This article is a continuation of my previous article found here.
So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
There was no getting back in the boat now. I was committed.
From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.
Not someone else’s god. Not someone else’s expectations and desires. Not in response to guilt or shame for how I’d failed and disappointed others. Not from a place of unworthiness and indentured servitude to someone else’s empire.
From a place of rebirth.
Where the waters of creation wash away everything that was never truly me.
In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.
You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.
I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters were at my throat, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.
I entered the realm of the dead and found the version of me I’d cast into the depths of the sea.
I entered the temple and excavated the pieces of myself deemed unworthy and was shown that they were actually pearls of great price.
The idols I’d created trying to please the unpleasable were cast away.
I sacrificed a false self in favor of what’s real.
Salvation comes from the Lord.
And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Born again.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
Not with words. Words can lie.
Identity can’t.
Your state of being. Your boundaries. Your attention.
These things can’t lie.
Proclamation of transformation through natural expression.
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
When the false self dies, so does the world you built with its hands.
The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
The inhabitants of that dying world recognize your truth.
Many will rise to the occasion and enter the new world with you. Some may remain in the old world with the dead version of you.
Both of these choices are acknowledgements of your new identity.
When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
The forces of influence in this new world will move in your favor.
They will join you in your mourning and refusal to acknowledge the contents of the old world and remnants of the dead you.
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
I was no longer the storm.
I was the stillness that follows it.
And from that stillness, I spoke — not with words, but with my life.
The world I built in fear had crumbled.
In ashes, I rose.
Not to convince. Not to prove.
But to become.
This time, the message is me.
📖 Want more? Stay with The Story.
This series isn’t just a retelling of Jonah — it’s a blueprint for healing.
Each part weaves ancient narrative with modern trauma recovery, spiritual reclamation, and embodied integration. This isn’t about Bible stories for their own sake. It’s about recognizing your own reflection in them — and learning to walk yourself out of exile and into identity.
If you've ever felt:
Split between the self you show and the self you bury
Like you’re trapped in cycles you didn’t choose
Afraid to be seen for who you really are
Called into something deeper, but unsure how to begin...
You're not alone.
The Story will continue — through archetypes, prophetic imagery, and mirrored scripture — to walk the long road home.
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More is coming. And it’s calling your name.