Speaking at the National Day of Fasting and Prayer on November 1, 2022, at the Barcelona Central Auditorium, Apostle Emmanuel A. Quaye explained that salvation means delivering someone from harm, ruin, or loss. Salvation could involve delivering someone from a pending danger, sickness, oppression, or sin.
He admonished quoting Isaiah 38:20 “The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord”. The Prophet Isaiah was delighted and sang praises to the name of the Lord for the deliverance he received. Apostle led us to recall the numerous strifes mankind has been through and how Jesus died on the cross to unriddle both the physical and spiritual challenges of mankind. He declared that the salvation we receive from Christ can deliver us from all accidents which are more prevalent at the end of the year, from global economic recessions, troubles in marriages, medical conditions, dire financial remonstrances of the church and as individuals, and from the attacks of the enemy.
The National Head advised using a popular case study of a man God called Jonah. Prophet Jonah received a message from God on a assignment to Nineveh, an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located on the outskirts of Mosul in modern-day northern Iraq. God sent him to proclaim His word and to bring deliverance to the people. The brutality of the Assyrians in the treatment of their enemies had been well documented during those days. Apostle Quaye drew our attention to what the Bible says in Jonah 1:3, that Jonah went the exact opposite to what God sent him to do. Apostle pictured how Jonah run away from the presence of God and how God pursued him. Jonah was fleeing from the will of God and responsibility but God’s love continued to pursue him. He used this to illustrate how sometimes as Christians we move away from God’s presence but God continue to stay with us because of His love. 1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. (Jonah 1:3)
Jonah went down to Joppa and went down into the ship. Apostle Emmanuel A. Quaye explained that anytime we move contrary to the word of God, we go down. Jonah paid the fare to go to Tarshish (2500 miles away to present Spain) but never arrived at Tarshish. When we take our own way, we waste money and resources but never get to our destination. But, when we go in the direction of the Lord, he takes care of all we need to arrive at our destination. He advised that, running away from God costs our time, it cost us precious money, our peace, progress, health, joy, unity, and mental stability because we find ourselves at places contrary to where God wants us to be.
Apostle Quaye advised the church that God has called/saved us for a purpose. We have been given a mission. He noted what Paul said in Ephesians 4:1 “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.”
Sometimes, we face some challenges because God wants our attention back to Him. he wants us to refocus. When Jonah decided to move away from God, God brought a storm. The National Head elucidated that sometimes the crisis we face is like the storm God brought to Jonah and it will take repentance and a complete change of mind and heart to bring us back on track. Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
He further explained that when the storm came and Jonah was thrown in to the deep sea by the sailors to calm the storm, he was swallowed by a big fish and then Jonah, who had not been praying, began to pray. In Jonah chapter 2, 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.”
It is time that Christians evaluate our lives and ask ourselves if we are on board with the agenda of God; it is time that we pray and cry onto the Lord and our lives will not go down. He God, will take care of all expenses and make sure plant our feet at His planned destinations for us.
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