KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

"Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek, shall SUDDENLY COME TO HIS TEMPLE, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for HE IS LIKE A REFINER'S FIRE, and like fuller's soap: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall PURIFY THE SONS OF LEVI, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness" (Mal. 3:1-3).

Our blessed Lord and Christ is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. Fire and soap. The Lord Jesus Christ is like fire! The Lord Jesus Christ is like soap. What can this strange, cryptic language mean? You know what fire and soap will do. Fire will purify.

More than three centuries ago when the Black Plague swept through London, England, more than 68,000 men, women, and children were sickened with the putrid fever, suffered nameless agonies, passed into delirium, sometimes with convulsions, and then died. Before the end of the terrible nightmare of anguish and death, what was thought to be an even greater tragedy occurred. The city caught fire, the whole heavens were ablaze as the Great Fire destroyed more than 13,200 homes and 89 churches. Most of the city, which was built largely of wood, lay in ashes. Wonder of wonders! As soon as the last dying embers cooled and the smoke cleared, the inhabitants of the city discovered that the Plague had been stayed! Not another person died of the epidemic. The Plague never returned. The fire had killed the bacteria-carrying fleas and rats that caused the Plague. It took a fire to do it! Fire is a great cleanser, purifier, and changer, the finest purifier.

It is interesting to note that the Greek word for fire is PUR, a derivative of which is the Latin word PYRA (pure) and the English word PYRE - the place for the burning of a corpse. PYREX also comes from the same root, PYR or PUR, meaning a fire, and REX, meaning a king - that which is king, thus ruling over the fire, hence a "heatresistant" glassware. All our English words having to do with that which is pure are related to the Greek word PUR, indicating clearly that that which is pure is so because it has been cleansed BY FIRE! Consider: PURE, PURity, PURify, PURification, PURitan.

And, of course, soap is also a purifier, a cleanser. The Bible mentions several times the profession of the fuller and fuller's soap. The trade of the fuller consisted chiefly in cleansing garments and whitening. The process of fulling or cleansing clothes consisted in treading or stamping on the garments with the feet or with paddles in vats of water in which a strong alkali soap had been dissolved. So when the prophet says that the Lord comes like fire and like soap he is telling us in language that we can understand that He is the great cleanser; He is the great purifier. The two figures, fire and soap, are used because fire purifies inwardly, and soap purifies outwardly (garments and flesh). The Lord Jesus Christ is like fire and soap, He not only does a purifying job on the outside, but He also does a far grander and more thorough purifying work on the inside.

OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE, the scriptures affirm. I understand not why fire has been represented to us as something so terrible, so frightening, so hideous that we should try to avoid it. If our approach back to God is through fire, as revealed by the flaming sword placed at Eden's gate, why do we always try to get out of the fire? Why do we evade the fire? Why expend such energy and effort to try and pray ourselves out of the fire? Fire, in the scriptures, symbolized two things - judgment and cleansing. But God is not schizophrenic in His nature - one side of His character disposed to forgive, save, heal, redeem, deliver and restore, while another part of His nature is bent on vengeful destruction and the sadistic torture of His enemies. His action in fire, as His action in grace, is pure, harmonious, and balanced, directed towards the purging that will lead to restoration. His fire cleanses the believer that he may qualify for God's highest. His action of fire towards the unbeliever is to the same end, conditioning and preparing that one for good results, when, having been broken and purged from pride and rebellion, he bows low before the Saviour, penitently receiving the gracious gift of life. The fire does not save him, but it removes the hindrance that separates him from the kind mercy of the Lord.

The crude idea that a wise and loving and righteous Creator would decree endless torment in undying flame for His creatures who are the work of His hands does dishonor to the name and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is incredible that any man who has tasted of the goodness of the Lord could ever believe that the compassionate Saviour of mankind could ever have intended us to read such a meaning into His words. The eternal fire is the truth, the righteousness, the love of God; in a word, it is the nature of God. Any careful reader of the Old Testament will be aware that fire is often used therein as a symbol of the presence and action of God. "Our God is a consuming fire," says the scripture, and the apostle adds, "God is love." It is no straining of metaphor to say that the love of God and the wrath of God are the same thing described from opposite points of view. Every father who has had to put the rod of correction to his son understands this! How we shall experience God's love depends upon the way we come up against it. God does not change; it is man's moral state that changes. The wrath of God is a figure of speech to denote God's unchanging opposition to sin; it is His righteous love operating to destroy evil. Nothing can live in that devouring flame that is of the nature of a lie or wars against the spirit of holiness. The consuming fire is eternal as God Himself; it is, because He is; it is that which was from the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Oh, if there be one thing for which we ought to rejoice and praise God without ceasing it is that eternal fire which will burn up all the foulness and rottenness, all the wickedness and cruelty, all the shame and wrong from which our souls have suffered. It is not evil which will have the last word, but good; not sorrow, but joy; not hate, but love; not satan, but Christ!

Fire appears terrible only to the man who is unprepared to pass through it. When of old God came down on Sinai, its upper peaks were veiled with impenetrable folds of smoke, like the smoke of a furnace. And in the heart of the smoke there was the appearance of devouring fire. There is dread here! Bounds had been get to keep the people back; but a special message must be sent to warn them against breaking through to gaze, lest the fire should break forth upon them. But there was no harm as long as they kept without the barriers; and when Moses entered into the very heart of it, it did not singe a hair of his head, and injured him no more than when it played around the fragile acacia bush, which burned with fire without being consumed - not a leaf shrivelled, nor a twig scorched. Yes, our God is a consuming fire, and there is comfort and hope and blessing in the thought! When we yield to God's love, and open our hearts to Him, He enters into us, and becomes within us a consuming fire; not to ourselves, but to the evil within us. So that, in a very deep and blessed sense, we may be said to dwell with the devouring fire, and to walk amid the eternal burnings.

When Moses, before His death, blessed the tribes of Israel, in blessing the tribe of Joseph he said, "Blessed of the Lord be his land ... BY THE GOODWILL OF HIM THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH" (Deut. 33:13,16). Is not this a strange thing to place among the catalog of human blessings? We can understand why Moses should have desired that his people might be blessed by God with "the precious things of heaven," with "the dew and the deep that coucheth beneath," with "the precious fruits brought forth by the sun and the precious things put forth by the moon." But why should he ask for them such a blessing as this? - the goodwill that God manifested when He dwelt in the unquenchable fire! Was not that aspect of Israel's God an aspect of deepest terror? did it not reveal Him in those attributes which do NOT suggest goodwill? Nay, my brother, it is not so. It is not only in the calm that the goodwill of God appears, it is not only under the cloudless sky and bright sunlight that the blessing of our Father is seen. The heart of the Father beats for you beneath every cloud and in the raging storm as well as in every sunbeam; the blessing of the Father is in our night as well as in our day. To every man He dwells betimes in the burning bush of a wilderness; but the fire chariot is HIS chariot, the burning bush is HIS dwelling-place. The fire of God is love; its burning is the burning of love. The fire that comes to you from the bush is that which consumes the barrier between your heart and the heart of God, and between your heart and the heart of your brother. This fire transformed Moses into a man of might, an instrument of deliverance. The mandate to deliver came out of the fire. Judgment and mercy came forth from the fire! Oh, my beloved, may you assuredly, and blessedly, and fully know the goodwill of Him that dwells in the unquenchable fire!

Not only must we be saved from the penalty of sin, but we must also be delivered from the power and nature of sin. The Bible says that I have been saved from the penalty of sin; that same Bible declares that I must be saved from the power and nature of sin. As surely as God has delivered me from the penalty of sin, just so surely shall He deliver me from the power of sin, blessed be His name! He is fire and He is soap. With the sweet psalmist of Israel I will sing of mercy and of judgment.

You will recall to memory that memorable night, that tremendous occasion of the Passover when the angel of the Lord passed through the land of Egypt at midnight. Wherever there was blood he passed over, wherever there was no blood he drew his avenging sword. In the morning there was a great cry raised throughout the whole land of Egypt, a bitter, heart-broken cry. It is an undeniable fact that God is awful in His wrath. It is a wonderful thing to be saved from the penalty of sin as the Israelites were. When they came out of their places in the morning unscathed, no deaths in any of the Israelitish homes where the blood was sprinkled, they came out praising the Lord and worshipping the God of Israel. The blood had saved them from the penalty of sin, while the bloodless Egyptians paid the uttermost farthing.

As the children of Israel traveled across the Red Sea and journeyed toward their destination, in the wilderness they made a startling discovery - the God who had saved them from the penalty of sin DEMANDED HOLINESS! And the record states that with many of those Israelites God was NOT WELL PLEASED. The vast majority of those who escaped the slaughter of the Passover finally died in the desert, never having attained to the high and holy promises of God in the land of Canaan. They didn't die a judgmental death, they were not condemned to eternal hell and damnation, but they died prematurely, being chastised as a father will chastise his children. They failed to enter in and possess their inheritance in God. But God continued to deal with Israel in the wilderness, for He determined to have a people purified unto His purpose. God is like fire! He is like soap! And cleanse and purify His people He will!

That the coming of the Lord as refining fire does not relate to His coming in the flesh two thousand years ago is clearly seen by the fact that there was no purifying of the priesthood then, and the term "the sons of Levi" cannot refer to the old Levitical priesthood but to the new order of the Melchizedekian priesthood, for the old Aaronic priesthood has passed away and the new order has come into being, the order of Melchizedek. The Lord has nothing to do with the Levitical priesthood, for He was not of the tribe of Levi but of the tribe of Judah. He couldn't be a priest after the old order because He was not of Levi nor of the descendents of Aaron. This is made perfectly clear in Hebrews chapter seven. Malachi used this word in reference to the priesthood because there was no other order in existence then, and as the old was a type of that which was to come, the reference must be to the new order of priesthood. Christ Jesus is the High Priest of the new order, the Melchizedekian priesthood, the priesthood that is being formed now, and THIS IS THE PRIESTHOOD THAT HE CLEANSES AND PURIFIES WHEN HE RETURNS TO HIS TEMPLE.

Many students who enter college are required to take an entrance exam. As with every test, the entrance exam is given to determine, and prove, those who qualify, and eliminate those who don't. Those who pass the test will remain and continue with their studies; those who fail are rejected. Every test and trial has within it the element of elimination. Those who do not stand and pass the test are eliminated - not killed or tortured - but cast off, excluded, rejected, prevented from entering in to the new realm. That this possibility exists in the callings of God is clearly seen by the earnest exhortation of Paul when he writes to the saints at Corinth, "So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (I Cor. 9:24-27). The Revised Standard Version reads, "I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air (a shadow boxer), but I pummel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." Paul realized that the thing that could disqualify him from the priesthood was his old body, his flesh. He fought against it, he pummeled it, he beat it down, as some translations say, not yielding to the desires of the flesh, but bringing his body into subjection to the spirit, lest after a wonderful and successful preaching ministry, he himself would be cast away, rejected from the High Calling of God. Being a preacher, even a great preacher, even a preacher of sonship and kingdom truths, is not sufficient to qualify one for sonship in the Kingdom or the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. And I can assure you that there are vast numbers of preachers who will be eliminated in that day; those who have not been able to pass the test.

"But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth?" The great desire of Paul's heart was to qualify and not be a castaway, and to help others to attain also. He wanted to attain and apprehend that for which Christ had apprehended him and to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3). "Warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; whereunto I also labour, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily" (Col. 1:28-29). This is the great cry and longing of my heart also, that with Paul I may be counted worthy of the Kingdom and a place in the Royal Priesthood, and to help you, my reader, to attain also. It is wonderful to hear preachers describe the glories of sonship, the priesthood, and the kingdom. We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, we shout aloud and praise God when we hear, but are we going to be partakers of the glory? That is the question. Not all who imagine themselves to be sons, not all who speak passionately of their place in God, not all who boast of their position in the Kingdom are going to make it - only a few, methinks. "Many are called, but few are chosen" (Mat. 20:16). "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Mat.7:14). There is a price to pay to follow on to know the Lord; a test to pass. Will I pass the test? Will you?

"And He shall purify the sons of Levi, and PURGE them as gold and silver." In the refining and purifying process there is a purging taking place. Purging is getting rid of unwanted and unnecessary material. When Hitler came to power in Germany he instituted a purging of the government. He cast out all those who were not in favor of his agenda and whom he believed he could not trust to cooperate completely with him. These were put out of office. When a conspiracy to get rid of him was discovered there was another purge. Those involved in the purge were not just relieved of their responsibilities, they were executed. Every time there is a change of leadership in the Soviet Union there is a purge of the high officials. Many are demoted to a lesser office, some are retired altogether, while others are promoted to higher positions and power. This is what is called a purge. The Lord, when He comes to His temple, PURGES THE SONS OF LEVI. Only the ones who have completely surrendered to His will, and have walked in His ways, who have clean hands and pure hearts, will remain to reign with Him. How can any one be put in a place of authority in the Kingdom who has not come to the place of complete SUBORDINATION TO THE KING? He will purge the sons of Levi, the priests, removing those He cannot trust to do His will and cooperate completely in the administration of His Kingdom. The ways of Babylon must be purged, the attributes of the carnal mind must be cleansed, all self-hood must be purified. The ones who will abide the day of His coming are those He is refining and purifying now. The whole object of this refining is that the priesthood "may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." And methinks that the priests themselves ARE THE OFFERING!

God wants outward holiness and He wants inward holiness. Soap for the outside, fire for the inside. But God does not want outward holiness apart from inward holiness. That's what the Pharisees had, you know. Outwardly they looked marvelous, outwardly they were so religious it knocked your eye out, but the Lord who can see through a thick cloud and whose eyes penetrate the depths of darkness could see that inwardly they were full of dead men's bones - the skeletal form of their father's religion, but void of the life and substance thereof. Outwardly bright white-washed sepulchers, but inwardly full of death and corruption - form without essence, works without life, revelation without reality!

"And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver."

In this wonderful process the miner mines the ore out of the darkest depth. The miner has it in his mind that he will go after the ore. Now, it's not easy to obtain the ore. The ore is in inaccessible places, and it requires great effort and endeavor for the miner to obtain the precious ore. The refiner then goes after the ore. The ore doesn't go after the refiner. I have never heard of an ore searching for a refiner! You never will. It's the refiner who goes after the ore. Somebody says, "I sought the Lord." Well, that's how it appeared to you, my friend, but the truth of the matter is the Lord sought you. He sought you in the darkest depths of the flesh and the bestial system of this world, and He brought you forth and made you His. You may appear today very beautiful and all gift-wrapped and glorious in the grace of God, but I'm not deceived, and heaven is not deceived, and I sincerely hope that you are not deceived. It is not my intention to either affront or insult those who read these lines, but I must remind every child of God that any man or woman saved by God's grace is nothing but a decorated mud ball. You are ore brought up from the depths, yet polluted with impurities and distracting, incompatible substances. While we praise God for His mercy and grace so lavishly bestowed, the fact remains that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked - who can know it? But now, praise His name! the ore belongs to Him. That is what happened in salvation, we became His property, purchased by His blood.

"Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Cor. 6:19-20). "The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col. 1:13, Amplified).

The ore is now the property of the miner who mined it, but the mixture is there. Both gold and silver are found in nature, but not in their pure form. They come mixed with, or imbedded in, various other kinds of rocks, minerals and metals. No jeweler would want to work with natural gold with bits of rock or sand in it. Nor could such impure stuff be beaten into thin sheets. And no one likes a ring that turns their finger green! No, gold and silver as they are found in nature do not have, in themselves much usefulness. They must first be separated from all the impurities that naturally accompany them. And the process for doing that is called REFINING. Our lives, dear ones, are like that. There is so much that is worthwhile in us, but so much that is worthless. There is so much that is of God, and so much that is of self. So much that is of the Spirit, and so much that is of the flesh. So what does the great and eternal Miner have on His hands? He has a mixture. And that is why there has to be the furnace of fire. The ore which we are, in that mixed, raw, unrefined state, brings no pleasure at all to the Refiner, nor does it fulfill any useful purpose in His plans. Of these He says, "With them I am not well pleased."

Our Father in His sovereign purpose sees us, but He cannot use all that He sees. The ore is wonderful relative to its pure precious metal content, but it is disgusting relative to the impurities that are mingled therein. He is unable to use us in that condition of mixture, so He comes to us as a refiner's fire. And immediately we wonder what is happening! What is happening is that HE is appearing, and I might add, He is showing up in a FORM that we did not expect. Yes, 'tis the same Jesus, the lovely Saviour who so graciously saved us by His grace, but He comes now, not to forgive and bless and coddle and wink at all our carnality, but He comes as a refining fire, to purify the sons of Levi. He comes now to lay the axe to the root of every tree that bears no good fruit.

One aspect of God's fire is affliction, reverses, calamities, heartbreak, disappointment, trouble, suffering - all this and more besides, everything that breaks and processes and moulds the character of God into our lives. People say, "I don't know why God has allowed all of this to happen to me!" Ah - that's an easy thing to solve - He lets it happen because you need it! Since we are now HIS, His ore, we ought not be surprised at any of the processings which He brings our way, but rather we see the hand of our Father in all these things, knowing that in His own mystical and divine way He is working it all for our good and unto His glory.

The apostle Peter expressed the truth of it this way: "Beloved, do not be amazed and bewildered by the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test your quality, as though something strange - unusual and alien to you and your position - were befalling you" (I Pet. 4:12, Amplified). "THINK IT NOT STRANGE," the King James version says - do not be amazed and bewildered, do not be astonished, do not be alarmed as though the experience is foreign, unexpected, abnormal, a surprise. It is not an accident - it was PLANNED. It is not a surprise - it was PURPOSED.

If we love the Lord and long to see His purpose realized in our lives, we must be willing to accept Him as a refiner's fire. We accepted Him as Saviour, now we must accept Him as Fire. We must be willing to embrace the means He uses to sanctify us. He sanctifies us in the crucible of adversities. The trials, afflictions, sufferings He sends us are not punishments for past sins but divine tools to conform us to His image. Paul's thorn in the flesh, Job's loss of all his possessions, family and health, Joseph's betrayal by his brethren, his being sold as a slave, and later his being falsely accused and thrown in prison, were all for a divine purpose. Taken to the isle of Patmos, John was made to see a great multitude of saints from every nation standing before the Lamb of God. Each was clothed in white robes and held a palm branch in his hand. The WHITE robes speaks of purity; the palm branch denotes victory. Being made pure by the inwrought righteousness of Christ also brings victory over self. Asked by one of the elders, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?" John answered, "Sir, you know." He was then told, "These are they who have come out of GREAT TRIBULATION; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Each of these white-robed saints had to experience GREAT tribulation. But as the result of their going THROUGH that great tribulation, God's purpose was accomplished in their lives. Cleansed and purified by the Lamb, they were also transformed into His very likeness.

It is necessary that testings come. It is necessary that God's elect be tried. It is the fierce heat of THIS OVEN OF EARTH that separates the gold from the dross. it is the sevenfold heat that purifies the gold, and we must not be amazed or troubled by it. The fiery trial that is to try us is for our transformation. The fire of God consumes without destroying. A good illustration of this truth can be found in one of the physical laws in science which states that matter can never be destroyed, only transformed or changed. Ice, for example, when subjected to heat first becomes a liquid (water), then a gas (water vapor). It disappears, but it is not destroyed, only changed into a higher form. So too the fire of God's glory destroys the flesh by transforming it. His sanctifying fire destroys that which corrupts the flesh (sin) in order to render the flesh holy. The sanctifying power of the Spirit places us on holy ground where the flesh (self-life) must put off its shoes if we are to walk as God wills. I find it impossible to believe that the saints will be raptured OUT OF THE TRIBULATION. Noah was not saved from the flood, but IN THE MIDST of its awful torrents. Daniel was not saved FROM the Lion's den, but IN IT. Neither were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego saved FROM the fiery furnace, by WALKING IN THE MIDST OF IT WITH THE SON OF GOD. We are not saved FROM the cross, but by it.

Ray Prinzing has written, "God is spirit - that is His substance. God is love that is His nature. God is also light and fire - they are His manifestations. We speak of fiery trials, HE IS IN EVERY ONE OF THEM. May we go even farther? He is the source of the fire in our fiery trial, 'HE' is the fire thereof. You say that God's hand is resting upon you - you say that He has filled with His Spirit and His anointing is upon your life, guiding you into all truth. Then don't be amazed at the fiery testing that is yours also, for with every advancing step into new truth, there needs to be a purging out of error and past traditions which are contrary to pure truth. The fire to burn out the dross is the Holy Spirit God has placed within, your GOD is your fire. The reason you are conscious of the fire is because there remains something in resistance to the move of God, but after all is brought into submission, it doesn't matter if the circumstances don't change, for by then you have been so changed you no longer consider them as a fire in your life. The Lord places you into a situation which almost 'burns' you up, and by your unyieldedness to God you are completely miserable. But when you at last begin to yield to His will, you find that all of the situation has become a haven, and learning to be content in whatever state you are in, you are no more adversely affected by the fire, you delight in it.

"Kenneth Wuest, in his translation, calls the fiery trial  'the smelting process.'  A fiery ordeal, a smelting process - why? because it will both purify us, as well as reveal what degree of quality has been attained within. We become so involved with the exterior happenings of the trial, how our flesh hurts, etc., that we forget the actual purpose is for the INNER PROCESSING, until we are of a PURE SPIRIT before Him. When suddenly we become aware of  'what spirit we are of' in some of these happenings, it sends us back to our knees in repentance and beseeching God to purge out these unholy traits. HE already knows what is in us, but the fires certainly expose us to ourselves. Sometimes we bow low in praise because we see what He has wrought, and are amazed at our own reaction to a situation - of the calm, the peace, the rest we have in it all. Then we also have those other times when the agitation of our spirit reveals that there are vast areas within that still need to be dealt with, purified and cleansed, until 'ALL that is within me (can) bless His holy name' (Ps. 103:1). Yet in all of this working, praise God, we find in Him NO CONDEMNATION - just that continual drawing upward and onward, being assured that HE who hath begun in us this good work, will also bring it to a successful conclusion in His own time" - end quote. What a word!

"He shall SIT as a refiner and purifier of silver..." He sits - this is a process that requires time, this is something that is important to Him, something He must patiently sit and preoccupy Himself with, not a work to be rushed or accomplished in one grand sweep of His hand. To us it becomes very monotonous, for it seems the process will never end. He SITS! From the moment you were sovereignly apprehended by the Spirit of God to be a part of His specific workings in this day, the Lord Jesus Christ has been obsessively preoccupied with purifying and refining what you are as His instrument in the earth. He examines the ore, ugly, shapeless, not representative at all of that beautiful vessel He has in mind; but there it is, just a hunk of jagged, dirty ore, with too much alloy. He moves to change that, and under the crucible you go.

People enter into this walk of sonship and I hear them saying, "I've never had trouble like I've had since I came into this walk!" Of course you haven't. That's the way it's supposed to be! "I had it better back in the church system," they moan. I wouldn't doubt that one little bit, because God is not at this time interested in either Babylon or the world. His purposes lie with those whom He has selected, drawing them out and beyond the course of this world's religion, and placing within them a divine call, a sense of destiny which must be fulfilled. You wonder why things are so difficult, why all hell breaks loose, why as soon as one door opens another door closes, you wonder why you have all the troubles, trials, and tribulations, while the way of the religious is not so. Brother, you're in the furnace - Jesus is being to you what He promised He would be - FIRE! You are in the crucible of His purpose.

How long will this continue? I would like to promise you some respite, but I dare not. Ps. 12:6 says, "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, PURIFIED SEVEN TIMES." Seven is the number of perfection. It reveals the truth that God's own nature will be produced in the fire. He will heat up the furnace until you have been perfectly cleansed and purified, nothing remaining but HIMSELF. That which the Lord is receiving unto Himself cannot be of an inferior quality to Himself. The gold - ah, it is HIM. The silver - it is of HIM. How marvelous is the grace by which He has birthed us out of His own Spirit - making us "partakers of the divine nature" (II Pet. 1:4). It is like the grades in school, the farther along you go the harder the lessons become.

How long, think you, would it take a workman with a hammer and chisel to crush the ore and extract the gold from the rocks in which it lies so closely embedded? But if they are flung into the great furnace, and fires fanned to torrid heat and the draught roars through the burning mass, eventually a great glowing stream of pure and fluid metal, from which all dross and rubbish are parted, flows into the waiting mould. This is a parable of what God will do for us. At first the surface of the melting metal may be dark and lurid - deep orange red, over which a flickering flame shall pass; but, as the process is pursued, the color will become lighter, the dark fumes will pass off, and the metal shall bear the appearance of a highly polished mirror, reflecting the beholder's face. The process may be long and hot; BUT THE RESULT IS SURE.

A brother has shared his interesting and informative experience at a silver smelter. He says, "I once visited a silver refinery. As one looked in through the door of the furnace you could observe a beautiful sea of molten silver. The flames were reflected mirror-like in the melted metal and one doubt whether anything could be more pure. Then the operator of the furnace added a chemical reagent and within minutes none of that beautiful silver was visible. The material that was added reacted with the impurities in the silver and these impurities rose to the top. The beauty was completely obscured. The operator then used a long handled tool to rake all these impurities out the door of the furnace. The silver returned to its original beauty. Another reagent was then added and the same thing happened. This process went on for about a week and by then the silver was over ninety-nine percent pure." What a beautiful picture of the work of the fire of God in us! We look at one another and think we all reflect the beauty of Christ from within. Then God casts some circumstance into our life and suddenly the beauty of the Lord in us becomes clouded over as things come to the surface that we were not even aware were in our hearts.

I would like to tell you that the fire will get cooler, I would like to assure you that God is going to reduce the temperature, I would like to promise you that God will not add to the fire another reagent, but I have the most marvelous news for you - something good is NOT going to happen to you! I wonder how many people would appreciate us singing on television, "Something AWFUL is going to happen to you ... Jesus of Nazareth is passing this way!" Everybody wants to hear about the good, the gifts, the blessings and glory all around. But let me assure you that none of that will bring you to perfection. Only the consuming fire of God can bring the scum to the surface of our lives, where He scoops it off. More fire and more heat and more and more impurities rise to the surface to be removed by His dealing hand. The process continues hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year until He can look into the molten silver and see His own image, His own reflection, His own face perfectly and clearly. So long as He can look into that furnace and not behold His own face clearly and purely and precisely and perfectly the heat stays on. "TAKE AWAY the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer" (Prov. 25:4).

You can do one of two things when the pressures come. You can either REACT or you can RESPOND. What is the difference? To react is: "Why did this happen to me? Why didn't it happen to somebody else? I'm so fed up with so-and-so and such-and-such." That is reaction - plain and simple. We can talk of how good God is, of the great revelations He has given, of marvelous truths revealed, of glorious experiences received, of the high realm to which we are called - but how do you do when the fire starts burning? The accurate test of the quality of what is built into our spiritual lives is: How do we act when put under pressure? Do we react, or do we respond? How do you do, precious friend of mine, when the heat is turned up? Do you go to pieces? Do you wring your hands in dismay? Do you moan and cry? Does your brow furrow with worry and frustration? Is your heart seized with fear? Do you ask, "Where are you, God? What did I do to deserve this?"

The question is just this - How do you do when you're in a test? What do you do when sickness strikes...financial crisis ... trouble in the family ... problems at work... car breaks down ... when the heavens seem like brass and God appears to be a trillion miles away. Our God is a God who hides Himself, who draws the curtain, who veils His presence and withdraws His hand, that those who are growing up into His image may be tested. There come seasons of drought in every soul, as well as times of rain. There are times of storm as well as periods of fair weather. There are seasons of difficulties as well as days of blessing. There are the times when God is building a fire under your pot, because He plans to bring some changes in you.

But RESPONDING when testing comes is like this: "Lord, you have permitted this to come upon me; it couldn't happen if You didn't allow it, You're my Father. What are you trying to tell me? What are you working at getting rid of? What scum is there down there? What thing is there in me that is alien to your purpose, a hindrance to the revelation of Yourself through me? Why are You turning up the fire again, Lord; what are you wanting to teach me? I commit myself into Your hands, Father; I commit all my way unto you. I trust you with all I have and all I am. Do with me as You see fit, what you know is best. I say Yes to Your will, Yes to Your ways, Yes to Your word, my God!" That is RESPONDING. The fires will go out and the testings will end when they have accomplished the purpose for which the fire was kindled in the first place - when you've gotten the message, when you've learned the lesson, when you've been completely purged, purified and transformed, when everything that is not of Christ is out of your mind, out of your nature, out of your character, out of your disposition, out of your emotions, and out of your life!

Who may abide - endure - wait for - the day of HIS COMING? So many are content in that spiritual place where they are. The vast majority of Christians are satisfied with the forgiveness realm, the blessing realm, the gift realm where all is received by free grace through faith. Everything in those elementary realms is free! There are no conditions, no qualifications, no price - neither is there any great attainment in God. It is the realm of children, of babes in Christ. "Ask, and ye shall receive." To the spiritual children Jesus promised, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask Him?" (Mat. 7:11). The world of children receiving gifts from their parents is a blessed world indeed!

The question follows - Who will wait for the day of HIS COMING? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap. Ah, beloved, this is not the blessing realm, it is something beyond the gifts and benefits obtained by grace through faith. This is the PURGING, CLEANSING AND PURIFYING REALM! It is the realm of qualifying for sonship, of preparation for the Kingdom, of readiness to rule and reign with Christ as a King-Priest after the order of Melchizedek. And who shall stand - or who can withstand who can stand against it, who can stop or prevent His appearing as the refiner's fire? No one, may I answer, shall be able to withstand or stand against His coming when He appeareth!

Even so, Come Lord Jesus!

He sat by a furnace of seven-fold heat As He watched by the precious ore,

And closer He bent with a searching gaze As He heated it more and more.

He knew He had ore that could stand the test And He wanted the finest gold,

To mold as a crown for the King to wear, Set with gems of price untold.

So He laid our gold in the burning fire, Tho' we fain would say Him, "Nay";

And watched the dross that we had not seen, As it melted and passed away.

And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright, But our eyes were dim with tears,

We saw but the fire - not the Master's hand, And questioned with anxious fears.

Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow As it mirrored a Form above,

That bent o're the fire, tho' unseen by us, With a look of ineffable love.

Can we think it pleases His Loving heart To cause us a moment's pain?

Ah no! but He sees thro' the present cross The bliss of eternal gain.

So He waited there with a watchful eye, With a love that is strong and sure,

And His gold did not suffer a bit more heat Than was needed to make it pure.

In the Fires of our affliction, All predestined for our good,

We can see the fourth man walking, Forming now a son of God.

Lest our souls fall in that furnace, Be consumed by sorrow sore,

He has sent the Holy Spirit, Our deliverance to insure.

He knows what will purify us, Knows the way, has gone before,

And He planned this fiery furnace, Not an end - but as the DOOR.

For our body, soul, and spirit, As a substance to refine,

From these fiery trials and sorrows, Shall emerge, with glory shine.

Not a golden, evil image, As some heathen king did mold,

But a precious Holy Image, A reflected son of God.

So wait my soul, wait on His workings, Wait my spirit, patiently,

Wait my body, for the changing, Rising up triumphantly.

In the ages yet unrolling, We shall still His glories share,

For the plan of God is ceaseless, His salvation making bare.

Mortal minds cannot receive it, This supernal plan so great,

One that covers all the ages, Ending sin, and fear, and hate.

So we give Him all the glory, Knowing fiery trials now,

Will present us in His likeness, All is well, that He allows.

- Irene Lindsay

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