Are You In The Fire?
God’s people for useful service.
Everything I do and everything I pray,
Is all to worship Christ, so when I obey
I’m Desiring God!
“For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” – Malachi 3:2b
The Lord has a specific manner of preparing His people for useful service. God desires to turn His children from rough, hard-edged stones into gems of gold and silver.
“He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years” (Malachi 3:3-4).
The refiner’s fire can only accomplish its purposes when the HEAT is turned up to extraordinary temperatures. It breaks down the metal in order for it to become moldable and shapeable.
Only when the temperatures reach this level can the work be fully accomplished.
****So it IS in our lives.****
Until the Lord completes His refining process, the offerings we make are not made in righteousness and cannot be acceptable.
Thank God that JESUS is our righteousness and that there is no righteousness apart from Him.
Still, the LORD continues to Purge all that is NOT of His righteousness out of our lives. “YES!!!”
This comes through TRIALS that bring each of us to the end of ourselves in order that He may only reflect that which is Himself.
When God takes you through the refiner’s fire, be encouraged because it is His overriding commitment to turn you from a rough, hard-edged stone to a precious metal.
God will do this through certain events in your workplace, your relationships, and other circumstances in your life. Our job is to AVOID trying to blow out the fire.
Those who seek Jesus, shall find pleasure in him, often when not looked for.
The enemy will do his utmost to dam up your spiritual flow, but if you ask in faith the Lord will remove every hindrance and give you the wisdom necessary to get back in the flow of His Spirit.
Then, you must be sensitive to the Lord’s leading and move with Him in obedience and with a willingness to allow Him to direct your steps. Do not be afraid, for the Lord is with you.
John 14:13 “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
The Lord Jesus, prepares the sinner’s heart to be his temple, by the ministry of his word and the convictions of his Spirit, and he enters it as the Messenger of peace and consolation.
No hypocrite or formalist can endure his doctrine, or stand before his tribunal.
Christ came to distinguish men, to separate between the precious and the vile.
* He shall sit as a Refiner. Christ, by His gospel, shall purify and reform His church, and by His Spirit working with it, shall regenerate and cleanse souls.
* He will take away the dross found in them.
*He will separate their corruption, which render their faculties worthless and useless.
The believer needs not fear the fiery trial of afflictions and temptations, by which the Savior refines his gold.
* He will take care it is not more intense or longer than is needful for his good; and this trial will end far otherwise than that of the wicked.
* Christ will, by interceding for them, make them accepted.
** Where no fear of God is, no good is to be expected.
** Evil pursues sinners.
*God is unchangeable!
And though the sentence against evil works be not executed speedily, yet it will be executed; the Lord is as much an enemy to SIN as ever.
We may all apply this to ourselves. Because we have to do with a God that changes not, therefore it is that we are not consumed; because his compassions fail not.
*Purify me Lord like Silver and Gold. *Help me to be the vessel You’ve purposed me to be.
* May I not disappoint You because You’ve invested a lot in me.
* Help me to see and yield to every purification process.
Thank You Lord.
“And if you give yourself to the hungry,
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then your light will rise in darkness..and
you will be like a watered garden, and
like a spring of water whose waters do
not fail.” Isaiah 58:10-11
For Christ, enduring the mockery of the cross was the essence of his mission. And for a true follower of Christ enduring suffering patiently for the glory of Christ is the essence of obedience.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Matthew 5:11).
David’s trust was in the Lord in Psalms. He said, “…for Thou art with me.” Because God is with you, every adversity you face will unfold in victory as you maintain your faith in God!
David continued, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Ps. 23:5a). The battle you are in will soon become a meal for you, an experience that will nourish and build you up spiritually.
Only God’s peace will quell your fleshly reactions in battle.
** The source of God’s peace is God Himself!!!
Jesus Christ is still the only hope of peace with God and peace with man. And it means that his followers must be willing to “share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”. (Philippians 3:10).
*If fear has been knocking at your door, begin to face that fear with God’s peace. It is God’s Secret Weapon to destroy fear.
Purify me Lord like Silver and Gold. Help me to be the vessel You’ve purposed me to be. May I not disappoint You because You’ve invested a lot in me. Help me to YIELD to EVERY purification process.
Thank You Lord.
Amen