2 Chronicles 7:3 – “When all the Israelites saw the fire come down and the Lord’s splendor over the temple, they got on their knees with their faces downward toward the pavement.  They worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “Certainly he is good; certainly his loyal love endures!”

Good Morning!   I am Longing for His Fire!   This generation has not seen the FIRE of God.  Many of those who have are growing weary, and some are seeking to blend and assimilate into the modern culture that has infected the church.  What is the answer?

Prayer, total surrender, and persistence are vital, but something leaped off the page in 2 Chronicles 7:3.  “When all the Israelites saw the fire come down and the LORD’S splendor over the temple, they got down on their knees with their faces downward to the pavement.”   Daniel 7:10 speaks of a “River of Fire flowing out from the Father’s Throne.” The Fire of God!

The awesome presence of God is needed today!  We don’t need more or new programs.  We need the FIRE of God!  

• The conditions God identified to Solomon (vv. 12-15) are prevalent today.  
• The conditions of Noah’s day are visible today.
• The conditions Paul, Peter, and James identified as characteristics of the Last Days are visible today.

What do we do?  What did we need?  We need intercessory prayer, repentance, restoration, renewal, and revival that can only come through God’s FIRE!  The FIRE that purges out the dross.  The FIRE that awes!  The FIRE that transforms!  In those verses, God gave the solution, the remedy, and the pathway to victory.

“IF” That’s the key, the catalyst, or the entryway.  “IF My people…”  It is not a change by the unbelievers that sets the revival and restoration in motion; that is secondary.  It is God’s people, those who profess Him, who do several things: they humble themselves, not being humbled, but humbling themselves.  Then, in that state of humility, surrender with Prayer to God.

• Praying with a Seeking Heart.
• Seeking to please God.  Seeking to manifest Christ in everything.
• Seeking to have the Living Christ manifest in every detail of life.

It’s not just praying a prayer but praying from a particular condition that brings about God’s result.  In that state, we are to repudiate (renounce, reject, and turn from) our sinful practices and our lack of diligence and commitment.  It is then that God gives His promise of forgiveness, healing, and restoration.  It is in that condition that we can expect the FIRE to fall.

LORD, send the Fire of God!

Daniel 2:25-28 – “So Arioch quickly ushered Daniel into the king’s presence, saying to him, “I have found a man from the captives of Judah who can make known the interpretation to the king.” ²⁶ The king then asked Daniel (whose name was also Belteshazzar), “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I saw, as well as its interpretation?” ²⁷ Daniel replied to the king, “The mystery that the king is asking about is such that no wise men, astrologers, magicians, or diviners can possibly disclose it to the king.  ²⁸ However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the times to come.”

As I read, prayed, and meditated on the Word of God today, the events of the first chapters of Daniel caught my attention in a new way.  God’s incredible patience is stunning and not fully appreciated.

Daniel manifested who he was and determined to be faithful to his faith and his God.   That is step one in victory.  If we are not willing to die for our faith, it will be shaken at some point.   (Hananiah, Michael, Azariah).

In Daniel 2, the king has a dream and issues an unreasonable demand.  It was humanly impossible to fulfill.  (Dan 2:1-9).  That was by design; God was opening the door for Daniel to manifest Him.

The king asked Daniel, “Can you interpret?” Daniel’s answer was, “There is a God in heaven who…”   That’s it – God is!  That was Daniel’s rock, God is.  That’s our rock; God is.  If God is, we are!

God gave the king three chances (warnings).  He was unchanged, although momentarily moved.  He reverted to pride and forgot the miracle and revelation.  How many are moved by the moment but not transformed?

Daniel 4:28 has an interesting declaration.  “All this reached Nebuchadnezzar, the king.” All the revelations, miracles, warnings, and manifestations moved him momentarily, but didn’t stick.  Only after the season of judgment did he truly repent.  The long suffering of God is incredible, not inexhaustible.

In Revelation 3:20, Jesus gives the timeless, limitless invitation that echoes John 3:16.  The transformed heart opens the door to everything.

Revelation 5:10 gripped my heart.   Those who receive Jesus, the blood-bought Jesus, has made (now the tense) a kingdom and priests.  Not a kingdom of priests but a kingdom and priests.  A culture and a function.  AND they will reign upon the earth.  Not in heaven!  Not someday in the sky, but on the earth.  Kingdoms have kings, and kings have delegated representatives and magistrates.  We have authority by virtue of blood.  It’s time to exercise it.

LORD, help us always to be conscious of the reality that There Is a God in Heaven Who Can!

Ezekiel 34:31 – “And you, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are my people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word of God today, shepherds and sheep filled my consciousness.  In Ezekiel 34:31, God issued a powerful reminder we need.  “As for you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, you are men, and I am your God, declares Lord Yahweh.”   

Isn’t that obvious?   If it were, God would not have issued this reminder.  This is a reminder of our mortality, finiteness, and dependency.  We neglect that vision to our own hurt, bringing needless struggle to our lives.  We depend on God totally, yet we must do the work set before us.  We are not to sit around waiting for God to do it all.   We hear, we heed, we do.

True repentance is seen in Ezekiel 33:14, “turn from sin and do justice and righteousness.”   In Ezekiel 36:17, we realize that we can be defiled by our chosen lifestyle.

In Ezekiel 34:2-4, we see the sleeping church lulled to sleep by false shepherds.  Religious form but no power.  When did we decide to accept form without power?  Why did we settle for flying coach with a first-class ticket?

In Ezekiel 34:11, we get a glimpse of God’s next move.  He is about to take over!  The dry bones are about to come to life.  The dry church members are about to be reenergized and released.  The Holy Spirit makes us alive (Ezekiel 37:14).  The explosion of release is upon us.  Listen for the sound and be ready.  It will be a time of get-in, get-out, or get-run-over!

In Ezekiel’s vision, a wall separated the Holy and the Profane.  That wall in the Last Days is Jesus!  The Cross separates the pure and impure.

We want to be those who receive a ‘full reward.’ (2 John 8) We want to be those who embrace the key of life in the Kingdom as revealed in 3 John 2.  Soul prosperity flows out to physical and material prosperity.  Don’t be afraid to prosper.  Be afraid of false prosperity produced by and focused on the flesh.  If the heart is right, the head is right, and the hand is right.

Lord, help us give you our hearts so you can transform our lives and enable us to be harvesters rather than hoarders.   Help us to be, not just appear to be.  Help us to have the power, not just the picture.

LORD help us to become Sheep of Your Pasture and follow You!

1 John 3:8 – “The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.  For this purpose, the Son of God was revealed: to destroy the works of the devil.”

As I read, prayed, and mused on the Word of God today, a thought kept tugging at the strings of my heart.   Like the song, “Something got a hold of my life, and it won’t let me go.” This thought persisted.

I John 3:8b – “The Son of God was manifested for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”  Wait, I thought Jesus came to save mankind.   He did, but more as well!

One of, if not the embodiment of all the works of the devil, is sin.  Notice it says “works,” not “work.”  Jesus came to defeat the devil and restore man to his rightfully intended place, position, condition, and relationship.  The works of the devil are visible in the actions of people.

• The work of God is love!  The work of the devil is hate!  
• The work of God is trust.  The work of the devil is distrust.
• The work of God is obedience.  The work of the devil is disobedience.
• The work of God is total health (body, soul, and spirit).  The work of the devil is sickness (body, soul, and spirit).
• The work of God is life.  The work of the devil is death.

Jesus came to give us life, and the life He offers is abundant.  If Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and our commission is to do the works He did, is not our purpose to destroy the devil’s works, too?

One of the primary ways (other than the Cross) in which Jesus destroyed the works of the devil was through love and obedience.   Jesus lived in total obedience to the Father. Jesus loved everyone.  Do we manifest Him?  Unless we manifest Him, we cannot destroy the works of the devil.   If we manifest Him by our lives, we destroy the works of the devil.  Our lives become spiritual magnets, drawing people to the light.

In every action, thought, and word, we should ask, “Is this a manifestation of Jesus?”  Our ambition should be to manifest Him in our lives.   Only a totally surrendered life can manifest Jesus.   To be like Him as He is, in this world, we have to die to self.   Are we dead?  Are we alive?  What do our thoughts, words, and deeds say about us?  What do they say about Him?  Are we destroying the works of the devil, or working with the devil through a lack of love and disobedience?

Have a blessed day, and keep looking up. Our redemption is nearer than when we believed.

Psalm 46:1-3 – “God is our strong refuge; he is truly our helper in times of trouble.  ² For this reason we do not fear when the earth shakes, and the mountains tumble into the depths of the sea, ³ when its waves crash and foam, and the mountains shake before the surging sea.”

In Psalm 46:1-3, something encouraging exploded in my heart: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

The word ‘Trouble’ in Hebrew means to be restricted or tied up in a narrow, cramped place.  Most of us are familiar with that address.   You’ve heard the saying, “Between a rock and a hard place.”  That applies to life and is the subject of Psalm 46.

The Psalmist identified several places or conditions in which God desires to replace Stress with His Perfect Peace.

• Natural Calamities – – Psalm 46:1-3.  When those come, the natural reaction is Fear, but for the one Trusting in God, the reaction is, or will become, “I Will Not Fear!” 
• Civil Disturbance – – Psalm 46:4-7.  The city was under attack, and the natural reaction was PANIC, but for the one Trusting in God, the reaction is or will become, “GOD IS IN THE MIDST OF HER; SHE WILL NOT BE MOVED.”
• Post Battle Fatigue – – Psalm 46:8-11.  At that moment when it would be easy to give up or go into hiding, the attitude of the person Trusting in God is to declare that we will “cease striving and know that God is God so.”    Therefore, “I Will Not Strive.”

God is our “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” or He desires to be.  The question is, “Is He?”   Is He to us!   The Bible offers numerous promises to encourage us.  Isaiah 41:10; 2 Timothy 1:7, Joshua 1:9; Psalm 27:1; 10.    The Old Gospel Hymn, “I Shall Not Be Moved,” can be a powerful testimony or an admission of resistance to God.  

The late Elvis Presley made the song “All Shook Up” a popular hit.   Elvis was born dirt-poor in a small Mississippi town.  He had little encouragement and almost no marketable skills.  At eighteen, earning $14 per week as a truck driver, he made a recording on a lark and became the highest-paid male entertainer in America.  Shortly before Elvis died, he said, “I would give a million dollars for one week of normal life and peace.”   The only cure for stress is God!

In Psalm 46:10, the Psalmist declared, “Cease Striving and know that I am God!”   The word “cease” means “relax.”   Stress will ultimately prevail unless we learn how to “cast all our care on the Lord.”

Several things stood out as I read this Psalm:

• God’s Strength Is Immediately Available.
• God’s Power Is Overpowering.
• God’s Power Is Not Dependent on Our Ability.

We are weak, but He is Strong, and His strength becomes our strength when we acknowledge our weakness and our need for Him.   No matter what you are facing – God is still God!   No matter how dark the night is – God is Still Light!    He is the same past, present, and future!   We can trust Him!   

Make this declaration – “Stress, you are not welcome here!”   Have a fantastic day!