God's Words Can Change A City

 

Long ago, God gave a man named Jonah a vision, some words, for the “exceedingly great” and evil city of Nineveh.

After attempting to retreat from God’s vision, Jonah entered the great city and spoke God’s word: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

God’s words spread throughout the city with power: “And the people of Nineveh believed God.” The word reached the king of Nineveh, who stepped off his throne and called the whole city to repent and cry out to God for mercy.

God’s words produced miraculous repentance and change in one of the greatest cities of the ancient world, in “…Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle…”

God did this. God used his word to do this. God used an imperfect and unlikely man named Jonah to deliver this message.

God’s words can change a city.

Do we believe this?

What is God’s heart for your city? Why would we settle for anything less than asking God and dreaming for him to do in our cities what he once did in Nineveh?

We have the same ingredients that were necessary in Nineveh:

Sinful city + Sinful messenger + God = Miracle (a transformed city)

The only thing God needs to do his work is sinners. That’s God’s specialty—saving and using sinners.

God’s words can change a city. I believe it and I dream about it all the time.