God's Fire

What's your nickname?  Someone branded me with the name -"First Lady of Fire", while I was a Bible school teacher in Tampa, Florida.  I was honored.  I knew that she labeled me that way because I had a fiery message, was passionate, and spoke often about revival fire.

I love revival, and felt honored that she and others felt that way.  I told people to  "hunger for the fire, yield to the fire, live in the fire".  Now, a few years have gone by, and I am learning more about the fire of God.  

Is it fun?  I don't know that I would describe any kind of fire as fun, even if you are an adrenaline junky.  

Fire is the chosen symbol of heaven for passion.  God is love; God is fire.  The two are one.  The Holy Spirit baptizes in fire, Spirit-filled souls are ablaze for God.

In my last blog, I spoke about the potter (God) and the clay (us).  This is a bit of continuation.  

In Bible days true potters knew how to set the temperature level to perfectly control the firing process for a beautiful piece of pottery.   His eyes never left the clay in the fire.  The purpose of fire was not to destroy, but to produce something exceptionally beautiful and useful.  Only after you've passed through the fire are you ready to serve.

When we blow it, we resent being thrown back into the fire.  However, we must face the same fiery trial that broke us in the first place.  When we speak of fire, we are partially talking about a fire of choice, that only committed disciples ever know.  We choose to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, the footsteps of love, humility, submission, and obedience.  It is voluntary suffering that unleashes divine power.

Most want comfort zones and security, without fire.  The man or woman who serves God with passion decides to swim upstream.  He feels a divine pull and chooses to suffer with the people of God.  This kind of fire produces durability.  The greatest glory of God comes out of the greatest furnaces of affliction.

The fire of God only serves to strengthen & make durable the vessel of clay.  It takes a big fire to test some, while others crack early.  Peter never thought he would crack and told the Lord that he would die with Him, but never deny Him.  However, a fiery test was on the way, and his vessel cracked at a simple courtyard fire.  The blood was applied, Peter was forgiven and the crack was healed.  He would again be tried in a fire of testing.  The holding power of the blood would be exposed in the heat of the furnace.

God’s testing will usually be out of our perceived strengths because to test a weakenss proves nothing.  Every strength will be proved in the fire.  The harvest needs seasoned warriors.  A refining process takes place in the fires of life.  We have usabiity and serivce awarded if we withstand the heat of life.

There are no shortcuts to fruitful ministry.  We’re all perfected by adversity.  At some point each of us have cracked in the fire.  You know the place:  Where actions & speech defy interpretations.  We must allow The Potter to take Blood of Lamb  and put us back into the fire.  Then He will finally prove our faithfulness and endurance.

The blood of Christ is sufficient to withstand the fire thousands of times.   He’s faithful.  We must be proven faithful in Him.