Walk through the Fire!

Dictionary.com defines fire as a state, process, or instance of combustion in which fuel or other material is ignited and combined with oxygen, giving off light, heat, and flame. One of your very first lessons as a child was most likely to stay away from fire so you wouldn’t get burned.  It’s a common sense thing, right? Of course! But let’s see what happens when you go back and read that definition through your spiritual eye. Now look at your life right now. Are you in the midst of a fire?  Are you at a point in your life where some things in you need to or are being burned away? You are in the fire. Has your worship been stale and you’ve lost your zeal but now God is pressing you to give more? You are in the fire. Are you struggling in key aspects of your life…family, finances, your mind but yet people continue to come to you for help? You are in the fire. This morning, God said to me, “Walk through the fire.” My first thought in response to that was the difficulty of that instruction. Fire burns and it destroys. How do you walk through that and survive? God immediately responded and reminded me that it also purifies. So here goes, folks! We are going to walk through the fire!

There are certain materials that are perfected and made stronger through fire…silver, gold, even glass in some instances.  So that leads me to believe that if we are using the right weapons and living the right way while we are in the midst of our fire that we can survive the heat, right?  1 Corinthians 3: 11 -15 says, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.  Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.” (NLT) How we survive is based on how we live in relationship with Christ. He is the foundation of everything so if you are using things of value in your life then even if it’s just barely, you will survive. In the end, what is not like God will be burned away and what is will survive. Is your life producing the kind of fruit that will survive the burning? To show the love of Christ, to worship, to obey, and to live according to His will allows you to walk through even the hottest fire and survive. Walk on through that fire!

Imagine you are asleep in your bed and you hear a big crash. You wake up and see flames shooting under your bedroom door. You begin to panic and jump up looking for a way out. Your windows seem to be stuck and even so your room is on the 2nd floor. You start to worry about your family but remember that you are alone in the house. Then you start to worry that no one will come to rescue you. You call for help and are told that they are on the way but to cover your mouth and try to get out. The flames just keep coming and it’s getting hotter and hotter. You keep working on the windows but you are growing tired and overwhelmed by smoke and there are moments that you want to give up. You start to really struggle to breathe and the flames are blocking all of your ways out. Just as the smoke overtakes you and you start to pass out, you hear someone calling out for you. The voice says to crawl towards his voice because there’s something blocking him from getting to you. You crawl towards the voice with what little strength you have and reach the firefighter. He lifts you up and carries you to safety. As you look back at your house, it burns completely until finally only the foundation remains. You rejoice that even though you have lost some physical things and are tired, bruised, and smoky, you survived.

Sometimes you are placed in the midst of situations that only you and God have to work through. Hebrews 12:29 says “For our God is a consuming fire.” (NKJV) This description comes at the end of a chapter that talks about being disciplined by God and listening to His instruction. In order to receive that unshakeable Kingdom that Hebrews 12:28 talks about, we have to go through the fire. It’s a consuming and refining fire. Just like in the image I gave earlier, you may be at a place where some things have to burn in your life in order for your true light to shine. When the situation gets hard, you may want to give up. Often times the tests gets harder and harder before it gets better but if you walk towards the voice of Christ, He will rescue you just in time. So here’s the question.  Are you willing to follow His instruction for rescue? Walk on through that fire!

The definition reminds us that fire is a process or a state of combustion where oxygen and fuel or materials combine to produce heat, flame and light. Remind yourself that it’s a process. But once you finish with the process, there will be production. There will be a new level. There will be a brighter light. There will be stronger zeal for God. Don’t sit in the middle of your fire, waiting on it to destroy you. Instead, walk through this fiery season towards your victory. Remember that even in the fire, Christ is there monitoring and working. Malachi 3:3 says “And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”  You will survive. Just keep walking…

AMEN