Chimneys

Ever noticed how many buildings have chimneys?  Society used to gather around the presence of fire. Buildings were designed around the presence of fire. How many of all those chimneys are still in use today? Not many I would venture to say. Fire is Dangerous, its a Health & Safety risk. Fire has been removed and chimneys have been condemned, we have invented alternate way of heating. We have nice heaters that look like fire places and make a nice but fake flame. Fire has been removed. 

Has the church removed the Fire of God, the Presence of God and made ways of "faking" or replacing it with programmes, watered down truth, the feel-good factor and political correctness.

When His Fire comes it consumes everything. When Elijah confronts the King, the prophets of Baal and the people of Israel on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18 he says that the God who answers with fire is the true God. After the prophets of Baal had been calling on their god for hours with no result Elijah builds an altar and prepares the sacrifice. His has it "flooded" with water then he prays. Verse 18 says;
" Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench."

The Fire of God consumes which can be scary, its not a "safe and in control" place to be unlike a nice warm heater. But a heater can never captivate us like a fire does. Have you ever gazed at a fire burning and been captivated? Now ask yourself - have you ever been captivated by a heater?

By removing the fire or presence of God we can control our meetings but will never see the healing, restoration and freedom that comes with the Fire of God.

My prayer is that I would never block the fire of God in my own life by choosing a safe and in control way of life

What are the Odds?

The story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel is well known and has been used for all sorts of scenarios

It says in 1 Samuel 17:20 that when David arrived at the Israelite camp in the Valley of Elah that “he reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry.” Despite this attempt to get psyched up by shouting / chanting their war cry as they went the atmosphere in the camp was one of hopelessness and fear.

It is into this atmosphere that David arrives and he is surprised at their state of mind and spirit and asks what will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel. He is not traumatised by the sight and sound of Goliath as the rest of the Israelites were and is in a way angered and annoyed by the impact Goliath is having on the Israelite Army. His dismissal of Goliath angers his brother Eliab who responds to David with belittling accusations. Even that does not dissuade David and instead of shrinking back or getting into a defensive argument with Eliab he turns aside to continue his enquiry.

We know how this story ends and many messages, inspirational talks and other stories have been based around this defeat of the giant Goliath by the shepherd boy David.

What is interesting to me is how the “odds” changed when David arrived in the Israelite camp. His unwavering belief and security in the fact that his God would deliver him from the giant is an attitude that we should be emulating. We as individuals as well as our corporate gatherings carry the Presence of the Living God and therefore the odd should change when encounter negative circumstances and situations in life. As with the Goliath scenario - Sickness, Infirmity, Poverty, Hopelessness and Loneliness should all be “disarmed” when a believer in Jesus Christ enters the fray but do we as “believers” have an assuredness as David did?

Another thing is, how often we see that when an individual or a group of people begin to rise up in that spirit of belief and trust in God that another member or group of the faith reacts with negative comments and even make it their “project” to bring belittling and slander.

Often the same response that Eliab had is displayed because the comfort zones are challenged by a lifestyle of somebody with unwavering belief and security. It brings out all the insecurities and wobbles in lives and then a defensive reaction is produced instead of allowing inspiration and encouragement to be imparted and the odds over lives to shift.

Let us be a spiritual generation of Odds Changes regardless of age, gender or nationality and see Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.