After the Fire 

 
I don't recall ever having a week where I received more desperate emails than I have this week. Email after email was talking about the same things. People were writing in for prayer at the point of giving up. Each person said that they had stood and stood and it looked as it is getting worse, not better. Each one described how God had spoken something to them that they had never seen come to pass. Each one was at a place of desperation and at a place of questioning 'what now?'

 

            At the same time I have never seen more prophetic words about entering into a new season, a season of blessing and abundance. It seems that many are at a crossroad.

 

            I was thinking about all these people as I spent some quiet time on Sunday and I began to think about a subject I have been studying lately. In studying about the fire and how gold is refined I have learned a few things. One thing I learned is that gold is not refined, not pure until it has reached its melting point.

 

            This is what I see happening in the emails that I am reading; many have reached their melting point. I read emails about people who are crying themselves to sleep because they have stepped out as God told him to and are still struggling to make ends meet. Or people who desperately need an answer concerning finances, family and health. I read emails about those who are continuously hearing the enemy speak defeat in their ears. It is a pivotal time in the body of Christ.

 

            God has a timing and we are smack dab in the middle of his timing, the timing of him purging his children. It is not a fun time, which is easy to see. However if we choose to change our perspective, we can see it from a different point of view.

 

            If you are one of those who I have spoken to this week, or heard from via email this week, who has reached their melting point, then you are in a good place. You may be in a place of fire, of being purged by fire. The melting point comes before gold is purified...seconds before. Therefore if you find yourself at your melting point...rejoice and be glad...God has chosen you to come forth as gold. And God never starts something he doesn't finish.

 

            Has your life felt lately as if it was getting hotter and hotter all the time? Have you felt that your life seems to be beyond your control and that things keep getting worse and worse all the time no matter how much you pray or confess? If so, you could be in that place of being refined as gold.

 

            I may have said this before, therefore forgive me if I am being repetitive. A breaking point, or a melting point, has always been a good place for me. While it doesn't feel like a good place, and it doesn't look like a good place; breakthrough always comes after those times; which goes along with the process of refining gold. After the time of the melting point, the dross is skimmed away and the rest comes forth as pure gold. This is what God is doing with us.

 

            I guess the question is; can we stand the heat? Will we give up before we come forth as gold? Or will we choose to remain in the fire of God's refining and inevitably come forth as gold?

 

            Frankly, you have come too far, stood too long and believed too faithfully to give up now. Therefore today I wanted to encourage you to hold steady, don't give up, don't jump ship, don't quit now. The heat may feel hot but you can stand it...you can trust the one who is doing the refining. He alone knows what it takes to refine you. He alone controls the temperature. Trust him, he will cause you to come forth as gold, you have his word on it.

 

            Let's pray for one another today; for strength, for grace, for peace and that we each come forth as pure gold in this season.

 

 

Kim Potter