Intimacy for a lot of people will mean one thing and intimacy for others will mean another thing. When God’s means intimacy it means him being close enough to us for him to affect our lives in a positive way. So that may look very different from one person to another because we all have different needs, and we have different things that God need to do in our lives. So, God wants to draw near, and he wants us to draw near to him. The focus of this area is about conformation into the image of sonship through the process of transformation. We cannot become conformed to God’s image if we don’t change. If we stay the same, we will stay the same. The definition of insanity is keep doing the same things and expecting different results. If there isn’t a change and things don’t change, then we are going to get the same results as we have always got.
So, transformation is key. The purpose of that transformation is so we can be manifested as sons of God, so that we can live in dual realms of heaven and earth. We are a spirit, soul and body and those can be multidimensional and in different places so that we can fulfil creations mandate to restore all things.
Genesis 1:28 God blessed them God said to them be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue and rule, and that’s the mandate of sonship. But to do that we need to be conformed to his image and Romans 8:21 says that creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children God.
So, there is something that we carry or should carry in God’s glory, reflecting God’s glory and being light ourselves that will actually bring freedom to the whole of creation which is at present not free.
So, we been looking at the process of engaging the gateways of spirit, soul and body so that we can have a flow of life to engage the world around us so heaven can flow through us into the world and bring change and transformation to it.
So, cleansing the gateways is really about removing the blockages and the obstacles of that flow so that the river of life can flow through us.
The four chambers of the heart are about engaging God for transformation so we can be conformed to his image, and we can become mature. Because were all sons, it is just there are different levels of maturity that we are all in. And we are all on a journey and were all in the process of transformation and we don’t need to look at anyone else, we just need to look at God and see his image reflected. It says when we look in a mirror, we can see the image of God and change from one degree of glory to another. So, when we look, we need to see how God sees us, not what we would see with our natural eyes.
The flow of life comes through our spirit into our soul, through first Love, and then goes out through us into the world. But we have to deal with familiar spirits so that the flow is not blocked or hindered. In this area between spirit and body (the soul) there is the process of transformation that we must go through.
The soaking room represents the mikvah, that preparation period so that we are ready to engage a covering of God’s presence.
Matthew 11:28 Jesus said come to me and find rest for your soul, gentle and humble in heart. Your identity is reflecting his identity. So, Jesus says we come to him and find rest. But to do that we need to take his yoke upon us, and we need to embrace that yoke, yield in a sense to a higher authority and that will bring peace. And that will bring us to a place of rest. When we are striving and struggling to try and find out what we should be doing rather than being yoked to him and letting him lead us, we are always going to be driven rather than led. God wants to lead us into peace and rest and wholeness and fulfillment. So that we can actually be gentle and humble in heart as Jesus is.
Being gentle is not being weak wishy-washy and a doormat. It actually means having full understanding of strength and that strength being yielded. And the picture in the Greek language was of a stallion having a bit in its mouth being subject to the rider. Humbleness is not I’m nobody, it is actually recognizing his majesty, humbling yourself under God’s mighty hand agreeing with him of what he says. So, when he says you’re a overcomer, nothing is impossible for you, I love you, and your accepted. To say well I’m rejected, and I can’t do anything is actually pride. Because you’re saying you know better than what God says.
So, God has a plan and purpose for your life, a destiny. That destiny needs to be submitted to and agreed with. When we look at our destiny, we may think how could I do this? But nothing is impossible when I’m yoked to Jesus, and I have his strength.
So, this whole commitment of being yoked is like the betrothal process in the marriage. There was a betrothal period where they were joined and then in that process things changed so they could become married.
So, in our sense of being yoked to Jesus it is so that we can be like Jesus and do the things Jesus did in the way he did it. Which was he only did what he saw the father doing. So, there is that sense where we are committed to finding out what God wants us to do on a daily basis and only do that. Then we’ll have all the resources and everything we need to be and to do it.
So, the mikvah, is a preparation process. Romans 12:1 do not be conformed to the world. So that’s the outside in shaping we have all had. So, we need to have the removing of the programming that comes from those things outside of us, it is a key to coming into the fullness of being conformed to the image of God.
So, Romans 8:29 those he foreknew which is all of us he predestined, that’s our destiny it’s to become conformed to the image of his son. So, to be a son, to be in that image, the image of God is creative, powerful in that way. Jesus doesn’t want to be on his own, he came to have many sons and his desire is to have everyone as sons. That’s how all of us were created and that’s how he’s created everybody. He wants everyone to come back into the knowledge of that. So, metamorphosis, transformation, transfiguration all the same Greek word is a process of change to bring spirit soul and body into sonship. There are different processes for the tadpole and for the butterfly which are two examples of metamorphosis in the natural world. One is water and one is fire. Both processes are restricted, the tadpole cannot live outside of the pond and the caterpillar cannot live outside of the cocoon or chrysalis during that season of their life.
Isaiah 43:2 when you pass through the waters I will be with you when you walk through the fire you will not be scorched nor will flame burn you. So, we have to be willing to embrace the water and the fire. God promises he is with us in the process, we are not on our own. Sometimes it can feel like that when the heat gets turned up. We need to embrace the water and the fire for transformation and to be restricted in a way and those restrictions will be different for everybody. For me there were very specific but that place of restriction is a place of preparation so transformation can take place. And it’s like having our heart embracing water and fire.
We are willing to embrace this mikvah process to be transformed. Joseph was prepared in the pit, in slavery, in stewardship and in the prison of obscurity until the time was right when his dreams and destiny would be fulfilled. It’s like don’t try creating the environment or make something happen, follow the journey, be willing to stay on the path and not get off it. Because I’m sure joseph’s path for him was a strange one. I’m sure when he had the dream and the dreams of being in in authority, he didn’t realize he was going go through all that for fulfilling, but actually in following the path that fulfilment was outworked and eventually everyone bowed down to him in that sense as was foretold in the prophecy. Jesus actually was 12 that’s the age of responsibility when he was in the temple, remember the story, his parent lost him and didn’t know where he was. He was in the temple; I must be about my father’s business. So, when we come to the age of responsibility as sons, we have got to be about our father’s business. But it didn’t just happen for him at that point when he was 12, Jesus it says increased in wisdom with God and man in the restriction and preparation of apprenticeship in his father’s earthly business for 18 years so at 12 he saw his destiny to be about his heavenly father’s business and yet he went through 18 years of being in his earthly father’s business and learned and grew in wisdom so that when he was 30 he was then released into the fullness of his ministry. 18 years is a long time, but he was willing to embrace that 18 years and in 18 years there was a process of maturing and increasing wisdom and the seven spirits of God were engaging with him, he was growing to a point where, he was then able to fulfil that role. I doubt whether a 12-year-old boy he would have been able to embrace the cross. We watched the passion of Christ, and it was just like, the impact of what Jesus was willing to go through for our salvation and for our healing was intense so God knew when he would be mature enough to handle that level of anguish of soul in the garden and then a willingness to embrace not my will but yours be done. Now Jesus could have been the greatest rabbi even at 12 because he was able to confound the teachers of the law in the temple but actually he chose the restriction that enabled him to be unveiled as the son of man and the son of God at the right time which was the time a prophetic fulfilment. Esther again as we saw last week 12 months of preparation before she could come in and meet the king. Actually, at the end of Jesus life you see a dark cloud Matthew 27:45 now the six-hour to the ninth hour darkness fell upon the land. A dark cloud, now a lot of people will tell you that was all Demons coming around the cross, it wasn’t, it was God’s cloud. God was in the center of it, so that dark cloud covered the cross. Hebrews 12:2 it says fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith and this is the key to him going through everything he went through, who for the joy set before him and we are the joy, our relationship with him in salvation is the joy that he was willing to go through all the shame of the cross and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God in a position of authority because he was willing to go through the process. Satan offered him the shortcut if you will bow down to me which is following the wrong path, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then I’ll give you all this but he didn’t bow to that. He didn’t surrender to that he followed the journey, didn’t take the shortcut, he had to go through the cross to be enthroned on the right-hand of the father. So that was a convergence of time and eternity a moment in history when God’s eternal presence where Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world actually came into time and space and it converged at Jesus first coming at the cross. Now I believe were at another time a convergence at the end of time leading up to Jesus second coming when eternity and time are coming together in us when we engage eternity when eternity starts to be outwork through us in our destiny then we will begin to see at that time the chain great transformation in the earth. So, eternity, present, future meet where what was in eternity transforms what is, to enable what will be to align with what was. So that the end and the beginning will match. God’s purpose in beginning will be outworked in the end there will be a restoration of all things as spoken by God and all the prophets that he caused to prophesy those things.
1 Corinthians 10:11 so these things happened to them as an example looking at the children of Israel they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:1 says our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. It is a weird thing; we know there was a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire following them leading them, we know Moses when up into the mountain into the smoky place, we sing about it, as Moses did entering into the glory, entering into that place into that dark cloud. But this was written so that we would have an example of what to do. And Moses life is actually an example, they were baptized into Moses. How does that happen. How can you be baptized into a person. It is not a physical person, but it was baptized into what Moses went through. You see Moses embraced the burning bush with a bit of a push. To start with he was fearful, I am not sure can do this. I can’t speak, but he chose to embrace it in spite of the reservations of his soul. Moses engaged the fire and the smoke on the cloud on the mountain even when the others said were not going, you go. Moses actually engaged heaven on the sapphire pavement and received the sapphire cubes of the law and 70 elders went with him. Moses met God face to face it says and he also engaged in God’s back. It wasn’t his back; it was in eternity. How was Moses able to write the first five books of the Torah and Genesis in particular when he never saw it because he saw it from eternal perspective. He saw it from looking forward into it from being in God in eternity. So, Moses was a friend of God, he walked with God in that sense, but he went through preparation periods in Egypt being a foreigner in Egypt, he also went through 40 years in the wilderness. We don’t tend to have to go through 40 years of preparation today 40 days maybe but 40 years no, because now things are accelerating and we have the Holy Spirit in us and with us and it is a different dispensation .Were in a different covenant, but we still need to go through preparation so for me this entailed a two-year season where things were birthed in my life which brought transformation that’s why I brought the transformation series out of that sharing in a sense my own personal journey experiences so that two-year season was becoming more mature as a son of God through a process of discipline and transformation. It was like it was a process of restriction to a degree, looking back on it I can see now what God was doing. At the time, in this place where you are not quite sure, but I walked through the pathways of relationship and responsibility on a daily basis so that they are now my lifestyle. So that with a sense of discipline God was putting me through to develop a lifestyle of transformation, daily cleansing my gateways, opening them seeing a flow, practicing when you know nothing much was really happening, but I kept at it until it became more and more a part of my life and more and more started to happen. Daily presenting myself as a living sacrifice, asking God to strip everything away from outside in. Go through the living sacrifice process, which is a glory one, but being willing to embrace that every day surrendering, denying myself taking up the cross, embracing crucifixion of the flesh because it’s like not my will yours be done I went through that process I don’t want free will. He has given us free will, but I know what free will does. I follow a wrong path when I choose to go my own way. So, I surrender my free will on a daily basis. So, I’m restricting my ability to choose because I don’t want to choose anything other than what he wants. So, I went through this process every day going through it, it wasn’t a random thing. Now I look back and I can see this was all part of the marriage process for me, leading up to consummation, which I shall share the next time in terms of the dark cloud process. But it led me to that dark cloud, the Huppah, the covering, the consummation which enable me to engage the face of God. So literally I became untethered from the earth, that my soul was tethering me to. And my spirit became separated and reintegrated so I can function in two places. That was the whole purpose of this, dual realms living, so that I can live in heaven, live on earth, flow from one to the other just because it’s my daily life. But it took a process of quite deep transformation to enable me to get to that point. Now that enabled me to flow from heaven to earth through that gateway, being a gateway of heaven. So that actually being joined to the Lord, one spirit with him, I can actually expand the tent pegs of my life so the curtain expands so that God’s kingdom can expand because there is no end to the increase of his government and peace. So, I came into a place of peace so his government could increase.
So, the whole soaking room is a place of preparation where the river of life and the river of fire engage us. Soaking to immerse submerge , baptize effectively into the water, into the spirit, into the fire, baptized into the river of fire.
Daniel 7:10 a river fire was flowing, coming out from before him before his throne. The river fire is essentially God’s glory, and we tend to think of the glory as wonderful but actually glory is an intense weight of his presence and intensity of his presence which is represented by fire in this illustration. Not real fire, we are not talking about real flames but an intensity of light that produces heat to transform. For you need heat to transform things so we have infrared light, you can cook with infrared light, we can’t see it. Ultraviolet light where we go out in the sun, and we actually end up tan because there are changes that take place in our skin through that ultraviolet light it produces heat and it changes us. So, the fire of God is intended to change us, so this is a place of refining purification to make us ready to engage God’s person.
So, there are three things you need for fire. Heat, oxygen and fuel as a source. So, God’s glory is the heat, the wind the Holy Spirit, also we have the winds of change (angels) to blow, heat things up because you know you have a bellows over a furnace. when you get a blacksmith. the bellows heats the Coals, because that oxygen produces greater heat and then we have to say who is going to be willing to be the source, the fuel for the fire because we can have the heat, we can have the wind, but there’s no fuel, then that fire is never going to produce anything. So, it’s up to us whether we are willing to be that source because there’s no other fuel for this fire than our soul. It’s our souls that God wants to touch with this fire.
So, fire actually changes things, the composition of the substance at the molecular level actual changes, when it engages fire. So, this whole transformation process, we need heat to increase so that our souls will be changed by God’s fire and his presence. So, heating something, the temperature rises, a transition takes place where the bonds that connect the molecules in that substance start to soften or become looser by the heat, degradation starts to take place, bonds break, decomposition, as a release of gases from that substance. Oxidation takes place where there is combustion and then transformation, is a change in that substance and we can actually look at some illustrations of that but Hebrews 12:29 says our God is a consuming fire. So, when we embrace the glory, God in this way is a consuming fire to change us, release all the stuff that is hindering us, so that we can actually be changed. So, changing the molecular structure of something, when you see that in the example of burning wood, the outer structure of the wood gets really really hot, it releases gases, and you can see often when you burn wood it releases a color and then it turns to charcoal a different substance. And charcoal is very different from wood and can be used the very different things. So, God wants us to embrace this whole process so that the structure of our lives will be changed. Wood is actually changed into a new substance through fire. Our souls can be changed and transformed by fire. Leviticus 9:24 fire came down from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering, which was on the alter, so this fire comes from God is not a bad fire. 2 chronicles 7:1 when Solomon finished praying fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the house. The fire of God filled the house, it was no wonder that they were actually flat on their faces because they couldn’t stand to minister when the fire of God’s presence and his glory filled that temple. This is God’s love, his love is like fire, he does this because he loves us, not because he wants to harm us or punish us, it’s because he loves us too much to leave us as we are. Because he knows the potential that we have as sons to become. And he wants us to become that. This is where your fire never sleeps burn oh my soul set me on fire.
Something new is being born we were born for this. think about what you were born for think about your destiny think about what you need the fire of God to transform that will become ashes so that you can be birthed out of those ashes into something new. Lord, we know the day is coming, actually I believe it is here. It is not something we have to wait for in the future we can embrace it now. When we will look into your eyes and see a fire that never sleeps. I’ve looked into the eyes of fire. It was an intensely emotional experience and my whole scroll of destiny, and the scroll of my life was unveiled, and the fire is not his eyes embraced it because it was tested by fire, it says in Corinthians so do we want to embrace a furnace a crucible are we willing to embrace the fire. That fire is in a crucible. It is not just a wildfire that is raging everywhere. It’s a very condensed purposeful fire that we have to get in, a cocoon or a crucible.
Proverbs 27:21 crucible for silver and a furnace for gold. It is like heat. A place of restriction where heat and pressure are applied to bring transformation or alignment. So, we have lots a scripture. Malachi 3:2 who can endure the day of his coming, who can stand when he appears, for he is like a refiner’s fire, like a fuller soap he will sit as a smelter a purifier of silver, he will purify the sons of Levi. Another words a priesthood, we are all a royal priesthood. And refine them like gold and silver so that, they name may present to the lord offerings in righteousness. What is our offering in righteousness? Being a living sacrifice, an offering we give to God every day, laying our lives down to fulfil our destiny. So, to purify means to purge, to cleanse, to clear, to free, to unburden, to deliver, to relieve. They all synonyms from the dictionary to remove contaminants or undesirable elements, remove dirty or harmful substances from something. To make ceremony clean or pure, to free from guilt or moral or ceremonial imperfection, blemishes and imperfections. To refine, to purify, to clarify, to clear, to cleanse, to strain, to sift, to filter, to distil, make better, to enhance, to enrich, to perfect, to improve, to concentrate, that’s what the fire can do to refine us, to bring us back to God’s original purpose for our lives. To free us as metal, sugar, oil, we have oil refineries, that refine crude oil into something that we can use. It is like if you put crude oil in your petrol tank you wouldn’t get too far, you need to have refined oil as in gasoline, petrol, diesel, to enable the engines to fire, to produce a spark, so again we need our lives transformed so that we can actually ignite and be on fire. To improve something by making changes that’s what refining is. God wants to improve us by making changes to our lives. So, refining with flame is one of the oldest methods of refining metals. In ancient times this form of refining involved a craftsman sitting next to hot pilots. This is where Malachi comes in as a smelter sitting next to the crucible where molten gold in a crucible being stirred and skimmed to remove the impurities or the dross that rose up to the surface and literally the flames needed to reach a temperature of thousand degrees Celsius to be able to cause the dross in the ore to rise up to the surface and then they scooped it off and it wasn’t very easy job. Imagine sitting next to a furnace of thousand degrees and scooping off all the dross that rises to the surface that’s what God is willing to do for us if we are willing to get into the crucible so are we willing to be refined and purified. This is a question everyone has to ask. Are we willing to be metamorphosed into a son of God? It will require heat and it will require a furnace and a crucible to be in. So, the refiner’s fire operates to transform us, the more wind blows the hotter the fire gets. So, when we are asking for the winds of change to blow, we are asking the Holy Spirit to come into that sound of a mighty rushing wind, we are asking for the heat to go up. To enter glory, we must go through the fire of transformation. So, we are changed from one degree glory to another. We are being prepared so that we can eventually engage in God in person.
Another song we used to sing – purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver, purify my heart, let me be as gold, pure gold, purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver, purify my heart, let me be gold, pure gold. This is something that we can ask for, we don’t have to wait for God to bring this, we can ask for this to happen in our life. Refiner’s fire, my heart has one desire is to be holy, set apart to you, Lord I choose to be holy. If you choose to be holy, you’re choosing to embrace the fire. Set apart for you my master, ready to do your will. And the whole purpose of this is so we can be like Jesus only doing what we see the father doing. So, are we willing to look into his eyes of fire, are we willing to embrace the fiery sword of judgement that comes out of his mouth? You say, I am a bit frightened of judgement. Judgement is just a verdict. So, God looks at our lives, passes a verdict and says this isn’t good, this is good, so that which isn’t good can be removed, so the dross in our lives can be removed, if we are willing to let him pass verdict, to judge, to look. We also pray a prayer from psalm 139, search my heart God, put me on trial or try me, test me in the fire. Are we willing to be living sacrifices? A Jesus culture song you provide the fire, I will provide the sacrifice, and that is an invitation. We are actually saying God come in fire and we will be the sacrifices. Am I willing to embrace the alter, I lay my life down that my life can be an offering to God. Fire awaits to provide the heat necessary to refine, purify. Am I willing to stay in the crucible. Some people get in a crucible and it’s so hot that they run they run from the process because it’s not comfortable. It is never comfortable when that level of heat brings dross to the surface, we need the increase in temperature for that dross to rise. Just getting in the fire and jumping back out will never actually do it.
To turn molten rock ore into gold requires intense heat. So, the alter, the crucible, the furnace is all about the fire. So, heat comes through situations and circumstances and relationships in our lives often. God uses the situations we are in to increase the heat so things that are buried or covered up will come to the surface into the light and then they can be scooped off as we surrender, repent, renounce, forgive, go through the processes that we go through. Daniel 11:35 some of those who have insight will fall. What will they fall into? They will fall into the fire, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time. because it is still to come at the appointed time. So, we are in a time where we can actually be refined purged and purified.
Daniel 12:9 go your way Daniel, but these words are sealed until the end of time, many will be purged, purified and refined. So, we are in a time of those things where we can embrace the process. Zechariah 13:9 I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, test them as gold is tested, 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 my God. So, if were fully going to come into that knowledge of being God’s people then we need to embrace the refining and purifying. That is my desire, my one desire to be like you lord, because if it is then I have to be willing to embrace the refining of God’s heart. So increased levels of darkness and heat actually are preparing us for an even darker cloud that is coming. This is just a steppingstone to something greater and deeper. But it’s a key in the process. The mikvah had to be done before the Ketubah and the consummation. Everything is actually leading up to consummation, consummation is not a random process, it is very much a process that God is designed for us to go through. Let’s embrace it, let’s embrace purification so we can be ready to meet the king whether it be the wonderful soaking in oils and frequencies and all that stuff to bring change to us, or the fire, we need both. One touches our body and touches the external things. The other things begin to change us in our soul. Another song we sing many years ago he has fire in his eyes and a sword in his hand, he is riding a white horse all across the land. He is calling out to you and me, he has a crown on his head, he is leading the armies, he is calling out to you and me, will you ride with me, we will stand and up and fight, we will ride with the armies of heaven, to be dressed in white. That’s a song we used to sing about God moving through the land. God is still wanting to move through the land, and he is looking for people who will say yes. I think the course of that is yes Lord we will ride with you. You see that fire in his eyes, it is a love for his bride, he’s longing that you will be with him, riding by his side, he is calling out to you and me, will you ride with me. God’s love is that fire in his eyes, he has such a longing for a pure bride without spot or wrinkle and blemish, that the fire that in his eyes is willing to embrace us. Are we willing to embrace the journey because this is what it was about. The journey is becoming the bride, becoming pure, becoming holy, it isn’t I will have this great big battle, actually the battle is with us, the fight we need to engage is us. The enemies already been defeated. It is actually us that needs to be challenged to ride with him to embrace the fire in his eyes, to allow the purity of his heart to purify our heart.
So, metamorphosis, transformation, transfiguration is that process. A complete change of form into sonship. So, body soul spirit, to spirit soul body. Human being, spirit being, living being, godlike being. The restoration of not just our spirit but our soul and body back into God’s original purpose. So, the butterfly has to go into the chrysalis, come out of the chrysalis having been restricted with heat. There are lots of different chrysalis, some of them look quite pretty on the outside, not so pretty on the inside for the caterpillar. But there are all things that we can engage. The caterpillar body actually is dissolved, it actually turns to a moosh and in intense heat the DNA is triggered and so that the genes for the caterpillar are turned off and the genes for the butterfly at turned on. they were always there but they need heat and this process to switch them over so that then encodes new genes to form a butterfly. That’s the process of metamorphosis we need to go through. The same process, the struggle from the cocoon actually produces the strength to overcome and fly. So, when we are learning to overcome in this process were getting stronger. If you try and help a butterfly out of the cocoon it will never fly because it’s that struggle that pushes the blood through the veins of the little capillaries of the wings that enable them to get stronger. The struggle enables the flight, so let’s not avoid the struggle, let’s not avoid the process, we can encourage and support those who go through the process and God is with us. It doesn’t have to be a complete disaster when we go through this stuff if we embrace it, we can know God’s love, we can know his peace and joy even through the midst of what we go through in that struggle. Don’t try and avoid it, my encouragement would embrace it. I tried to resist it’. But now I can see if I was willing to embrace it, it would have been a quicker process. So, the butterfly then can live in dual realms. It can live on land; it can live in the air. The Caterpillar has no chance of flying. If it falls off a leaf it ends up on the ground. Transformation enables us to live in dual places of heaven and on earth. The whole order and flow of our lives changing. Everything used to go body, soul, spirit, outside in. Now spirit, soul and body inside out, completely different flow. It can be disorientating; it can be a disorientating process. Sometimes it will be like where am I, who am I, what am I, why am I here, what is going on, which is why I’m sharing it. Because I don’t want people to be disorientating. I want you to think this might be something which is leading up to some heat. Embrace it, the cloud overshadows, the Spirit is brooding in this process as we pursue and embrace it. The fire of God’s presence will bring change and transformation. Don’t run from the fire. Look at what happened when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego went into the fiery furnace, someone else was in there with them. God is with us in this process. Jesus is with us in this process. When Jesus went through the cross, the father came in the dark cloud to be with him in the process. Even though there was a separation in one sense because of sin. He was still there in the process with him, he wasn’t in heaven disengaged from the process, he was with him in the process. He wants to be with us. So, if you have a lump of coal which is very useful in certain things. But a fire and coal has a potential to become something else, through the pressure and heat of the trial. James 1:2 consider it all joy when you encounter various trials. You get a diamond out of coal. What is carbon, which is coal, you can also get a diamond formed through heat and pressure. So, you have gold ore becomes pure gold through heat and pressure. So dark restricted, hot disorientated, it may feel like you’re falling apart, but you actually aren’t, your being changed. In fact, you are just being changed into something else, but it does take that heat to do it. Our identity as a son is forged in the fires of adversity and challenge. Doesn’t sound to embracing, but it is actually a really good process because at the end of it, things have changed. When we get these scriptures, embrace the scriptures. James 1:2 consider it all joy. We must have joy in the process, you can still have joy because joy is not happiness based on external circumstances, joy is something that is imparted to us in the presence of Jesus. My joy I give to you, so your joy can be full. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. I’m sure we all want to be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. To do it we have to go through the testing to get to that place.
Acts 14:22 strengthening the souls of the disciples encouraging them to continue in the faith saying through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom. There are processes we go through that God will use, so essentially the marriage requires a Ketubah. The Ketubah requires a michvah. That process deepens when we embrace it, when we embrace it willingly. Engaging the soaking room opens up realms of heaven for us to also engage in this process. There is fire in heaven, the river of fire is flowing, but there are other places of fire. So, is not just when you’re in the soaking room you find that heaven opens up, if you are willing to embrace it, the fire opens it up. Embrace the places of fire there. One is the judgement seat where that consuming fire of God’s eyes can purify the wood, hay and stubble of our scroll and bring more capacity to have gold, silver and precious stones. The alter in the temple where Isaiah went, where our DNA engages fire, engages it to unravel and purify our DNA. We can engage the alter, the seraphim, the burning ones are there also and can engage us in the process they can bring tongs with coals from the alter and touch areas of our lives to purge and purify iniquity from us. All part of the process, the river of fire flowing from the ancient of days. So, we have these scriptures. Psalm 139 talks about our scroll. God is looking at the scroll of our life, does it match up with the scroll of our destiny. If not, will we be willing to have it unveiled and the fire touch it so our lives can match up, this is what God wants. There are scriptures about the judgement seat of Christ 2 Corinthians 5:10, 1 Corinthians 3:11-13 if we build with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, the quality of the work will be tested by fire not the quantity. A lot of people are interested in quantity, how many works can I do. Gods only interested in quality, the things that he wants us to do. So that’s what gets tested, the quality of the work, not how many things there are. The transforming fire of God can consume all those things that are not him, so that we can have more of those things that he designed us to have. Isaiah 6 we have this whole thing of the temple filled with smoke again, filled with the presence of God and the fire of his presence. Nothing can hide from the fire of his presence. It will be revealed if we come and place our hearts on the altar. That’s when we can start to see things as they really are, it gets even down to a generic level to purify and refine the seed of our lives. Isaiah 6 again the seraphim come with those altars and it’s like we can embrace this. Be open to embrace and engage it actively. God asked me to place my heart on the altar of that temple every day, and I do every single day every single day, I can be unraveled and undone and actually he can actually purify my heart. Luke 9:23 he was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, whoever wishes to lose his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. So, when we surrender as a living sacrifice, willing to lose our life we get a better life back, a resurrected life, a new life in him. So, we need to be willing to follow Jesus. As an example, he laid down his life for us, he self-sacrificed himself, not my will but yours be done. In the garden he embraced that fire himself. Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. We must go through the same process, a willingness to become a sacrifice. And I can receive the same result which is a new life and ascension into being seated at the right hand of the Father in Christ, accessing all the blessings of God in the spiritual realm. So, deny myself, denying self-rule, everything of self really must be surrendered. Me, myself and I need to die, and this is the process that we go through. And it is a process that is not easy to embrace. this is a season we go through. So, we need to die to self-centeredness which is really difficult to die to. Because actually we are the center of everything that goes on in our life. But it’s actually the focus and purpose of what goes around our life which changes. Were still the center of our life, God is actually working through us and in us and flowing through us. So, we become a channel for God’s glory not our own. That’s what changes, because were not focused on self anymore, even though we are involved in the process. So we become led by the Spirit not driven by the soul and there is a very big difference between being led by the spirit and driven by the soul. Our needs can be met from inside out rather than outside in. Selfishness is putting myself above everybody else. Jesus said I have not come to be served but to serve. So, Jesus although he was a king laid down his Majesty and came to serve the father and us. It is a whole different attitude. He is the servant, King; he is described as in a song. I can seek to serve the father as a son of God rather than I want God to serve me. Or I want other people to serve me. I’m here to serve the world and to fulfill my destiny in bringing order and restoration to it. So, we need to die to self-importance, self-promotion, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, even self-belief, anything that has got self-attached to it. It does not produce good fruit. We have no self-righteousness, self-help, self-expression, all these things. Where is the self-coming from, the soul not the spirit. So, when soul and spirit come together it’s like there’s the correct self that gets released which is sonship. So, anything that is derived from self really is negative. However hard we find it, we need to surrender it, and it can be quite difficult to let go of these things, self-respect, self-esteem, self-worth. Well surely these are good things. No, because they come from self. I want respect, esteem, and worth to come from another source. So, my self-respect comes from what I have done myself. I did it my way was another famous song. Self-esteem, self-worth comes from what I can do in my own strength, it is following the humanistic path that Satan offered Adam and Eve, the knowledge of good and evil and it requires covering up with fig leaves, hiding from God’s presence because of fear. I want my self-esteem to come from how God sees me, from knowing that I’m a child of God from knowing the love of God, from knowing the value that he places upon my life, that’s what gives me a sense of esteem, my worth comes from knowing I’m God’s child. That he loves me, has a purpose for me, my image is not how I view myself but it is seeing myself as God sees me. If we could really see ourselves the way God sees us I think it would transform everything. The more I begin to look and see what’s reflected back from God’s image of what I look like, it changes because I become what I behold. So, the more I look at what God says and what he shows me the more I become like that. So, I can only be the truly me that God patterned in eternity, fully dead to the world as my source. That independent source that is offered which is the shortcut doesn’t work. So there has to be a death on the alter if there is going to be true resurrection life and dual realms, living that’s God’s desire for us. 1 Corinthians 6:17 the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. Romans 8:29 of those he foreknew he predestined to become conformed to his image. This is what the whole soaking is about. Am I willing to pay the cost no matter what it is. Am I willing to embrace the crucible and the fire, so transformation is the result guaranteed. Guaranteed result if we willing embrace the process.
Jesus is knocking, we can open that first Love gate. Activate the eyes of your heart enter into that place. Begin to think about that door. Begin to picture the door, that will handle on your side, reach out by faith open and invite his presence, were invited in the presence of his glory and fire. Just begin to picture the glory in the fire of God’s presence surrounding you, enveloping you. The river of fire is flowing, just engage that river, let it flow through your spirit into your heart. He’s with you walking in the fire as that fire flows into your heart. Just embrace the crucible. In the fire, refining, purifying fire of God’s glory all the dross, all the things that hinder you, flow to the surface. Go through the fire so that you will become a mirror reflecting his glory.