Posts Tagged With: fire

The Midst of the Fire

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Mrs Knochel

Deuteronomy 3:23-6:15

“Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire.” Deuteronomy 4:12

“Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire as you have heard, and still live?” Deuteronomy 4:33

“The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain.” Deuteronomy 5:4-5

“For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived? Go near and hear all that the LORD our God will say, and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.” Deuteronomy 5:26-27

It never ceases to amaze me when a theme emerges from the reading that I so “randomly” put together. It always just proves to me how un-random God really is. He is such a God of order and design, guiding us each and every step of the way; even when we’re not paying attention.

Today’s theme is centered on the fire. The LORD is an all consuming fire and He speaks through it to us. What is He saying to you today? Are you avoiding the fire out of fear and allowing someone to stand between you and God allowing them to interpret His words for you?

Look at the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Where was God in that fire? Look at the story of Moses and the burning bush? Where was God in that fire?

There are plenty of fiery situations that we go through in life, need we be afraid of them knowing the likelihood that God is in the midst of them waiting for us to draw near to Him and hear what He has to say to us through the fire?

“To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides Him. Out of heaven He let you hear His voice that He might discipline you. And on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.” Deuteronomy 4:35-36

Categories: 365 Life, Deuteronomy, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Resisting Compromise

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Mrs Knochel


Daniel 2:1-4:18

“Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” Daniel 3:15

Wow! Is anybody else noticing a pattern here? “Who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” Now where have we heard that before? Hmmmm… Oh Yeah! Just two days ago from the mouth of the king of Assyria, Sennacherib! It’s almost as if it’s not the kings saying it, but perhaps someone behind them. Someone… sinister and evil, and hell-bent on driving God’s people to extinction… someone devilish like, oh I don’t know, Satan perhaps?

You see, Satan is doing his utmost best to destroy us. But what Satan intends for our destruction, God intends for our GOOD. In today’s reading we find the beloved story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Three men of God, friends of Daniel’s, who refused to bow to the pressure of the king.

Yesterday we talked about the pressure that Daniel had to withstand in order to “just say no” to the king’s food and now today we find his friends (who also resisted the king’s food) in an even bigger pickle than before. Before it was just the food that they were eating, that was a big test at the time. But this, this was WAAAAY bigger than food. This was bowing to an enormous idol. And not doing so would result in death by fire! I mean, what food to eat, that’s one thing. But worshiping another god, that’s just unthinkable!

Or is it?

We tend to do it every day without ever giving it another thought. In Who Do You Trust I talked about some of the idols that we worship (money, doctors, medicine a hospital); the things or people that we place our trust in to save us from our difficult situations.

Let’s take Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego for instance. They could have bent under the peer pressure and done what EVERY OTHER Hebrew there was doing to save their own skin and they could have bowed and worshiped the golden idol. But they didn’t do that.

They were friends with Daniel, who at this point had risen pretty high in the ranks among the king’s officials. They could have played their friend card with Daniel and tried to use his influence to get out of this situation. But they didn’t do that either.

Under the greatest of pressure they didn’t cave and they didn’t compromise, they trusted in God. Period. They stood firm in their faith. Which was no easy task, I might add!

Categories: 365 Life, Daniel, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Busy Mom’s Morning Prayer

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Mrs Knochel

As Christians and as mothers, we are waging war in a supernatural showdown all day every day of our lives. Therefore life requires that we put on the full armor of God every morning. But sometimes, as busy moms, we just don’t have a lot of time to pray through the Bible every morning to cover ourselves. God blessed me with most of this prayer about 6 months ago, and I can tell you from experience that He answers it immediately every time and that it is very powerful. So yesterday when He made the light bulb above my head turn on and reminded me of this sweet little breath prayer. He also called me to compare it to the elements of the armor of God in Ephesians 6, and I was amazed at the results.

“Come Holy Spirit, fill me with Your fire so that I may be more like You; help me, I trust You.”

“Come Holy Spirit,” – “Belt of Truth buckled around your waist”(v14) & “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (v17): In John 16:13 Jesus tells us “But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes and guides you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.” So simply by me saying “Come Holy Spirit” I am putting on the belt of truth and I am picking up the Sword of the (Holy) Spirit, which is the word of God. I am calling God to come and be with me today. I am asking Him to come into my situation and live through me. “Come Holy Spirit”, guide me with Your light. “Come Holy Spirit” speak Your words with my tongue today. The word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, it is THE weapon that we use against the Enemy, and the Bible is filled with them! “Come Holy Spirit” and teach me Your words, Your wisdom, Your grace, Your love. “Come Holy Spirit”.

“fill me with Your fire” – “with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” (v15): When the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at Pentacost (Acts 2) it came in tongues of fire that danced above their heads (this was before they had light bulbs of course). Have you ever heard the expression “She is really on fire for the LORD”? When we are “on fire” for something we’re excited about it, we’re ready to tell people about it. And honestly, the gospel of peace is exciting! God’s love is exciting. His grace is exciting. And let me tell you, I’ve been praying this part of the prayer for 6 months, the more often you pray it, the more on fire you will get for God and His gospel of peace! I have prayed this prayer for just about everything under the sun. Wisdom, discernment, help, courage, when I sneeze and there’s no one around to say “God bless you”… “Come Holy Spirit and fill me with Your fire”, it’s an invitation to God to fill you and use YOU for His good purposes on this earth! To use YOU to change the world! “Fill me with Your fire!”

“make me more like You” – “with the breastplate of righteousness in place” (v14): Abraham was declared righteous, not because of his deeds but because of his faith. Faith is our belief in action. Jesus’ death on the cross pays for the debt our sins create between us and God. The blood stained cross declares each and every one of us righteous (or pure) in God’s sight. However, we have to believe that it’s true and then live out our lives in that belief, or “walk in faith”, that it is true and that even though we are human and not perfect, we ARE forgiven, which makes us righteous. A breastplate usually has the royal crest emblazoned on it, declaring whose army you belong to; under whose authority you speak. As Christians, we are children of God Almighty the King of kings. We are not only warriors, we are royal warriors with the righteous symbol of God’s authority emblazoned on our chests. And it is with this very authority that we are able to stand up to the Enemy and WIN! We have been given the authority of Christ’s shed blood to tell the attacking Enemy forces “to report to Jesus immediately” and they must obey. So when we pray “fill me with Your fire so that I may be more like You” we are asking God to fill us up with His shed blood, placing that breastplate of righteousness over our chest and with it His authority over the Enemy. His righteousness covering our humanity. Covering the nakedness that we were once ashamed of; no longer.

“help me,” – “Take the helmet of salvation” (v17): In Romans chapter ten, verses nine through ten we read “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Now I know that for someone who hasn’t been raised in the church this could be a difficult passage to read and understand so let me break it down a bit for you. 1) “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord'” – The word “Lord” is a term of respect that voices the acknowledgement that you are giving Jesus power, authority and ownership over you life. You need to speak out loud your decision to let Jesus be the one in charge of your life instead of you. Now there are all kinds of “sinners prayers” out there that you could pray, but according to this scripture it can be as simple as “Jesus is Lord”. 2) “believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” – So very much of the Bible centers around belief, and honestly, the helmet of salvation centers around it too. The Bible tells us multiple times that Jesus died on the cross, was buried and dead for three days, and then on the third day He rose from the dead and for a period of 40 days appeared to a multitude of people who then gave witness to the fact that He was indeed alive. So the question you have to ask yourself is, “Do I believe this to be true?” I pray that you’ve answered “YES!” 3) “you will be saved” – Yes, it really is as simple as that! Verse ten explains it to us a little more; that when we believe in our heart that Jesus did die for us personally, then we are justified (which means He made it so that it was just-as-if-I’d never sinned). Salvation is simple, there is no real action required on our part aside from belief and a confession of that belief. Romans 10:13 tells us “for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” – see, just call on Jesus. No work on the part of man can save him (I believe this includes confession of sins), because Jesus did it all for us to make it as simple as possible so that all who believe will be justified and they will confess with their mouths and be saved! Salvation is the pathway to the Garden of Relationship with Christ and this is where all the healing takes place. The confession of sins and asking for His help with them takes place within the enclosed walls of the Garden of Relationship and is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to it. (I can not stress this enough!!!!!!!) Honestly, I don’t know that true healing could take place without it. “Help me”, is our daily cry to Jesus. “Help me” to be the person You want me to be. “Help me” to stop doing the things that I did in the past that got me into trouble. “Help me” to be a better mom. “Help me” to live the life I’ve always dreamed of. “Help me” to get through this dark place that I’m living in right now, shine Your magnificent light on me. “Help me”, so small, and yet so VERY VERY profound.

“I trust You.” – “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (v16): This is one of my favorite truths that I love to share with people. When God revealed the shield of faith to me I’m glad that I was already on the floor because if I hadn’t been I would’ve hit it! Turn with me, if you would, to the Psalm of Protection, Psalm 91 and look at verse 4. “He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge; HIS faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” Now I’ve heard a lot of sermons on these passages of scripture and I have to tell you that NONE of them left me feeling any better about being able to fend off the Enemy… because everything depended on me! Did I know the truth? Was I righteous? Was I ready? Did I know the gospel message well enough? Was I faithful enough? Was I saved? Did I know enough scripture? It’s enough to make a girl want to scream “NO! I DON’T! I CAN’T! I GIVE UP!” But look at it right there in your Bible! It’s not MY faithfulness that shields me from the Enemy! It’s HIS! Praise God Almighty in heaven its HIS faithfulness that protects me! it’s HIS faithfulness that never fails! Mine? HUH! All the time! But not His, His faithfulness is unending. His faithfulness is eternal. His faithfulness is more than enough. His faithfulness doesn’t just shield me from one side only like most shields do. OH NO! His faithfulness is a force field that surrounds us in a bubble of protection that not even laser beams or nuclear weapons can penetrate! Hallelujah Praise the LORD for His love endures forever! Isn’t that just the best news you’ve ever heard? I mean as a mom I am pulled a thousand different directions. My daughter needs this from me, my son wants that from me, my husband needs me to do this for him, my friends need help with something, my ministry needs my attention, our family members… the list goes on and on and on! It is so comforting to know that GOD CAN HANDLE IT! That His faithfulness is ALL we need. That we can say “I trust You” and step into that force field of peace and know that no matter what fiery missiles the enemy tries to launch our way, we’ve got our bubble of peace powered by GOD’S FAITHFULNESS.

“Come Holy Spirit, fill me with Your fire so that I may be more like You; help me, I trust You.”

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Why God?: Under Pressure

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Mrs Knochel

Tamar: My Dearest Jesus, You know that I have nailed myself upon Your cross and allowed You to come down off of it to live within me and through me, right? OK. So why is it that there are times in my, OK, OUR life when I feel You calling me so strongly to take a leap of faith and trust You on something only to feel like that leap of faith lands me flat on my face? Lord, I thought the idea of a leap of faith was for You to catch us, not let us fall! So why are those times when I KNOW I am following Your lead and living according to Your will and things still fall apart? Why does that happen? Why is it that in those times where the pressure seems so intense that it feels like I’m in a pressure cooker and I’m wondering where I went wrong, You can be so deathly silent! What is the purpose? What do You mean that You do it for our good? (Rom 8:28) It sure doesn’t feel good! So how can it BE good?

Jesus: Beloved Tamar, Yes, I do work all things for the good of those who love Me and are called according to My purpose. No, they may not all feel good at the time, but that pressure is for your good and for the good of those around you as well. It is my fingers molding the clay of your life into the shape that I want it to be. There will be times in your life where the pain will be a piercing one, a gouging if you will. It is in those times where I am using the tool that I created (Isa 54:16) to form you into the exact thing I am intending for you to become. My love, you mention feeling like you’re in a pressure cooker, so I’ll use that example to illustrate My point. You use a pressure cooker to cook a meal faster than cooking it in the oven or on the stovetop. The pressure inside the cooker aids in speeding up the cooking time of the final product correct? Well, that is precisely what I have been doing to you My love. You asked Me what My will for you and your life was and I told you. You obeyed and stepped right into the furnace of My very own pressure cooker of life. It may not be feeling so great at the moment, but believe Me when I tell you that this temporary pressure and the lessons that you are learning through it are ever so much better than the alternative that would’ve come around if you had not followed My directions for your life! It would’ve taken twice as long! And Beloved, it only feels like you’ve fallen on your face is not that I actually let you fall. On the contrary, when you took that leap of faith I snatched you back up so quickly and placed you into the cleft of the rock so that I could cover you with My hand to protect you from My glory as I walked past! (Ex 33:12-23) Open your eyes Beloved as I remove My hand, look carefully and You will be able to see My footprints before you as you emerge from the rock that surrounded you and step out into the blinding light of day again. Yes, the darkness was intense and the pressure was near crushing during your time there, but that is only because I could not bear to allow you to leave that place and risk losing you to the Enemy. The battle that was waged was fierce, and it was all for you and your soul and your welfare. But do not be afraid, for you are worth more than many sparrows (Matt 10:31) and I love you with more fierceness than he hates you with. And THAT is all that you need to concern yourself with My Dove (SOS 2:14). He may hate and curse you, but I love you and I bless you and I will keep you safe from him and his schemes as long as you continue to follow my lead. Do not feel like your following me is all in vain, do not believe the Enemy’s lies that he is having his henchmen feed you! Following Me and My lead is worth every sacrifice, every pain and every sorrow, and not just when you get to heaven either. It’s worth it NOW! Think about all the things that you learned in that pressure cooker you just came out of! Could you have learned so much in a green pasture? No my love, you wouldn’t have. Trust Me, this way IS best and is necessary. You are now able to step from this experience into a time of teaching and helping others learn from YOUR experience! Isn’t that in itself worth it all? To be able to make an impact on someone else’s life?

Tamar: Jesus, I’m sorry. You’re right. Of course. 🙂 Thank You for the perspective check. I should’ve remembered that You never waste a hurt or allow us to go through something that isn’t going to be best for us in the end. No matter how painful. I should have remembered that You did not deliver Shadrack, Mesack and Abednego FROM the firey furnace but rather helped them get THROUGH it which in turn saved so many more than just those three men in the fire. (Dan 3) Yes, it is worth it and yes I did learn a LOT in that dark and pressure filled environment. I’m sorry that I acted so childishly while I was in there. And how much I squirmed under the pressure instead of just being still and allowing You to do Your work. (Ps 46:10)  It’s just so hard to see in there!

Jesus: I know My love, but you also need to remember that I know the future. I knew that this is how you would react to the pressure. I knew that you would struggle and squirm under My firm hand. And because I knew, I was neither surprised, nor disappointed in you. Your outbursts towards Me, did still sting Me, as I was only helping you, but I forgive you and you need to forgive yourself My dear. If you can not forgive yourself, the Enemy will hold it over you and use it against you and that is the last thing that I want to happen to you! I died to make sure that he couldn’t do that to you, but only you have the power to claim that blood and hold it up as a weapon against him and his attacks on you. If you don’t run and hide behind Me it makes it much more difficult for Me to protect you. Don’t forget that either. I love you so much My Dove, please don’t mistake your pain for My displeasure of you. It couldn’t be farther from the truth! I am SO pleased with you, that’s why I’m pruning you! (John 15:1-17)  To make you even BETTER! Fear not My Dove, together, we can do ANYTHING!!!

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