“Jonah” fill-in-the-blanks & extra resources
Here are the words for the fill-in-the-blanks in our “Jonah” women’s Bible study with Priscilla Shirer (via DVDs).
Homework: pages 9-18
“ ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord” (Isa. 55:8).
How has your life been interrupted lately?
Every chapter, every verse in Jonah is about the grandeur of our God.
Jonah was the only prophet who received instructions from God and ran from what God told him to do.
Our journey with Jonah helps us revamp our view of life interrupted.
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying” (Jonah 1:1).
THE interrupted LIFE is the privileged life.
The first two miracles in the Book of Jonah are found in the very first verse.
- God spoke.
- God allowed a mere human to hear His voice.
Homework: pages 19-31
To get a new view on what the interrupted life really means for believers in Jesus Christ, we need to get a new view of God.
The One True God comes down to talk to us.
When the interrupted life comes, say “I got it” and mean it.
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me” (Jonah 1:2).
One of the greatest revivals in history occurred because one man responded in obedience.
Jonah was a prophet. His job was to hear the word of God and then to administer it to other people.
Nineveh was a place of hopelessness.
God often sends us into the hopeless place because it’s in the hopeless place that we can see the hope of God.
THE INTERRUPTED LIFE is the significant life.
Second Kings 14:25 tells us five things about Jonah:
- his name
- his religion
- his family
- his job
- his hometown
THE INTERRUPTED LIFE is the cure for the search for significance.
Homework: pages 35-42
THE INTERRUPTED LIFE is the challenging life.
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me” (Jonah 1:2).
God will give you strength to handle the challenge.
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity revealed to us in Scripture.
If you are a believer of Jesus Christ, all of the greatness, power, grandeur, authority and fullness of God Himself is in you because the Holy Spirit is on the inside of you.
Oftentimes the greatest hindrance of a new move of God in your life is the last move of God.
God loves to put us in the challenge because that’s where He gets to be who He is.
We let our feelings, our “want to,” talk us out of obeying God.
“Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4).
Homework: pages 43-53
“Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to dishonest gain. Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways” (Ps. 119:36-37).
THE INTERRUPTED LIFE not only looks different but also looks more difficult.
When God places an abnormal calling on your life, it is because He has abnormal results He wants to produce through you.
THE INTERRUPTED LIFE is the accountable life.
“But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3).
God does not convict us to condemn us. He wants to restore relationship.
Sin is a never-ending downward spiral, a never-ending downward cycle.
God is waiting to rescue you!
Homework: pages 57-65
The Holy Spirit’s job is to sanctify us.
The more vast the consequences you’ve had to bear, the more vast the work He has planned for you afterward.
God isn’t out to hurt you; He’s out to redeem you.
“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish” (Jonah 2:1).
“For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” (Heb. 12:6).
Homework: pages 66-77
“For You had cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God” (Jonah 2:3-6).
Now is your opportunity to call out to God.
The Holy Spirit extends to you an opportunity to be back in relationship with Him.
“And he said, ‘I called out of my distress to the Lord, and He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice’ ” (Jonah 2:2).
Your tears are falling into the palms of His hands.
You serve a God who is waiting to hear from you, and He can’t wait to respond.
“Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him. O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you” (Isa. 30:18-19).
Homework: pages 81-89
The rhema word is God’s specific word to you.
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time” (Jonah 3:1).
Forgiveness of past sin qualifies us for present service.
“I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’ to a nation which did not call on My name. I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, a people who continually provoke Me to My face” (Isa. 65:1-3).
Homework: pages 90-101
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you” (Jonah 3:2).
God has put Himself in you to equip you and empower you to do what you cannot do.
You get a second chance.
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you” (Jonah 3:2).
You get the presence of God.
Once you receive the Holy Spirit and He is in you, He can’t be taken away.
“Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:3-4).
“So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk” (Jonah 3:3).
It is easy for us to impersonate obedience.
Homework: pages 104-113
“So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown’ ” (Jonah 3:3-4).
You get an exceedingly great opportunity.
God can make the impossible possible.
Sometimes your greatest message is the mess of your life.
God can redeem the parts of your life you thought were wasted.
Homework: pages 114-125
You get divine anointing.
When we are obedient to God and His anointing is on it, we can expect huge things.
The Holy Spirit must mark us so that others know we serve a different God.
Simple obedience stamped with God’s anointing will do far more than you can imagine.
You get supernatural results.
When we come face to face with God and respond in obedience, we will see supernatural results.
Homework: pages 128-150
“But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry” (Jonah 4:1).
We see Jonah throw a temper tantrum.
God decided to be God on His own terms, not on Jonah’s terms.
Without even knowing it, we put God in a box.
We must always leave room for God to be God.
We have to trust God. We have to fully believe He is able and fully capable of being God.
God is good at His job.
“ ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope’ ” (Jer. 29:11).
You have to have a firm faith in God.
“He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity’ ” (Jonah 4:2).
Are you throwing a temper tantrum because:
- you don’t think you got what you deserve?
- someone else got what you don’t think they deserve?
Your anger with God always stems from a problem with pride.
“The Lord said, ‘Do you have good reason to be angry?’ ” (Jonah 4:4).
“Then God said to Jonah, ‘Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?’ ” (Jonah 4:9)