“Those who cling to worthless idols

forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”
-Jonah 2:8

I love the story of Jonah for a whole bunch of reasons. It is a memorable story to start with, but what I am drawn to is the greatest revival the world, at that time, had ever experienced. Over 120,000 people turned to God and avoided judgment. The most amazing thing about the whole story though is that Jonah did not once tell the people to repent. Not one time. For three days he walked through Nineveh proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Essentially he said it is over! See ya! But the people heard him. They believed the word of the Lord. They aligned themselves with God by turning from their ways and turning to God. God then revoked His sentence and showed them mercy. They did not cling to worthless idols and in turn found God’s grace. Those that cling forfeit.

Alignment consists of Position & Purpose

Different segments of the church will cry for revival at different times. They are expecting God to move and release revival like the days of old. They expect God to move. The reality, and history proves this out, revival comes when people change – not God. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn’t need to change and He isn’t going to change. REVIVAL only comes through alignment with God. Look at Nineveh, the great awakening, the second great awakening, Azusa Street, all of the known revivals. Every single revival started with people aligning themselves with God’s truth. Not one started with some outpouring of the Spirit like a raindrop falling out of the sky that you have no control over. God meets you where you’re at and then calls you to follow Him – Align yourself with what He is doing.
I remember being at a Wealthbuilder’s* event early January, 2016. It was the first time I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Lance Wallnau speak. Lance is funny, anointed, and prophetic. He starts sharing about a word God gave him that Donald Trump was God’s anointed – he had placed a Cyrus anointing (see Is 45) on Donald Trump. God would use a man for His purpose even though the man does not know God. I glanced at my wife and said, “Wow! Well, we can hide in the bushes and watch.” You see at that time Donald Trump was an absolute joke. No one thought he had any shot ever of even winning the nomination, much less the office of President of the United States! The strangest thing that happened in that moment, even stranger than Lance uttering that Trump was God’s anointed, was the fact that I, for some odd reason, believed it. Now I look back and see it was the Spirit bearing witness. I was like a Ninevite hearing the word of Lord from Jonah – I believed it and it changed me. That Wealthbuilder’s conference was the beginning of God aligning me with His will.
In chapter 37 of Ezekiel the prophet describes a vast valley full of dry bones. Ezekiel prophesied to the bones and as he spoke the bones began to move. They began to align themselves bone to bone and then he saw tendons, flesh, and skin cover them. Dead bones aligned themselves and flesh grew over them but there still was no life in them. God told him to prophesy to the breath and he did. Breath then entered them and they came to life! They stood up on their feet – a vast army.
This is a great picture of the church today. There are many things we see in ourselves that are dry bones.  Now is the time for all believers to assess themselves through the lens of the God’s word.  The lens of truth.  If we see something dead, or like a dry bone, that should have life then we have a problem.  Hoping we ignore problems and they will solve themselves is a very poor strategy that does not work.  God calls us to align ourselves with Him. I cry out, like Ezekiel did, “dry bones hear the word of the Lord: Align yourselves in the body. God will make breath enter you and you will come to life!”
Psalm 133 tells us how good it is when God’s people are in unity, for that is where the Lord bestows His blessing. There are blessings from God that we can only receive when we are where God has called us to be. Unity does not come from all of the leg bones living in the south end of the valley. Unity comes when the leg bones align themselves with the hip bones, and so on.

The alignment God is calling us to will release His blessing like we have never experienced before.

We are living on the precipice of the greatest revival the world has ever seen and it is coming about by people hearing the Spirit of the Lord calling them into the right position. Before life comes we must position ourselves to receive it or it will pass us right by and we won’t even see it.  Position yourself where God has called you, then ask for His purpose to be revealed.  His plan for you is good, perfect, and pleasing.  He has great things for you – it’s time to open your eyes and look for them.

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