God Really Is There For You - by Pastor Susan Fochler

One of the things I love about our God, is that He is, and will always continue to be, exactly Who He says He is. And He has a whole lot to say about who He is. It is by increasingly coming to know who He is, that we come to discover who we truly are, His sons and His daughters, created out of His love, to be His.

One of the names He calls Himself is the “God who is there”, Adoni Shahmah. Last summer, as I sat by Russ’s bedside as he lay “partly dead” for a number of weeks, I really needed to know God was there, with me. It was an overwhelming, stark time, where I could not keep up emotionally or mentally with the changes and information being thrown at me day after day. My friends and family came to support me and be with me, and were an incredible help to me when I didn’t quite know how to ask for help. The challenge was in knowing how to be with myself, and with Jesus, in an emotional space I had never experienced before. It wasn’t a surprise to Jesus that this was going to be hard for me.

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You are familiar with all my ways. Psalm 139:1,2

But He has promised us, although we may have never “passed this way before”, He has. Deuteronomy 31:8 states that “...The Lord is the one who goes before you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor forsake you.”

As I encountered places in myself I had not known before, missing Russ desperately, unable to talk with him for several long weeks after being married for 32 years, Jesus kept reassuring me, “I will be with you.” It took a while for my heart to catch up with what my mind knew was His reality. It really is true. There is nowhere we can go, in place, time, emotion, thought process, where He will not go with us. He goes with us to our highest highs, and our lowest lows. His love for us is all-encompassing, ever-present, constant. This is His unconditional love: in His infinite wisdom, and most tender of mercy, He does not respect the boundaries we place on our own hearts.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. Psalm 139:7,8.

I began to experience the gentleness, the sweetness of His mercy in a way I had never known before. He whispered this encouragement to me, “Remember I’m here; lean on Me. And if you feel weak, lean even more. You aren’t supposed to be strong in and of yourself. I am your strength. I will always be here, I will never leave you, turn away or stop being for you. Everything you need is right here.”

I truly believe the most unexplored part of our universe is our own hearts. The place where we are to encounter God most profoundly is right here, within. He has already been there, but we have not. And it is His great joy to go there with us...and stay...always. And in making His manifest presence known to us, His joy fills us in recognizing He has joy in our presence.

If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. Psalm 139: 9,10

The amazing thing with our God, is that He knows us, everything about us, right where we are. You never, ever, have to feel that you have to be “on” with God. He has already been to your “off” place, anyway...even goes ahead of you into it! Let’s get over ourselves! He has!

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. Psalm 139: 17,18

God is not capable of rejecting you, turning His back on you, ever. There is nothing you are capable of doing that can possibly cause Him to do anything less than adore you. He knows all of our secrets, already; He’s already been there!

You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Psalm 139: 5,6

Such amazing, unconditional, holy and tender love is beyond our comprehension. I think we have to just accept that as fact. But the really good news is that we don’t have to wait until we understand it to receive it. It’s all yours, already. The whole of His heart is yours for the asking. Just open up and receive.

Susan Fochler

Liberty and Justice for All - By Pastor Karena Lout

"I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth and I delight in these things.” Jeremiah 9:24

My Dad has always had a huge heart for justice. As president of a union in the Bay Area, he works hard to ensure that people are being treated fairly and that they’re protected. He has also become the answer to many other causes and just seems to spread love to everyone he meets. Much like my Dad, I've found I have a deep desire to protect and love people who may not always have a voice too.

Likewise, we reflect the image of our Abba Father who is Justice Himself. He sent His Son to make all things right and justified us through His shed blood on the cross. Since Christ became justice for us, we get to express and communicate that to the whole world. We carry it on the inside of us. The law would say that justice is punishment, revenge or "getting what they deserve." But the new covenant's definition is: Receiving all Jesus paid for on the cross. All mankind reconciled, fully acquitted, made right, whole, redeemed back to their original design. Or as Paul Manwarring has put it: "Justice is a man and woman walking into divorce court and coming out reconciled." Justice is salvation for ALL, just as God intended it from the very beginning.

I have a deep passion to see justice in the area of human trafficking, not only in other nations but right here in the U.S. where young girls are forced into slavery every day. Though the statistics are alarming and the victims' stories heartbreaking, God has encouraged me not to keep my focus on the problem but on the solution. This doesn't mean I'm ignorant to what's happening but I no longer "camp out" there. Sometimes sympathy can keep people locked into a problem, but the compassion of God draws them out. Heaven sees things very differently. We have been invited to see from that perspective. "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of Heaven where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand." (Colossians 3:1 NLT) Jesus always asks me, "How do you want to be the answer?" One way Wildfire answered this question was by selling their prophetic art at BFC and donating the funds to a shelter in the Bay Area that houses and brings restoration to survivors of human trafficking. YOU supported this and were part of the solution! Because we are walking representations of Christ on the earth, we just can’t help but be the answer the world is looking for.

We don’t need to gather around who we’re against but around who and what we're for. As we celebrate and honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. this week, I've been reminded that he changed the course of world history through DREAMING with God. He carried a vision in his heart and kept his focus on the answer, the dream. What is your dream? What moves your heart and stirs up passion? How does God want to be the answer through you? I want to encourage you that Christ in you is shining forth and you are carrying Him, who is the answer, everywhere you go!

“But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. And so we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”-Martin Luther King Jr.

I love you Family,
Karena Lout

About Glory by Pastor Russ Fochler

In the last Blazing Fire weekly email/blog, we looked at Yahweh’s plan to fill the earth with the experiential knowledge of His glory – by revealing His Son Jesus. And we are part of that plan because Jesus the Messiah dwells in us – and together we are His Body on the earth.

We have this great privilege to shine the light of the knowledge of His glory:
"6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor 4: 6 NKJV)

This week, we’ll explore a bit more of nature of “glory”.

The Hebrew word for "glory" is כבוד, (“kavod” or “kabod”). The Greek word used for glory in the New Testament is doxa (δόξα) - which is a Greek word meaning “common belief” or “popular opinion”. The reason New Testament scholars translate the New Testament Greek “doxa” as “glory” is because the 70 Hebrew scholars who translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek (called The Septuagint) chose to translate the Hebrew “kabod” into the Greek “doxa”.

The Hebrew word “kabod “ at it root means "weight" or "heaviness." The same word is then used to express importance, honor, and majesty.

So “glory” conveys the sense of being “weighty”. Sometimes when God’s presence increases in a meeting, people actually feel something like a heavy blanket upon them or their limbs feel tangibly heavy.

Here is an account of God’s weighty presence when Smith Wigglesworth visited New Zealand in 1922:

“There were eleven leading Christians in prayer with our Brother (Wigglesworth) at a special afternoon meeting. Each had taken a part. The Evangelist then began to pray for the Dominion, and as he continued, each, according to their measure of spirituality, got out. The power of God filled the room and they could not remain in an atmosphere supercharged by the power of God.

The author on hearing of this from one who was present registered a vow that if the opportunity came, he at any rate would remain whoever else went out. During the stay in the Sounds a special meeting was called to pray for the other towns in New Zealand yet to be visited. A like position to the other meeting now arose. Here was the opportunity, the challenge, the contest was on. A number prayed. Then the old saint began to lift up his voice, and strange as it may seem, the exodus began. A Divine influence began to fill the place. The room became holy. The power of God began to feel like a heavy weight. With set chin, and a definite decision not to budge, the only other one now left in the room hung on and hung on, until the pressure became too great, and he could stay no longer. With the flood gate of his soul pouring out a stream of tears, and with uncontrollable sobbing he had to get out or die; and a man who knew God as few do was left alone immersed in an atmosphere that few men could breathe in.”

(From: “New Zealand’s Greatest Revival (An Eyewitness Account)” by Pastor Harry V. Roberts page 29-30)

Now that sounds like glory to me! Note also that God likes to reveal His glory when people are praying passionately for His will to be done on earth.

In John 17, Jesus prayed an astounding prayer to His Father. We’ll look at verses 20 – 23.:
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

Jesus states that He has given those who believe in Him – His glory. Why? So that we may be one with Jesus, Father God, and each other. This is a mystery!

The author C.S. Lewis gives us a sense of part of this mystery in his fictional book: “The Great Divorce”. The idea is that people from Hell could take a bus excursion to the outskirts of Heaven. Upon arriving, they were like ghosts compared to the solidness of the grass, the river, the apples of gold, etc. If the visitors were willing to choose to let go of their self-justifying, egotistic mind-sets and simply trust in Jesus for their righteousness – they were assured they would become more and more solid as they journeyed further into Heaven.

I believe that the glory that Jesus has already provided for us – is so that we are able to withstand His glory and the glory of our Father “face to face” – in sweet, holy, eternal common–union.

May we experience more of His glory – and shine more of His glory while we are on this earth. And take some time to "drink in" the magnitude of Jesus' gift to those who believe - His glory; so we may be one!

Russ Fochler

Finding God's Glory - by Pastor Russ Fochler

Years ago, I put up a poster in my room near the ceiling. I can see it easily from my bed. The poster has streams of color that rise like smoke. It says “Encountering God’s Glory.” And something deep inside me yearns for this.

“...they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.” (Ex 16:10b NKJV)

What cloud?

Moses exclaimed to God: “They have heard that You, LORD, are among these people; that You, LORD, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.” (Num 14:14b)

So, its apparent that a cloud from God also travelled with the Israelites - possibly to provide shade. And sometimes, God’s glory - His splendorous presence - filled the cloud or filled the Tent of Meeting.

And many of us have heard of a mysterious cloud that has appeared in the main sanctuary of Bethel Church in Redding. Bill Hernandez witnessed this in person. It is more than a mist - there are swirling, sparkling things in the cloud. Beni Johnson observed that when she looked into this cloud, she felt the peace of Heaven - and she couldn’t be concerned or worried about anything while looking into this cloud.

I sense that 2012 will a time when those who love Jesus will experience Isaiah 60 in greater ways. Here are the first few verses:

1 Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.
2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the LORD will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
3 The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.

That glory is rising upon us because Jesus lives in us! Col 1:27: “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which[a] is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The prophet Habakkuk records this declaration from God in Hab 2:14: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge (the “yada” - the experiential, relational “knowing”) of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

The glory of Yahweh already fills His creation! What is missing has been our ability to perceive and relationally experience more of His glory. Yahweh’s plan is that humanity will see Him and His glory in His Son Jesus:

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

But since that time, the eyes of many have been blinded by the enemy from seeing this glory in the person of Jesus. And this is where you and I come in. We are called and empowered to shine that experiential, relational knowledge of Jesus wherever we go:

3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 4:3-4 & 6 NKJV)

Many people this year will be looking for anyone who is walking in peace and is shining hope in the midst of difficult circumstances. It is our great privilege to turn the amazing grace that we’ve received - into eternal life and peace for them - and more joy and glory for Jesus.

He is the King of Glory!
Russ Fochler

P.S. To look further into God’s glory, I recommend Paul Manwaring’s new book: “What On Earth Is Glory?”.