Moving Through Your Fire
By Lynda Mitchell

If you've been through pain resulting from misunderstanding or mistreatment in a religious environment, it will take time and energy to process the emotional overwhelm. You are moving through a spiritual transition into a healing of your wounds. The Lord knows your heart and pours His compassion into you. The company of heaven bears witness because of you. The atmosphere of His love is alive for you. There is a hidden treasure He is revealing within you! And with it a larger capacity of grace to move through the fire to unearth your Beauty for ashes.

You are in the crucible of divine transformation; the fire that consumes dross and refines gold. You will emerge displaying the splendor and brightness of the heavens, for you are fearfully and wonderfully made!

When Paul talks about rejoicing as we go through fiery trials, it's because it's THE Glory that is to be revealed. That glory is Christ. To the man of flesh this is most painful, as we know. However, to our spirit man this is most glorious: when we catch a glimpse of the New Creation Man standing in the place of ashes within us, we recognize that transformation is taking place!

Death is being swallowed up BY Life! This is THE LIBERTY all creation is groaning for, the manifestation and revealing of the sons of God who are the exact expression of Jesus! No longer in bondage to death and decay, but leading captivity captive into LIFE!

The OT witnesses to this resurrection power in the story of Daniel and his friends. They were thrown into the fiery furnace, but they came out with their bonds burned off and no smell of smoke, because there was a fourth man in the fire.

As we look and see, there will always be a fourth man in the fire with us. He will never leave us. His fire is a fire that burns the dross without destroying us. Yet He is doing it in such an intimate way, that He remains hidden to our awareness, UNTIL..."in a twinkling of an eye" revelation! And that "twinkling of an eye" brings change and transformation when, in the depths of your dying moment, you SEE that death is being consumed, not you!

When we're led of the Spirit, we will hit a wall of testing. Jesus did. Paul did. Every son who is in Christ will hit that wall. This wall is gossip, slander, rejection, judgment, disconnect and being cast out, usually by the established order of those who don't want to lose their position.

To us this feels like we've fallen and can't (or don't want to) get up. The Scripture says a just man falls seven times...

God's ways are above our ways...

What heaven accomplishes in a moment takes time for the natural man to process. It took Moses 40 years! Having been banished from the pleasant courts of Pharaoh, he found himself standing before a bush burning with fire. It was burning without being destroyed. He turned to SEE. He HEARD a voice. He REMOVED his shoes. Nothing of the flesh was to go forward. It was Holy ground.

Jesus left the flourishing courts of heaven to become a man. Heavenly hosts declared it was GLORY to God, JOY to the world, PEACE on earth, and GOODWILL toward man. Thus from the courts of heaven, the Christ Seed fell as a babe into a stable in the lowly town of Bethlehem. At the covenant age of 30, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness; His testing lasted 40 days. He returned in the power of the Spirit and began His ministry on a hillside.

Like Moses and Jesus, our 'casting out' (dying) is for the Glory of our Father; JOY to the world, PEACE on earth, and GOODWILL toward our fellow man. How? Because our "dying" to the lessor is the way to the greater; the measure of the FULLNESS of the stature of Christ IN WHOM we live and move and have our being!

So when our friends become 'offended' by something we believe, or say, or do, it's because it's offensive to the law of tradition. THAT 'law', by the way, is what the Accuser uses to bring judgment against us.

But Christ has FULFILLED the law and NULLIFIED its writ against us (all humanity). NAILED it to the cross. And we feel the piercing of the nails on our cross, as slander pierces our heart and the stripping happens in public view. But when we get the revelation of the finished work of the Cross, and we perceive the language of the New Covenant written upon our heart, we will understand that we were set FREE from THAT law! Because Jesus did a complete work, He defeated all powers and principalities and conquered death and the grave!

So consider now, by what standard are we or any man being measured? And at the same time, by what standard are we measuring ourselves or others?

OT law brings a veil. The Measure of Christ rents the veil.

When we choose love, we choose the fulfilling of the law. We choose Christ as our standard. It is no longer I, but Christ THAT LIVES. It is no longer I, but LOVE that reigns.

Jesus was clear-Loving God, others and ourselves is the more excellent Way. It's the "common union" of the saints. It's the fruit of New Creation Life. We are One Body, One family of God. Members who are linking arms and saying we're in this together; we're here for one another. This is the manifestation of His true ekklesia, demonstrating the LOVE we have for one another. We are continuously drawing from the corporate Well of salvation and merging the resurrection waters within that make up the Mighty Flow of His River of Life!

To this end, Paul prayed that we, with all saints, would comprehend the full measure of His love. He said that his dying was bringing life to others. And herein lies a mystery:

Recall that Jesus said, unless a Seed falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. But if it falls into the ground and DIES, it will bring forth fruit! We are a seed hidden in Christ. In order for a seed to be liberated from its husk (outer man) the plant has to be threshed and ripped apart. The Seed is separated and drops to the ground. Cut off from what was, and now in the New.

This is not the end, but the beginning.

Genesis records that when God created, He first created Light. The Seed knows Light as its source. Its DNA is coded to the sun/Son. It’s the Light that draws it up out of the ground. Those who sat in darkness saw a marvelous Light. The sun arises with healing in His wings.

The Seed falling into the ground (Adam) is Jesus, and because He's in us, we're in Him. The interesting thing that God revealed through my experience was that HE CHOSE THE GROUND into which I fell! In other words, He determined the ground of people/places that were ripe for His life! And because He chooses the ground, He watches over His Word/Seed to perform it! His light is there, His presence is there, His power is there. And it is Holy ground.

There is something about our IDENTITY in Christ, that through our rejection, our being cast aside, LIFE IS SOWN into the soil of our friends. Resurrection happens! Because the Logos of God (Blueprint of all creation) is watching over His Word TO PERFORM IT! His Glory surpasses and bypasses human scrutiny.

Take heart that God is working all things into good for you. He purposed that the ground of your friends and your circumstances were the perfect soil for growth. It will bear fruit to His Glory and His Presence is there to perform His word. It is Holy ground.

Father will lead every son to a burning bush, so that he may turn to see and hear His voice. By removing our shoes, we will cut off the old man. We will walk in newness of Life in the Spirit and fulfill the call of Love. This is the expansion of the Kingdom. We are here for such a time as this!

Lynda Mitchell

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