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.

THE SIMPLE GOSPEL: JESUS AND OUR INCLUSIVE UNION WITH THE TRINITY - By Joel Pollard

When we think of the Gospel, many things may come to mind but I believe the Holy Spirit comes to remind us once again how simple the Gospel really is. I want to suggest to you that the Gospel did not start in Adam but rather when God made us. Genesis 1:27 says in The Message, “God spoke: Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature.” God wanted us to exist so that He could pour out His love on us as we were created to love and to live in union with the Trinity. We were the plan in God’s heart from the very beginning for He has always loved us. Jesus didn’t come into this world as a reaction to what Adam did, for Jesus was the perfect Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, before anything was ever created; the answer was already in place (1 Peter 1:20). And when Jesus came, he came as 100% God/100% man, what theologians call hypostatic union. This is why Jesus understands the human experience. He’s right here with us - Emmanuel, God with us. God doesn’t sit in judgment over us, He sits in solidarity with us for wherever we are in life, God is present in the moment with us. We cannot chase away His love or His grace, for we are in the very grasp of His grace!! 2 Cor 5:19 in the NLT says, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.” God doesn’t count our sins against us anymore. Jesus dealt with it and conquered it! In Romans 6, it says that when He was crucified, we were crucified; when He died, we died; when He was buried, we were buried; when He rose, we rose; when He ascended, we ascended with Him and  that is why we are seated together with Him in heavenly places at the right hand of the Father (Eph. 2:6). The God who has invested Himself in us is so committed to our freedom because our freedom equals His freedom. He sees Himself FULLY alive in us. What God wants to communicate to us is so enormous that definitions of words will never do it. Jesus was that Tree of Life that we were meant to partake from. God has come and taken the fruit from the Tree of Life and He has crushed it and the juice of the Wine of the New Covenant becomes our opportunity to partake again from the Tree of Life. Trinity means that God is a relationship of love. Love cannot exist in isolation. God was love before He created anything because God from the very beginning wasn’t singular or alone. He was the God who within Himself had the distinction of the Father, Son and Spirit. There is a creative process and dynamic flow between them. We were created to love and to live in union with the Trinity. In the Greek, there is a word, perichoresis. Peri means “around”; chorein means “to give away, to make room (divine choreography), translated “to dance around”. You and I were created in this dynamic, this circle of love of moving in inner harmony and sync with Them. Trinitarian theology expresses the mutual indwelling and containment among the persons of the Holy Trinity – Their presence in each other, in which each contains the other. We have been brought into this circle through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Living, moving and having our being forever in this union will make us more distinctly, more truly and more fully, ourselves. I believe The Magnificent Trinity is coming to remind us in asking, “May We have this dance, please?” They are reminding us of our inclusivity with Them from the very beginning, one that encompasses divine harmony and divine choreography that IS love.

BENEFITS OF FULL DISCLOSURE - by Bill Hernandez

I believe the Lord is urging us on to go deeper and more honestly with Him in all we are thinking, feeling and doing. As we encounter more of His love in this activity He is building a greater confidence in bringing everything to Him without fear of retaliation. By admitting everything to Him, we get insight and understanding from Him if we also stop to listen after opening ourselves to Him. If we are in full disclosure before Him, we can then begin deeper work. There should be no holds barred in revealing it all to Him and bringing into regular discussion everything however broken, strange, obsessive, anxious, inaccurate, opinionated or twisted. Not a thing phases Him. He never tires of repetitive issues and confessions. He always listens. All openness with Him is precious because it’s intimate and it’s trust. Throwing ourselves before Him is an awesome thing to Him. He is the God of empathy and infinite understanding. Nothing can separate us from His love. There is no fear in love and there is no punishment. When you open things to Him you never know what His answer will be, but it will always be loving, kind, edifying and comforting. The benefits to full disclosure is about a paradigm shift because of the influx of light or the truth from the Lord as He demonstrates His care, His nature and imparts wisdom and understanding to you. The new you is revealed more and more. Here are some of things that happen or are revealed: - Character Growth and maturity - Spiritual Armor - His love is our armor - Eph 6 - Equipped with love because we experience what it is. - We develop empathy and understanding because we are shown these. - We develop listening skills - We become less of a know it all and more of a listener - You become less rigid in your opinions and open to learning and hearing others point of view and receiving others who have       opposite points of view. - Unity - community builder - Eph 4 - Diplomatic - Approachable - Your words become seasoned with grace - Col 4 - Less reactive - slow to speak, quick to hear and slow to anger - James 1 - Unflappable - being calm in crisis because you have peace - More broadly accepting of others. - Genuine love, friendship rather than perfunctory acceptance because you are more compassionate. - Illumination of scriptures - the Word will make more and more sense. - Discernment - seeing others more objectively rather than through judgments. - Self respect and self confidence because you know you are greatly loved. - Self control including the rest of the fruits of the Spirit in Galations 5 that include: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness. The deeper you go with Him, the greater the revelation of His glory you experience. Jesus said that if you open the door, you both will dine with each other and have fellowship with each. We see each other face to face and you experience lasting transformation and victories.   I John 1:5-7 -This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.   Eph 4: ...put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.   Heb 4:16 - Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Releasing Offense - by Brent Lokker

Very few things cause more pain than being hurt or betrayed by someone who is important to you. Our protective reaction is to hold an offense without realizing that this offense wears us out because of the negative energy it consumes. Not one person is exempt from going through times of feeling betrayed and deeply hurt. When it happens, our flesh wants to defend ourselves, fight back, or wall ourselves off because the pain just is too much.   Not too long ago, I was hurt in such a way that I had to navigate all of these feelings. My initial fleshly reaction was to defend myself, but God spoke his wisdom to me instead: “Son, why don’t you not respond until you can rest in me and we can process the pain together.”   The following morning, I had a significant vision (I share the details of this vision in the video below). The bottom line is that the Trinity—Father, Jesus & Holy Spirit—invited me to see myself in the perfection of their love…a love that included me! This happened as I was reading this Scripture:   It is my desire for each one of you, that the realization of love’s completeness in you will increasingly burst through all boundaries and that every sphere of your relationship with others will be greatly impacted by your intimate acquaintance with love. I urge you to examine this agape-love with the utmost scrutiny, just like when a diamond is viewed in the full sunlight to prove its flawless perfection. I dare you to take love to its ultimate conclusion. There is no offense in love, as evidenced in Jesus Christ who is the light of day.” Philippians 1:9-10 (Mirror)   Through tears, I peered into this diamond of the pure love of the Trinity…and there I was with them! In that moment, I saw with crystal-clarity I was included in this perfect love…I was created in love…I WAS love!  And I was invited to love this person who I felt hurt and betrayed by in the very same way I was loved—without offense! In love, there is no offense.   I was reminded in that glorious moment that I had been loved by my Creator and Father with a love that didn’t keep track of any of my offenses…not one! I will erase their sins and wicked acts out of My memory as though they had never existed. Hebrews 10:17 (VOICE)   The tears flowed freely as I reflected on the betrayal Jesus experienced. All Jesus did was love people with a perfect love and expand his Father’s kingdom, and in the end, he was rejected and betrayed by nearly everyone around him. And what was his response on the cross? “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”   In one sense, we could say, “they knew exactly what they were doing!” This is what our flesh wants to cry out when someone hurts us. We want to make a case against them. But Jesus was saying something completely different. “Father, they don’t know who they are yet. They can’t see themselves in our perfect love, so they are operating out of a false self instead of the truest nature of love in which we created them.”   We can’t love with this kind of love, except by letting Jesus be the vine feeding his very life into our branches, his love supernaturally flowing through us in a way that, apart from him, would not be possible. In this supernatural invitation to me, with the love and presence of Jesus flowing through me, operating in my truest self was the natural response: “I am love and in love, there is no offense.”   Friends, I encourage you to peer into the purest, most radiant diamond you could possibly imagine. A diamond of the Agape-love shared by Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit. “Lord, open the eyes of our heart to see ourselves where you have always known us to be—right in midst of your perfect love. A love that we share together.”   Now, agree with the only way the Trinity sees you:   I am love I’m created in love This is my truest self In love there is no offense   With love in my heart for each of you,   Brent