At an early age we learn the concept of cause and effect. This level of cause and effect is based on effort, energy in motion, and time. If I am hungry then I eat and it satisfies the hunger. If I stick my hand in fire, it burns me. The understanding of cause and effect produces a predictable future. This reality works for all mankind, the just and the unjust. When it rains, the unrighteous man’s garden gets watered just as the righteous man’s garden receives the moisture. People who are opportunistic take advantage of this predictability to their own benefit. They become masters in this realm and control people, places, and things. This level of cause and effect is structural based and can be exploited by the rich and powerful. Financial investing often relies on this cause and effect predictability but many of us have found this to be a risky proposition at best. Technical stock analysis relies on formulas to predict the future. Investors have spent millions of dollars seeking the “holy grail” of formulas to insure investing success. Charts are created to show cycles, trends, tendencies, and other behaviors of stock prices and movement. “Quants” as they are called are traders and financial engineers who used advanced math and supercomputers to gain advantage over individual investors by exploiting trends and price discrepancies in milliseconds.
However, there is a higher dimension to cause and effect and it is based on Love and its rewards. This higher level supersedes the logic of effort-based cause and effect and defies all formulas and man’s logic as well as prophecy. I watched Christian television for two decades and read many books on prophecy. I can’t count how many times Armageddon was suppose to take place. The Lord’s return has been imminent for years and years. I’ve read hundreds of prophecies by credible individuals and those prophecies have not panned out. Why? Love! This higher realm has ruined a lot of eloquent prophetic, structured-based words over the years. Each failed prophecy has chipped away at the credibility of those prophets. We all want a reality that we can call “permanent” in our lives. We all want predictability to remove the anxiety of the unknown.
Nineveh is the current day Mosul, Iraq. In terms of cause and effect, Nineveh needed to be destroyed: Jonah 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." After Our Heavenly Father’s corrective interview with Jonah during a cruise vacation, Jonah proclaims the Word of THE LORD: Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Here we see cause and effect playing out in its predictive pattern. You sin, you die! (Rambo interpretation) Then something interesting happens and the king of Nineveh proclaimed:
Jonah 3:8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? 10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
Jonah had been spared from his rebellion and delivered to the appointed destination to declare judgment. But even though Jonah received mercy, Jonah became exceedingly displeased, and he became angry when Our Heavenly Father “relented”. He told Our Heavenly Father to “take his life” now this his prophetic word failed. After all, he received this word from THE LORD. What Jonah did not understand is the higher level of cause and effect based on Love. The structural level of cause and effect must respond and submit to the higher level. Jonah did know that this level existed but without full understanding of its impact for he said “for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.”
Our Heavenly Father’s abundant lovingkindness, grace, and mercy allows us to change the course of our lives. We are not destined to sickness and disease, failures, and turmoil. Our lawless acts do not guarantee a sentence of death and destruction even though The LAW requires restitution. When we appeal to a higher realm, the lower realm must submit. Rather than looking for signs, formulas, and trends of this structured realm, shouldn’t we be focusing on the higher realm where Love is in command and can change the course of events thus averting certain disaster? As a corporate body, if we spent as much time, energy, and resources attempting to predict the future and placed our focus on understanding and walking in the Love of Our Heavenly Father, the result would be the outcome we all long for.