We then take our first few faltering steps, for some of us they are dance steps, for others leaps of joy. For me I think they were on my bicycle, cycling to everywhere I thought that I could meet with God�s people and learn from them. The question always burning in my mind was �How can I live in a way that is pleasing to Him?�
I guess I wasn�t alone in listening to preachers talking about learning to live in ways that are righteous, talking about claiming God�s promises, talking about how we must lead people through to know Jesus, how we must read the Bible and pray for others. Our hearts were so grateful for what Jesus had done for us we would stop at nothing to please Him by doing these things.
Ok so what has this got to do with clouds and fire? Well I just want to remind you that you are not lazy. If you look at your Christian life there is nothing in it that says lazy or uncommitted. We are very used to people trying to motivate us to do more Christian work, or attend more meetings. For those of us with hearts to please, when we don�t meet a standard we start thinking that there is something wrong with us. That is not true, it is an accusation of the enemy. There is one reason and one reason alone that we have been saved � that is because we are loved by the Lord!
Matthew 13:44 says �The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which when someone finds; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns and buys the field. Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.� Was only last night I realised what that meant.
For years I had thought that it meant that I had to give up everything for Christ and then I would be worthy of finding His great treasure. That is back to the gospel of works, no it is far more profound than that. When Jesus found us we were buried in dirt in a field. He who owned the whole of glory saw in us a treasure greater than that, and gave up everything He owned to purchase us. It is us that are the pearl of great price, in His eyes we are worth everything.
But there is something else, He has purchased the field, the price has been paid, but we are still in the dirt! It does us no good whatever claiming promises, declaring healings, or any other doing thing. There is only one way we will get dug up and cleaned off, and that is by the purchaser coming and doing it. It is solely by His grace that we are cleansed, it is solely by His grace that we are healed and freed. We need His strength to pray, we need His guidance to read the Word, we never convicted a single heart of sin, it is only ever Him.
Why is this so important, well I am slowly coming to realise that it is what His refining fire is all about. Whatever way He is refining us, it is to teach us one lesson, and write that lesson deep into our hearts. That lesson is simple and is there all over in the Bible. There is absolutely nothing that we can DO, everything comes down to simply BEING His children. The more we have got into the culture of trying to be pleasing by our activities, the hotter the fire will seem. That is why it is so important that we recognise that we are not lazy.
We have hearts that desire to forgive, we have hearts that long to see His Spirit move, we have hearts that desire purity in our lives above all else. We long to see ourselves healed and released by the Lord because we know that while we are still walking in flesh ways we are hindering Him. We have prayed that prayer, �Lord whatever it costs, I want to be like You.� And truly meant it. There is only one thing left, and that is to yield our striving into His hands. He doesn�t want us to succeed at our Christian life, because it is not a task that we can pass or fail. It is simply a new life that He has given us.
Every pain, every hurt, every illness, every relationship, and most importantly every striving � nothing matters. All the ways we have tried to take responsibility for His work in our lives. The fire is hot, it hurts to see our lives that we have worked for fall apart, all the Christian works we have done count for nothing. ALL our righteousness is as filthy rags, we have to say with Paul; �I count it all as loss because of the all surpassing greatness of knowing my Lord, Christ Jesus.� Throughout scripture Paul�s boasts are not in what He had done for the Lord, but in his weakness, in how he had nothing to offer except for Christ.
He was a man who had been through the fire, He had nothing left, there was no more striving, Paul was empty of that, and knew only Christ and Him crucified. It is in that place that His promises to us start to flow, it is in that place that the healing comes, and that healing is not coming because we have claimed a promise, or made a right declaration to the principalities and powers. It simply comes because the grace of the Lord Jesus declares that it should come. You and I are not going to give up, no matter how hot the fire gets, because we know that there is no other way. Whatever the pain is like, however extreme it feels, we have nothing if we don�t have Jesus.
Yes it hurts for our flesh to be burned away, but as Suzi says �Praise God He is making me like Him � because I suck!� To reflect His beauty is our abounding desire; and what that takes is not effort on our part, but abandonment and giving up. Calling out to Him in desperation just as at the beginning. There is no doing involved at all, there is no correct way of praying, or special things we have to do to prevent the devil dragging us down. There is only Christ, and His strength alone.
Ok so we know about the fire, what about the cloud? We all know about the cloud, the glory cloud of God, the cloud that led the Children of Israel out of Egypt. There is something very significant about the cloud that we sometimes forget. It is not a Biblical image � it is a Biblical fact. The cloud of God�s glory is real, what led the Children of Israel through the wilderness was a real cloud by day, and a real pillar of fire by night. When we ask the Lord to come to us in His glory cloud, it isn�t a spiritual image we are seeking, but an holy manifestation of the living God!
Whilst I was reading around the Bible looking at the cloud, it became clear to me that the cloud and the fire of the Lord were closely linked. We are going through a purifying fire, and that is very necessary; because where he is taking us is into the cloud of His glory, and within that cloud is not a safe place to be for the impure or unholy. When we come face to face with the glory of the Lord it is an awesome an fearful place. It is a place of protection, it is a place of intimacy, but it is also a place of God�s judgement on the unrighteous.
Oh man I have so many scriptures buzzing around in my head � Isaiah 35:8 - Through it will run a highway undefiled which shall be called the Sacred Way; the unclean may not travel by it, nor fools stray along it. There is the other one when the Children of Israel were at Horeb. Exodus 19:9 �Yahweh said to Moses, � I am coming to you in dense cloud so that the people may hear when I speak and may trust you always.� Then verse 18 �The entire mountain was wrapped in smoke because Yahweh had descended on it in the form of fire.�
This was so full of the dread of the Lord that the people said to Moses, �Speak to us yourself and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us or we shall die.� (Exodus 20:18) They recognised that they hadn�t been through the refining that was needed to go into the glory cloud. This is what the Lord�s preparation in these times is for, it is to make us ready to go into the glory cloud, it isn�t about our ministries, no matter how powerful. It is all about preparing us for that entrance into the glory cloud. 2 Corinthians 3:18 and we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect; this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit.
The other verse that leaped out at me was from 2 Chronicles 5, and 7 about the dedication of the first temple. And I am confident that if the first temple had this level of manifestation of the Lord at it�s dedication, as we are built into a temple we will surely see nothing less. 5:14 Because the cloud of the Lord filled the sanctuary the priests could no longer perform their duties: the glory of Yahweh filled the temple of God. 7:1-3 When Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the holocaust and the sacrifices; and the glory of Yahweh filled the Temple. The priests could not enter the house of Yahweh, because the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh.
God�s glory cloud came and the fire of the Lord came with it. The purifying we are seeing is to prepare us for a move of the Spirit like none we have seen before. John described Jesus as one who would �baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire. � the chaff He will burn with a fire that never goes out. Have we truly been baptised in the Holy Spirit? I don�t know, but I do know that we haven�t yet got to the baptism of fire, where the glory of the Lord surrounds us. That is so far above any human effort we could make, we have to recognise that it will not be accomplished by the will of man or and act of the flesh, but only by the Spirit of the living Lord!
Which way is up? - I don�t know watch the way the bubbles go they always used to say. How am I? I have no idea my world is being turned upside-down and the emotional pain is really yukk, but I still love Jesus, so that has to be a good sign. Do I know this for sure? No I have to trust Him to be faithful to His word and His promise. All I know for sure is that I am being stripped of my dignity, I am being stripped of the security of things and people around me. I am still painfully aware of my own weaknesses, how I still sometimes act out of fear, insecurity, selfishness, and stuff like that. But I am constantly reminded of Psalm 73:25-26 �I look to no one else in heaven, I delight in nothing else on earth. My flesh and my heart are pining with love, my heart�s Rock, my own, God for ever.