Where
there’s smoke, is there fire?
Over
the last several days I have been repeatedly been listening to and hearing
references to fire and flame. Flames burning out, fire burning in. Flames
burning up, fires burning down. Fire and flame everywhere but nothing actually
scorched. Right now as I write this down I have the very distinct odor of
something burning near me, like I have smoke in my nose, but I don’t, not now
and not earlier. I’ve checked around me and there is no actual fire anywhere, I
even checked outside…nothing, not a whiff of anything anywhere. So the fire I
smell is not the fire of a physical destruction but maybe that of spiritual
destruction or of spiritual renewal or growth, fire of comfort, not the fire of
destruction, the fire of the spiritual nature that seems to mean so much to so
many people.
Why am I experiencing this now, what’s new, what’s
different. What does God mean with this? Listening to how He says something can
be as important as listening to what is being said. And sometimes He sometimes
has to repeat Himself for the message to be understood completely. Much like a
child learning the lesson of the day.
God is showing me the lessons of the fires, the effects
on the flames on myself as well as what they can do outside of me.
The
fire ‘burning in’ me/us is an all-consuming fire that ‘burns up’ what should
not be there in the first place. The fire burning within is the spiritual fire
that has been put there by God in the first place and added to at my request so
that we might be able to see/understand Him and ourselves clearer and deeper
than we would be able to without it. The fire within is meant to burn down
anything that stands between ourselves and the heavenly father and his host,
with the blockages gone, direct access is achievable through direct
communication with God, us to Him and He to us. Unfortunately it is also
possible that the fire within can burn down, through choice or indifference or
lack of use. Anything can happen under the direction of the enemy. That’s why the
fire inside must be fed, stoked as a real fire but not in the physical but
spiritual ways. I/we have to ask for more to get more to keep this fire strong.
Two
different things have been put in my mind around this ‘fire’ that I ‘smell’
right now.
The
first one is for me or you as the case may be, something personal, spoken one
to one.
My
Fire is Your Fire
The
light that I have put in you
is
more than just light for others to see.
In
that light is My fire,
My
fire to set you ablaze,
to
set the world ablaze.
My
fire is your fire,
use it in all things.
The
second message is something meant for the multitude, the church as a whole,
although it can be something for an individual as well. Here the scale is of a
much larger scale that is meant to encompass the entire globe if the fire
remains true to its origins. The title simply means a great fire or a fire on a
grand scale.
Conflagration
I
can see a great huge fire burning everything completely and utterly. We as
Christians are both part of this fire and also igniters of this fire. The fire
is all around us and more importantly, also within us. We should be burning
with this fire, both for our spiritual selves and for God.
As
we burn, sparks are being released from us much like the sparks that come out
of a natural wood fire. These sparks rise up from us and are moved away from us
by God’s breath. A gentle breeze for some, or maybe a roaring wind for others.
These
sparks are sent out and allowed to settle wherever they will. Some will settle
where there is nothing, nothing combustible, nothing to burn. But some of these
sparks will come down into a place that is ready. A person or perhaps a group
of people ready to burn, ready to catch fire for God and with God, and if the
spark is strong enough the new fire will spread, turning into a new fire,
burning with the power of the Lord. Spreading and becoming a new conflagration.
Sending new sparks up and out to new places and new people. Repeating this
cycle over and over until everything that is able to burn will be burning until
the whole earth is alive in the fire of the Lord. And nothing else can survive
but the fire and that which burns in it.
