Tag: FIre

Fresh Air! A Fresh Wind Is Blowing

MaryAnn Ward 2 Comments Evangelism & Discipleship, Faith & Prayer, Inspirational Blog , , , , , , , ,

What memory or image most clearly represents “fresh air” to you? Is it mountains, forests, or laying in a hammock beside a lake? Developers and marketers attempt to package and advertise their latest scent to entice you into buying everything from laundry detergent to shoes. Why? Our nose knows!

When I close my eyes asking God for alert spiritual senses, I “smell” a shifting aroma that excites my spirit. I smell a fresh wind blowing, swooping across the nations of the world. It is starting almost imperceptibly, building strength, riding the prayers of God’s people of all nationalities, disrespecting political boundaries or earthly terrain. Like a powerful stallion sent from heaven, it comes — unbridled and free.

Long ago, in another land, a wind blew.

“Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
Acts 2:2-4

“Suddenly” they ALL heard and saw things they had neither seen nor heard before. Perhaps, God again is repositioning us for new things previously unseen and unheard — times of refreshing, times of revival, times of awakening.

Hope

I invite you today to close your eyes for a moment and turn your heart heavenward toward the One upon His eternal throne. May you commune heart to heart with Him who loves you, knows you intimately, and sees your situation.

Neither distant nor distracted, He waits, listening for your voice. Like a loving Father, arms outstretched, welcoming you to come.

You are not abandoned! You are not forsaken! God has not forgotten your name.

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.”
Ephesians 1:18

Oh, that we each may “know the hope to which (God) has called” us! Renewed hope breathes fresh air upon us. Do you smell it?

Courage

The fresh breeze blowing rides upon the wings of courage.

“But Jesus immediately said to them, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Matthew 14:27

We take courage, grabbing hold of it. We all possess the potential to choose courage. Courage shines strongest in the face of fierce circumstances. Courage disarms fear, exposing its faulty system.

It may be -30 degrees Celsius outside, but today I unlocked the door and stepped onto my balcony with slippered feet. I shouted long and loud, laughing (literally) at fear. This simple gesture created a powerful inward move, refusing to entertain fear. The fresh air made me cough, pause, then breathe a glorious deep breath.

I smelled again the scent of newness, of God invading this earthly realm in ways my heart yearned to see.

Faith

Have you ever smelled the humusy aroma of fresh turned earth after a long winter’s rest? It is one of my favorite things, reminding me the old is gone and a new season has come. Faith smells just like that! Faith dares to turn over the moldy remnants of growth long dead, preparing for the planting of new seeds.

We enjoy the fruit of whatever we willingly sow, both in the natural and the spiritual.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22-23

Sow the seeds! Reap the fruit! Breathe in the aroma of the fresh air of God’s Spirit rising.

In prayer, I saw an eagle, rising, circling upon a fresh wind. It rose higher and higher until I could no longer see it, but I knew it was there — powerful, strong, and free. Suddenly, the eagle swooped taking captive what needed to be taken captive. Then flaming arrows came from heaven, lighting fires all over my nation of Canada. Not destroying fire, but fire that lights and warms — inviting fires, needed fires, holy fires.

The fresh air of Holy Spirit ignites flames of passionate worship, surrendered hearts, and yielded wills. I smell it, though I don’t yet see it.

Prayer

Yes, Lord! Bring in the fresh air of Your Presence. Blow across this and all nations with hope, courage, and faith. Release over the earth the wind of Your doing. May Your church be ready! May she be waiting and watching — anticipating the newness of this day and hour. Turn over and overturn all that is dead and dying. Prepare the soil for Your harvest.
May Your people unite in perfect unity and harmony, declaring Your unfailing Word, without shame, throughout the streets and roadways, to neighbors, family, friends, and strangers.
May the winds of revival and restoration come! Remove what must be removed. Ignite holy fires. Shoot Your powerful arrows restoring Your purposes and plans. Light the path for those who have wandered far to find their way safely home.
This is a season of renewed hope! A time of great courage! Unwavering faith stirs among Your church — young and old, male, and female. She is beautiful and strong. She will not be diminished! Through the burning fire of oppression, she comes — radiant and unashamed.
She is learning to love as You love. She carries with her the fruit of Your Spirit, scattering it abroad. Lavishly generous, she freely receives and gives with open hands.
Awaken us, Lord! Awaken our senses to know the tremendous season upon us. It smells like fresh air, turning us toward You.
Amen.”

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The Beauty of God’s Fire – A Prophetic Word

MaryAnn Ward 0 Comment Inspirational Blog, Prophecy , , , , , , ,
The Beauty of God's Fire

Flames, rising and falling, swirling and twirling, perform a mesmerizing dance, but the beauty of God’s fire surpasses all others. Spiritual fire performs divine purpose. Holy fire consumes, leaving no trace of the former content, while in other ways increases, fortifies, strengthens, revives, and restores.

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On a cool evening, one family circled a campfire on a sandy beach overlooking a small lake. They cooked hot dogs and roasted marshmallows over the open flames. With laughter, they sang songs, shared stories, and fortified generational bonds. There they lingered long after the moon rose, and stars cloistered against the darkened skies. Before retreating to their warm cabin beds, they carefully covering the fire’s last golden embers with sand.

The next morning, another family arrived on the beach. All four doors simultaneously swung open as a rush of shoeless children raced excitedly toward the water. Their towels flapped cheerfully behind them in the warm summer breeze. Time halted with the ear-piercing screams of the youngest, as we all watched, horrified. She froze mid-stride. Then instinctively, she dropped her hands to the ground while trying to lift her feet. My father knew immediately what had happened. He grabbed her writhing body, dipping her burnt hands and feet in the cool lake before rushing her to the nearest hospital a half-hour away.

Campfire

The same fire that brought delight to one family, meant weeks of torturous burn treatments for ours.

Fire! Both beautiful and painful! Simultaneously taking and giving!

And so it is in the beauty of God’s fire through painful trials — this union of removing what no longer belongs to secure what must eternally remain.

A Prophetic Word

I feel stirring in my heart a prophetic word — an unction of the Holy Spirit. I see with spiritual eyes both a flame burning and a newness rising. For those willing to endure the flame of God’s purging fire, there is coming victorious freedom and release.

The invitation to surrender completely to His flames extends to every one of us. However, I feel it will be men, both young and old, who will respond and rise with strength during this season. There is a generation of flaming ones, unstoppable in the Spirit, who are coming through the flames of adversity and trials. They believed they were being utterly destroyed, but God has been purging and purifying them for greatness and triumph.

These flaming ones will see and do awesome things through the power of God — divinely prepared, ignited with passion, and released into this generation.

“See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.”
Isaiah 48:10-11

Former generations have robbed God of the glory due His name. In pride, they set themselves on false pedestals and built crumbling edifices of their own doing.

“No more!” God says. “I will not yield my glory to another.”

Torch

Through the beauty of God’s fire, He is shifting leadership from positions of authority. We see faint shadows of it already, but God is bringing forth a divine rearranging. Only those who willingly surrender to the flames of refining will rise, bringing God glory and reflecting His face.

“This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.'”
Zechariah 13:9

The Refining

Silver and gold are “tested” in the refiner’s fire.

‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
James 1: 2-4

A refiner heats the metal until the impurities, or dross, rise to the surface. Then he skims it off. Over and over, he repeats the process — heating and removing. Each time, he “tests” the purity of the molten metal by looking into the surface. Only when he clearly sees his own reflection in the metal does he know it is pure.

Refine Metal

Throughout Scripture, God uses the illustration of a refiner’s fire to explain His process in removing the contaminates from our lives. He refuses to quit until He clearly sees His own reflection in us.

Everyone goes through trials and adversity. Will we not only allow but welcome them, yielding to the beauty of God’s fire, working out His greater good, bringing us to maturity, and purifying our faith? Or will we resist refusing to suffer pain, while pacifying ourselves with the soothing ointments of pleasure and self-gratification?

” . . . I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.”
Isaiah 1:25

The Invitation

The prophetic word invites us all to become His flaming ones — those who find a place of rest in the beauty of God’s fire. Not once! Not twice! But continually choosing to live within the flame of His Presence.

May God never speak a similar warning to us as He did to the Laodicean Church.

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
Revelation 3:15-16

Heart on Fire

Paul encouraged both Gentile and Jewish believers in Rome with these words:

“Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord.”
Romans 12:11 AMP

Flaming ones, those aglow and burning with the Spirit, best reflect His image. When tested, those filled with zeal and eagerly serving the Lord prove faithful and pure.

As much as I cringe at the thought of being purged by fire, I long for the flame of His Holy Presence to remove everything that mars Christ from clearly being seen in and through my life.

The Worship

God commanded the priests of the Old Testament to never allow the fire on the altar to go out (Leviticus 6:13). God still commands us, His New Testament priests, to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, in true worship.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sister, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship.”
Romans 12:1

The embodiment of worship extends beyond singing congregational songs on Sunday mornings or any other day of the week. Worship means giving ourselves daily to Him, sacrificially for Him, and holy unto Him. In true worship, we step willingly and knowingly into the beauty of God’s fire, becoming living torches of His Presence.

Light Candle

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.'”
Hebrews 12:28-29

Isaiah referred to Jesus, saying,

“The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame . . .”
Isaiah 10:17

Within this image, God places us!

Us in Christ and He in us — together burning! As a perpetual act of worship, we combine our small flames with THE consuming fire and THE fiery flame. Little flames within His great flame and small fires amidst His glorious fire, creating ever-increasing, globally impacting intensity!

The Baptism

John the Baptist preceded Jesus, baptizing with water — a baptism of repentance. He spoke of another baptism and another Baptizer,

“John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
Luke 3:16

This Holy Spirit baptism of fire is available to everyone, of all nationalities and creeds, who desires it. God is faithful! He offers great joy, freedom, and power to those who will abandon themselves to His purposes.

But will I surrender and submit to God’s plan and become a flaming one? Will you?

Flame Candles

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Pentecost, The Outpouring of Holy Spirit and The Feast of Harvest

MaryAnn Ward 0 Comment Christian Living, Inspirational Blog , , , , , , , ,

Pentecost and the outpouring of Holy Spirit, that occurred during the Feast of the Harvest, is a subject I am continually seeking to understand. God’s Word holds a rich reservoir of significance and truth worth searching out and discovering.

Jesus “gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.” (Acts 1:3)  

“… he appeared to Cephas,
and then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more than
five hundred of the brothers and sisters
at the same time…”
1 Corinthians 15:5-6

 

Jesus showed Himself

Ascension

Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus visited His disciples for the last time. He instructed them to wait for “the gift” from the Father.

“… Do not leave Jerusalem,
but wait for the gift my Father promised,
which you have heard me speak about.
For John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized
with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1:4,5

I’ve never been good at waiting, especially when I know something good is about to happen. Waiting creates room for God.  

The disciples waited. They returned to Jerusalem together, “to the room where they were staying.” (Acts 1:13) “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” Anticipation grew as they waited together in unity.

Pentecost

Ten days later, they continued to press in together in prayer waiting for the promise — the outpouring of Holy Spirit.

“When the day of Pentecost came,
they were all together in one place.
Suddenly a sound like the blowing
of a violent wind came from heaven
and filled the whole house
where they were sitting.
They saw what seemed to be
tongues of fire that separated
and came to rest on each of them.
All of them were filled
with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other tongues
as the Spirit enabled them.”
Acts 2:1-4

The Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of Harvest, was rooted in Moses’ receiving the Law. Many similarities mark the Presence of God both here in Jerusalem and on Mt. Sinai.

Gods Presence in the fire and cloud

  • God appeared with fire, smoke and thunder on Mt. Sinai. Wind, fire and the loud noise of speaking in other tongues confirmed God’s presence at Pentecost.
  • The Law taught the people how to live. Holy Spirit now became the Teacher and Counselor.
  • While Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, the people were worshipping the golden calf. As a result, 3,000 people died. At Pentecost 3,000 people received new life by believing in Jesus.

“… for the letter kills,
but the Spirit gives life.”
2 Corinthians 3:6

God’s presence covered Mt. Sinai. His presence filled the Tabernacle of Moses, and then later Solomon’s temple. With the outpouring of Holy Spirit, God came to dwell “in” His people with power.

Joel

At Pentecost, people were “amazed and perplexed” to hear their own language spoken by foreigners. They were convinced something significant was occurring. Others laughed and mocked, calling them drunk!

Peter rose up with boldness and authority pointing everyone to Joel’s prophecy,

“In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
 your young men will see visions,
 … old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.”
Acts 2:17-18

Pentecost, the Outpouring of Holy Spirit

Every Jew recognized these words as a small portion of a much larger text. The preceding verses in Joel speak of abundant harvest — relevant to both the Feast of Harvest and Pentecost.

“Be glad, people of Zion,
rejoice in the LORD your God,
for he has given you
the autumn rains of righteousness.
He sends you abundant showers
both autumn and spring rains, as before.”
Joel 2:23

“The autumn rains in righteousness“ can also be translated “teacher of righteousness.” The religious sect of Qumran, which produced most of the Dead Sea Scrolls, claimed that its most revered teacher of the law … the “Teacher of Righteousness” was the fulfillment of this prophecy.”

Jesus Christ, Teacher of Righteousness, fulfilled all He promised, including the outpouring of Holy Spirit.

The Harvest

As important as timely rains are, one shower never produces a bumper crop. Joel declares the evidence of the outpouring of Holy Spirit is overflowing harvest,

“The threshing floor
will be filled with grain;
the vats will overflow
with new wine and oil.”
Joel 2:24

Joel’s prophesy included both physical and spiritual overflow. Worship and praise of the Lord accompanied the feasting of the harvest. Joyous celebration and thanksgiving accompanied the festivities. 

Twice Joel repeats, 

“never again will my people be shamed.”
Joel 2:26,27

Peter, who once bore the shame of denying Jesus, stood strong, now filled with Holy Spirit. “Never again” would shame make his life! “Never again” would lack fill his soul. The harvest would “never again” fail. From this moment on, the new wine and oil of Holy Spirit poured through his life in overflowing measure.

Pentecost, Holy Spirit

Christ may have left, but the outpouring of Holy Spirit had come!

In

Peter used the historical record of Israel to prove Christ’s validity. Without mincing words, he boldly talked about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, to explain this visible work of Father, Son and Holy Spirit evidenced among them.

“Exalted to the right hand of God,
he (Jesus) has received from the Father
the promised Holy Spirit
and has poured out what you now see and hear.”
Acts 2:33

Joel spoke of God dwelling in the midst of His people.

“Then you will know that I am in Israel,
that I am the LORD your God,
and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.”
Joel 2:27

That little phrase “I am in” means “in the midst, present in the center or middle.” Though Joel may not have comprehended the meaning of his words, the imagery of the outpouring of Holy Spirit living “in the center” of believers is clear.

God, not wine, made the people stagger with His Presence. He came to live “in the center” of their beings. “Never again” would shame (disappointment, delay, or the pale of death) oppress them.

Respond

Peter challenged his listeners to respond to the outpouring of Holy Spirit,

“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized,
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins.
And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 2:38

Fire of Holy Spirit

The only prerequisite to receiving the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is repentance. Repenting means confessing and turning from sin, accepting Jesus’ death as the all-sufficient sacrifice as payment before God. Then believing Jesus destroyed death through His resurrection and confessing Him as Lord. 

Peter calls them to publicly demonstrate their death to sin and life in Christ through baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.

“Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand were added
to their number that day.”
Acts 2:41

What joy in the harvest of souls!

For Today

The outpouring of Holy Spirit began at Pentecost, but it didn’t end there. A few days later, we see it continued.

“After they prayed,
the place where they were meeting was shaken.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and spoke the word of God boldly.”
Acts 4:31

Oil of Holy Spirit

Paul told believers to “not get drunk on wine…instead be filled with the Spirit.” (Eph 5:18) He encourages them to “keep being filled, to cram in more, to level up the supply.”

God intends the outpouring of Holy Spirit to be a continuous action in every Christian.

Just like an oil lamp needs a constant supply of oil to produce light, believers require constant filling of Holy Spirit to bring light to the world. Pentecost was the initiation into an unending supply available to all! 

Joel said, “In the last days“, making it clear he wasn’t referring to a single one-time activity. In Acts, they “all” received. Even now, Holy Spirit continues to be poured out on those hungry and ready to welcome Him.

Perhaps, today will be the beginning of your personal Pentecost, as you receive Holy Spirit. 

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