Freedom

Welcome to Reflective Hour with Tammy Toney-Butler. I'm your Host and Healing Evangelist. But we all know who the host of Reflective Hour is, and that's Christ by way of His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Jesus that lives inside of us, that works in and through us to bring about everlasting change in our own lives and in the lives of all those that we encounter. with His light, with His love, and with His truth. God bless you. God keep you. May His light shine upon you. And may you glean from His field of knowledge during this episode. And may you be forever changed and set free. And He who the Son sets free is free indeed. And today's episode on Reflective Hour is just that. It is about freedom. Freedom. freedom and we'll be looking at the story of jonah learn how his rebellion led to him being separated from god being in disobedience sinking so low he called out in a moment of desperation and despair drowning even and surrendered everything to God and cried out for God to remember him and to save him. And how many of us cry out to God, save us God, save us, save us from our infirmary, our afflictions, our circumstances, the mountain of bills, the uncertainty in this relationship, Save us from the darkness in the world. Help us, oh God. How many of you cry out like that? I know I do. I cry out to God often. I cry out often to God. Seeking his deliverance, protection, shelter, the promises that he speaks of in his word. I need God. the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our precious Lord Jesus. I need Jesus. And Jonah realized that he could run, but he couldn't really hide. He had an assignment he had to do. And he had to stop running and surrender and surrender. And God never turned his back on him. He was there loving him despite his rebellion, despite his flaws as a human being. And God loves you too. You're never too dirty to seek the love of Jesus. You're never too dirty to seek forgiveness. You're never too dirty or full of shame to call out in a moment of weakness and invite the Savior into your situation, into your circumstance. He's waiting. He's waiting. He's waiting. God's a gentleman though. Doesn't force himself upon us. We have free will. We can rebel like Jonah did. It can take a whale sometimes like it did in Jonah's case. to help us let go of things that no longer serve us. Sometimes it takes a great fish in our own lives to help us to stop and pause and pray. As we sit and we reflect, as we look inward seeking answers, Are we being disobedient like Jonah was? Did we bring the storm on ourselves because we partnered up with sin, knowing that we should not have gone to that gathering when we are in recovery? Have we brought things on ourselves like Jonah did, and it took a storm to wake him up. Sometimes you got to sit in the belly of the whale, in the tomb of darkness, three days and three nights. It can look really, really dark when you're in the tomb or the belly of the whale. Jonah was like Jesus three days and three nights in that dark place. But yet he rose. Jesus rose from the dead and set us all free, not condemning us, loving us. We miss it. We make mistakes. Don't ever be afraid. to pray, to call out for help, to say, I've gotten myself into something. I've been running and I need help. God, I need you. I need you to rain on my circumstances. I need you to help. I need you to help. Jonah, Surrendered and realized he couldn't outrun God. He had to do what God had called him to do. He had to do it. And he realized how much he needed God. And God was with him. And his God delivered him from drowning. And at the right time, the perfect time of God, he sent that fish, that whale to swallow him up, to rescue him. And he was rescued, but it didn't look like it did it because he was in a dark place. It even talks about in scripture where the The bars were around. The bars closed behind me forever. That's what it says here. The earth with its bars closed behind me forever. Jonah too. How many of you have had doors closed? Maybe prison doors. A jail cell door. Other doors. You felt trapped. helpless, hopeless, to the point to where you had to call out to God, cry out for help, cry out for deliverance. Maybe you're crying out now, and you're in a cell or an afflicted state, and you've been crying out and crying out, but seeing no change in your circumstances. Are you going to believe God? Are you going to praise God in the hallway, in the valley, on the mountain? Are you going to praise God no matter what your circumstances say, no matter what you're facing, and just praise Him knowing He's with you and He'll deliver you? All you got to do is ask for help. We need to repent, turn away from the things of this world, turn away from the darkness and move towards the light. We have to wake up and come out of the world and the world systems, come out of our rebellion like Jonah, come out of our disobedience and surrender. and surrender to God's will for our life and not our own. We have to let go of things that don't serve us. We have to let go of the way that we think something should be. Jonah thought something should be a certain way. It actually got a little ticked off at God because in the end, he didn't destroy Nineveh, he saved it. Because they repented, they turned. They showed genuine remorse and genuine repentance. Truly, it was a heart posture of a change. What does your life say about you? Are you changing? Are you surrendered? Are you obedient? When people look at you, do they see the world? Or do they see the love and light of Christ? What do your actions say? If someone closely examined you, what would be the evidence? Would the evidence show that you're sold out for Jesus, following in his footsteps, trying to bring as many people into the kingdom of God as possible? Or would your actions look like the world? Examine yourself. Look at yourself. That storm came because of Jonah's disobedience and nearly wrecked that boat and the people on it. Is your disobedience, your rebellion wrecking those close to you? Those closest to you? Are you hurting them with your words, your actions, your deeds, your rebellion, your defiant manner? Difficult times. We have to look inward. We have to ask ourselves some difficult questions because the pathway to freedom looks different for all of us. Some of us have to let go of relationships that no longer serve us or family members maybe that are hurting you instead of helping you. Maybe you need to come out of an environment, a situation that no longer serves your pathway to healing and sobriety. to recovery, restoration. Maybe you need to come out of the world for a little while. Go to a treatment center. Go into a long-term program. And finally, embrace your healing and let God do a work in you so that he can do it in you And it can come out of you and into others to help them heal eventually. It all starts with your yes, your surrendered posture of obedience. Maybe you're calling out to God like Jonah was in Jonah two, where it says, out of my distress, I called to Adonai and he answered me. From the belly of shoal I cried, and you heard my voice. For you threw me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood enveloped me. All your surging waves passed over me. I thought I had been banished from your sight. But I will again look at your holy temple. The water surrounding me threatened my life. The deep closed over me. Sea wood twined around my head. I was going down to the bottoms of the mountains. To a land whose bars would close me in forever. But you brought me up alive from the pit. Adonai, my God. As my life was ebbing away, I remembered Adonai. And my prayer came into you. into your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols give up their source of mercy, but I, speaking my thanks aloud, will sacrifice to you what I vowed I will pay. Salvation comes from Adonai. Then Adonai spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto dry land." And this was, I was reading Jonah two out of the complete Jewish Bible. And I want to look at, before I conclude this, I want to look at Jonah a little bit closer, Jonah two, but I want to read this time out of the evidence study Bible, the new King James version. This spoke to me. in this particular version spoke to me. And again, I want you to remember what's the title of this episode of Reflective Hour. It's freedom. And you could see there Jonah letting go and being free when he finally surrendered and stopped running from God. Stopped trying to be God of his own life. And truly surrendered to obeying God and doing what God commanded him to do. Jonah's prayer and deliverance. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Like Jesus was in the tomb. Three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord, his God, from the fish's belly, and he said, I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and he answered me. How many of you are crying out and waiting on an answer? Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. How many of you feel like you're drowning? Like you'll never rise above it. Get out of your current situation. I'm here to tell you that you will. I'm here to tell you that you will. I'm here to tell you that you will. Just like God had already prepared that fish, that whale for Jonah. He's already prepared an outlet for you. You just need to ask him to help you. Ask the Holy Spirit to help. help you to do something you can't do in your own strength. That's why we need the Spirit of God that's in us to help us with those difficult things where our flesh wants to scream and fight. We have to surrender and come under the Lordship of Jesus and say, Jesus, I trust you. Guide me. Your way and not mine. And your billows and your waves passed over me. Then I said, I have been cast out of your sight. Yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The water surrounded me even to my soul. The deep closed around me. Weeds were wrapped around my head. That speaks of suffocation. Drowning, feeling like you're choking. Like you just can't even catch a breath. because of the heaviness and the weight of everything you're carrying. And it's in that moment of surrender when you let go and say, I can't carry this anymore. Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is inside of me. Take it from me, this heaviness, this weight, this addiction, this unforgiveness, this bitterness, this resentment, this hate, this anger, this self-loathing, self-rejection. Take it from me, God. I don't want it anymore. I give it to you. Forgive me. I turn away from sin. I turn away from disobedience. I turn away from rebellion. I turn away from pride. I repent and I turn towards you. My heart surrendered towards you. And this time it's going to be different. This time it's going to be different. This time it's going to be different. I went down to the moorings of the mountains, the earth with its bars closed behind me forever. Those prison doors will open. You will walk free, but will you still be imprisoned by strongholds, by the wounds of yesterday, by psychological chains, manipulation, strongholds? Or will you ask for the heart of Christ and the mind of Christ? Release it to God and walk in freedom. We all have a choice. We can choose light or dark. We can choose healing. We can choose peace. We can choose joy. Or we cannot. We all have a choice. We can choose Jesus Christ. Let him be Lord and savior of our life, or we can rebel and run. We all have a choice. You have brought up my life from the pit, oh Lord, my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer went up to you and to your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I vow. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. And that's what we need to remember. That our hope comes from the Lord. That salvation is from the Lord. He died. Lord Jesus. On the cross at Calvary. so we could have abundant life, no longer under the curse of the law, but having the ministry of reconciliation. Through his death, we got reconciled to God, no longer separated by a veil, no longer separated by sin, but able to have a close, intimate relationship with Adonai, our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. close, intimate relationship. Talking to him as I'm talking to you now. Do you communicate like that? Do you invite God into your mess? Jonah's situation was messy. You go on to read in the rest of the book of Jonah how he still messed up. He kind of had a little attitude or his own little unique quirks. We all have our own little unique quirks, our attributes, our characteristics, our character flaws. But God loves us. He sees us. He meets us where we are. And He can restore us if we'd only let Him. But do we let Him? Do we surrender? Do we embrace healing truly or do we want to partner up with misery with the old ways because they're comfortable instead of embracing something new, the healing journey, the healing continuum, recognizing healing is our portion. It's your portion. It's my portion. It's our portion as believers. in the Lord Jesus Christ, as kingdom ambassadors, daughters and sons of the Most High King, as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We have access to all those blessings. It starts with you knowing who you are and whose you are, letting go, letting God. And that's how you walk in freedom and are victorious Surrendered, overcoming, becoming an overcomer, letting go, letting God, fully surrendered and embracing your healing one moment, one second at a time. That's today's episode of Reflective Hour. I'm your Host and Healing Evangelist, Tammy Toney-Butler. Remember to like, subscribe, and share. God bless you. God keep you. May his light shine upon you. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus.