A House on Fire...

"You don't have to advertise a fire..."

                               -Misty Edwards

So I have this dollhouse that my nieces and nephew like to play with. One day I was walking past it in the hallway and I noticed all these little red men in. At first I thought they were army men but upon looking closer, I realized they were firemen. I giggled and started to walk away but then decided to take this picture...something told me the Lord had something to tell me about it.

In a way, we are all firemen. We love to put out the flames. We love to stop the burning and the destruction. We can't embrace the heat. But what if we let the flames rise? What if we let them burn? What if we let them destroy anything and everything around us? 

OK....OK....I know what you're thinking. "Jeez, Amanda. Morbid much? How many episodes of Criminal Minds have you been watching?"

"Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain..." Psalm 127:1

But stay with me here. What if we became men of fire? What if we learned to embrace the heat and destruction? Well..spiritually speaking that is.

So many times through out the Bible, we see the Lord and fire go hand and hand.

When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, the Lord gave them a pillar of fire at night to give them light ( See Exodus 13)

He also used fire to get Moses attention when He spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. 

(See Exodus 3)

The outpouring of the Spirit gave the disciples tongues of fire ( See Acts 2 )

You see when God moves, fire happens. He is an all consuming fire. (See Deut. 2:24 )

To the Lord, fire is a good thing. Its purifying. Its illuminating. It gets your attention. 

We get so bent out of shape when trials happen in our lives. We get angry when the heat gets turned up. But a little fire in the house is good. A lot of fire in the house is great. He uses the fires, or trials, of life to test our faith...to build our character. (Boy don't I know this is true... been through a few myself.)

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,  so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him.Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:6-9 ESV

There will be a fire to cleanse and a fire to ignite. He will destroy every unclean thing so He can set you ablaze with purity and conviction.

Be a man of fire. Let it consume you. Don't run away from it. Run towards it. Let it burn so hard people come running to watch. Let them get warm from the heat. Then show them how to get set on fire too.

Here's an awesome song for you. Jesus Culture performing "All Consuming Fire". See if this doesn't get a spark going :)