Escaping Through the Flames
Do you hear Jesus knocking? OPEN THE DOOR! Escape the flames!
Would you rather have a flame that perfected you in the sight of God, or one that destroyed you? I know my answer! In the Spirit, there are doors to OPEN, and doors to SHUT or KEEP SHUT. It may seem strange, but today’s topic is going to be flames and doors.
On the day I originally wrote this, a couple little sweet moments happened in preparation for my day.
A couple of weeks ago, during episode number 7 called “Stillness”, I had intended to move to a couple of related topics in what seems to be becoming a little series. I mentioned it at the end of my podcast episode, and Lord willing, I’ll be posting those blog entries over the coming weeks. However, a beautiful word that I believe was shouted at me the very night that I recorded those podcasts interrupted MY plans, and I believe this illustration is related to the “interesting” episode called “Listen”.
So THE morning I recorded my podcast for THIS blog entry, as I was finishing up my shower, I heard a tiny bit of that rattle from that episode, which I had still never heard after that original story (if you haven’t read those two blog entries that I mention here, you may want to do that first so this will make more sense to you). The buzzing this morning was faint, but noticeable since it had been so absent over the past month or so. I tried to turn up the heat later this morning to see if it would happen again, but once again, no rattle.
It called to mind a scripture in the beginning of Hebrews 3:7 that quotes from Psalm 95: 7b-8a in the Old Testament):
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts….” That memorable sound gave me a little heads up in the Spirit. Later, during my quiet time, another sweet little moment echoed that same scripture. At the exact moment as my eyes reached this part of Psalm 30:11, a mourning dove cooed outside, just that once. My sister doesn’t prefer to call them “mourning” doves, but rather “morning” doves…. Whatever your preference, this was how that sweet little verse began “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing….”
There has been so much “mourning” in our world, as well as in my personal life and those of so many friends and loved ones in recent times and years, and that word was pure sweet encouragement.
So, as I was preparing to share the story below this morning, and as we are in the middle of Holy Week, it confirms that now is probably the right time to share this word picture, even though it wasn’t “according to MY plan”.
The many things that Jesus endured during this week those 2000 plus years ago literally were the means of turning His disciples’ “mourning” into “dancing” indeed. I pray that this word picture will help you see His similar desire for your life.
The very night that I recorded three upcoming episodes of my podcast, number 7 called “Stillness” that included the answer to the question about the mysterious buzz in our house, and what I had planned to be the next two episodes, there was a shocking and almost unmistakable word picture that brought scriptures to light, and as you listen, hopefully your heart will be just as moved as was mine. It was a very wild evening indeed, and the illustrations in this real life story related in an uncanny way to the themes of those three episodes so well, that I’m increasingly feeling that THIS episode needs to be posted NOW for those who have ears to hear. Perhaps this fiery occurrence happened to help someone hear a “heads up” from heaven and pay attention.
So please bear with me as I tell this story, which may seem irrelevant, because it’s all symbolic and meaningful in the strange way that the story of the buzz in our house was a few weeks back.
A Fiery Ordeal
That very evening (having recorded those episodes earlier in the day) I had gone to a visitation gathering for a friend who had recently lost her mother. My mind was naturally centered on themes associated with such life events, like leaving a legacy, and having your life matter when you are no longer here on this earth, etc. I had no idea that the timing of when I went to the viewing, how long I stayed there, and when I returned home would have impacted the rest of that evening so profoundly. If I had not gone out that night, things would have turned out differently, because we probably would not have know of the danger until it was far more deadly.
Upon arriving back at home, I sat in the car for a few minutes, listening to something on the radio until a commercial came on. When I got out of the car, there was a bit of a strange smell in the air. I noticed that a pick up truck in front of our neighbor’s house across the street looked like there was a bit of smoke coming from inside. It was dark outside, so I thought maybe someone was smoking inside the car, but couldn’t tell if someone was in there. So, thankfully I walked over, and not wanting to intrude and look right in (thinking someone was probably IN the truck) I walked near it. Since it seemed suspicious, I went to their front door, rang the doorbell, and when no one answered, I knocked. Still not getting an answer, I headed home.
Thankfully, I mentioned the strange sight to my husband, who looked out the window and immediately headed over to their front door and began ringing the doorbell. Since he got no answer, he knocked repeatedly and loudly until FINALLY, the door was answered. So a man from the house came out quickly, realizing there was a fire smoldering in the car. Around this time, I called 911, now being sure that yes, it was indeed a fire, and not something that they knew about already.
Here’s where things got intense quickly. For some reason, the man opened the vehicle’s door, which was probably the worst thing to do, because the oxygen that was let in to the smoldering fire caused it to ignite. He tried to use a fire extinguisher to put it out, but it was already too strong for that. So he shut the door. But for some reason within the next few minutes, he opened the door again, even though his wife was shouting to him to shut it again. Perhaps it was already too hot for him to touch the door again to close it. For whatever reason he left the door open, the flames just overtook the front of the truck at that point and it quickly because a very dangerous fire. There were several other cars in their driveway not far from where the truch was parked on the street. It had quite deadly potential for sure.
I called 911 again to let them know that the fire was getting more out of control, and they said that the fire department was on the way. Around this time, I grabbed my phone and took some video that I’ll share along with this podcast. I was fairly exasperated as the fire grew worse, wondering where the fire trucks were? It took so long, and I suppose when you’re in such an emergency situation, a few minutes can seem like hours…. All I knew was that every minute that they didn’t show, the situation was getting more dangerous, with mini explosions happening periodically.
By the time they finally arrived, probably after about 20 minutes, the cab portion of the truck was completely ablaze, and it took them a while to put it out. Once it was extinguished, the formerly beautiful white pick up truck was essentially a grey and black twisted and deformed hunk of melted and synged metal, plastic and glass. Eventually, a tow truck was called that took away the gutted frame of what had been a pickup, and left nothing on the street except a few burned remnants of what had been a useful piece of machinery and now was completely useless.
My husband went over and talked with the owner afterward, explaining how we had tried to ring the doorbell, and then hearing some of the neighbor’s experience. He told him that apparently, their doorbell wasn’t working because it needed recharging. Yes, we probably have an old fashioned doorbell in our house, but at least it RINGS, and it doesn’t need to be recharged!
Thankfully, the situation didn’t get even more out of hand, catch the other cars on fire, or worse yet, cause our houses to become engulfed in flames as well.
Shining Some Light on the Subject
Now, as was the case a few weeks ago, you may be wondering just why am I recounting this odd story? Well, pretty much for the same type of reason. As I thought of the evening’s events, they seemed to illustrate some Biblical passages so well that it was hard for me to ignore the irony.
First of all, the doorbell running out of its charge reminded me of the passage about the foolish and wise virgins waiting for the Bridegroom in Matthew 25:1-13. Speaking of the foolish ones who had not prepared in advance, so their lamps were going out, verse 10 says: “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut”.
Another thing that reminded me of that passage was the slow response of those who were called to help put out the fire. If you read the whole passage in Matthew 25, the foolish virgins went to the wise ones to ask for oil from them, but they didn’t give it to them, so they needed to take time to go find more. In the truck fire illustration, that fire department did what they could to help, yet they were not able to prevent that destruction, only to put out the fire and clean up some of the mess. We can call our friends and trust in our pastors or teachers to get our hearts close to the Holy Spirit, but actually, WE need to be going to Him daily, taking extra provisions and filling up our figurative “jars” with the “oil” of the Holy Spirit … especially when He seems to be taking a long time to answer our prayers or come and save us.
When I had originally gone over, that doorbell didn’t alert them (unbeknownst to me), and although I knocked on the door, I didn’t BANG on it desperately. Thankfully, my husband went to do the same thing, but DID bang loudly on the door.
If you recall in episode 6 called “Listen” and 7 called “Stillness”, I mentioned the curiosity about whether that rattle had been caused by our doorbell. So when it became apparent that our neighbors’ DOORBELL wasn’t WORKING, and that the only thing that could alert them to the DANGER was my husband’s KNOCKING, it brought to mind this scripture which is spoken to those IN the Church actually, and also may be something for YOU to heed, even if you don’t yet know Him:
Revelation 3:20 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
In one of those other episodes, I said maybe it would be a good idea to OPEN THE DOOR! That night, those words rang so true and loudly, and perhaps they’ll resonate in your spirit right now. As members of the Church, we need to hear His voice and answer His knocking daily, or we run the risk of “sleeping on the job” and watching our efforts burn up due to our lack of diligence. Again, as in Hebrews 3:7 “Today, if you hear his voice….”
The last bit of the illustration that shouted to my spirit was the truck fire itself. It’s likely very personal to me, but perhaps for you as well…. In my dreams, certain images recur, and one of those is vehicles. Whenever a dream is full of cars or other vehicles, it often seems to be relating to something on my heart (in real life) that has to do with my efforts, job or purpose. Our neighbor had told my husband that night that in the back of the pickup, he had thousands of dollars of tools, that were now destroyed.
After having gone to that visitation for my friend’s mother, my heart was already focused on leaving a legacy and having our lives be useful to the Lord in building His church.
So those thoughts stirred up another passage in my mind from what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15:
“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire; and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”
Wow, what a profound and challenging verse. From my perspective, that “building” that He mentions is how our teaching and our lives are building up the Church to follow after Him and become more like Him by spreading His true Gospel which is surely gold, silver and costly stones. Or, if we build with wood, hay or straw by not teaching His holy words that LAST in people’s hearts and transform them as they cause them to turn to Him, those who listen to us and our works and efforts might be burned up as quickly and completely as that pickup truck. We may, by His grace, be saved ourselves, but none of what we built will be able to endure His cleansing fire.
So, I’m going to wrap this up with a couple of take always that will hopefully make sense to you after hearing that story.
In our lives, there are doors to OPEN, like the one inside our hearts that responds to Jesus’ knocking outside to be let in.
Other doors should remain closed, or BE closed if they have swung open in our lives. Doors of sin, and our inclination to think that we can easily extinguish a little bit of sin, only to realize that things get out of control VERY quickly. If we close the door to sin, rather than keeping it open, the fire will be contained so that He can hopefully put it out before the devastation is permanent and complete.
And finally, I ask again … Would you rather have a flame that perfected you in the sight of God, or one that destroyed you?
Fire can be either purifying and light giving (as in the case of the wise virgins who kept spare oil to fill their lamps when the night dragged on and on until the Bridegroom finally came), or it can be devastating and destructive as in the Day of Judgment for those who have not put their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
This week, we remember the events that led up to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. He went through that destruction and purification, offering the sacrifice of Himself on our behalf so we would not have to undergo those flames. Praise His holy name that who have place our faith in His promise have the enduring hope of being sanctified and holy, because of and BY His grace and sacrifice, so that we can come into the presence of the mighty God, the pure and Holy One. As it says in Hebrews 12:28 “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.'”
Look to Him to build you with His “gold, silver and costly stones” so that you will make it through that all-consuming fire when He purifies us all. And dear Lord, help us to build into our Brothers and Sisters in Christ with enduring words straight from Your heart, and to refrain from trying to build using our own efforts for our own purposes, so that what we have “built” will not be burned up once Your holiness touches it.
Fill This Temple
The song that closed out this entry’s associated podcast episode is called “Fill Me Up” because of the line that talks about filling us with the “oil that ignites in Your living fire”.
In case you’re interested in the song, it’s from my Fill This Temple CD, which is available at this link:
https://shiningriver.company.site/Fill-This-Temple-CD-Lisa-Prokopowitz-p524246283
Also, it is available for digital download here:
https://lisaprokopowitz.bandcamp.com/track/fill-me-up
May our hearts ever burn for Him in a GOOD way, one that bring sanctification, holiness and light as we await His coming, no matter how long we think He’s taking to return or answer our prayers. His timing is always perfect.
This blog post and podcast entry seemed to be a good candidate for a video to go along with it, especially to let you see some of the footage that I took during that evening. Here is a link to the video;