0859 New Year, New You - Furnace of Fire

The Furnace of Life

Each month…

322 Christians are killed for their faith

214 churches are destroyed

772 forms of violence are committed against Christians

215 million Christians face high persecution, with 100 million of those living in Asia. Most dangerous places for Christians are #1. North Korea #2. Somalia #3. Afghanistan #4. Pakistan #5. Sudan #6. Syria #7. Iraq #8. Iran #9. Yehem

Suffering happens to the saint, sinner and the Savior. Don’t blame God!!!!

Redeemer (salvation), rebel (still suffers), redeemed (refined, not defined, better, not bitter)

“When you’re born you’re like a key with no cuts in it. As you go through life, each wound, failure, hurt…cuts into that strip of metal. And one day there is a clear click - your pain has formed the key that slips into the lock and opens your future” TD Jakes

If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18

“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Daniel 3:25

Sometimes God delivers you from fiery furnace; other times He makes you fireproof.

1. If you want to be purified by the furnace of life you got to be first consumed by the fire of God. a. Whatever you worship will consumes you. When you are consumed by God you are fireproofed. b. We need stop using God as a means to a goal. Make Him our goal.

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Genesis 15:1 c. Part time Christian can’t defeat a full time devil. Devil is sold out on destroying you. When you cannot find answers. Find God.

2. Faith is not absence of doubt, it’s a refusal to bow to the negative images set up by the enemy. a. Feed your faith and your doubts will starve. Doubt is not absence of faith, it’s the questioning of faith. Doubt is questioning what you believe. Unbelief is a determined refusal to believe. Doubt is a struggle faced by the believer. Unbelief is a condition of the unbeliever. Doubt says “I can’t believe, I need more proof”; unbelief says “I wouldn’t believe in spite of evidence.” Doubt is honest; unbelief is stubborn. Doubt is looking for the light; unbelief is content with darkness. Doubt is born out of troubled mind and broken heart, unbelief is an act of will.

b. Faith and fear have something in common. They both ask you to believe in something you cannot see. Problem - image - stronghold. Promise - faith - mindset “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 c. What matters is not where your life is being pulled to but in where your mind is being pointed to.

Principle of the arrow. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 3. God will reveal His glory through your story

a. God’s glory is not revealed when you come to the furnace but when you come out of the furnace. Not everyone who comes to the furnace gets promoted. Joseph and Samson. Jesus and criminals. 3 boys and Babylonian men b. Before you can GET OUT from the furnace, you have to first GET UP in the furnace. Don’t stay mad at those who threw you there. Pitiful or powerful. Forgive yourself. c. If you want to WALK OUT of the furnace, first learn to WALK IN the furnace. We don’t belong here. When you walk - Jesus will be seen When you walk - robes will be burned. Can’t enter new season with old mindset. Packed for where I am headed.

When you walk - lose the smell. When we stick we stuck. Don’t stink up the new season. Don’t weep, fill your horn with oil.

(WWI, The medic who came to treat him said, ‘I am sorry but you have lost your arm.’ The young soldier replied, ‘Doctor, I didn’t lose it. I gave it.’)

Viktor Frankl, Jew in Nazi Camp, family dead. “Everything can be taken from a man but one: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Prayer Points:

1. Lord Jesus, I repent of any sin standing between me and my freedom. I submit my life to Your word today. I close every door to the devil in my life.

2. Every generational curse, every cast curse, every earned curse be broken in Jesus’ name.

3. Any chain that Satan might have used to connect me to himself let it be broken in Jesus name.

4. In all my faculties, whatever sickness, disease, setback, limitation, inside and outside of my system I command it out.