Jesus Quenches the Fire
The current state of my being here on earth is going through another trial by fire that Jesus can quench if I surrender to Him. Either I will dwell on my own reasoning to get through this or I can go to God Almighty. In the former, I will basically act as a god and determine the path for this temple. Thus, I quench the real Spirit and accept a focus of self. In the latter, when the tables are turned, I will quench the self and allow the true God into this temple for guidance, Jesus Christ.
This testimony is about getting out of myself, turning to God, and then witnessing God’s guidance in this fiery furnace. Deliverance is around the corner because Jesus is the Living Water that quenches the fire of the enemy. I pray this blesses you, in Jesus name. Amen –
Psalms 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
I tend to try to put out the fires in life by myself. As I walk in this life, I continually try to figure out the best decisions that I should take when I’m in the midst of the fire. When I fear, get worried, anxious, stressed, etc. then I can force decisions in life. It’s as if I’m in the midst of panic and feel like something must be done. Thus, instead of going to the One who will deliver and put out the fire, I can quench Him by taking over the controls of this vehicle. Ultimately, I am choosing to serve the creature or the Creator. When I choose to serve the creature (myself), it is usually because 1) I do not trust God to take care of me 2) I want things to go down a certain path, and/or 3) I’m being impatient.
I have a pit in my stomach, fleshly emotions of hurt are causing pain in my chest, I get tightness and shortness of breath when I think of this situation, it feels like I’m pressed on all sides, and it is as if I must do something asap or I’ll be crushed. I’m trying to discern the best course of action and I’m ripping apart every detail. It has consumed me and there is no peace while I’m in the midst of dwelling on these things.
But, in the midst of this fire, I quench all of those aforementioned thoughts, feelings, and I decide to quench the self and choose to trust in God. I choose Jesus, the Living Water. I choose to quench the fire with Christ. The choice has now changed from choosing my own might, to surrendering my own might. In return, I get the true power of God, His might, His strength, His deliverance, His direction and guidance, His peace, etc. I get Jesus and not the fire. I die, He lives. The fire is quenched and peace is with me. Hallelujah!
I met with a Pastor to discuss this situation. He said something like, “Let us pray for His guidance for a few days. Let us not rush to action, but let us take action of the Lord. When we acknowledge God in the midst of the fire, then God will deliver. It is His will that through the trials by fire that we trust in Him and bring Him into the situation. If we do not acknowledge God and bring Him into the conflict, then what remains is our ideals, our understandings, our direction, our guidance, etc.”
After the Pastor left, the Spirit laid on my heart (again) how I continue to surrender situations to God, but I need to actually seek out His guidance. It’s almost as if I don’t want to deal with it, so I just say “Here ya go Lord. This is messed up and I can’t deal with it. You got it.” In this mindset, I still take my own actions. I’m really not surrendering a thing. It is “I” that is trying to quench the fire and it keeps coming back. He has been showing me that it doesn’t work like that. Yet, I still have a role to play. He is telling me “It doesn’t work like that. Trust in me, seek me, and when I guide you, then act.” Thus the action I take, it is His action, not mine. I am surrendering, but action is still required on my part –
- Trust God’s Guidance (surrender my guidance)
- Seek God’s Guidance (surrender my guidance)
- Hear God’s Guidance (surrender my guidance)
- Obey God’s Guidance (surrender my guidance)
Over the past few days, the above-mentioned has been on my heart and it was known internally that I needed to get some quality time with God, but I kept quenching the Spirit and accepting the fire. But, during this time I was praying. God started to answer yesterday and today.
Yesterday, another Pastor preached a message about our time with God. You can listen to it here – My Time with God. This is a really good message and I highly recommend it if this posting is speaking to your spirit. After receiving this confirmation to spend more time with God, I started to listen and obey. In my laptop bag, I have some prayer cards that a friend made for me. There are around 15 – 3×2″ cards. They have been in my laptop bag for around 5-6 weeks and I have yet to read any of them. Many times I had considered looking at them, but I did not. Today, I decided to pull them out. The first card in the pile was in-line with all that has been going on in my spiritual walk with the Lord. I bowed my head and prayed the words that were completely in one accord of all guidance, unctions from the spirit, etc. that I have been getting over the past few days..
“Wisdom… Lord, today I just do not know what the right decision is and I make mistakes when I fail to consult you first. Lord, I repent for not putting my full trust in your wisdom and today, I ask for your wisdom regarding ___. You say in your Word that if I or anyone lacks wisdom, they must simply ask you for it and you will grant it without finding fault. I thank you for what you are about to teach me. In the name of Jesus, Amen.”
Finally, I continue to seek Him further. I have multiple daily devotions that I have not been reading. Here are the ones I had not read. They all line up with the same thing – Quench the fire with Jesus, but surrendering self. I’ll point out the parts that were dead on to this entire topic in order to close this up –
Have you figured out yet that a lot of times you are your own worst enemy? It’s your own reactions, your own fears, your own inadequacies that cause you to act in foolish ways. I need to be saved from myself because there are things I don’t like about me – things I wish I had done differently, things I’d like to change. But I can’t change them, not on my own power. I need an outside power source. You may be saying, “I can change.” I hate to say this, but you can’t.
The truth is, if you are honest about it, sometimes you feel like your life is out of control. You may be looking for salvation in the wrong places, that’s why you’re frustrated. You’re looking for that one thing that’s going to give you fulfillment and meaning and peace in life. Some of us think that if we could just get married, or if we could just get a certain job, or a promotion, or attain a certain level of wealth, or have a baby – things would be great.
You’re looking in the wrong places. The answer is not in a place. It’s not in a program or a pill. The answer is a person: Jesus Christ. You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life is never going to make sense. – Rick Warren
Then another, again, confirmation of the same guidance on everything mentioned above –
But, first, you must invite Jesus into every room of my life. Your heart is like a house with many rooms. You’ve got a bedroom. You’ve got a kitchen. You’ve got a family room. You’ve got a work room. You’ve got all these rooms for the different areas of your life. Any room that is filled with worry and fear is a room you have not invited Jesus into. For instance, you may not have invited Jesus into the relationship room. Or, you may not have invited him into the finance room. Or, you may not have invited him the bedroom or the work room.
Wherever you are worried, that means Jesus isn’t in that room because when Jesus walks into a room, he fills it with peace. So your worries, your fears tell you the areas of your life that are not under the control of Jesus Christ. This is important because Jesus says you must invite him into your life — into the rooms of your heart — in order to see life as it truly is – in order to see the kingdom of God (John3:36). To follow God into your destiny this decade, you must decide whether you will live for yourself or God?
You may hesitate, wondering whether you will have strength to live for God. Don’t worry. God will give you what you need if you will just make the choice to live for him. Receive Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior. Receive his forgiveness for your sins. Receive his Spirit, who will give you the power to see with the eyes of faith and to fulfill your life purpose.
Then these 2 were the nail on the head and completed my lesson of today, to quench the fire with Jesus –
Christ’s resurrection was preceded by a short period of suffering. We do die!
We do suffer! There is pain and sorrow.We do not want to suffer or be hurt. We want painless deliverance, supernatural
intervention. “Do it, God,” we pray, “because I am weak and always will
be. Do it all while I go my way, waiting for a supernatural deliverance.”We may blame our troubles on demons. We seek out a man of God and hope he can
cast out the demon so that we can go on our way with no pain or suffering. All
done! Breeze right through to a peaceful life of victory. We want someone to
lay hands on us and drive away all the dryness. But victory is not always
without suffering and pain. Look at your sin. Face it. Suffer it through, just
as Jesus did. Enter into his suffering. Suffering endures for a night, but joy
always follows in the morning.God’s love demands a choice. If God supernaturally lifted us out of every
battle without pain or suffering, it would abort all trials and all temptation;
there would be no free choice and no testing as by fire. It would be God
superimposing his will on mankind. He chooses to meet us in our dryness and
show us how it can become the way into a new life of faith.It is often the will of God that we suffer dryness and even pain. “Wherefore
let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their
souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19).Thank God, suffering is always the short period before final victory! “But
the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ
Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you” (1 Peter 5:10).
and lastly, seeing the Lord in the midst of the fire. Trusting, seeking, obeying.. Jesus will deliver and quench the enemy. Amen.
In the midst of their trial God told Israel to do three things: “Fear not. Stand still. See the salvation of the Lord.” His call to Israel was, “I am going to fight for you. You’re simply to hold your peace. Just be quiet, and put everything in my hands. Right now, I’m doing a work in the supernatural realm. Everything is under my control. So, don’t panic. Trust that I’m fighting the devil. This battle is not yours” (see Exodus 14:13-14).
Soon dusk fell over the camp. This was the beginning of Israel’s dark and stormy night. But it was also the beginning of God’s supernatural work. He sent an awesome, protective angel to stand between his people and their enemy. I believe God still sends protective angels to camp around all who love and fear him (see Psalm 34:7).
The Lord also moved the supernatural cloud he’d given to Israel for guidance. The cloud suddenly shifted from the front of Israel’s camp to the rear and it loomed as a pitch-black wall before the Egyptians. On the other side, the cloud provided a supernatural light, giving the Israelites clear visibility all night long (see Exodus 14:20).
Even though Pharaoh’s army was in total darkness, they could still raise their voices. And all night long they spewed forth threats and lies. Israel’s tents shook from this barrage of lies throughout that dark night. But it didn’t matter how loudly the enemy threatened them. An angel was on guard to protect them, and God had promised his people he would bring them through.
Dear saint, if you’re a blood-bought child of God, he has put a warrior angel between you and the devil. And he commands you, just as he told Israel, “Do not fear. Stand still. Believe in my salvation.” Satan may come against you breathing every evil threat. But at no time during your dark, stormy night is the enemy ever able to destroy you.
“Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night” (Exodus 14:21).
The windstorm that God brought down was so powerful, it began to part the waves of the sea: “The strong east wind…made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided” (14:21).
The Hebrew word for wind here means “violent exhaling.” In other words, God exhaled and the water congealed in walls. Israel’s tent-dwellings must have shaken fiercely as those mighty torrents blew through the camp. Why did God allow Israel to go through an entire stormy night, when he could have spoken a mere word and calmed the elements?
What a storm it must have been. And what a fearful time it had to be for Israel. I ask you, what was God up to here? Why would he allow such a terrible windstorm to go on all night? Why didn’t he just tell Moses to touch the water with his mantle, and part the waves supernaturally? What possible reason did God have for permitting this awful night to take place?
There was but one reason: The Lord was making worshippers. God was at work the whole time, using the terrible storm to make a path for his people out of the crisis. Yet the Israelites couldn’t see it at the time. Many were hiding in their tents, but those who came outside witnessed a glorious light show. They also beheld the glorious sight of waves mounting up, mighty walls of water rising to form a dry path through the sea. When the people saw this, they must have shouted, “Look, God has used the wind to make a way for us. Praise the Lord!”
Recommended reading – Daniel 3
Bless the Lord God in and out of season.. Bless the Lord O’ my soul!
I just said to my friend Theresa “who is going to take care of ME?” I knew it all along “who” that person was, I just needed to be reminded. Thanks.
that’s spiritual warfare for ya… Praise and thanks to God for sucking you out of the pits of self. It is a battle that wages on, but it is always won at the cross in Christ..
I think we all tend to underestimate Satan’s ability to use our own thoughts and emotions against us. A thought comes in, it fires on the emotions.. and we’re in Satan’s trap. Then someone waters a seed from God that is already in us, and it recharges the correct thoughts.. thus quenching the fire from the enemy.. .releasing us from Satan’s trap.
Such attacks usually influence us to put the focus on ourselves instead of God. That’s pretty much the plan of the enemy – “Think of yourself, think for yourself, think of how to help yourself, etc.”.. this will always end in a lack of trust in God. The opposite is Christ and the fire is put out.. always.
Praise the Lord