CHRIST IN ME, THE HOPE OF GLORY - by Suzanne Lokker

"You keep every promise you ever made to me! Since your love for me is so constant and endless, I ask you, Lord,  to finish every good thing that you've begun in me!" - Psalm 138:8 TPT - Last Saturday when I shared my message to wrap up our Engage series, I should have led with, “My message tonight was inspired yes, by Holy Spirit, but also by all the messages from the Blazing Fire leaders who shared before me. As I listened to all of their messages, I remember saying to myself, “Well she/he just shared my message!” This ENGAGE series was designed to help us all experience part of Blazing Fire’s Mission Statement: “Encountering God’s Transforming Presence”. Building on our foundation, Jesus, we leaders were asked to share a scripture that girded us to this Foundation. We were then asked to facilitate an exercise to engage with the heart of God and with the theme of the scripture that would help others in this encounter: We engaged with: God’s Goodness, God’s never-ending love for us, Intimacy with His heart, Trust In Him, Our Identity in Him, His power and authority. Interestingly, as it turned out, (but not as planned!), it took 9 months for all of these messages to be shared. A God-incidence (!) As we’ve given Papa God permission to tenderize our hearts into hearts of flesh, we are being birthed into this next season a new creation! We’ve heard that “God is doing a new thing!” What if that “new thing” is us!? Perhaps He is perfecting the good thing he began in you--in your heart and spirit--to shine brilliantly to our world? To be messengers of His love and hope? Papa is renewing our hearts and awakening us to understand that the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus—which is really His story told through amazing you! Declare, with confidence and integrity:   “Christ in me, the hope of glory!”   YAY, GOD! Suzanne   * A list of all the messages is included here and all can be found on Blazing Fire Church’s Facebook page or on YouTube: Blazing Fire Worship Service Facebook: Blazing Fire Church                 YouTube: Blazing Fire Worship Services   2022 - 2023 Blazing Fire Church ENGAGE   Susan Fochler        October 15/22 2022           Psalm 27:4 NLT Intimacy (seeking/enjoying God’s presence)   Brent Lokker           November 5/12 2022         Romans 8:14-16 TPT Our Father’s love and acceptance   Joe Lapasinski       November 19/26 2022       Psalm 139:14 TPT Being a loved, known child   Todd Lout                 December 3/10 2022         Matthew 11:28-30 The Message Resting in Jesus (vs. worn out on religion)   Kat Sinon                  January 21/28 2023           Galatians 2:20 AMP Our union with Christ   Clayton Jung           February 4/11                      Ephesians 3:16-19 The depth of God’s love as expressed in Christ   Russ Fochler           February 18/25 2023          Isaiah 61:1-2 NLT Spirit empowered life, making a difference   Joel Pollard             March 4/11 2023                 Romans 8:19 TPT Creation is groaning for the sons of God to be revealed   Karena                      March 18/25  2023              2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT Jesus meeting us in our weakness and messes   Aleta Pollard            April 1/8 2023                      Proverbs 3:5-6 TPT Trusting God, not our independent ways   Diane Jung               April 22/29 2023                 2 Corinthians 3:16-17 TPT Freedom in Holy Spirit   Bill Hernandez        May 6/13 2023                     1 John 1:7 NASB Being the light of Jesus   Katie Landy             June 3/10 2023                   Psalm 46:10 NIV Trust   Suzanne Lokker     June 27 2023                       Psalm 138:8 TPT God’s faithfulness to complete what He has begun in us

WHO TOLD YOU? - by Brent Lokker

God fashioned his first children—Adam and Eve—in his stunning image with the substance of his own light and made a beautiful garden as a blissful paradise for all of them to enjoy life together as full participants in the eternal loving dance of the Trinity. He gave them ‘all kinds of trees’ in the garden with fruit that was satisfying and he placed two trees in the middle of the garden: The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. His one instruction was for them not to eat from fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil tree.   When their choice was to believe the deceptions of the snake and they ate of the damaging fruit, something unthinkable happened. God’s first wonderfully created children no longer trusted him with a sweet innocence, but their assurance morphed into anxiety. Instead of looking forward to communing with the Lover of their souls, Adam and Eve hid from God in fear and shame!   When God called out, “Adam, where are you?”, he wasn’t asking a geographical question as if God were unaware of Adam’s whereabouts. No, he was already letting Adam know something of utmost importance: “I will always seek after you, my child. No matter what choices you have made, my kindness and my mercy will pursue you every day of your life. Though you no longer see me as I really am, my heart for you will never change. Nor does my accepting love for you ever change. I have set you as the affection of my heart. My mind about you is made up, my child.”   Adam didn’t know this anymore because his newly acquired man-made knowledge obscured him from eternal truth and so he replied to God’s question, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”   God’s response is stunning: “Who told you that you were naked?”   I used to think we were supposed to follow the line of reasoning that followed to find the culprit: “It wasn’t me, it was Eve.” To which Eve replied, “It wasn’t me, it was the serpent.” But God wasn’t trying to get to the bottom of the story as to who was at fault. He was asking something much more profound.   “Son, daughter…I never fashioned you with fear and shame. These aren’t from me. Something has happened for you to suddenly see me and yourselves in a way that’s miles apart from the authenticity of how I brought you into this world as pure light, made in my image, enjoying face to face joy together.”   So I have a question from the depth of my being: “Who told you that you were naked?”   Hear the heart cry of the Father as he longingly beckons to them, “It wasn’t me!” He’s already imploring them, “Come back to me! I haven’t changed!”   The tragic outcome Adam and Eve experienced is they not only saw themselves as bad and shameful children, but they now projected their own brokenness, as it were, onto God’s face. They tarred God’s face with the brush of their own angst, which terrorized them and drove them deeper into a gross misinterpretation of the very heart of God.   To this day, we are still plagued with wrong thoughts that want to shame us, but God calls us out of the deceptions with the same question:   “Who told you?   Who told you that you weren’t enough? It wasn’t me!   Who told you that you’re insignificant, unimportant and that your life doesn’t matter? It wasn’t me!   Who told you that you were too this or not enough that? It wasn’t me!   Who told you that you were unlovable? It wasn’t me!   And it never would be me because my passionate heart for you never changes and my love is awakening within you and transforming you to embrace the beautifully authentic you I created in my glorious image.”   Although truly tragic, this creation story is far from over! In fact, it’s already been rewritten! The truest version is that God’s redemptive story was written before Adam and Eve’s choice to not trust God (see Revelation 13:8). Jesus is the fulfillment of the Tree of Life within us who beckons us back to the true heart of the Father and of the Trinity’s invitation into their eternal dance of love. We are being called back to the garden…back to our First Love…back to our authentic selves immersed in perfect Love that casts out all fear.   Let’s accept the invitation and go there!

IN THE BEGINNING - by Shannon Downs

One of my greatest joys as a pastor is when various ones of you have an “Aha!” moment with the Lord and sometimes I have a little to do with it by sharing what He’s been doing in my heart. Normally, I write a short email describing the main thread of my message, but this week I want to share a poem with you written by our very dear sister, Shannon, who now lives in Texas, but still joins with our family via livestream. Her poem so captured the essence of what I was trying to share that I don’t think I could do better writing a short synopsis of my own. Thank you, Shannon! She wrote to me, “I listened to your message and my brain did somersaults and was tripping a few times. Lots of OMG’s, Wow’s and What’s??!!! It impacted me so much I watched it twice, slower the second time so I could write stuff down! It also inspired me to write this...

COME TOGETHER - by Todd Benjamin Lout

DISCOVER CREATIVE WAYS TO ENCOURAGE OTHERS AND TO MOTIVATE THEM TOWARD ACTS OF COMPASSION, DOING BEAUTIFUL WORKS AS EXPRESSIONS OF LOVE. THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO PULL AWAY AND NEGLECT MEETING TOGETHER, AS SOME HAVE FORMED THE HABIT OF DOING. IN FACT, WE SHOULD COME TOGETHER EVEN MORE FREQUENTLY, EAGER TO ENCOURAGE AND URGE EACH OTHER ONWARD AS WE ANTICIPATE THAT DAY DAWNING.  - HEBREWS 10: 24 & 25 -   As we gathered last Saturday night to celebrate the birth of the church and awareness of the presence of Holy Spirit, there was an electricity (if you will) in the air.  There was power, and grace, and fun, and lightness, and laughter and good tears.   I thought about this passage in Hebrews, telling us to come together and be a light to each other.  It hit me that we were doing just that and this is why it felt so so good. We were living out what God told us to do and it works! The Bible also tells us, "WHERE TWO OR MORE ARE GATHERED IN MY NAME, I WILL BE THERE IN THE MIDST OF THEM."  I believe this could mean a prayer meeting, a celebration, a one-on-one and many gatherings.   Sometimes we strive to get the presence of God, yet here He's saying to simply come together and be an encouragement and He'll show up! We have a tendency to make things much more difficult than God intended.  But He is also very gracious.