Pearls of Great Value

““I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Matt. 3:11 ESV

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,” Heb. 10:24 ESVi)

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” Heb. 12:28–29 ESV

The word of God talks about being baptized with fire and says that God himself is a consuming fire. It talks about stirring up the gift within us. Kindling the flame. When I think about fire, words like hot, passion, heat, melting, embers, and many more come to my mind. Fire isn’t a calm word. In fact it’s violent in its ferocity. Danger is a word that comes to mind and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling that we ought to be and stay dangerous. If the enemy doesn’t see us as a threat, we’re lukewarm. Fire speaks of life at its most vibrant. I hear fire and in the spiritual think of movement, of revival, of the burning away of dead things and causing an awakening from slumber.

I’ve been thinking about this fire that Jesus wants cast on earth: I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” Luke 12:49–50 ESV. Think about the fire burning in the bride. A yearning, a hunger, a desire, to be with and please her groom. But, where does the fire come from? Where was it born? In the heart of the groom. He is the heat and the energy and His words of love and hope are the kindling that makes the fire burn even brighter. Jesus love for his bride is a fire. He is on fire for us. A life flame. It burns away the unnecessary and the blemishes upon the heart of his bride und pulls forth the beauty from within. His love kindles within her both a desire for her groom and a desire to do goodness. His love gives strength. Strength to fight against anything that comes against the love that she has for her groom. Strength to grow stronger in love, in faith, in patience. His love shows itself undeniably strong for his bride every day and leads her accordingly.

The desire to reach, to touch, to bless. It’s the essence of Christianity. To be completely selfless. Why? Because it’s the only way that Christ can live through you and me. The only way the groom can reach out and bless is through His bride. That is why He sacrificed so much for her. Why He fought all of hell and won the battle, just so that His  bride could be free to live. Free to live out the life that He desired for her. A life that is sold out to Him.

One thing. At the end of the day, I don’t think anyone can give you unending passion and heart. It’s something that has to be walked out. Yes, God imparts within us the will and the desire for Him: for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13). But until we come to the point of giving our all to Him, we’ll never come to our full potential, or be all we are meant to be in His kingdom. The bride always has a choice. She can choose to come when the groom calls or to reject his voice. Reading through Song of Solomon with the mindset of relationship, where the depth of it slams into you and opens your eyes to the give and take in a relationship, you realize instantly that this isn’t a one way street. It takes two. I mean, listen to the call of the bridegroom and then to how the bride responds: “After this I let my devotion slumber, but my heart for him stayed awake. I had a dream. I dreamed of my beloved— he was coming to me in the darkness of night. The melody of the man I love awakened me. I heard his knock at my heart’s door as he pleaded with me: Arise, my love. Open your heart, my darling, deeper still to me. Will you receive me this dark night? There is no one else but you, my friend, my equal. I need you this night to arise and come be with me. You are my pure, loyal dove, a perfect partner for me. My flawless one, will you arise? For my heaviness and tears are more than I can bear. I have spent myself for you throughout the dark night.

I have already laid aside my own garments for you. How could I take them up again since I’ve yielded my righteousness to yours? You have cleansed my life and taken me so far. Isn’t that enough? My beloved reached into me to unlock my heart. The core of my very being trembled at his touch. How my soul melted when he spoke to me! My spirit arose to open for more of his touch. As I surrendered to him, I began to sense his fragrance— the fragrance of his suffering love! It was the sense of myrrh flowing all through me! I opened my soul to my beloved, but suddenly he was gone! And my heart was torn out in longing for him. I sought his presence, his fragrance, but could not find him anywhere. I called out for him, yet he did not answer me. I will arise and search for him until I find him.” Song of Songs‬ ‭5:2-6‬ ‭TPT‬‬

Jesus, when He called His disciples to come and follow Him, expected them to drop everything and come. And they did. Peter and Andrew dropped their nets,(and keep in mind that this was their livelihood) and followed. They were so enamored with this man Jesus, that without hesitation they left everything and ran after Him. Sold out. Completely sold out. Peter dropping his nets is a bigger deal than we realize. He was leaving a legacy, a family business, waters that he loved and boats he’d built. You think this was easy? This call of Jesus places us into vulnerability! He never gave the disciples details, not on where they were going and how they would get paid or how long they’d be gone. Yet the presence of Jesus was so big they dropped their nets and followed. I’ll say it again: This call of Jesus places us into vulnerability. And some of us have to drop our nets every day. Paul says, I die daily.

Jesus calls us to come and than continues walking. If you want to come you need to follow. To stand still is not following. To stand still is not progressing. To stand still often means moving backwards in this sea of life. We walk. We don’t stop walking. We continue walking and do so by faith. Not blindly, but following Him and walking in His footsteps. He’ll never lead us where he hasn’t already made a way for us.

I was thinking about this word follow lately. As I thought about it, about how Jesus said on multiple occasions, "Come, and follow me!”, a nudge came to my heart. And here it is: Isn’t it so ironic that on almost every social platform out there, you have the option to “follow” this person or that person? I mean, there are some famous people out there with millions of followers! Followers. Where did they get the idea to use these words,..follow and followers?

See, the enemy doesn’t have any original ideas. He just takes a good God idea and twists it. Contorts it for a whole different purpose. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against following people on social media. I’d just like to call us out for a quick second, and get some of us thinking. Who is our first follow? Who is the person we look at, are excited about, can’t wait to see what he’s going to do today? Who is it? Is it Jesus? Or someone on a social platform? Another thing to think about is how followers like and often imitate the ones they follow. Can we honestly say we like Jesus? Do we study what He likes and imitate what He does and says? If so, you are a true follower.

I feel like our generation has been one that has often been distracted by the tactics of technology. But we’re about to squash those distractions beneath our feet and rise above. I’m believing and praying for it. We all want to be great, to be seen, to have impact, to have a bigger and better platform. If we’re honest, we’ll admit it. I would invite us though to wonder why we have this longing. It seems most of us have this innate desire for more. There’s a reason for it. The God culture in us is all about seed, time and harvest. Planting seeds and then having a yield of 30, 60,and a 100 fold.

But here’s the thing. The foundation of greater things is not about you or me! It’s the exact opposite. It’s not about your ministry, your logo, your website, your instagram, your business. It’s never been about us. And when the focus is on us or our platform, it’s already shifted from its main purpose. If it’s not ALL pointing to the Father, or giving glory to the king of kings, than it’s a distraction away from the Kingdom of God. The foundation has to be Jesus. Him we live, Him we preach, Him we glorify.

The more I study on the life of Jesus, the more I realize how radical He is. The disciples were evidence of how radically different and greater the call of Jesus is. To follow after Him, meant abandoning everything else of self will. What if Peter, Andrew, James, and John would have said, “Nah, can’t do it. I’m not following you. We’ve got these nets and they’re not gonna fish themselves.” What then? Do we want to be known as His follower? It will mean being radically different and letting go of control. It will cause us to re-evaluate what we are attached to. Can we let go when He asks us to or will we choose to stay attached? We can live in this world and not be of it.

We have to pray for a humbleness. We have to have the gift of selfless-ness. This can’t be emphasized enough. To be hidden in Him. Paul says it best when he says, it’s not I that live, but Christ that lives within me. The best advice comes straight from the Bible: As you have received Christ Jesus, so walk in Him! The same way you came to and we’re adopted into Christ Jesus, so continue in your walk. It was a free gift, not of your own strength! By grace! Grace is a gift, and it has the ability to work within you and fulfill Gods purpose. His grace is with you and it’s not in vain. His sacrifice was not in vain. This same principle must be applied to every day you live and every situation you have, and to every dream and desire in your heart. Your sacrifice is not in vain. Don’t stress out and worry about it. Humble yourself, lean ON the Lord and live from His strength. If you are straining and struggling and feel exhausted on a daily basis...you’re probably working in your own strength.

The gospel of Jesus was never meant to be exhausting. The secret is in simplicity. It’s in this: come, follow me! And than, abide in me! It’s when we are the branch separated from the vine, that we get fatigued. Why? Because it’s incredibly hard if not impossible to produce fruit apart from the vine! Stay connected to Jesus and no matter what the situation, He will equip and guide you, and give you the needed fuel to see you through. Stir up the fire within you once again! If you’ve given up because it was too much for you, congratulations, for you are now in perfect position for God to move. His strength is made perfect in our weakness!

Samson versus Esther. Think about those two. Esther is amazing. Her ministry is all about her saying yes. It’s about incredible courage and yielding her fear into Gods hand in order to save a nation. Her story is the Song of Solomon story. Samson on the other hand..man, I struggle with this man. He was born a under a vow and a promise, where his life was basically already mapped out for him. From the beginning he was a Nazarite, obligated to say no to drink, no to having his hair cut and no touching any dead thing. His ministry was based on saying no to things. And he wasn’t in any way successful in keeping his vow. The most beautiful thing about Samson’s story is how God can work through a man despite his failures and flaws. He redeems impossible situations. Esther said yes, Samson said no. For me these two are an example of two different mindsets. One is legalism, one is yielding to God. Both are a love story, yet Esthers story is radically different and beautiful in its humbleness. She is a prime example for us in how to be a bride after her grooms heart.

May we hear His call and run after His heart. May we humble ourselves and choose the more excellent way. May we be willing, in a moment, to drop those nets and follow Him for it is a call to close companionship, an invite into a love story like no other. Saying yes to Him, may that be our life story, forever saying yes to Him. I pray for His love to kindle the embers in our heart and cause us to arise with purpose and passion. He is fire, may we be afire with Him and for Him. He is the desire our hearts are longing for. We didn’t know it, but it was Him all along.