Being surrounded by fire is a grand experience if it’s the fire of the Holy Spirit falling upon us, or what the Israelite’s experienced when fleeing captivity from Egypt and being led to freedom by “a pillar of fire at night.” But when it’s a destructive fire that is burning homes, forests, businesses, national parks, and people it’s altogether different.
Here in Washoe Valley, Nevada we are experiencing fires burning all around us: to the North, the South, the East and the West. The smoke from the fires burning in NV and bordering California has been blanketing our valley for days, with no relief in sight. We are right in the center of devastation all around us, with the ozone level a constant reminder day and night.
It has led me to reflect on the parallelism with what anyone of us could be going through. The destruction of the fires all around us, smoke announcing defeat, and how we have been feeling surrounded, and chocked out by the numerous things that have been attacking our bodies, for example. Feeling consumed on every side, with one malady after another, from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet – literally. Coming from all directions and effectively depleting strength, zeal, and an adventurous spirit. It becomes a firestorm of sorts. One creating a mindset that sometimes screams that it is too much to bear. Like the fire fighters engulfed in smoke, and at the same time realizing the great loss.
You may be in the heat of things that are making you feel suffocated, and causing alarm, distress, fear, doubt, and wondering where God is. If so, let’s look at some of the good things from the Word of God that fire can bring – besides destruction – and see what Jesus is trying to show us in the midst of it:
The Israelite’s fleeing captivity with a pillar of fire by night – which equates to divine intervention! The fire that was needed to offer their sacrifices to God – is a picture of the opportunity we have today to offer our own bodies as a living sacrifice, and the fire of God consumes us in a good way! Moses getting revelation from Almighty God in a burning bush – showing us how He desires us to know Him (and burn with fire for Him)! Elijah taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepping out of a flaming furnace unharmed – the same fire that was meant to kill them was in fact opportunity for a great testimony to Nebuchadnezzar! And finally, in the New Testament, Holy Spirit coming down with fire to anoint the disciples. The same Fire that He wants to anoint us with! I’ll take fire any ole day with these kinds of results. How about you?
Just like the Israelite’s we could easily look inward and want to give up. Too many harmful fires – making us want to be taken up in a fiery chariot , and in actuality, becoming like Elijah when he sat under the tree and told God to take his life because he couldn’t take life any longer, and adding that he is no better than his ancestors. Sitting under that very same tree we also are telling God, in so many words, that we don’t want to stay here any longer because we don’t think we can take it! Thinking, “God doesn’t need me take in that role, be this mother (or father), to do this ministry, be on this earth. He can do it without me!” That is very true, but not when it’s coming from destructive fires that are tying to suffocate and leave us in despair.
The Israelite’s were led out of captivity by fire that was meant to bring life. Our Father wants us to know that there is destruction all around us, that we are in the center of it, but He is the Firewall, and He wants to lead us to life…the life that we will not know about until we trust him completely with it.
If we go so far as to say that we do not choose the life we are coming in to agreement with Satan. The one who is out to rob, to kill, and to destroy! We are lighting our own fires!
We must repent, ask for God to forgive us, invite Jesus in to the fiery furnace so that we can testify that we are walking out with him – and without even the slightest singe! When we confess we lay our life on the altar to become a living sacrifice, in that area of our life. There we repose, experiencing the Fire that brings purification, sanctification and freedom! That is what is needed today more than ever: Living sacrifices! No matter the terror or the doubt. Surrounded, not by the smoke of destruction, but by the smoke from our “living sacrifices” (Rom.12:1)
“ If you are walking in darkness without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God. But watch out, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves by your own fires: You will soon lie down in great torment” (Isa.50:11).