I Live For This by Pastor Brent Lokker

What happened this past Saturday at Blazing Fire Church was what I live for.  We’ve had nights somewhat similar before and, by God’s grace and design, many more are on the horizon.  So what happened?   The way our musicians tell it, their practice time before church did not go well, but the moment the first chord of the first song in worship hit our ears, something had shifted. Heaven was already partnering with them. But it started with a worship leader, Todd Lout, who determined in his heart, “I’m going for it—worshipping You with reckless abandon, Lord!  I must experience You—Nothing else will do!” And it required a worship team that would follow his lead and want the same.   But even that would not have taken us to the place we went together last Saturday.  There was a whole room full of people who had that same hunger and desire for the sweet and transforming Presence of God.  So many more of you than usual were actually there at the start of worship—almost as if something (or rather, Someone) had pulled you there with anticipation in your heart. The worship team would say later that they could feel your full, willing participation with heaven.   Our worship to the Lord with longing hearts for Him was a sweet smelling sacrifice. Heaven noticed and joined in.  We entered into Revelation 4:8, “Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come!“   Holy…holy…holy…the room was transforming and many of us were glued to the floor with a reverent awe of the Lord, all of us transfixed by His overwhelming beauty.   Then prolonged sweet silence.  As if the Lord were saying to us, “Shhhhhhh…let your heart marinate in what it longed for. This is True Love’s embrace.”   Eventually, a word from the Lord came. “Everything you need is there for the taking.” In heaven’s realm where we live right now, there is no lack (Psalm 23:1).  The Lord is showing us what it means to live in two realms at the same time, which is what He’s always invited us into.   While on the floor, I told Papa, “I don’t need to preach. This is what we came for!” Those kinds of decisions are ones we all need to make—to lay aside certain things which are good in order to take in His best.  Don’t get me wrong, preaching God’s word is important, but there are times when He Himself supersedes our plans and agendas to say, “The Living Word is in your midst!  Open your mouths wide and receive the nourishment I have for you.”   In heaven’s environment that was in the room, healing broke out!  George, a man who was in great pain with metal throughout his body due to many surgeries and unable to walk for 20 years, was prayed for by Diana, a young woman who was at Blazing Fire for the first time, and he walked to the front of the room, beaming with joy and wonder, to give his testimony of the extreme goodness of God!

In heaven’s environment that was in the room, healing broke out!  George, a man who was in great pain with metal throughout his body due to many surgeries and unable to walk for 20 years, was prayed for by Diana, a young woman who was at Blazing Fire for the first time, and he walked to the front of the room, beaming with joy and wonder, to give his testimony of the extreme goodness of God!

The rest of the night was filled with saints, angels, tears, laughter, power, love, healing, freedom, prophetic encouragement…in short, heaven on earth!   When you sense His presence, take notice and honor that moment.  More and more of these moments are coming, my friends. This is what we all live for!

His Full Expression by BF guest contributor Charles Razzell

I've been stuck (in a good way) on the word "fulness" for the past week, which led me to read the following scripture in a new light:

"And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." (Ephesians 1:22-23, NIV)

What do you see when you consider the body of Christ, the church? We probably tend to think most about our experience with our church family, and perhaps other local churches we may have attended in the past. Those who have travelled and ministered internationally typically see more of the “abundance of the nations” than those who have stayed close to home. But the stunning truth revealed in this scripture gives us another perspective, (Heaven’s perspective). The word “fullness", which is being applied here to the church on Earth, can be translated as “completeness” or “plenitude”.Another translation of this verse that I like is... "which is His body, the full expression of Him Who fills all creation." (CJB) So the church is expected to be, (and in some sense is), the full expression / fullness / completeness of Jesus, who fills all creation! If, perhaps, we are feeling inadequate, under resourced, or numerically challenged, it’s time to get a heavenly perspective on just how glorious and stunning the church already is and must become! Some of us, when faced with the vastness of the heavenly perspective, get a bit intimidated, perhaps even depressed, by the apparent gap between what we seem to have and what we're told we've inherited! It is good to realize that no single, local body of believers is intended to be the "full expression" of Him on their own, but part of a wonderful mosaic that builds world-wide into a glorious picture. Nor, does any one local expression (such as Blazing Fire Church) depend on any individual for its glory, but "From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." -- Eph 4:16, NIV. I hope these thoughts can be encouraging to you today.                                                                                    Blessings! - Charles

Fellowship With Holy Spirit by Pastor Todd Lout

The God Who created the vast expanse, and Who's love is ten gazillion times larger than even that (to start with), has always had a very intimate family.  Namely, it was "Me, Myself and I" in the Godhead. What more could He need or want?  Perfect love.  Perfect perfection.  Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  Yet, He sent Himself (Jesus) to be our advocate and redeemed us for all eternity.  AND THEN, upon going to prepare something for us, He wanted us to continue our training to ultimately live in perfection with Him by leaving us Holy Spirit.  in John 14:26 He tells us that Holy spirit will be here to teach us ALL things and constantly remind us about what Jesus said and did, intentionally keeping us in the loop.  He invited us into His own intimate circle of family.  Wow! On this planet, in this modern century, we have so much to grab hold of our attention that we often forget this whole thing; Holy Spirit is here, right now, to teach us and instill in us the ways of Heaven.  We desperately need continual and intentional fellowship with Holy Spirit.  In fact, it would be a hundred light years away from brilliance if we didn't take advantage of this. Think about it; we often tend to have feelings of despair over many things, like perceiving ourselves as inadequate to accomplish a thing, experiencing loneliness or disappointment over other people (abandonment, their shortcomings, their perception of our shortcomings, ill words spoken against us). Sometimes we feel ignorant or less spiritual than others who use more highlighter in their Bibles than we do.  So many mosquitoes (metaphorically) just sucking the life right out of us and all along we have access to perfect love, perfect knowledge, perfect peace, perfect joy and so so much more.  Remember, "He will teach you all things."  With Holy Spirit the possibilities are literally endless. His existence in our lives is like a red carpet, rolled out in front of us, that leads to resource unending. We just need to step on and keep walking. Paul encouraged us all with this, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship with the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." 2 Corinthians 13:14.  That "amen" is telling us, "let it be true in your lives!"  (Also Philippians 2:1)   1 Thessalonians 5 tells us to pray nonstop, constantly foster thankfulness and not to suppress Holy Spirit. Right there we get a nice clue of how to fellowship with Holy Spirit.  Truly, when we are intentional with this, it's' not, at all, a laborious task.  This becomes our normal.  I would say it this way; WE CAN HAVE A LIFE OF HANGING OUT WITH THE ONE WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING AND WANTS TO TELL IT TO US....AND CRADLE US IN LOVE, ALL THE WHILE.  A great benefit to all this is that we will have rivers of living water flowing out from our innermost being, John 7:38, and that water will become a fountain of everlasting life, springing up from inside of us.  John 4:14 Dang!  That's not only great for us, but we get to splash that on everyone around us and on our situations! Oh, and we get to be totally transformed cause this fellowship will renew our entire thinking process! Romans 12:2 Holy Spirit owns all the freedoms that the human heart desires.  The more we fellowship with Holy Spirit, the more these freedoms replace bondages. Galations 5:16  From today on, as we decide to be more intentional in our Holy Spirit fellowship, we can go ahead establish trust.  I mean drive it into the soil of your everyday life like a solid tent peg.  He loves us to trust Him, you know. Hebrews 11:6  Here's a little acronym to help:             T - THANK YOU                      Thank Him for His presence, His love, His guidance             R - RELEASE REVELATION                      Ephesians 1:17    Exodus 33:18             U - USE ME                      1 Corinthians 12:31    14:1    Acts 2:17-21                S - STRENGTHEN ME                       Ephesians 3:16     Galatians 5:22-23              T - TEACH ME                      John 14:26                                                                             Love, Todd :)

Have Fun, Play and Be Kind by BF guest contributor Sarah Yang

“Jesus undid everything that Adam did, and did everything Adam failed to do.” - Sinclair B. Ferguson -   What would you do if you knew you already crossed the finish line?  If you knew you were enough?  If you weren’t busy trying to improve or prove yourself?  No more morning ritual of setting the bar super high and trying to meet it in order to somehow please God and meet His crazy high expectations of you?  Because the truth is, YOU ALREADY HAVE.    Because of Jesus, you always measure up.  You are always enough.  You have already surpassed all of His wildest expectations of you.  For one simple reason: Jesus is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).  According to Romans 5:15, Jesus restored us back to our original state in the Garden of Eden prior to the Fall.  News flash: you have already crossed the finish line!  As David Crabtree put it, “Christianity starts where every other religion aspires to end, at holiness and enlightenment.”    Now that we know that we are holy and the “enlightened” light of the world, what do we do now?  Well, we get to fulfill the desires of our hearts.  But you might be thinking, “No!  My heart is evil.”  Actually, according to Scripture, your heart is good and your heart’s desires are good.  God would not make His home in your heart if it wasn’t good (2 Tim 1:14).  And God would not fulfill the desires of your heart if they weren’t good.  God promises to give us the desires of our hearts when we delight ourselves in Him (Psalm 37:4).   So what are the desires of your heart?  What do you enjoy doing?  Roller coasters?  Improv?  Painting?  Interior design?  Basketball?  Being a comic?  A chef?  Go do it.  God loves to fulfill the desires of our hearts.  Why?  Because then we become a tree of life to everyone around us.  Proverbs 13:12 tells us, “a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”  When we fulfill the desires of our hearts, people get to enjoy the bountiful fruit and shade we produce as we’re rooted and grounded in His love.  The greatest gift I can give to the world is to flourish and thrive with life.  As Howard Thurman put it,   “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”   So what makes you come alive?  God is inviting you to the great adventure of unearthing the wellspring of life that is your heart by discovering and fulfilling your God-given desires.  We get to have fun, play, and be a kid again at this wonderful carnival of life… brought to you by Jesus Christ (Matt 18:3).   To listen to the full message, please go to this link:http://blazingfire.podbean.com/e/your-heart-the-wellspring-of-life-sarah-yang/ Love, Sarah

Turning Wastelands Into Gardens by Pastor Karena Lout

REFUGE youth ministry led our service last Sat. night and several of our teens shared how powerfully God has moved in their lives. I was so proud of them for sharing so vulnerably. God has come through for them and encountered them with His transforming love time and again. One of our youth shared how God took away the shame that tormented him for so long. He has a desire for others to experience the same breakthrough he received. I love how God takes the very thing that’s been the darkest valley for us and turns it into our mountain of greatest victory. God demonstrated this with the blind man in John 9:6 & 7  “Jesus spit on the ground, made some saliva and put it in the man’s eyes. Go, He told him, wash in the pool of Siloam. So the man went and washed and came home seeing” Those suffering with leprosy or blindness were thought to be under a curse in that time, so were often spit upon. Jesus took the very thing that was used against this man to bring healing. God has a way of bringing restoration. It’s who He is. He makes the desert like Eden and turns wastelands into gardens (Isaiah 51:3). Jesus surveys the land, accesses the damage and then transforms the ashes into something beautiful. In other words, He stays present with us, acknowledges our pain and restores the broken places back to their original design. He’s faithful to do it. Standing with you for your breakthrough!                                                                    Karena

God Cares About Our Struggles by guest BF contributor - Matthew Guillot

I was very encouraged this last Saturday night when Blazing Fire hosted Dr. Susan Richards. There was healing and deliverance happening all over the place. So many people were set free of their ailments and afflictions. My wife and I had the privilege of seeing three people with deaf ears open, countless headaches gone, knees healed, spines straightened, and pain gone just to name a few. Someone in the prayer line even saw a growth literally shrink and disappear. Praise Jesus!!! It is always encouraging to be in a place where God is clearly moving and showing Himself. But what about the people who didn’t get healed? This question used to send me into a tailspin where there was no recovery. One of the most difficult things I have had to tackle within my heart is when I have legitimate pain, and it seems like God isn’t answering my prayers. Sometimes this pain is physical and sometimes it’s in my heart. What am I supposed to do with seemingly unanswered prayers? Is God even paying attention? We all know in our minds the right answer is “yes” but our hearts may not always be aligned with our mind. Here are some things I have learned along the way…  When we are in pain, the enemy sometimes comes to lie to you and give you ways to cope with your pain. Often his strategy is to get your heart and mind to be offended at God or even to a place of accusation towards God. It is a position of pride, that if we were all really honest with ourselves, we have all been at, at one time or another. The enemy wants to get us to “defend” our position of offense with pride (overt pride/self-pity). 1 Peter 5:5-7 (NKJV)(emphasis mine) 5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”  6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. We can see in the scriptures that God does care for us. In fact we should cast all our cares upon Him. In the very next verse 1 Peter 5:8, Peter warns about our adversary prowling around and “seeking someone to devour.” The enemy wants us in pride so we willingly participate in blocking God from blessing us and healing us. The scripture says that God gives Grace to the humble and that He opposes the proud. Has God stopped loving me if I fall into pride? Certainly not! (Rom 8:38). We are His children (Jhn 1:12), and He will never stop loving us. He just won’t endorse the pride we have chosen to embrace to cope with our pain. When we act out of that pride, it is not something the Holy Spirit can work with. So what is something Holy Spirit can work with? Humility is a key to breakthrough  What is humility? It is an attitude of the heart or a state of being that is free from pride, having a confidence in God’s Goodness and Love that removes the need to defend oneself and exalt one’s own opinion or way over another’s. When we choose to cloth ourselves in humility, we position ourselves to receive the healing and blessing that God has for us. It is not a coincidence that the apostle Peter attached “casting all of our care upon Him, for He cares for you” to the end of the verse that says to “humble yourself.” Peter knew that much of the time when someone is in pride, it is because they feel their needs are not being met. Peter had a purpose to reassure us that God does care for us, and does know about our struggles. God does care, and your breakthrough is coming! How can I know this so confidently? It is who He is. He is a good Father (Mat 7:7-11). If you have asked, He already has your breakthrough planned (Jer 29:11). Humility is one of the keys to breakthrough and encountering God’s Grace and Love. When we are in pride, our hearts are hardened towards God, but in humility our hearts are ready and expectant of His Gracious Love. I encourage all of you to cloth yourselves in humility, and I pray that God showers you with His Love, Healing, and Blessings. By His Grace & Love,                           Matthew Guillot                           (My name is Karis, and I approve my husband’s message. :)

Love is a Choice by Pastor Brent Lokker

Throughout history, the enemy has always tried to pit us against each other in some way or another.  There are factions against each other because of nationality, political party, class status, gender, religious affiliation, and the list goes on seemingly without end.  Here’s the truth: Fear is usually the culprit that can lead to hate.  But nobody can make you hate another person.  Period.   Be real with God and talk with Him about your fears, your biases, your struggles and even the times you find yourself hating others.  Ask Him for his help.  His answer is, “So glad you asked! I’m the Father of all of my children around the world.  My dream and plan is for love to flow in every direction.  I will help heal your heart and fill you with a pure love to be able to see all of my children the way I see them.”   We made these declarations last Saturday during our worship service.  I encourage you to speak them out loud: I choose not to hate another person who has been created in the image of God just as I am. I choose not to villainize, demonize, devalue or trash another person. I will not let fear rule over me. I choose to treat others exactly the way I want to be treated. I choose to align myself with heaven.  I am a voice of hope. I choose to build others up. I choose to see the treasures in each child of God on the earth. I choose love.   You can hear Pastor Brent’s message from last Saturday night here: http://blazingfire.podbean.com/e/choose-love-brent-lokker/