and flaming heavier wood.

Before paraffin became easily available, it was nigh impossible to start a fire without using stubble.

That young people’s fire is therefore important for the kingdom.

But it would be folly to count only on stubble to cook for your visitors.

In case you have forgotten, I am dealing with the topic of stunted revival with Jonah as our fall guy.

Young people easily become ablaze for the cause of Christ. They can be passionate about soul winning. They can burn for the lost. They can blaze very brightly against sin and sinful tendencies in church.

But not for long.

Let me get us back to some of us who blazed beyond that stubble season.

We were stubble, alright. But we had something else, a fuel that went deeper than the stubble. A fuel that made that stubble run for longer than normal. A fuel that slowly transformed that stubble into the trunks we are now as elders.

And even in these times, the youth need that kind of backdrop so that they do not become statistics for other generations to use.

You see, that fuel made it possible for us to be kicked out of churches and fellowships and still continue serving God, the same thing that quenched the fire of the others.

We were able to go for retreats and camps and missions on our own without the fear many have about unsupervised young people of the opposite sex together. Yet today we see churches needing to employ security when a church has overnight prayers otherwise the whole compound will be littered with condoms after those prayers.

I dare say that this was the same thing that made Daniel and his three friends stand out when the other princes gave in.

In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. (Daniel 9:2)

Danies did not stumble on a random revelation. He had been consistent in his study and obedience to the scriptures to have been able to realise that the time for the restoration was due.

This is the thing that made Joseph remain relevant in a heathen place alone for thirteen years before his elevation.

It is the same thing that made Ezra shine in his leading of that restoration.

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. (Ezra 7:10)

However, since we do not determine the who’s and how’s and when’s of God’s setting aflame His vessels, we really do not have the luxury of time in preparing these young men to enable them function beyond their stubble season.

We will disciple those we can. We are supposed to disciple them by Christ’s command.

But will we be able to disciple the ones God rescues and calls from the drug and whore houses? Will we be able to disciple those God called in prison? Will we be able to disciple those he calls from false religions?

Paul started ministry immediately after his conversion. Apollos was ministering before he properly understood the Gospel.  Lydia started ministering as proof of her conversion.

When will they be discipled? How will they get discipled?

Paul needed Barnabas. Apollos needed Aquila. And Lydia needed Paul.

Probably that is the reason God had me write about elders before giving me this message.

They will need someone who understand their fire. They need someone who can accommodate their fire. And they need someone who can channel that fire to God glorifying ends.

Something is happening with our young people, or what is being called Gen Z.

Before they occupied the streets in protest against the government in Kenya, I had been seeing one then another preaching the Gospel, one in a bus, another in a public place…

The devil is just seeking to divert that fire to his own rotten agenda because he knows and has seen that God is releasing an army for the nations in these youngsters.

As he did with Jonah, he wants to transfer that energy to unrelated pursuits. He wants to shift that passion to earthly agendas.

In short, he wants that stubble to blaze to extinction without accomplishing anything of eternal value.

Where are the elders to capture that blaze? Where are the elders to direct that blaze to the accomplishing of God’s agenda?

I want to stand to be counted. I want to be an available elder to these Gen Z zealots with the call of God in their hearts. I want to be available to answer their many questions. I want to be available to speak for them when their churches want to kick them out and look for an alternative if that fails. I want them to feel free to serve God as He has called them and not as He called me.

Young people with God’s call on you, do not lose hope. God wants to use you. God will use you.

And I will stand with you because I know how difficult it is for established religion to accommodate God’s fresh call.

I am available to grow with you in your call.

Who else is with me?

I do not want to be a Jonah to Gen Z.

I want their fire to blaze through many other generations.

Can we have a team of elders sold out to this?

Can we get together?