Editions

Edition 265. June 24^th 2015

The refiner’s fire:

The refiner’s fire:

Jeremiah 20:9 “His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones...”

Jeremiah 23:29 “’Is not My word like a fire?’ says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.”

Introduction:

Our Lord’s eyes are a “flame of fire” and His voice is a two-edged sword. You can’t remove the fire or the cutting of the sword! If you surrender in humility to our Lord and His work, it will work wonders for you and you will be most fortunate.

Have you been washed with the fire of God? Is your life giving off the “smoke” of God’s fiery dealings in your life? Is your life an aroma rising from the ashes of our Lord’s skilful dealings in you? Is your life the exchange of “ashes for beauty?” (Isaiah 61:1-3)

Weight lifting builds muscles. Spiritually, dealing with opposition, builds spiritual strength.

Because we live in a world where we have a lot of opposition, you can make it work for you or against you. Unfortunately very few apply the right principles to make it work for them.

Today and especially in coming days, pressures are increasing everywhere. People are falling under the power of stress, fatigue, and burn-out and the intense weight and guilt of sin and evil in their lives.

Suicide is increasing and in the coming days, will increase more.

Believers are not excluded from pressure and in many cases will have to endure more pressures than others simply because they are born of God.

But pressures can be a good friend!

The two-edged sword:

 

Sword making:●The bladesmith first sits down and plans the sword with exact measurements. ●He forms the blade in a fiery forge in a masterly manner. ●He uses the heat to draw out and shape the steel. ●He uses an anvil and hardened hammers to beat the sword into shape. ●Then he applies sharpening tools to the edges. ●Chisels are used to cut or gouge the steel. ●Punches are used to make holes in the sword. ●The skilful bladesmith also uses files, a vice, a press, a torch and drills. ●Finally, gentle polishing tools are used.

At the end of this process, a beautiful skilfully made, deadly work of art is the end result.

Our Lord is forming you into a two-edged sword.  It is only once He has prepared you, are you ready for battle. Do you see what great effort is used to make a sword of His glory – beautiful and yet deadly?

The two-sided sword cuts both ways. It cuts and separates between what is good and right and cuts out what is sinful, wrong and evil. It is also a deadly dagger that kills an enemy with one thrust.

The two-edged sword that we are to be is a result of His workmanship. We are His representatives. God the Father transferred all judgement to the Son (John 5:22), and He transferred it to the word (John 12:46-48), and it transfers judgement to us (2 Corinthians 2:15). We are to use the sword of His Spirit and word as He directs.

It is only as we walk in and dwell in the Spirit and are led by the Spirit of God that our swordsmanship becomes effective in dealing with ourselves and others.

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two edged-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and joints and marrow (flesh) and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Psalm 149:6 “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand...this honour have all His saints.”

Isaiah 49:2 “He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, and made Me a polished arrow; in His quiver He has hidden Me.”

The two-edged sword of God’s word in our hearts has a primary duty of cutting and separating between the soul, spirit and flesh. Regular readers would know that I have stressed a thousand times the big difference between soul, spirit and body and the verses that apply to each.

But have a look at the very important addition to the list in Hebrews 4:12 above. The sword of God’s word and Spirit operating in us, also cuts into our thought life. You can control your thoughts. You can cut out bad thoughts. You can think on the things of God. Your thoughts are a choice!

Without this correct division, you will not be successful in your walk.

The use of fire:

The fire and the sword both have one huge big purpose for the believer. It is to separate, burn out and get rid of all mixture in our lives. Mixture with the world, mixture with false doctrine and beliefs, mixture with the occult, and mixture with right and wrong are just some of the things that will prevent you from walking in the Spirit successfully.

If you are not walking in the Spirit you will not encounter the deep things of God. Even the promises of God will not work for you.

Galatians 5:16, 25 “Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh...If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Note the use of fire by the bladesmith to produce the two-edged sword. Nothing will work out properly if there is no fire.

The horrific condemnation of our Lord against the church of Laodicea includes this rebuke: “You say you are rich have become wealthy and have need of nothing, but you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in fire, that you may be rich, clothed in white garments that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed...” (Revelation 3:17-18).

Today we have a church with the fire removed. The fire has been put out and the swords of their mouths are blunt and useless.

Much of the church has extinguished its own fire.

Right now in front of our faces, the Christian world is undergoing a terrible metamorphosis of monumental proportions led by its leaders. Multitudes are falling away. Some say that we will soon see the church become extinct in the Middle East.

The Spirit-less denominational churches have become an abomination. The more I see and hear about the comments of their leaders from Justin Welby to Francis to most others, the more I want nothing at all to do with them.

Conversely, and thankfully, there are more and more ministers of the Spirit-filled churches upholding the cross, preaching the full fiery gospel. Some who were into certain excesses are returning to the full truth. I’ve heard some well-known flashy preachers recently speak on some of the very non-flashy, fiery old-school truths.

Today we have far too many churches and believers who are after fuzzy-wuzzy, nice lovey-dovey feelings. To get this they must centre on a few selected verses and get rid of the fiery, cutting verses.

If you try to mix truth and error you will be brought down to the great common denominator of equality with Satan and his world-religion and its evil universalism.

►Jerusalem Post article: “Any interpretation of the Bible which results in a conclusion contrary to the basic tenant of love is necessarily wrong. God loves gays.”

The above quote is deeply dangerous, tragic and very important. It’s a far-reaching lie of the devil. It sounds very reasonable, as so much from the devil does.

Biblical love is a fruit of the Spirit. The fruit must never rise above the Spirit of truth. If you remove the Spirit from love, you have the devils counterfeit version of love, which has no discipline or correction in it. Love must include the major ingredient of truth otherwise it is becomes humanistic and deadly!

The Bible declares that love without correction and discipline is actually hatred!

God’s love is worlds apart from Satan’s deadly, evil, love! Bear in mind that Satan loves you and wants you! He will use love, but be careful it is love with the fire removed! It is love with no two-edged sword, except to cut out and remove God’s word.

The doctrine of the world’s church is all-accommodating, all-encompassing, all-inclusive, virtue-less and mixed with multitudes of opinions and values. It embraces all faiths in the name of love. It embraces sin, error and evil. It rejects the old -school doctrines of the Bible and the virtues it creates.

If you quench or remove the fire of God, you will be left wide open to and exposed to the fire of hell. If you reject God’s fire, the world will burn you mercilessly.

The reason so many Christians are failures is because they have a half-baked, one-sided gospel in their hearts.  They have removed the severity! “Consider both the goodness and severity of God.” (Romans 11:22)

The living tragedy:

Brokenness is a glorious, wonderful, godly principle. As we yield in broken surrender to our Lord, He fills us with His goodness, strength and life. But be aware, brokenness has another side to it.

If you allow yourself to be broken open in surrender to ungodly forces, they too will fill you with their garbage, keeping the great things of God out of your life. Truth and the very life of God will leak out of you!

Jeremiah 2:13 “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewn for themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Ezekiel 22:26-28 “Her (Israel’s) priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and the unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them...Her prophets have plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord’, when the Lord has not spoken.’”

Ezekiel 13:10-12 “Israel’s prophets have seduced My people, saying ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace. They build a boundary wall of untempered mortar...it will fall when the flooding rain and great hailstones fall, and the storms shall tear it down.”

The term “untempered mortar” refers to clay that has not been brought to a proper consistency. The mix is wrong and it will break up or peel off when it’s dry and the storms come.

This really is amazing! In the verses above we have “broken cisterns” (pots) and “untempered mortar” (clay with an incorrect mix). The pots can’t hold water and the mortar collapses in the storms.

Do you see the tragic meaning and symbolism?

We must be broken and humble to our Lord, but we dare not be broken in the face of the devil. We must be impenetrable to the devil his demons, the forces of the world and all evil.

The storms are not coming they are here! Can you stand in the storms? Are the walls of your salvation secured? Can you hold the water of God’s Spirit in you without it leaking out of cracks? Are you strong in Him and fortified against the devil?

That’s so funny God!

In the tribulation period we see people scorched with great heat and other judgements. Instead of repenting, they turn on God and blaspheme His name (Revelation 16:9).

Here is the shocking, politically incorrect response from God:

Proverbs 1:25-27 “Because you have disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes. When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.”

How amazing is that? Would you like to be on the receiving end of God’s mocking and laughter when you are in great agony, stress, and suffering? It doesn’t fit with all our notions of who God is.

But it’s right there. These people had the word of God in front of their faces all their lives and they refused it. They had millions of opportunities to repent, but they refused. And now they turn on God and blaspheme Him!

These are the masses in the tribulation period who mock God. But it is equally applicable right now to all who mock God by rejecting His word and ways.

Do you know what this all says to me? Don’t mock God! Don’t mess with the King of the universe! Don’t be an arrogant turkey all your life! But some will. Just look at this tragic verse:

Revelation 22:11 “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy let him be holy still.”

Building your life God’s way:

1 Kings 3:9 Solomon asks: “Give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil...”

1 Kings 6:7 “The temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.”

When you have to get something cut out of you, you squeal. When you get burnt, you squeal. It’s okay to squeal and scream, but you’re no good to God in that process. You must allow God to do His great work in you first before you become effective in His service.

1 Peter 1:6-7 “In this you greatly rejoice...that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise honour, and glory at the revelation of Yeshua the Messiah.”

Psalm 66:10 “You O God have proved us; You have refined us as silver is refined.”

Where is the fire today? If there is no fire in your church, you can still ignite it in your life on your own.

Dealing with tragedy:

For us there are many situation that we can choose to go to which will help us build our spiritual lives. But there are also many situations that come to us whether we like it or not, which we can use in the same way to build us up spiritually.

It all depends on our attitude to the troubles we face.

I recently experienced the death of one of my champion, superstar Red Setter dogs. Because I’m a happy bachelor, my dogs, especially these ones, are like family to me. They are super-intelligent, loving and would give their lives for their owners without thinking twice. Well, my top-hound, Zarah died suddenly on Passover.

It left me shattered. There were other things involved in terms of messages from my Lord, but I was left with a choice. I could accept it and move on, or blame God. For me it was a fiery trial, but at the same time I decided to turn in greater surrender to my Lord. Pretty soon I was moving on, but now I had some powerful messages from God, which I will share at the appropriate time.

Make your thoughts a clean sanctuary. They are the internal decorations of your life. They lead to your actions. You can change your thoughts. It comes by choice. Do you know that stress is a choice?

I have just seen a friend of mine, a believer for many years, surrender to the pressures of stress. She placed herself under the council of secular psychologists, rejecting the council of God and has landed up suicidal, in mental home.

If you or others you may know want or need council for almost any problem in these days, have a look at the following two editions:

●Edition 83 entitled “Counselling believers in perilous times.” Click HERE

●Edition 104 entitled “Turning curses into blessings.” Click HERE

Israel refined for God:

Zechariah 13:9 “I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘this is My people; and each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

Our duty as believers, refined in the fire is to warn Israel of her coming fiery trials! Our duty is to know the prophetic word very well, and to spell it out. Our duty is to declare to Israel what God’s plans and purposes are for her and to present to her the ultimate glorious victory.

Our duty is to stand in the gap for Israel, to know and identify her enemies, even in the church in these days. We are to speak warning, correction and comfort to Israel.

Final thoughts:

Matthew 3:11 “I indeed baptise you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, who’s sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

We are being prepared for a time such as this. But we are also being prepared for a time that lies ahead. Please remember the “many” and “few” of the Bible! In a dozen places we see the “many” falling away and missing the mark and the “few” staying on track.

Have you been washed with fire?

I took this picture hanging out of a chopper high above the Amphitheatre in the Drakensberg Mountains.

Shalom and grow in grace!