SHEMA: Hearing the Second Call – Part 2

THE BELLY IS NOT YOUR DESTINATION — IT IS A PLACE OF PREPARATION

Beloveds, today I feel so strongly in my spirit that many of us are presently in what I can only describe as “the belly.” I know that I am.

It is that uncomfortable, dark, set-apart place where you cannot see clearly what lies ahead. Nothing about it feels pleasant. If we picture Yonah inside that great fish, there was nothing comfortable about his surroundings. Yet there, in a place where he should naturally never have survived, a miracle was already taking place — Yonah was not being destroyed. He was being preserved.

Sometimes we become so focused on the darkness of the belly that we fail to recognize the miracle happening inside it.

Yonah called it “the belly of She’ol” (Yonah 2:2). He felt as though he had descended into the depths. Yet the place that looked like death did not become his grave.

It became his place of surrender.

Inside that belly, Yonah could no longer rely upon Yonah. He could not rescue himself. He could not navigate his own way back to dry land. He could not control what happened next.

And perhaps this is one of the things Abba YAHUAH wants to teach us in our own “belly” seasons.

He is our Strength.
He is our Saviour.
He is our Provider.
He is our Protector.

When everything else fails, He remains.

What if this uncomfortable place is not evidence that Father has abandoned you, but a place in which He is preparing you?

A place of healing in the spirit.

A place of surrender.

A place where hidden strongholds are exposed.

A place where pride, self-exaltation and self-reliance can finally bow before YAHUAH.

A place where we stop saying, “I can,” and begin declaring, “Without You, Abba, I cannot.”

And today, on Day 3 as we confront the Amorite stronghold, this speaks deeply to me.

Do not spend your entire belly season staring at the darkness.

Do not become consumed by how uncomfortable it smells, feels or looks.

Ask Father to let you see the situation through His eyes.

Because while Yonah was experiencing the darkness of the belly, YAHUAH was seeing something much bigger.

He was seeing Nineveh.

He was seeing more than 120,000 people who desperately needed the opportunity to turn from their ways.

Yonah saw a fish.

YAHUAH saw a city.

Yonah saw darkness.

YAHUAH saw repentance ahead.

Yonah experienced confinement.

YAHUAH was preparing His messenger.

And what touches me deeply is that YAHUAH could have chosen another messenger — but He showed Yonah mercy. He preserved him, dealt with him, and then spoke to him a second time.

“And the word of יהוה came to Yonah the second time…”
— Yonah 3:1

Beloved, the belly is not necessarily your destination.

There is still dry land.

There is still a second call.

There is still purpose.

There is still an assignment.

And when YAHUAH had finished dealing with Yonah in that hidden place, He did not allow the fish simply to release him somewhere in the middle of the ocean.

YAHUAH spoke to the fish.

And the fish placed Yonah on dry land.

What a picture!

The One who appointed the fish also determined when Yonah would come out of it.

The One who preserved him in the preparation could also position him for the assignment.

So perhaps today we should stop asking only:

“Abba, when are You going to get me out of this belly?”

And begin asking:

“Abba, what must change in me while I am here?”

Show me the strongholds.

Show me the pride.

Show me where I have trusted my own understanding.

Show me where I have resisted Your instruction.

Show me where my own voice has become louder than Yours.

And give me the grace to surrender it.

Because when the preparation has accomplished what YAHUAH intended, He knows exactly where the dry land is.

He knows where to position us.

He knows who is waiting on the other side of our obedience.

And His purpose is so much bigger than the darkness we presently see.

PROCLAIMING.
PREPARING.
POSITIONING.

Perhaps the belly is simply the place between the Word that was spoken…and the place where we are finally ready to obey it.

When YAHUAH deals with the high places within us, the uncomfortable place is not necessarily punishment without purpose. It can become the place of preparation. And when we surrender what has resisted His voice, He knows exactly where to position us so that we can accomplish what He originally called us to do.

Shema beloved,