Have you squandered your power, and now you've gotten yourself into a bind that you cannot get yourself out of (Jonah 1:1-4)? Jonah was a believer, but in rebellion, he went down and fled from the presence of the Lord. Is this you? You thought your chastisement was something that you could handle, but the Lord God prepared a great fish to teach you about the belly of hell–what is means to be separated from heaven (Jonah 1:17-2:2).
This great fish is a picture of eternal damnation, and it is what Christ endured to deliver us from the lowest hell. It is because He, our Lord & Savior, obeyed perfectly that we have hope. Therefore, Jonah prayed, "… I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple (Jonah 2:4)." In the holy temple, Christ shed His perfect blood, rendered unto God a satisfactory payment, highly exalted and magnified God's law (obedience unto death), and now He commands us to wait/look for His power– (Acts 1:4) "And, being assembled together with them, [Christ] commanded them that they SHOULD NOT DEPART from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, Which, saith he, ye have heard of me."
Don't depart from the message of the cross, don't try to earn God's favor, and don't go away without the power. Our Father will GIVE the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him– (Luke 11:10-13) "For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" To ASK is to believe the promise-its necessity, certainty, and power (John 14:16-18).
The Holy Spirit is Christ with us, ministering to us and through us, just like He did with the early disciples. He is ALREADY in us, He is already working, and we ask for Him because He is moving us with power (Acts 2). Ask, seek, and knock for the fullness of the Spirit, until you have everything that He has promised– (Eph 5:18) "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." There is no intoxication point where God will tell you that you've had too much.
Christ's love is better than wine. His love is better than all that this world has to offer. His love puts away sins until they are no longer remembered. We cannot suffer enough, we cannot mourn enough, and we cannot fix what we have done. But, Christ's blood says, "From here on out, there is fellowship, and I will keep you." God promises, "Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth… And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name of joy… For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the Lord (Jer 33:6, 8-9, 11)."
And, concerning our past failures, Christ Jesus is glorified in everything. God lets men fall, so that He might show mercy (Rom 11:32-36). We are responsible for our sin, and God is responsible for the mercy. Paul had to deal with this fact… that through the unbelief of the Jews, the gospel has come to us Gentiles. But, it is now through our mercy that the elect among the Jews shall be saved– "For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief. Even so have these also now not believed, that THROUGH YOUR MERCY they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief [elect Jews and elect Gentiles], that he might have mercy upon all (Rom 11:30-32).
"I beseech you therefore, brethren," Paul says, "BY THE MERCIES of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Rom 12:1)." Only a living sacrifice is needed. Christ was crucified to put away all our sins, and now we're presenting ourselves to God for His service. It doesn't matter how far I've fallen or how deep a ditch that I have dug for myself. We present ourselves to God by the merits of Jesus Christ saying, "Here I am, Lord… holy and acceptable through Jesus Christ. Forgetting those things that are behind, let me serve You as an accepted child right now.