Getting Past Our Past by Pastor Susan Fochler

One of the great mysteries of our faith walk is why Scripture does not seem to line up with our daily experience.  If we’ve spent any time at all as a believer in this unbelieving world, we have had to come to grips with this reality.  In my work helping people with inner healing, I am confronted with this issue continuously, in both looking at my own heart as well as seeking to help others.

New Creation???
I LOVE this scripture: “Therefore if any person (that would be all of us) is in Christ, he is a new creation (a new creature altogether): the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away.  Behold, the fresh and new has come!”  Amp 2 Cor 5:17.

Wow that is a wonderful and hope-filled promise.  Here is the problem: we want that scripture to mean things it doesn't.  So if I’m a new creation, life will be perfect and good and everyone will love me all the time and nothing hard or painful will ever happen to me again.  We certainly hope life will be like that, but it rarely is.

A New Creation that Needs to Mature and Grow
That scripture actually means this;  yes, you are a new creation.  Completely new, never seen before.  That means He put His DNA in you and created you to be 100% His son or daughter, with all the rights and privileges of heaven.  Incredible, brand new potential for fullness of life.  But this DNA is in seed form, and that will require watering, nurturing and care along the way.  We get “stuck” when there are areas of our old man that we don’t give God access to, and they remain encapsulated as the roots of the new man grow in other areas of our heart.

How Do We Let Go?
The areas we typically get stuck in are real, excruciating places, like shame, fear and self-pity.  It just seems so hard to live life without clutching onto these things.  How will I feel safe and cared for without them?  We know, in theory, that we can trust God who is Incarnate Love, but our heart struggles with walking out the implications of full surrender.  Surrender that requires we let go of control.

Facing Our Pain Takes Courage
God is willing to stoop low and come alongside us.  He won’t necessarily agree with our perspective, but His presence will not veer from the Love target He put on your heart the moment you said yes to Him.  Believe it or not, those parts of your heart that feel the darkest, loneliest, and most worthless are the most precious parts of your heart.  It’s scary and hard, but allowing Him just to be with us in our pain is the solution.  His presence carries nurturing power and tender kindness that transcends any measure of agony.

He Can’t Wait to Bless You
I would encourage you to continue to say this blessing over any area of your life where you know you are stuck, and allow the watering of it’s truth to go in deeper and deeper:

The Lord bless you and watch guard, and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious, kind and merciful to you;  The Lord lift up His approving face upon you and give you peace and life continually.  Num 6:24-7 AMP

To your Papa God and Brother Jesus, you are lovable and irresistible.  All of you.  And knowing that, heals everything.

Looking forward to the Full Revealing of all The Saints (that would be us);

Love,
 

Susan

Trust God by Pastor Brent Lokker

As you probably already know, this past month my family was contending together for my sister Karlin's life and then a week ago (with sadness on our part for the ways we will miss her in this life) celebrate her glorious homecoming with Jesus in heaven. So many of you joined right in with us declaring her healing and we are so very grateful for your loving and faith-filled hearts! This past Saturday at Blazing Fire, Suzanne, myself, and my sister-in-love, Julia, each shared some insights of our journey with God through the process (you can listen to that right here if you’re interested: http://blazingfire.podbean.com/e/loving-well-under-pressure-brent-suzanne-lokker/ )

Life’s trials and crises have a way of bringing to the forefront what is in the depths of our hearts like nothing else can. Our heavenly Papa uses these times to lovingly invite us into greater places of maturity and growth with Him, should we choose to want that.

James 1:2-3 in the Message Bible puts it this way:

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

It’s important to remember as we navigate the complexities of our lives with the Lord that He is intrigued and fascinated with us, not frustrated or irritated with us. And always, He is 100% committed to our success (the way He defines success!).

Being very transparent with you, I want to share a bit of what has surfaced in my heart over the past week or so. I will share it in the form of questions that the Lord posed to me and ask that Holy Spirit brings deeper revelation to you for whatever situations you may be going through in your life at this time.

1. Is your trust placed in Me (God) alone or is it placed in the desired outcome of what you are praying for?

2. Just because you had a desired outcome in mind that didn’t work out that way, does that mean your faith was any less pleasing to Me?

3. Will you allow Me to show you subtle ways you are still, at times, trying to substitute a formula or the right way of doing things in place of a genuine, intimate relationship with me?

4. Can you celebrate with Me the process you are in and the progress of your relationship with Me to this point?

As you ponder these things with the Lord, and anything else He wants to show you, I leave you with this verse:

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Psalm 43:5

With Much Love & Peace in my Heart,
Brent

Trust Without Borders In The Storms Of Life - by Lonnie Ellis

Everyone will experience storms in life. Some are self-inflicted for wrong choices we make. Some come from the enemy of our soul trying to kill steal and destroy. Some are God-created to remove things that keep us from our Kingdom identities and keep us bound within our earthly identities.

Storms may come in many forms; the loss of a job, the loss of a promotion, the loss of a home, the loss of a close friendship, the death of a child, the death of a spouse, the death of a parent, the betrayal of a spouse, the death of a marriage, the death of a dream and much more.

No matter the cause of the storm(s), God wants to meet us in them and WALK WITH US through them, in the midst of all the pain, suffering and loss. He wants to reveal Himself to us in ways our hearts don’t even know are possible.

In the storm(s) we tend to pray to God (and we should), but in the back of our minds - we have predetermined how WE want God to respond and how WE want God to make the outcome look. At times we pray: “God get me out of this storm!” When we do this - it is because we don’t yet grasp the fullness of our identity as God’s son or daughter - seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Instead, we’re living from an earth-bound identity.

“Trust Without Borders” means no matter how tough the storm - we learn to trust that God has the best path and outcome for us and for our lives. He will touch us through our storm(s). Then we begin to look like and represent His son Jesus on this earth from heaven’s perspective (our Kingdom Identity).

He wants to take us from victim to victorious.
He wants to turn our mess into a message.
He wants to take our test and turn it into a testimony. He wants to give us beauty for ashes; we just have to be willing to let go of the ashes.

Trust Without Borders is part of the journey on The Road Less Traveled

Love God With All Of Your - Mind, Heart, Strength, Soul by Pastor Todd Lout

We are CREATED to love Him in four spheres of life. Our heart represents our emotions. Our soul represents our identity. Our mind represents our thoughts and our strengths represent our resources. He says we will love Him this way BECAUSE He loves us this way!



This is a commandment but also a declaration. We pampered saints sometimes don’t like to be told what to do. God is a perfect Father, though, and He's telling us "This is true about you." If we submit to this commandment, this truth, this appropriate response to His love toward us, then it becomes a freeing, life-giving declaration. This is first priority because God knows that if this is in place, everything else will be grace-filled and so on. This reality will have the greatest impact on our heart, over any other thing in this Earth lifetime.

We do need to put our involvement into this. We take intentional steps to make the most of this declaration. (Sort of like saying, “You’re going to be a successful Botanist". That’s a great statement and truth if you’ve got that inclination, but you then need to put energy and time into learning about plants, trees, dirt, water….)

The greatest grace we can receive is the anointing to feel God’s love and to express it. It brings the greatest freedom and has the greatest reward. Let's turn the focus of our life from what we are to DO to what we are to BECOME. Our greatest calling shouldn't be the size of our ministry, buisness, bank account, etc. It should be the size of our heart. Everything else follows.

*All Our Heart

We love God with our emotions, our affections, which are the very impulse of desire that affects our decisions. We have a significant role in determining how our emotions develop over time. We can “set” our love or affections on anything that we choose. Our emotions eventually follow whatever we se ourselves to purse. As we change our mind, the Spirit changes our heart (emotions).

Because he has set his love (heart) upon Me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high because he has known My name. Psalm 91:14

*All Our Mind

We fill our mind with that which inspires love for God instead of what diminishes it. Our mind is the doorway to our inner man that greatly affects our capacity to love. Much of our life takes place in our mind.

The language of the human spirit is images or pictures. Our mind is an internal movie screen that continually shows us pictures. It is like a camera that stores our memoires.

It's a vast universe inside of us that will never ever be turned off. We cannot shut down the images in our mind, but we can direct them by MEDITAING on God’s Word. We can replace dark thoughts with new ones, rewriting the script of the movie that we continually watch inside.

We love God with our mind by taking the time and effort to come into agreement with the truth about Him and His purposes. This involves refusing lies about His ways and His heart as tender Father and passionate King.

*All Our strength

This is to love God with our natural resources (time, money, energy, talents, words and influence). We express our love for God in the way we use our resources. The normal way to use them is to increase our personal comfort and honor.

God loves for us to express our love to Him by investing our strengths into our relations with God and His purposes. By doing this we sow our strengths into God’s bank. He multiplies and then returns our investments back to us. However, He does it in His own timing and way.

“Your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you openly. “(Matthew 6:18)

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

*All Our Soul

We establish our identity in our relationship with God instead of in our accomplishments and in the recognitions we receive from people. Our identity is determined by the way we define our success and value and thus, how we see ourselves.

God’s love for us is what determines our personal worth. We've got to define our success as being ones who are loved and chosen by God and who love Him in return.

We are to be anchored in this truth as the basis of our success and worth, rather than in our accomplishment, recognition, possessions or relationships. Our identity must be established on being loved by God and in loving Him back, instead of on our accomplishments or failures.

Our confession is “I am loved by God and I am a lover of God, therefore I am successful.” Burn-out does not come from working hard, but from working with a wrong spirit. When we work for success we get burned out. When we work from success our spirit is strengthened! As we change the way we define success, we will love God much better because we will have much less emotional traffic inside our heart and mind.

No more false identity in strengths / accomplishments!

Here's to full confidence in the grace of God!!

Resurrection Celebration! This Saturday, April 4th, 6 pm

This Saturday night at Blazing Fire, we are going to tell the final week of Jesus' life, death and resurrection through a special, extended time of worship and reading of Scriptures. Jesus' death and resurrection is the central event in all of creation and all of humanity. We have eternity to ponder the magnitude of all that transpired for us in those three days and we will need it to be able to worship Jesus adequately!

This is perhaps my all time favorite painting of the triumph of Jesus' resurrection--by Ron DiCianni. It's hard to see all the amazing detail in this small version (it's orginal size is a 12' by 40' mural!), but here is the artists description of this epic, eternal moment captured on a canvass:

"In addition to kneeling angels and fainted Roman guards, I incorporated the concept of the 'great cloud of witnesses' from Hebrews 12:1 by showing the tomb surrounded by jubilating heroes of the faith. These biblical notables include Moses, David, Isaiah, and Abraham on the right of Christ and Elijah, Noah, Esther, John the Baptist, and Daniel on His left. Of all the figures, the three kneeling are David, Esther, and Daniel — royalty bowing to the greatest of all kings!

"Now let me draw your attention to some elements in the mural that you may miss at first glance. Notice the rock beginning to crack under Christ's feet due to the earthquake and the 'keys of death and hell' (Revelation 1:18) tied on Christ's belt. On the upper right of the painting is the remnant of the place where Jesus was earlier crucified, Mount Calvary, also known as Golgotha or the place of the skull. You can also see the hint of a rainbow above as the same promise God gave after the Flood; it still stands the test of time. Of course I'd be remiss if I did not point out the part of the mural that matters most: Christ emerging from the tomb victorious and alive!

"It seems that over the centuries every artist has longed to paint a definitive subject that would stand the test of time and draw the viewer into the scene. For Michelangelo, it was the Creation of Adam which he did for the Sistine Chapel. For Rembrandt van Rijn, it was the scene of The Prodigal Son. For me, it is the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, as this one act of history separates Christianity from every other religion, philosophy, and dogma. This event not only authenticates Christ's nativity and crucifixion but also legitimizes every word Jesus ever said concerning Himself and His relationship to God.

"Although some may ignore the resurrection at their peril, nobody can deny that it is a historically and theologically proven fact beyond doubt. My hope is that as this mural is installed, many will be confronted with the scene of the Resurrection and make the decision that Jesus Christ is worthy of being called their Lord and Savior." -- Ron DiCianni

Titus 3:3-7

3 We were slaves to sensual cravings and pleasures; and we spent our lives being spiteful, envious, hated by many, and hating one another. 4 But then something happened: God our Savior and His overpowering love and kindness for humankind entered our world; 5 He came to save us. It’s not that we earned it by doing good works or righteous deeds; He came because He is merciful. He brought us out of our old ways of living to a new beginning through the washing of regeneration; and He made us completely new through the Holy Spirit, 6 who was poured out in abundance through Jesus the Anointed, our Savior. 7 All of this happened so that through His grace we would be accepted into God’s covenant family and appointed to be His heirs, full of the hope that comes from knowing you have eternal life.

So Proud of my BF Fam! by Pastor Suzanne Lokker

A couple of weeks ago during a Blazing Fire Saturday worship service, it was such an honor and privilege to stand up with you—your acknowledgement of your victories so filled up my encourager tank! My hope increased and my faith got a huge boost as one by one we all stood up to give testimony to the power and love of God in our lives! We are so a sign of hope to each other and to the world!

Just to recap: I encouraged you to stand up if in the past week, and even for the shortest instance of time,

* you could claim a victory over the enemy

* you walked in wholeness—where the truth of your being matched the ways of your being

* even though you were going through a difficult time, you could still say, “I get to love you, Jesus, through whatever comes.”

* you could say, “Just keep me steady here.”

* during worship, you opened your heart as we sang, “Lord, I know you love me” and let these words go deep into your spirit

* you “Let love win!”

We need to celebrate all these victories in each others’ lives! One of the most profound victories for me was to watch as you stood up and celebrated you. It’s one thing to have someone observe that you are developing more of God’s character in your life, but it’s gigantically impactful when you observe and acknowledge that change in yourself! As you become the brilliant treasure you are designed to be, the way you share God’s transforming love, as only you can, becomes a beacon of hope in the world.

OH, YEAH! YAY, GOD!!

“You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16 (The Message Bible)

Covenant of Belonging to our Blazing Fire Family by Pastor Brent Lokker

Last Saturday, I shared about the Covenant of Belonging to our Blazing Fire Family. Any time we talk about intentionality going deeper in relationship with others, there's a going to be some levels of anxiety to work through because, let's face it, all of us have been hurt by people we've been close to and trusted.

However, we (the elders of Blazing Fire Church) also know that God has been leading us to this conclusion: His heart of covenant love for us was always meant to be shared with one another. Choosing to belong to one another in covenant relationships is a healthy foundation for trust to grow as we learn how to care for and honor each other.

To choose to enter into a Covenant of Belonging to our BF Family isn't something to take lightly, but it also doesn't have to remain scary as we understand the Lord's heart and intentions for us to belong to one another. Covenant does not mean that we agree on everything. If that were true, no two people on the planet could ever be in a covenant relationship with each other. We are using the term “covenant” as a choice to stay connected with each other in a way that brings beneficial, positive changes over the course of those relationships—It is an agreement with God that we belong, not only to Him, but to one another.

If you were unable to attend Blazing Fire this past Saturday, especially if you consider us to be your family, please take the time to listen to the message here:

http://blazingfire.podbean.com/e/brent-lokker-covenant-relationships/

And here is the document that the elder team took great care in crafting to be as clear as possible about what we are inviting you to take part in:

http://blazingfire.org/covenant-of-belonging-with-our-blazing-fire-family

Blazing Fire Church will continue to warmly welcome anyone who simply wants to come to our worship services and enjoy the presence of God with us. For those, however, who desire to belong to our Blazing Fire family in a committed relationship, we invite you to enter into a covenant of belonging with us. Genuine love and commitment is risky because we are learning to open up our hearts to each other, but we believe the reward of living wholeheartedly with each other is worth the risk!

The amazing, life-giving journey we've been on with so many of you is about to take another leap forward! Every time we choose to go with God's plan, no matter how unsettling it may feel in the moment, good things happen.


If, after listening to the podcast and reading the Covenant of Belonging to our Blazing Fire Family you desire to belong in a much more intentional way, you can let us know by e-mailing us at info@blazingfire.org. We will communicate back with you how best to proceed.

With Much Love & Excitement for Where God Continues to Lead Us,