Is Your Delay Causing Others to Perish

In this powerful episode, Codie dives deep into the Book of Book of Jonah and uncover a sobering truth many overlook: sometimes it’s not what you’re doing wrong—it’s what you refuse to do that creates storms for everyone around you. Jonah’s delay, disobedience, and refusal to move when God said move didn’t just affect him—it put an entire boat of innocent people in danger.

Are you staying in places God told you to leave? Are you delaying obedience because it feels hard, uncertain, or costly? Your hesitation may be affecting your family, your calling, and the people connected to your assignment more than you realize.

We’ll explore how delayed obedience can hinder others, why surrender matters, and how one act of obedience can shift an entire household, city, or generation. If God has been calling you to move, release, step out, or trust Him in a new season, this message is for you.

Stop waiting for someone else to push you off the boat. Jump. God is already waiting in the water.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey guys, good morning. Okay, so today I'm on my back porch. So if you hear the birds chirping, and I've even heard a few dogs barking. So uh yep, there it goes. Okay, so don't mind the noise, but I want to chat with you today on uh the book of Jonah. I want to read some um something that I think we miss in the book of Jonah, but I think it's really important that we uh focus on this area right now. I'm seeing a lot of people who God is calling um to observe this area of their life and make hard decisions. And so I just want to uh go through this with you today. We're gonna be um Jonah chapter one verse seven through sixteen, okay? I'm gonna read this and then we'll go through it. And they said to one another, Come, let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us, what is your occupation, and where do you come from? What is your country, and of what people are you? And he said to them, I am Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, and the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, What is it that you have done? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Then they said to him, What shall we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea grew more and more tempestuous, I can't really say that word, but basically it grew stronger and stronger. He said to them, Pick me up and hurl me into the sea, then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you. Nevertheless the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more, stronger and stronger against them. Therefore they called out to the Lord, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood for you. O Lord, have done as it pleased you. So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. The men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. Okay, so I want to talk about basically in verse 10 it says, For the man knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. So I think it's interesting that um one of the questions they asked him was, What have you done? In verse 10. Right before that it says, What is it that you have done? But do you know it's not anything Jonah did, it's what he didn't do that was causing the Lord to cause the seas to be rough. And basically, because of what Jonah wasn't doing, it was actually causing other people to perish unnecessarily. Okay, so there are times when we were in we are in seasons. Um, on my blog on my website, www.globalfootprints ministries.com, I have a word from a couple years ago about staying and the importance of staying when you feel like you want to run, when you feel like you need to leave, but God is asking you to stay. Well, in this instant, Jonah is actually running from what God told him to do. So in this instant, in the boat, though, so he already ran, but in this instance, he's staying in the boat when he he doesn't need to. He needs to he needs to get off the boat because actually him staying in the boat is causing the people around him to be affected, and literally, literally they will perish if he stays on the boat. And so I think it's funny that he literally he literally confessed. He was like, hey, I'm running from the presence of the Lord. This is why the waves are so strong, it's because of me, you know, just throw me off the ship. So instead of like, I think it's funny because I'm like, why doesn't he just jump off the ship if he knows that's what he's supposed to do? Like, he's in such a place where he can't even make the decision himself. So he's got to have somebody else come and literally cast him into the sea. But then these men are like, wait a minute, okay, we will just work harder to save you and to get you to shore. But that wasn't what God wanted. God wanted them to cast him into the sea, but they literally say, Oh Lord, let us not perish for this man's life and lay not on us innocent blood. So they basically knew, like, if we throw him off this boat, he's gonna die. Like, we're not near land or anywhere, like, there's no way he can survive. He can't swim for that long, he'll get exhausted, or maybe a shark will come and get him, or you know what I'm saying? So they knew they didn't really want to cast him off because the blood would be on their hands. And so, even us as ministers, really, sometimes we have to tell people to do things or cast people, you know, out, and we think, well, God, like, is it gonna be my fault, you know, that that happens to them? And no, literally, that was where Jonah needed to go, he needed to be cast into the sea, and so because he was staying longer in that boat than necessary, than what God was calling him to, he was actually affecting the people around him. So there comes a point where God asks you to step out of Egypt, he asks you to step out of a church, he asked you to um, just like he told Abraham, leave your hometown, leave your, you know, move, go wherever God is calling you. Don't make sure you're not staying too long because that could fall into disobedience as well. Not going could be disobedience, but also staying too long in a place where he's calling you to shift, he's calling you to step out of could actually um affect the people around you. And so now you're you're not only a hindrance to yourself and your own walk and your own path, um, but you're actually a hindrance and you're causing destruction to other people around you that need to encounter Jesus because it basically says that in verse 16, then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. What if they would have made it to land? What if they would have just, you know, literally ceased this storm in their own strength, then they wouldn't have feared the Lord as much. These um, these men didn't believe in his God, and so it brought these like Jonah's leaving brought other people into giving a sacrifice to the Lord, and they made vows to worship him, and so it shifted them just as much as it shifted Jonah. So if we're looking at ourselves as the men in the boat, sometimes we need to release people so that they can actually get into alignment, we need to leave people so that those people can come back into alignment under the right God, the right sacrifice, the right worship to the right God. And so we have to look at all of the different areas in this book of Jonah. You know, what are we? Are we the men who need to cast someone out? And that helps us come into alignment, helps them come into alignment. Alignment comes, it says the goodness of God brings people to repentance. You wouldn't think that casting a man into the sea to die would be the would be the will of God, right? Because it sounds like, oh no, he's gonna die. Is that what God wants? But God had a different plan. And if you keep reading on, you know, you know that Jonah was swallowed by a fish. God protected him in the sea, but he needed him to step out into the waters, into the unknown. He needed him to take that step, to take that plunge. And I just find it so interesting that Jonah couldn't even just jump off the boat and be obedient. He literally said, cast me into the sea. In other words, pick me up and force me into the sea. And some people need that. Um, I've seen time and time again where people literally just want me to tell them, leave, go. You know what I'm saying? I don't I don't love telling people that because I'm like, you hear from God, like, why are you just not listening to God? It it kind of frustrates me sometimes because I'm like, you know what he's saying to do, like, just do it. But it's like God has to use us as ministers sometimes to actually cast people into the seed to to kind of push them into alignment, push them into um where God is wanting them to go. So people sometimes do want you to just tell them, hey, you're in disobedience, hey, you're not, you're causing trouble to other people, you know, you don't want to always give people those words, but you're like, hey, you know, um, you got to do what you're supposed to be doing. Like, step out on the water. Yeah, it's scared for you, but you're affecting other people. Other people are on their way to perishing because you're not doing what you're supposed to do. You didn't move when he told you to move, you didn't go when he told you to go, and so you're delaying not only your process, but everybody else's process around you, and you're causing people to perish unnecessarily. So be obedient, do what you're supposed to do, and step out into the water. And God will be there, He will meet you. He prev He prepared a fish for Jonah and brought Jonah back into alignment, ended up saving literally all of Nineveh, and they all really needed judgment, but the mercy and the grace of God came down because they they saw their king repent after Jonah took the message to the king, and so the whole literally a whole city, a whole nation can be saved if you just are obedient. One person is obedient. So understand the calling on your life and that you are the first domino sometimes in the domino effect, and you need to actually shift, you need to actually go, you need to actually step out. Yes, it's scary. You think that was fun for Jonah? I'm pretty sure God let him piddle paddle around in that water for quite a few hours until he came to a place of surrender and literally the brink of death. I mean, that brought him to surrender because he he literally was in waters deeper than he even could control. So it broke his control, it broke his rebellion, it it delivered him by being cast into the sea, and then God prepared a fish to sustain him. And if you think about being in the belly of a whale, that was not fun either. That that was like more deliverance, more suffering because the belly of a whale has acid in it. I'm sure his his skin and all was burning. Like, guys, don't make God do that. Don't make him break your legs on the cross. You know, the Roman soldiers, if people didn't die on the cross in the certain amount of time, they had to break their kneecaps to get them to fully surrender. Don't make God do that. Be like Jesus on the cross and surrender. Jesus, Jesus gave his life, he gave his life willingly, he surrendered willingly. That wasn't fun for Jesus, it was hard. He had previously prayed for God to take the cup from him, but God said no. Some of you want God to take the cup, and he says no. And so you're still in this area of delay. You're still you're still not doing what he's asking you to do because it's going to be hard. Yet you're affecting other people, you're delaying other people's deliverance and healing and freedom and alignment because you're out of alignment. Guys, don't be Jonah, okay? This whole book, it wasn't about Jonah, but God, his heart was tested. Jonah had the word of God, but not the heart of God. God is trying to give you his heart. We can all read the word of God, we can get the word from the prophet, we can get instruction and all those things. But that's not what God wants. He wants your heart. He wants full surrender. He wants sacrifice. He wants you to obey. Some of you are being called to leave places that have built a foundation in your life. You met God in that place. He encountered you. You saw miracles, signs, and wonders. Yet he's asking you to walk away from it. That season is over. It's time to move on. Open up the heavens. I just hear this knocking in the background. And I literally just see Jesus. He's knocking at the door of your heart. Will you let me in? Will you open the door? I want to come in. I want to be with you. I want to walk on the water like Peter with you. Will you let me in? Jesus says. Can I be the Lord of your life? Do you worship God or do you worship man? Do you serve your apostle, your prophet, your evangelist, your preacher, or your teacher? Or do you serve Jesus? You will be tested. He's bringing people back into alignment, back into offering a sacrifice to the right Lord, making vows to the right Lord, like in verse 16. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. They worshiped God. They offered the right sacrifice. The right sacrifice is obedience. It's not your money. It's not your time. It's not your your worship on the stage on Sunday morning. All that's great, but it's secondary to your obedience to God. The greatest sacrifice and offering you can give the Lord is obedience. But it's not going to be easy. If it was easy, everybody would do it. If it was easy, then the path would be broad instead of narrow. If it was easy, more would be chosen. It says, many are called, few are chosen. Why? Because it's not easy. It's hard. It takes dying to your own desires. It takes dying to self. It takes dying to flesh. It takes dying to worshiping man over God. Who do you worship? Do you worship God or do you worship man? Stop delaying other people's process because you refuse to obey. Because you refuse to jump off the boat and you're waiting for somebody else to pick you up and cast you off the boat. No. Learn from the book of Jonah and jump off yourself. Die to self and save everybody else but yourself. Jonah thought he was gonna die. He thought he was gonna have to give up his life. He did. But he never had to physically die. God saved him and God rescued him. Many of you, the the thing that God is asking you to do won't even happen if you'll just obey. We had a leadership retreat this weekend and we left with this question: What is your Isaac? What is your Isaac? What is God asking you to sacrifice? The end of that story with Abraham is my favorite. The angel said, Stop, don't touch the boy. Now we know that you fear God. Some of you aren't even gonna have to do the thing that he asks you to do. He just is testing your heart to see if you will. And then some of you really do need to shift. You need to come out because you're hindering your relationship with God. You're hindering, oh, you're hindering your family, you're hindering your children, you're hindering your spouse because you won't obey. Get into alignment, get into obedience, and actually fear God more than you fear man. And watch Him bless your family, watch Him bless your children. Don't delay your children's purposes and callings, your wife's purpose and your wife's calling because you refuse to surrender, because you refuse to obey, because you refuse to submit to the will of God that He's calling you to. Just step out on the water. I promise you he'll show up. I love you guys, and I will chat with you next week.