When the demands of the Son of God land on us we have choices. The timing, circumstance and situation may be ripe for divine glory to unfold. Yet, we can and "do" say "no". The rich young ruler reveals God's willingness to let us walk away. In the mystery of Christ, the Father is painting in the hearts, mind, soul and wills of humanity a redemptive story. We are a core part; a page of that story. We are a family that lives the testimony of worship and relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit. that is who we are together.
Yet each of us will face the blazing doorway of the Son of God.
Do blazing Son moments matter? If we can just chose another time or season and get the same results why worry at all about visitation?
As the conversation went on I felt the Spirit prompting me to share the gospel with her. I looked at my co-minister and she agreed. I began asking questions engaging her with conversation and stories. At each turn our talk was cut short. She would wander off and tell us about strange trinkets and or pull out a charm or some kind of memento. Then explain to us how it protected her or helped her. Holding these, rubbing them in her wrinkled fingers, and looking longingly at them, we were unable to breakthrough with her into any meaningful dialogue about the Lord Jesus or the Gospel. I looked at my co-laborer insinuating that I was not breaking through, would she try. She tried, ending with the same result. We offered to pray for her as we prepared to leave. She declined. As she walked us to the door we thanked her and exchanged warm words.
About six months later I was out in the same neighborhood. I saw her son out near his garage door and so I approached him. I told him who we were and asked about his mother. Visibly sullen, he was quiet for a minute. Then he said, "she died a few weeks ago."
As I reflect on that divine meeting with his mom, all I see is the mercy of God and the very real and remarkable visitation of God. I see the fiery sun doorway. The consuming fire. The invitation to complete surrender. I see that the Father is working in so many ways, on so many levels. He is continuously looking after our hearts and for our salvation. I also see that visitation can come and go. We can say no and end up missing God's visitation. What is the point in shaking the dust off is visitation has no recourse?
The Bible is full of stories where God's timing is imperative.
The Christmas story. Joseph and Mary are to report for the census. Leading them to Bethlehem. The entire Roman world was moving about, going back to their places of origin. Amazingly, the prophetic word about Jesus being born in Bethlehem fell into place. Bethlehem had a visitation like no other city on earth. She closed her doors and left the Son of Man outside.
Jesus and God's perfected timing
Such moments are surely like a blazing fiery sun. Zechariah met a blazing fiery doorway in the Temple. His response caused him to be speechless for upwards of nine months. When John was born, he again began to speak. Saying John's name. I'm sure his perception of spiritual things, God's reality and presence, and his willingness for surrender were greatly improved.
Moments that require a baptism, an immersion into grace, these are fiery sun moments. The invitation is to walk in the fullness of Christ. It is nothing short of a door filled with God's consuming fire.
When these moments, these fiery doorways, stand directly in our path, our choices make a huge difference. A transfiguration moment, like a blazing fiery sun, is an invitation. We sense the complete demise of our former understanding. The slaughter of our present worldview. The laying down of our cynicism and stoic postures.
Do you recognize these moments in your life? Sometimes it is easier than others to pick them out.
In early 2010 a fiery Son filled doorway opened up to me. A road of fire.
Veil-less walking with Jesus is always one step away. Plunging deeply into the love and presence of God can be your next step forward.In such moments we have a simple choice. Step, or fall into a fire of total trust and complete abandon. Losing yourself required. These two actions, total trust and complete abandon, reach out to us from the fire. Instinctively our flesh knows there is a whole new level of dying is on the threshold.
It's the Spirit who reaches into our fire-less and cold realities from the threshold of the consuming fire. He reaches in separating our true desires from the worthless things. He reveals the measure of our devotion and resolute pursuit of Jesus. This Spirit of truth measures all by our devotion and obedience to Jesus and the Father.
In these encounters with God, these fiery doorways, we see Jesus. Though we may not recognize him. The choice is quick and one step away. A step into fiery fullness or to falling back. Back into our lifeless understanding and limited vision. Back into the let down. Seeing who and what we are, becomes ever clear.
The immersion and elation of the simple "stepping in", is beyond anything we know or experience in normal life. Stepping out on the waters of fiery faith, we will be baptized in the creative, powerful and illuminating glory of God.
The coming of Messiah was and is a fiery doorway.
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.
Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years. Malachi 3:2-3 (NIV)
Jesus' arrival at the temple during Passover and the Passion certainly was a visitation.
Simeon, the prophet, filled with a fiery message and proclamation of the Christ child was waiting for the "consolation of Israel" in the Temple. He carried a visitation for Joseph and Mary and a prophetic proclamation for the Son of God. A fiery moment in God's heart ready to break forth. Moved by the Spirit he knew the Christ child was in the Temple. He found Jesus and his parents and took him into his arms. An amazing promise fulfilled to him from the Lord, to see the child. And an amazing fiery moment for Israel. In the Temple the Son of God, in the Temple the prophetic voice rings out. We read this story without wonder. Wonder of the timing of God and the actual divine appointment of Simeon. The prophetic grace that was delivered was remarkable and caused Mary and Joseph to marvel in heart. The words of Simeon rang out ad over the ministry of Jesus throughout his moving about the land. This was a fiery moment for all. And we fail to see it. We fail to recognize that God is speaking, orchestrating his favor and blessings in such a remarkable way. The very dividing in fiery moments rang out in Simeon's prophetic word. Jesus would reveal hearts, cause the rise and fall of many and leave no middle ground. And so he does today.
You may say, "That sounds black and white and definitive". Yes. Scripture clearly portrays "visitations" that are not re-visited.
Somehow we've rounded the edges off our understanding of divine visitation. In our minds it's another choice or option on the road to heaven. In truth God requires us to walk worthy of our relationship and revelation of HIM.
Those who love Jesus, obey Jesus.
The Messiah himself visited Israel and was rejected. The corresponding covenant and worship were swept up in a prophetic change, a moment of visitation. This moment of Messiah's life and work, was nothing short of a perfect time of overwhelming visitation. His repudiation by Israel led to the complete destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 a.d. The Lord himself did visit his temple and he was rejected and despised. The Cross, Resurrection and Ascension started a New Testament, a new covenant, in his blood. And the old was wiped away in judgement.
Later, many found themselves on the "disciplined side" of the city of Jerusalem. Surrounded and starving, they did not head the warning of Jesus (Matthew 24); a last prophetic grace. The temple and city were completely destroyed in 70 a.d. Every stone thrown down as Jesus proclaimed (Matthew 24). The visitation for Israel had arrived with the full wonder of the consuming fire and cleansing grace of God. (Malachi 3 ) The new covenant erupted on the world like a fiery doorway; born in the blood of the Lamb. For the most part, Israel, God's covenant people, missed the visitation.
The reality, our flesh cannot contain, uphold, understand, or walk under the weight of the glory of God. Impossible. Only by grace through faith can we enter into the blazing eyes and consuming fire of the Son of God.
Humanity is always on the threshold of a fiery burning sun, standing open like a doorway, staring into the consuming fire of the Son of Man.
The blazing sun poses many questions that go unanswered. Only one question gets clearly answered. To whom do you owe your life and allegiance? The call is a quickening moment, a moral visitation, a deciding moment, a division down to bone and morrow. We can hear the invitation over the fire, over the noise of life, over everything. "Come Follow Me", Jesus says. Step into the doorway. Come past the threshold and into the consuming fires of divine love and grace. It is not the hearing that makes the difference. It's the stepping over into the call of Jesus and into the Way.
The mind screams, "follow you into that blazing fire?" The spirit exults at the invitation of God even while the flesh winces, seeing it's own demise. The tangible real connection, the one deeply longed for, is now upon you. So is the reality of being consumed. Consumed in the blazing fire of the Son of God.Translated from the mind of the Spirit, being consumed in such a way is the highest and greatest invitation known to humanity. Joining the Trinity God in the consuming fires of steadfast love.
In such visitations, many things are suddenly intelligible. But only for a split second.
Jesus is clear. The picture of our life is clear. All the dead things we are dragging along become clear. The two dimensional teaching, the one dimensional prayer, the limitation of our translation of life and power in Christ, we see it. We see it all for a brief moment. It flashes before us. The fiery sun, the step into the doorway, the consuming grace and love, crystal clear and fully comprehensible. Right before our eyes and heart and understanding, it looms. Yet little is offered in answer to our immediate questions of the outcome, security, benefit, pleasure, joy or experience it leads to along the way . And so many simply stand staring into the fiery doorway until it disappears. And they do disappear.
Peter experienced such a moment. On a boat fishing with Jesus, he saw deeply into himself, into everything in a brief moment. The miraculous catch is being hauled in. Rolling on the waves in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, Peter sees himself in the face of Jesus. He came undone. A righteousness beyond his ability came into focus. A doorway stood wide open out on the lake in the little boat. For Peter the real door was presented when they hit the beach with the catch. When they hit dry land he "immediately followed him". Through the threshold of the Fiery doorway, into a whole new life in the revelation of the Lord Jesus. With that initial step off the boat onto the ground and after Jesus, Peter entered the consuming fire.
Everything seen in the fiery threshold starts moving the moment we step in. This is visitation. This is a call. Stepping into the consuming fire starts the motion, the blazing fire of consuming love.
Fiery doorways speak a thousand words all at once. And each one seems to reach into the deepest parts of our heart, mind, soul and love for God. The consuming fire is the deepest satisfaction we can know. To step all the way into God in a moment he has orchestrated, is beyond what we now know. Into the life pouring out of the fire, into our souls an infusion of grace, love and activation that touches every part of us in one moment. Elation and fear vie for our loyalty and decision looses its ability to resist in the weight and beauty of divine encounter. Elation. God is speaking to me. I'm known by him. Fear. Where does this lead me? How will this turn out? Will I be as happy as I am right now?
Turning from the Fire....
Turning away forges a new path of its own; a winding path around the mountain. Something like a training and weigh loss program. This new path will step for step open smaller avenues of the fire over time. It will also open seasons of adjustment and trial. Times of equipping in every good thing and in the perfection we lack. We'll get more opportunities to fall headlong into the fiery sun. God is gracious and full of mercy. He will deepen your knowledge of his love and character so you can spend trust in Him day after day.
Peter clearly fell. And he was clearly restored. A reminder miracle was repeated. A miraculous catch of fish after all night catching nothing. Jesus repeated the miracle for him. A new invitation stood before him. It was a visitation of the living Christ. Could Peter let go of his own guilt and shame? Could he throw off another layer of his failure and weakness and dive into the ocean of God's healing love? He did.
We arrive one way or another because he is faithful. Stepping into the visitations when he presents them before us, invites us into the heartbeat of God and the wonders of overwhelming intimacy. Chose the Son now! He will form the Son in us with patient endurance and powerful hope. Our shortcoming cannot cut short the boundless victory he won for us. When we are faithless, he remains faithful (II Timothy ). When we turn form the fiery doorway something different gets written but we remain sons and daughters.
Story:
It started happening to me on my drive home from work. I put on some worship and headed home, a half hour drive, and would arrive home in a pile of tears. The Lord would come over me in waves of love, revelation and his voice. He overwhelmed me. At first I felt unworthy. Like I didn't deserve his affection. Affection so overwhelming and deep I convulsed and shook from my soul outward. But I was so hungry for his presence that I poured myself into each moment. As the Spirit spoke and revealed, I found myself going deeper and deeper. The half hour drive swallowed up in tears, worship, prayers, and thanksgiving, God was riding home with me.The drives turned into mornings in prayer in which I was completely caught up for hours on end. I literally had to pull myself back to food, chores of life and the day. I felt so conflicted. I wanted to remain there forever. The presence of God being so rich, overwhelming, abundant, rolling rolling on and on, I did not want to leave. I gave myself over to the compelling love and the invitation of God to know him like never before.
One thing was evident. I continued into the fire. It was always an invitation. It was always a desire that led to an encounter. Going further and farther than I had ever known. I wanted more and more of the Lord. I wept hours on end. I would stand back in my minds eye and look at myself. Wondering what I would say if one of my kids came in or my wife still found me weeping and praying after hours and hours.
These moments are supported only by the trust factor. By our knowledge and trust in the character and person of Jesus himself. These fiery moments are a baptism of instruction and new learning in his ways. Such encounters stamp revelation on our spirit. They endlessly mark us with love and a revelation of the character of Jesus. They are the Spirit of wisdom and revelation pouring over our heart, mind, soul and strength.
Inherently we sense the power and furry of the fire. Intuitively we know that our "former way of life" will disappear in the flames of his burning eyes.
If we turn from the blazing sun, a road awaits us. A path of training unfolds. Training in the natural, subjecting your body to the pains of getting in shape, are nothing compared to the effort of forming Christ in us. We turn aside from physical training, at least I do. I want to be lean and more agile but balk at the work required to loose the fat and eat well. Weighed against the enormous price Jesus paid for us, and the grace provided to accomplish his will, the training path is much more challenging. The Holy Spirit is so persistent and remarkable about getting us to a place of understanding the changes and healing he wants to work in us. So, I believe, we will more slowly acquire the revelation of his character and the trust required to walk in the way, if we turn from the fiery doorways, the Way before us and the Father's vision to form the image of Christ in us does not diminish. But it may take other paths. The life and times of Peter clearly portray a much more patient God. The life and times of Israel clearly portray the patience of God and his full hope of loving kindness for us who believe. (I Corinthians 10) Yet, we cannot push off or leave out of our understanding the incredible cleansing rebukes of the Lord to Israel. Jeremiah's lamentation,
Rest assured the Holy Spirit will disciple us in Christ and bring us into his fullness.
II Tim 1:12
"That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day".
Are we under the discipleship of the Spirit or our own discipleship?
When we act as our own discipler, we find ourselves clinging to our abilities, our thoughts, our plans and our understanding of the way before us. The only strength, wisdom, love and devotion that can carry us in the way of the fiery door is complete surrender and the power of the Spirit.It sounds ludicrous. That we would pick up our own discipleship. That we would begin to take over for the Holy Spirit only what he can deliver to us, transformation grace through Jesus Christ. Paul cried out to the Galatians in the same way. Do you really think what was begun in the Spirit can now be carried on in the flesh?
When He disciples us, we walk in the Spirit, cling to Christ and live on his every word.
We were unable to save ourselves. And we forget. We are equally unable to disciple ourselves. We are called to follow the Lord and walk in the Spirit (John 12:26). The Holy Spirit leads us in real time to the abundant freedom and victory of Jesus. It is a way of life in truth. Following step for step the Masters leading. Yet, somehow we pick up the story and start deciding what is important, valuable, worthy of our time and efforts. In the bond-slave reality of following Jesus, he is the only one who can determine value for us. We are servants. In the same way, our day to day transformation in the Holy Spirit is uniquely directed by the Holy Spirit. Not by us.
Whole churches act the same way. Deciding for God what is valuable, important, successful. We run after what we crave individually as corporate bodies. And then in his grace and love the Holy Spirit visits us. A fiery doorway stands before a whole congregation. And......
The disciples were faced many times with a lack of understanding and so tempted to take up their own vision and version of Jesus and the Way. Consider Peter's amazing revelation of Jesus and then his amazing mis-interpretation of his mission direction. Rebuked by the Lord publicly, his understanding and direct taking over the mission of Jesus was soundly rejected. In the same way in times of decision we often pick up the reigns of our own discipleship and begin walking outside the fiery reality of the Holy Spirit's transforming work. Sadly, ministries join us there and focus on eradicating troubles, hindrances, opposition as the primary objective rather than teaching us overcoming grace and power through prayer and the Holy Spirit.
To the pure in heart all things are pure?
The doorway begins with purity. The Spirit is holy. God is holy. In Christ, we are holy. The fiery door is really a step into the purity of wisdom and the realms of the Holy Spirit.I have been pondering this phrase, "To the pure all things are pure". What does that mean? I think it means that as we agree with the purity of Jesus through the Spirit that we possess by faith in Christ, purity itself draws purity toward us. The mystery and reality of wisdom is that it draws and attracts purity to us from the purity within us. If we allow the Spirit to spring forth from within us, we can clearly identify and do identify the things which are pure around us. To the pure everything is pure because they identify the pure all around them. Wisdom calls forth wisdom. Purity calls forth purity.
The fiery doorway standing before us, who is Christ himself, calls forth purity from within. From rivers of living water and wells of purity in Christ, our inner man and woman can welcome Christ's purity and connect with the fallen world. In purity's love and redemptive power the purity of Christ in us draws purity into our vision, action and choices.
The son of God is a blazing consuming fire by invitation.
If we seek to find our lives we will lose it. If we lose our lives for and in him we fill find it and eternal life.
"So, I will put my Name on the Israelite's, and I will bless them" (Numbers 6:27) When the Father writes his name on us, a remarkable consecration occurs. Purity, holiness and love refined in the fires of true righteousness overcome the brokenness of our pots of clay. We enter into new realms of glory and grace. Our minds enlightened in the revelation of the Lord Jesus and his power manifest in us and in the world. Greater dependence is born in us as faith becomes the only way forward. Such fiery doorways are only orchestrated by God himself. Visitation. Invitation. Purity breaking out in the righteousness of his Kingdom envelopes us and we transform into his likeness. Faith to faith and glory to glory we encounter doorways filled with fiery flames of loving kindness and hope. Step in.
When he disciples us, we walk in the Spirit, cling to Christ and live on his every word.
When presented with a transfiguration moment, a blazing fiery sun, we must recognize it is an invitation to veil-less walking with Jesus. In such moments we have a simple choice. Total trust and reliance on and in Jesus, the actual person, or falling back into our understanding and limited vision of God.
The reality, our flesh cannot contain, uphold, understand, or walk under the weight of the glory of God in the Son of God. Impossible. Only by grace through faith do we enter into the blazing SON.
Humanity is always on the threshold of a fiery burning sun in the Son of Man.
The blazing sun poses many questions that stand unanswered. Only one question is answered. To whom do you owe your life and allegiance? The call is a quickening moment. We can hear it over the fire, over the noise of life, over everything. "Come Follow Me".
The minds screams, "follow you into that blazing fire?" The spirit exults at the invitation of God. The tangible real connection that is longed for is now upon us.
In such moments, such visitations, everything is clear. But just for a moment. Jesus is clear. The ways of our lives are clear. All the dead things we are dragging along with us become clear. The two dimensional teaching, the one dimensional prayer, the limitation of our translation of life and power in Christ, we see, but for a moment.
The fiery sun is clear. This is a visitation. This is a call. Stepping into the fiery blazing sun will start the reality of everything seen in that moment. Turning away forges a new path around the mountain. A training and weigh loss program, this new path will step for step open smaller avenues of the fire. We'll get more opportunities to fall headlong into the fiery sun. Chose the Son now!
The book of Hebrews continuously recounts the visitation realities of the Father.
"See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15As has just been said:16Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief." (Hebrews 3:12-18).
The disciples didn't get it.
Not until they were empowered in the Spirit, sobered by their deepest failures, and focused on ascended Jesus. We idealize the disciples but they did not understand the fullness of Christ until after the resurrection and 40 days of resurrected teaching. Praise God for the real and honest picture of following this Son of God. He is God among us. He is transfigured before us on occasion. He is overwhelming in grace and glory. These moments are not to be let go.
The disciples clearly moved in and out of moments of understanding and total disarray. We do as well. Abide. Rest. You will get the understanding required to walk in fullness. When all you can see is the light of the blazing sun abide in Christ. Surrender. Rest and wait. When all around you the blazing sun is burning up the "life you knew", abide in Christ. Stay close. Offer the same worship you did in less intense moments. Walk in the knowledge of Christ you possess. Walk in fullness.
The way of the cross is most like the fiery sun and the flaming eyes of Jesus. But the resurrection is the new life. It is a life on fire. The Gospel is rooted in the resurrection (I Cor 15). The flaming eyes of Christ are the fullness of purity, righteousness, holiness, and consecration. We are called into those flaming eyes, into the fiery sun. All the way up to and past the resurrection, the disciples' mindset had no room for the glory revealed in Jesus. They did not have a grid through which to let his revelation land in their heart, mind, soul and strength. Their hearts were hardened by the darkness of their minds.
Christ is light. His truth cannot attach to darkness. The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in power and with the mind of Christ opened the way of understanding and witness for the disciples. The same path is before us. But we need to step into the fiery sun, the all consuming fire of trust, to start on this way.
Acknowledge the blazing eyes of Jesus
We need to acknowledge that there is a Son of God ascended with Blazing eyes of fire. That he visits people with those eyes and they welcome and receive him. That he reveals himself as a consuming fire. With all the prophetic announcement and the detail present to Israel, they repudiated and rejected the Messiah in their midst. Not all of course. Some left all behind and followed him. Some immediately went walking behind him into the fires of the unknown. They began finding their lives in him. Nothing has changed in this reality for us today. Yet we dumb down discipleship, bypass the transforming fiery moments even as they are in front of us. We proclaim and announce the amazing exploits of the Saints who have gone before, visit their graves like the Pharisees and then turn from the fiery doorways clearly in front of us. Oh, Jesus. Give us the courage to walk into the fire.
Praise the Lord for those who run in such fields. In so doing, we need to also acknowledge the patience of the the Lord and his gentleness in leading his people. As much as the call into a fiery sun is an intensity we cannot hide or cover, if it expresses itself in condemnation for the Bride we are not moving in His character and truth.
These so called prophets who want to ride their horse of belittling, badgering or condemning the Bride of Christ because of their fiery son revelation are missing the core reality of God's character impact on the world.He loved and loves the world. He gave up his life for his friends. He did not blow out the smallest flame. He did not break the broken reed. If we want to identify with the fiery Son we also have to identify with the lamb. Gentle and meek the Son of God offered his love, grace and eternal life. The lamb is the only one who can open the scrolls of God's will and bring the final completion to the salvation plans of the Father. This mercy, this grace and the boundless love of God mixes with the fiery doorways. Will you be the one who steps over the threshold into the fire?
Go ahead. Run with HIM.
Thanks for reading.
You can do this thing! He's got you.
The dialogue is awesome. Thank you. Testimonies? Share em with me. Re-Shares lov em. Thank you! With much love in Jesus
Jeff Reynolds --- Global Kingdom Harvest Ministries
www.jeffreynoldsministies.com
Love in the Lord
Jeff Reynolds
Global Kingdom Harvest Min.
www.mycapstone.org
jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com
www.jeffreynoldsministries.com
I love your comments. Ideas and thoughts.
Please share em.
Re-shares are great. thank U.
Here are some other blogs posts that may interest you.
1.http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2015/01/7-things-enemy-devil-doesnt-want-you-to.html
Please share em.
Re-shares are great. thank U.
Here are some other blogs posts that may interest you.
1.http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2015/01/7-things-enemy-devil-doesnt-want-you-to.html
You can do this thing! He's got you.
Jeff Reynolds --- Global Kingdom Harvest Ministries
Brother Jeff
www.jeffreynoldsministies.com
Love in the Lord
Jeff Reynolds
Global Kingdom Harvest Min.
www.mycapstone.org
jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com
www.jeffreynoldsministries.com
Jeff Reynolds ---
Brother Jeff
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