June 2005: GOING THROUGH THE FIRE
You may feel like you’re in the middle of a fire storm with flames surrounding you on all sides. The Lord is telling you, Beloved, the flames will not overtake you. You will never be consumed by the flames because I am with you. I am IN THE FLAMES with you. My hand is in yours as you go through the fire.
When Elijah faced Ahab’s host of false prophets on Mount Carmel in I Kings 18, he had to prove the false god they worshipped called Baal was a fraud. He did this with fire. He told Ahab’s 450 prophets to lay a sacrifice of a bull on the wood pyre but not to light it. He then laid a bull on the pyre also. He told the false prophets to call on the name of their gods to send fire for the sacrifice, and he would call upon the name of the LORD "who answers by fire" (I Kings 18:24). The false prophets carried on from morning till noon hooting and howling to Baal, but nothing happened. Elijah then went a step further. He dug a trench around the altar where his bull lay to hold several gallons of water. He then had four water pots filled with water and poured on his sacrifice and the wood three times until everything was completely saturated. Elijah prayed and "... the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench."
God never puts you through the fire without a purpose. In this case the purpose for the fire was to eliminate that which was evil and fraudulent in God’s sight... (Elijah finished the task by executing all Ahab’s false prophets by the Brook Kishon, I Kings 18:40). What does this say to you in your fiery storm? This may be a time for you to eliminate every curse ever laid on you, every unclean, fraudulent or unkind word spoken against you. Elijah slaughtered every one of the false prophets! God used fire to prove His power and His intolerance of that which mocked His name and came against His Beloved.
If you have asked the Lord Jesus in to your heart, you’re His, and He wants you free of any maligning or false accusations against you. He wants you free of back-biting, gossip, and especially old curses. He will rain fire down until you are free. The curses against you are every bit as evil as the slander brought forth against Elijah and his God by the prophets of Baal.
Pray now:
I remove from me every curse ever spoken against me.
Once you have prayed this, begin to recount things said about you or to you.
Example: I remove the curse spoken over me by my mother who said I was stupid and would never amount to anything.
Example: I remove the foul back-biting by my friends in grade school (yes, grade school! Go back to the source of some of your long-held sufferings and misbeliefs)
Example: I remove the curse of my teacher who said _______________. (fill in the blank.)
You will be amazed at the heavy weight of sorrows you’ve been carrying around all your life. It’s time to be free! It’s time for the fire of God to burn out the lies and betrayals that have hurt you and kept you from your full destiny in the Lord.
Always pray in the name of Jesus, for there is no eternal power outside of that name. The prophets of Baal thought they had power, but they were impotent and useless when the man of God was on the scene. Elijah was a man of God, a man who knew how to call down fire.
When dealing with becoming free of generational curses* three steps are important. The first is: l. REPENT. Repent of accepting the lie, of believing it and having any part in it. 2. REBUKE. Forbid its entrance into your mind, your consciousness, your life in any way. Cut it off like a scissors cutting paper right now. 3. RENOUNCE. Renounce its power over you forever.
The fire you are going through is for a purpose. Don’t waste your suffering. Allow God to turn your unpleasant, difficult circumstances to dynamic victory. Later on when Elijah was hiding out in the wilderness under a broom tree desperate for a word from the Lord, there came a great wind, an earthquake and a fire. God wasn’t in any of these, including the fire -- YET. Sometimes God uses fire to announce His coming, to get our attention. It was after the fire that Elijah heard the "still small voice," the delicate whisper of God. God will put you in a fiery place to prepare you for great things ahead.
Jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire... "He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:11-12).
Here is what He is telling you today:
Do not fear the fire, dear one, but allow the fire to do the work I purpose in you, which is to strengthen and build resilience and faith in you. Do the cleansing work that I will perfect and you will rise up free and strong. Though many perils may come your way and you shall overcome them all.
*Note: This is not a definitive teaching on eliminating generational curses from your life. In my counseling this is a several week process. I am compiling a workbook now and will be doing more workshops and conferences on the subject in the months to come.