And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. (Zec 13:9)

The refining fire of the Lord is to be found in the furnace which we call our lives and the world. Now there are different degrees of fire, some are hotter than others. They all refine, yet the greater the fire the greater the refinement for those in whom faith reigns. Now a man or a woman can say that he or she has faith but who can know it but the fire knows. It is in the storm and in the fire that faith blazes brighter than the flame. Does faith reign in your life? Is your trust in Jesus the essence of who you are? Can we believe our own hearts in this matter or must it be the fire that reveals all? The fire reveals and consumes the dross in our lives, if we stay in the fire.

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. (Dan 3:17-19)

When the Hebrew children are confronted with he who represents the world and the world demands that they bow down to their gods, they refuse. And this refusal to bow down to the gods of this world causes fury. The heat of the furnace was increased sevenfold. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace(Dan 3:23)

The time is coming soon brothers and sisters where it will be required of the saints that they bow down to the gods of this world, in fact it has already begun. When you refuse, the fury of the world will begin to rise until it shall burn with a ferocity against us that has never been seen before and we shall” fall down,” in the midst of this fire and the world will rejoice.

And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:4-8)

Yet even when the world should think that they have overcome the saints because they have made them to fall down in the furnace of afflictions, the world will look again and they will see something most remarkable. In the midst of the great tribulation of the saints the world will see the Son of Man shining through like heavenly gold in the very center of their sufferings. And in the end the world will see the Son of God coming in His glory and they will acknowledge , just like Nebuchadnezzar that ” there is no other God that can deliver.”

So brothers and sisters. Rejoice in your triumph in the midst of your trial. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. (Zec 13:9) You see, your reward is your relationship with Jesus. You can call upon His name and the Lord hears you and speaks to you and you are His child and He is your God. And for all eternity you will look back at your sufferings and know that in choosing to suffer with the Lord and counting it as a small thing you now rule and reign with Christ forever. Stand fast brothers and sisters. The Lord sees your afflictions and is with you in the midst of them.

1Pe 3:14 But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;

2Ti 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

The dark night of the soul is not something pleasant to go through and does not end with a fellowship supper after church on a Sunday night. It is a grueling experience that requires an absolutely strict detachment from everything that you normally rely on so that you are only left with Christ.

The dark night of the soul separates those who are genuinely interested in following Christ from those who just have a curiosity about the deep things of God. We surely want God to do His work in our lives, but we want the lights left on. We want God to do in our hearts and lives that which will bring Him honoring glory, but we want to know and understand every step that He takes in our lives.

Darkness speaks of not knowing. We want God to do, but we want Him to do what He does within the scope of our comprehension. The dark night of the soul, however, is a work of the Holy Spirit that exceeds the ability of any man or woman to understand. When we come through the dark night of the soul, we do not know what has really happened to us, but we do know what has made it happen (A.W.Tozer)

Tozer is here talking about the dark night of the soul. This is a concept well-known to the Body of Christ. Tozer describes it very well in the above quote. I would say that for centuries men here and there have went through this experience and they have had a profound effect on the Body of Christ. It is a kind of refiners fire that purges away reliance upon anything else other than God. It has happened to individuals and small groups of people but now I want to suggest that God is taking the Body of Christ, the genuine saints, the remnant, through a dark night of the soul corporately so to speak. He is and has been and is continuing to separate his children from ailing and compromised institutions. He is drawing them out. And as they come out He is drawing them into the desert. Now the desert is typically a place of death but the saints in their dark nights of the soul, in their journey to complete dependence upon Him will find life in the desert.

Perhaps you are being drawn out? It is scary. You are full of doubt, you are surrounded by darkness, you cannot hear from the Lord or discern His purpose for your life but you are being driven. As much as you cannot see the way ahead you know you cannot stay in a place of compromise and lukewarmness. No one understands you where you are. When you speak of deeper things and desiring to take up your cross for Christ people look at you like you are an alien. So you are driven. Driven into darkness and solitude and loneliness. Driven to a place where your only fellowship is the Lord Himself and His word. This is alien at first but the longer you journey into this place the more you realize the wonder and the glory of complete dependence upon the Lord for all of your spiritual needs. He is establishing your feet upon a broad place. He is equipping you to be a light in the gross darkness to come. He is enabling you to be a source of encouragement to the Body of Christ in the age in which we live.

As the saints come out of this desert I believe God is drawing them to each other. All around the world in the days to come God is drawing His Body together after they have come through the darkness and complete separation from the world and now completely rely on Him. He is and will continue to equip the saints in every generation for what they have to face. I believe our generation will face the greatest darkness that has ever faced the Body of Christ universally. Men and woman of the past whom the Lord brought through the dark night of the soul, as few as they were, had a tremendous effect on the Body of Christ. Imagine what effect the Body of Christ will have on the world when the Lord has finished His work of taking His Church through this experience.

But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts. (Mal 3:2-5)

I give you rags, you give me wedding garments. I give you ashes, you give me beauty. I give you dry bones, you give me flesh. I give you sadness , you give me joy. I give you a spirit of heaviness , you give me a spirit of praise. I give you my failures, you give me a way ahead. I give you my temptations, you give me a way of escape. I give you my anxiety, you give me a peace that surpasses understanding.I give you lies, you give me truth. I give you my ambitions, you give me satisfaction. I give you past hurts, you give me reconciliation. I give you my wounds, you bind them up and they are healed. I give you my perversions, you give me purity.I give you my heart and my soul and all that is within me holding nothing back . It is painful and humiliating to come before your alter with only these things Lord. Brothers and sisters, the altar has always been a place of sacrifice, we have turned into an ” all you can eat bar,” where one simply chooses what one wants. God have mercy on us and restore a right spirit within us…..bro Frank

Isa 61:3 to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the mantle of praise for the spirit of heaviness; so that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that He might be glorified.

What have we come to, that the people of God are not shocked enough by Calvary, a man dying on a cross on a hill outside Jerusalem? And not just a man, but the God-man, dying for the sins of the world? Why does this leave them dull and unmoved? The recent outbursts of modern theatrics has now taken over Protestantism. What started in the beginning as a small seed has grown;the dragon’s seed has grown more dragons. The seekers of God do not like what is happening and the hungry-hearted saints of God do not want it, so they read with great eagerness the lives of holy men in the devotional books from centuries past. But where is the doing? (A.W.Tozer)

Tozer wrote this back in the early 60s. Can I suggest that the combination of theatrics and entertainment in general have swamped the churches of today. If there were dragons about in the early 60s, one might well argue that the dragons now reign supreme. If the seekers of God did not like what was happening back then, they must surely be beside themselves now at what has unfolded as the modern Church? If they were hungry back then, they must surely be on starvation diets now? Can I suggest that the whole process has been part of Gods plan for His people. God is found in the arena of hunger. He is found by those who thirst after nothing but the living waters. Now there are many waters and many kinds of foods but there is only one living water and only one food that ever satisfies the hungry heart of the God seeker. Both are found when we encounter Him. God has to separate a people so that He can strip away centuries of traditions of men who more often than nought simply follow the winds of the world. Are you a God seeker or a pew warmer?

I was walking this morning and praying and this thought came to my spirit. ” What does victory look like,” and the Lord spoke into my heart. Victory for the Christian almost always comes against a backdrop of darkness. Some battle against the flesh, some taking up our cross, some trial or tribulation. These circumstances, these events bring to the fore a confrontation. If we look at the biggest picture of all it is darkness against light. By the very nature of who you are in Christ you are walking in confrontation. We know that the Scriptures tell us that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”(2 Tim:3:12)

Interesting is it not that even the desire to live a Godly life will bring about immediate confrontation. Maybe you have noticed this in your own life? And why is this? Because it is fundamentally at its root a spiritual battle that we face.Living Godly lives is a disaster for Satan because of the witness that Godly lives are to the world. I want you to know that when I use the phrase Godly I mean victorious overcoming lives. In the verses that precede verse 12 we see that victorious living is in juxtaposition to people who have a form of godliness but who walk without victorious power. They are ever learning but they never come to the knowledge of the truth. The Godly man is the victorious man. He walks in the power of the Spirit and He has knowledge of the truth. Knowledge in the true sense of that word. Not head knowledge but an intimate knowledge of the Truth.

And so what does victory look like? Well it looks like Gethsemane. It looks like Calvary. It looks like an empty tomb and it looks like an ascension up into heaven where the Lord finds His place at the right hand of the Father. This is what victory looks like and this is the process that all of us who would desire to live a Godly victorious life find ourselves in. There is no other way. You will be confronted if you desire to live a victorious life. And it is how you react to that confrontation that will determine the kind of life that you will ultimately live for there is no other kind of life in the Kingdom that is a witness for Christ than the victorious overcoming life.

And so the first part of victory, for it is made up of parts, is surrender to the will of God no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. You must remember that the circumstances you find yourself is not the problem, nor are the people who play their roles in your circumstances. People will always act according to their nature. A key point to remember as you face the trial or the persecution or the circumstance is that this is for the glory of God. And please, do not get me wrong brothers and sisters, I am not underestimating the pain of your trial. Yet the darkness of your situation will become the black velvet backdrop for the glories of Christ in your trial. We know that jewelers set their diamonds and gold on black velvet because it highlights the shining beauty of the gold and the gems. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood and agonizing about the cup that He faced is our perfect example of this.

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