2016 - The Year the Jonah Spirit is Pruned from the 
Church! 


Last May the Lord spoke to me and said prepare for the 
‘Summer of the 10 Spies’. I felt Him saying that the 
atmosphere of the nation would be charged with doubt, 
unbelief, fear, reports of impending disaster, 
conflict, and in general doom and gloom. This would be 
fueled by the news media and even fanned by believers 
and those in the body of Christ with an Old Covenant 
model of prophecy 


However the Lord declared, I want my people to be of a 
‘different spirit’ to pick up the mantle of ‘Joshua 
and Caleb’ and declare “But GOD”. It was not a denial 
that ‘there are giants’ in our land, that is true, 
nevertheless we are not to see ourselves as 
‘grasshoppers’ but as the people of God, empowered by 
Holy Spirit and favored by our Father who desires us 
to take back the land and recover the inheritance! 


This Christmas I felt the Lord saying that this will 
be the year that He will expose the “Jonah” spirit 
that much the prophetic in the body of Christ have 
been weaned on. Jonah was angry, bitter, judgmental, 
and self-focused. He wanted God to judge Nineveh and 
give them what they deserve and yet he knew God was 
merciful and full of compassion and would forgive and 
forestall any judgment if the people of Nineveh turned 
to Him, this was to a nation that was not in covenant 
with Him, idolaters, and Gentile’s. We all know the 
story and how Jonah was frustrated and bitter that his 
prophecy of Judgment did not come to pass due to the 
Ninevites turning to God, that he was upset that the 
gourd that was shading him died and left him in the 
hot sun. The Lord rebuked him that he had more 
compassion for the gourd, his own comfort and agenda 
than even the children or livestock of Nineveh. 


We are called not to model the prophets of the law of 
Moses we are to model the Lord Jesus who is the very 
Spirit of Prophecy! Moses does not bring us into the 
land, our Joshua does, Y’shua, Jesus! Jonah’s message 
was repent or judgment, however the Lord gave us a 
prophetic mandate to declare repent, the Kingdom of 
God is here! A kingdom of love, joy, peace and 
righteousness confirmed with signs and wonders and the 
miraculous. A judgmental, sin focused, finger 
pointing, powerless, church will not take back this 
nation. An advancing, mountain taking, troop, with the 
spirit of Joshua and Caleb, filled with the 
unconditional love, grace and mercy of our Father, 
bringing down the giants of deception and bondage, 
with a message that His heart for us is one “Hope, a 
future, prosperity, and blessing”, a heart desire for 
His children to indeed inherit the land! 


The United States of America is not a Nineveh, though 
it is not perfect, we are a sheep nation, we have a 
covenant foundation that was birthed with the colonial 
battle cry of “No King but King Jesus”. God’s heart is 
not angry and against America. If He loved Nineveh how 
much more does He love this nation that has sent more 
missionaries and birthed more of the greatest moves of 
God in redemptive history! 


This is the year to throw off the ‘Jonah mantle’ and 
put the “zeal of the Lord” on as a mantle (IS. 9:7) 
and declare the “acceptable year of the Lord” (IS. 
61:2), His Jubilee! We are now in the 7oth Jubilee 
year since Joshua and the Israelites crossed over the 
Jordan and into their inheritance. I believe this is 
the year that the Lord wants His 3rd day people to 
“arise and shine”(IS. 60:1) as His glory fills the 
temple, made not of brick and mortar but of “precious 
living stones” (1 PET. 2:5), filling this nation His 
message of the gospel of the Kingdom. A prophetic 
message of amazing grace, mercy, total forgiveness of 
and deliverance from sin, restoration to Father God, 
healing, and freedom confirmed with signs, wonders, 
and miracles. 


A people who believe the report of the 10 spies will 
be filled with doubt, fear, unbelief, criticalness and 
negativism. They will not possess the faith, hope, and 
confidence of Joshua and Caleb who declared “but our 
God is able”, they will not believe God wants to use 
them to do the miraculous and take back this nation! 


We are not of the prophetic mold of Jonah, ours is a 
different spirit, one that believes our God wants to 
give us our inheritance and in this Year of Jubilee, 
2016-5776, he wants us to recover all, to possess this 
land, take back what has been stolen and truly reap 
the full benefit of the debt cancellation that Jesus 
purchased on the cross. 


This is the year that the prophetic, in this nation, 
will have the Jonah spirit pruned away as unfruitful 
and destructive, we are instructed in Romans it is 
“the Kindness of God leads us to repentance” (ROM. 
2:4). The prophetic voice of the New Covenant is an 
encouraging voice, one that is filled with the faith 
and declaration of the Good News of the Kingdom of 
God, and with an anointing that declares and 
demonstrates “The acceptable year of the Lord”! 


Tony Cavener 
NE Metro Christian Fellowship of Atlanta

__________________
See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you. Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing