Posted: 08/12/2015 at 2:09pm
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There’s always a moment.
A space in time, seemingly etched out of eternity. In that moment
when Heaven meets destiny… a vision is birthed. A purpose revealed. A
dream conceived. It is those moments the Greek word Kairos refers to.
It’s meaning is “the appointed time in the purpose of God”, the time
when God acts.
We all have these moments, whether we recognize them or not. If you
take the time to pause and think back over your life, there are
situations that stand out to you. It could have been an ordinary,
mundane day; you were going through the motions and then suddenly
something stands out. You are remembering a significant moment. A
God-moment. I want to share with you a God-moment that I had shortly
after I married Charlie (my super amazing preacher-man husband).
It’s Friday night, around 8 pm. I’m 22, and newly married. Instead of
heading out to the movies or a dinner date, we headed to a prayer
meeting. I had been to several prayer meetings up to this point in my
life. Some in the wee early hours of day, when I am sure not even the
angels are awake. They were quiet, peaceful and most of us laid
prostrate on the floor… seeking our sleep rather than our God. Then
there was the ones I went to in college. These were vivacious, as the
exuberant prayers of young preachers, teachers and students would rend
the barrier between Heaven and Earth creating an atmosphere filled with
electric faith.
I had even been to this church’s prayer meetings before, and as we
were on our way I expected the kind where each person would take the
microphone and pray; declaring and decreeing, prophesying over the
specific topic they were assigned. This was not the case for that night.
It was to be a God-moment, an encounter that branded me. Like the
heated metal of a branding rod, the fiery embossing mark of God would
forever be seared into my heart.
As I sat in my chair, lights dim and others spread about the room, I began to seek God.
Previously that night, Charlie and I had a conversation discussing
Acts 2 and what we knew of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We both grew
up in Pentecostal homes and churches, and both at young ages received
the baptism with the evidence of speaking in tongues. But where was the
evidence of the fire? This is what puzzled us that night, what drove us
to a place of desperation in God.
Luke 3:16-17 states, “John answered, saying unto them
all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh,
the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he
will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his
garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.”
So there I sat, deliberate in my petition before God. My face as flint. I would have the fire.
May I remind you that in a place of desperation, a place of an
earnest heart, you don’t care what others think. You only care for what
your eyes are fixed upon, and mine were stayed upon what Revelation
1:14-16 describes here; “His head
and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were
as a flame of fire;And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned
in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in
his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged
sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”
Momentarily I found myself on the floor, somehow pinned there.
Lacking the ability to move, to even control my hands and arms. I was
frozen stiff at the burning feet of God. It was then, a wave of intense
heat came rushing over me and in a panic I helplessly tried to wriggle
out of the heavy sweatshirt I was wearing. It felt as if molten lava was
pumping through my veins, taking its course through out my body and
purging my soul. Like the Prophet Jeremiah who declared, “His Word is in
my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire shut up in my bones! I am worn
out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!”
I too could not keep it in.
I’m not going to pretend that was the most delightfully pleasant
experience ever in God, because it wasn’t. It hurt. Yet it was
necessary. It was the very thing I was seeking; an encounter with a
living God that would burn so deep his love for me that I would forever
be changed. It was the Baptism of Fire.
So tonight, as you read this. You might think this all a bit too
strange. Or you may just be daring enough to stop playing patty-cake and
have a real experience with the living God. You may need a supernatural
encounter with Him, to know he is real. He is alive and he loves you
with an everlasting love.
“I prayed from a half hour after sunrise to a half hour
before sunset. There was nowhere to pray in the Indian camp. I went into
the woods and knelt in the snow. It was up to my chin. I wrestled in
prayer until a half hour before sunset, and I could only touch the snow
with the tips of my fingers. The heat of my body had melted the snow.” – David Brainerd (American Missionary to Native American- Indians)
“Smart men walked on the moon, daring men walked on the ocean floor, but wise men walk with God.” – Leonard Ravenhill Spirit Fuel
Edited by JaneGreenstein on 08/12/2015 at 2:14pm
__________________ Jane Greenstein
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