I want to talk to you about the Fire of God and the Ancient of Days.

Oh and something that we talk little about in the Body of Christ anymore, but the old saints knew a lot about.

It is called sacrifice, or in this case it could be called surrender.

My Stand in the Beginning

“His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire,” Revelation 1:14.

I was on my way home from a night out on the houseboat with friends from my old life before I made the decision for Christ in 1983.

It was about 10 miles from my house. It was Sunday morning and I wanted to get to church but had to make a decision whether to ask them to take me to the pier so I could drive into town.

I use to enjoy these people’s company because we had a lot in common. Drinking, smoking and bar hopping.

We would spend nights on the houseboat drinking the night away, but on this trip I had made my decision for Jesus and felt like I had to make a decision for the LORD and make a stand.

So sheepishly, I asked them to take me to the shore so that I could go home to get ready to go to church.

I had to literally take the mocking that ensued from them, because they did not understand my now ‘new life’.

I know this doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice to many who have endured much, and now it really doesn’t seem like it should be to me, but at the time it was a giant step for me

The Drive Home

On my way home on old highway 44 to my house, I began praising God and sobbing because, what was going on in me, was that I was making a choice between my old way of life and the choice to follow Jesus and whether I would be able to endure the criticism of those I had loved in the past.

I was saying to God that I chose Him over all of it!

Suddenly, His face came up before me as I was driving and He appeared to me like the Ancient Of Days.

His hair was white like wool and His eyes were flames of fire! It was as if the fire from His eyes shot into mine!

Suddenly, I understood that because I had made the sacrifice to come home and get to Church that day instead of staying on that boat that He was drawn to that sacrifice and He sets our sacrifice on fire!

I sat there on the side of the road and sobbed for the longest time that day. I believe that the LORD not only gave me a zeal for His People, but He gave me eyes to see His heart!

I believe that every time that we choose to sacrifice our lives to do His will, there is a point in time that He sets that sacrifice on fire to burn for Him in an even brighter way and there is where we go from glory to glory!

I have told this before, in other words that I have posted, about the vision that God gave to me a few years ago of Enoch.

“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him,” Genesis 5:24.

God showed me Him taking a step and glory came out from Him and he would take another step and more glory came until He was swallowed up in the glory!

You see, dying daily causes a more exceeding weight of glory to come forth!

God is looking for a people who are willing to die to self on a daily basis as a sacrifice and as we become the burnt offering He will set us on fire!

The Dying Brings the Fire

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — always carrying about in the body the dying of the LORD Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you,” 2 Corinthians 4:7-12.

WE ARE ALWAYS CARRYING THE DYING OF JESUS so that His life will be manifest out from us!

The more we become the living sacrifice in obedience to Him, the more His life will be manifest in us.

The greater the sacrifice, the more we will be set on fire for Him. This brings me to a point….

The Sacrifice of Praise!

There is a sacrifice that always brings his fire and it is “THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE!”

In order for God Himself to inhabit us in a manifestation of His fire and glory we make a choice to Praise Him in the midst of our sometimes horrific situations.

We make the choice to go and praise Him regardless of those persecuting us! This “sacrifice of praise” is one of the main ways to see the fire of God manifest in our lives and in our gatherings.

For when we are weak then He comes in His strength to set us on fire! In my darkest times when I didn’t feel like praising him and when I would praise Him anyway even with tears running down my face, He came in a burning passionate fiery manifestation and I saw His glory!

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips,giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased,” Hebrews 13:15-16.

My Prayer for the Fire in Your Life!

I pray: that as God moves in our lives to obey Him and not our flesh, that at that point, he will set you on fire for the people whom He will place in your path!

I decree: that you will walk with God as Enoch walked and that His glory and fire would surround you and Hide you!

I decree: that He will be a fire around you and the glory in the midst of you!

I decree: that as you bring your sacrifice of praise that He will set your sacrifice on fire and it will become a sweet smelling savor in His nostrils!

In Jesus’ Name!

 

~ by Jo Ellen Stevens
Arise Shine!

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Jo Ellen Stevens of TCIC Ministries is a Prophetic speaker, author, worshiper and intercessor. She has ministered with her husband for 23 years and was a worship leader at the Assembly of God for many years. She is an ordained minister (Restoration Ministries) and works with Restoration Ministries in their Ministry Rooms doing prophetic worship with her husband. She has taught many bible studies and have led many intercessory prayer groups.

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