Pity And The Flame

Casual Christianity is on a course to radically disappear from humanity. Hot or cold love has always been on the Lords agenda, and He has a plan to get us there.

God is creating hardness in His people. Not the kind of hardness that we are warned about in the scriptures, which is the hardening of the heart. This is the hardening of the will in the midst of opposition, so that we will follow the Lamb wherever He goes. This is the creating of a steady strength, that cannot be moved by our circumstances. This is the “toughening-up” of the saints. It is strength-training and conditioning for the future. Those who are called to travel through the days ahead will be strong, as it is said in scripture:

“…but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.…” Dan. 11:32

In one of the “Rocky” movies, the champion got hardened up for the fight, by using his natural surroundings for training, rather than the mechanical means used by his supposed superior opponent. God uses the every day events of our life to strengthen us, harden us, and prepare us for whats ahead. Most of the time, we don’t even know that’s its happening. All He asks is that we submit to the process. Not to run, but to surrender, and to commit to the flame, everything that He puts His finger on. There is usually both a “minus” and a “plus” involved in this process. Things that need to be taken away(minus), and things that need to be added (plus). The fire reveals both these needs. This is the “Valley and the Mountain” principle that Jesus spoke about:

“…prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every Valley shall be filled, and every Mountain and hill shall be brought low…” Lk. 3:4

That is, the things that there are too much of in our life (the mountains), He wants to diminish. The things that there are too little of in our lives (the valleys), He wants to increase. Plus and Minus. He seeks to eliminate the excesses and build up the deficiencies. This is the way of preparation for the Lord to come to you. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path smooth”, is His command. In other words…He is coming, so remove all the resistance of His coming to you. He has sent His Spirit to help us do that.

The Burning Barrel

I had a vision recently while in church one Sunday Morning. I saw a small burning barrel with a flame coming out of it. I did not know what it meant and so asked the Lord to tell me. He said: “submit to the flame”. I knew that the barrel was for the things that God is asking us to throw in the trash for consuming. The lying. The sexual immorality. The anger. The unforgiveness. The accusing finger. The trash talking and any other thing that Jesus would not be doing through us.

No one likes to admit that they have things in their life that need to be burned, but I am convinced that we all have them. He’s not OK with us allowing these things to hang around forever. There is a big difference between being presently at war with our sins, and us learning to tolerate them. Jesus corrected His church, not for having sin and shortcomings, but because they had learned how to tolerate them (Rev. 2:20).

Becoming What We Behold.

There is a principle taught in the scripture that “we become what we behold”. Whatever captures your attention, and you consistently gaze upon, you will become like the thing you are gazing upon. Over time, you will begin to take on the image of that thing you give your focus and attention to. There is a transformation that takes place in the human heart when we give our attention to something over and over again.

If a person dwells upon negative things long enough, they will become negative. If a person looks on the joys in life on a consistent basis, they become joyful. You become what you behold. If you are one who always is out to find what the enemy is doing, you actually become very dark in your appraisal of the world around you. If you are constantly looking for what god is doing, you will be full of light. If you look over and over into the glory of the Lord, into the face of Jesus, you will be changed into His image by that very glory you behold.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is…” 1 John 3:2

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor. 3:18

What we spend our time focusing on matters a great deal. We are not called to spend most of our time reflecting on our sins and shortcomings. We are however called to spend some of our time in godly reflection of our needs. We are not called to spend our life “navel-gazing”, but we are given the opportunity to come before the throne, with Jesus, and fulfill the admonition to judge ourselves that we be not judged.

“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world”. 1 Cor. 11:31-32

Reflection and chastening are not a negative, but a positive from the Lord. Condemnation and self-loathing are a negative from the enemy. We have to know the difference. We have been given the opportunity, along side of Jesus the Wonderful Counselor, to approach the judgment seat that bears His name. With Him we may then take a good hard look at where we are, and what we need to do to align ourselves more perfectly with His will. We will either do this now or later.

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ…” 2 Cor. 5:10

“Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.” 1 Tim. 5:24

Agreement with God, is the desired effect of submission to the judgments of God.

We have been given the opportunity to do now…what others will be doing later on. Appearing before the judgment seat of Christ. We have been given a place of security and comfort to approach the throne, with Jesus, in the righteous position of the cross. In the judgment that we attend, we do not get what we deserve, but what He deserves.

The Whining Dream

I had a dream recently, where I was shown some events in the coming days. In this dream, Some believers were being held captive in what looked to be a concentration camp. Some were making plans to escape so they could do the wondrous works of the Lord. Others had fallen into the snare of nearly perpetual whining and complaining. I don’t know that this captivity was meant to be taken literally, but it does make for a poignant picture of how we process our environment.

We are held captive by our gazings, how we perceive our situation, and our response to them. Some in the dream saw their difficult condition as an opportunity to thrive and to conquer. Others saw it as hopeless and unfair. How they perceived their situation, created the way they responded to it. Some were planning to move ahead, others were lying on the ground moaning and groaning. Some were a sweet perfume, and some a bitter odor.

At one point, I actually stepped directly over one of these believers, who was lying on the ground and whining about how hard things were. I straddled them and bent over and said with a loud voice: “STOP WHINING!” This startled them out of their complacent moanings, and arrested their senses so they could rise up and embrace the challenges set before them. Sometimes we just need a good wake up call, that’s all.

Pity

Whining and complaining is a manifestation of self pity. It is a testimony that we are not trusting the Lord in our current circumstances. Sometimes we feel that we have the right to complain if things are bad enough. We take a strange kind of comfort from it, and the sympathy we get from others while doing it. When we complain, we are saying to God, that He does not have a good firm grasp on us. Not to mention that much of the time the problems that we are facing, are ones that we have created for ourselves. When complaining we are, in fact, blaming God for them.

Pity is dangerous. It opens a gateway to the enemy to access our lives and increases the very thing we are verbalizing. Self pity leads to whining and complaining, then creates more despondence, bitterness, and the casting off of restraint. This arises from a lack of seeing our situation from Gods perspective or “vision”, and seeing it from our own. A lack of proper perspective, which is God’s vision of your circumstances, creates a casting off of faith and hope and trust. As the scripture states:

“Where there is no revelation (vision), the people cast off restraint (perish)…” Pr. 29:18

The children of Israel were kept from their destiny largely because of there opening an access point to the enemy through complaining. This came from their unbelief. They saw their position from a human natural perspective. They could see the land, but were separated from it because of their current circumstances. It was just too hard. So they stated how hard and impossible it was, over and over, first among themselves and then to everyone else. Until it finally did become impossible for them to enter into their promise.

Their unbelief and complaints led to the disannulling of not only their destiny, but the destiny of millions of other hopeful desert wanderers. However, God was not just upset at their lack of thankfulness. He was angry that the ones he loved were going to be kept from the destiny that He had designed for them.

The desert is a hard place and people are challenged in what they believe. We need to be the voice of hope to them and not the voice of discouragement. The children of Israel probably did not expect that their complaining would have such a dramatic affect, but it did. What we think, say, and do dramatically affects others. Pity disrupts the working of God in our lives as we go through difficult circumstances.

Thankfulness kills pity.

Whining opens a door or gateway to the enemy. It creates something that we don’t want. It is a luxury we cannot afford. If we humble ourselves before the Lord, He will correct us. Rebukes, correction, and Divine woundings are all a gift from the Lord, and evidence that He is loves you:

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” Rev. 3:19

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” Pr. 27:6

The Lord is our great and faithful Friend. He is a loving Father. He is coming to bring the needed correction in our lives, so that we will be better prepared for the days ahead.

The Flame

No one likes to see their stuff burn. When we have a house fire our first reaction is to run in and save all we can. It is normal to want to protect the things that are a part of us. God however is not interested in keeping us the same, but changing us into the image of His Son. He will burn up everything that hinders our love for Him. When we ask God to “consume us with the fire of Your Love”, we really don’t know what we are asking for! That’s probably a good thing because if we did, we would probably stop asking. He is determined to consume us. Everything that not built on the Christ, will not remain forever. God is going to see to it that everything that can be shaken (removed and destroyed) will be shaken. Ultimately, everything that is not of Him will perish. We have, weather we realize it or not, entered into that process already, on this side of heaven.

The process of the fire has already begun in your life;

“…but each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work…” 1 Cor. 3:10-13

Trouble reveals what is really inside of us. The way we respond in difficulty, which is the fires of testing, is the true measure of what needs to go into the fire. This is a form of the judgments of the Lord which are actually to be desired, not just put up with;

“…the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether…more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold…” Psalm 19:9-10

No one likes to think that they have stuff that needs to be burned. We all like to think that when we stand before the King, that everything…or at least most of what is in my life…will last. After all, I have built my life upon Christ! All of us however, have things that need to go in the burning barrel of God. We just don’t usually see them too clearly. He will help us with that.

There is a trying of fire, a shaking, that is happening right now, and will culminate at the day of the final judgment of God. We have the opportunity to submit to this fire of testing that removes, right now. He loves us enough that He will allow the fire to come to our lives wether we ask for it or not. It is however, always better to ask Him for His judgements in our life, and then to work in cooperation with what He is doing. He is burning off the things that keep you from being near to Him. That is what we say we want, and He has taken us at our word. Submit to the process. Submit your life to the flame. Let God burn off the parts that are not of Him, and keep the parts that are. Only the eternal will abide eternally. Only what God does will last forever.

So let the Lord harden you. Don’t pity the flame. Put pity in the flame. Let God consume everything. Submit to the divine process. Let the kind of love, that cannot be overwhelmed by the waters and floods of trouble, begin to come forth in you.

“…many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it…” Song of Songs 8:6

by Jim Moore