Bring the Fire

Hi all,

Just wanted to share something from church today. We got to an evangelistic/charismatic church so sometimes people have "a word" from God and step up to share it with the congregation.

We have a large praise band and it just so happened that today all of them wore black and white--except one. It wasn't planned. I didn't actually even notice. But the one that was wearing something different (green and brown) surely did! It was something that she felt like God must have planned but she didn't know why so she was praying during the praise songs.

One of the songs we sang (for a LONG time) today repeated the phrase "bring the fire Lord." I hadn't heard the song before and remember asking myself what the fire is supposed to represent. We don't usually want fire, so why am I standing here asking God to bring the fire?

After song service the woman in green and brown stepped up to share the word/vision she was given. She saw all of the black and white as a prairie fire. Ashes and coals. But the Lord used the fire to cleanse the land and to bring new life to it. That was here in her green and brown! LOL! She talked about back in the 80's when yellow stone park caught on fire and all of the extraordinarily beautiful things that had burned, but IT BROUGHT NEW LIFE. Some seeds can't germinate, in fact, until fire comes!

Sometimes God uses "fire" (trials here on earth) not only to take away the dead brush in our lives, but also sometimes the most beautiful red woods that He may have helped us to build. Sometimes He intends for us to let go of something beautiful so that He can breath NEW life into us! Grow us. Renew us.

This whole "word" really spoke to me. There are some people in our lives that question why we would ever go forward with another adoption right now. And it seems like the people closest to us have the hardest time accepting it. They love us and don't want us to ruin something beautiful--our family--by taking another chance on another child. After all, we got so "lucky" with Bright adjusting so well, right? They don't want us to take on the "fire" that comes in the form of additional health and financial stress. They want to protect us, just as the rangers at Yellow Stone tried so hard for so many years to protect that beautiful place from being burned.

But with the fire that may come into our lives because of our decision to adopt Cainan/Wise will also be beautiful new growth! An amazing opportunity for God to cleanse us of things that are of this earth that we probably rely on too much (i.e. financial security). I'm thankful to God today for the blessing that pursuing Cainan/Wise's adoption will be to our family.

Is He bringing you to fire today? Is He asking you to let go not only of the ugly dead stuff in your life, but also something beautiful? Do you trust Him to build something beautiful in you again after the fire?

Anita