Seasons of Fire

On August 22, 2005 I went with my son Joseph to get haircuts at Great Clips on El Dorado Pkwy in McKinney, TX. This was where we usually went for two reasons: One, we can use coupons and ....Two, a good selection of "clean" magazines to read while waiting. When we got there I let Joseph go first. As I was seated in the waiting area I looked towards the magazine rack and I found myself staring at the cover of a well known magazine publication. On the cover was a picture of the pastor of the largest church in America.  I walked over and picked up the magazine and read the article inside that was written about this man. I have been counseled against naming names and so for the sake of not risking it, I will leave his name out. But let's just say that the majority of this man's ministry centers around very positive, uplifting, encouraging messages. He has built the largest congregation of people in America on positive and uplifting sermons. I will leave it at that for now.

After I finished the article I just began to talk to the Lord. I remember praying silently, "Lord, I don't get it. What's missing here? When I listen to this man I don't consistently hear the sound of your voice. I don't hear the thunder (John 12:28,29 ) and I don't hear the gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12). I don't hear either. What is missing?" I specifically asked the Lord: "What is missing?"............The Lord did not say anything to me right away. My name gets called, I get my haircut and Joseph and I go outside and get into our truck to leave. Right as we were driving out of the parking lot I hear the Lord speak the following 4 verses to me: Colossians 1:25, 1 Peter 1:6, James 1:2, Acts 14:22. Let's take a look at them.

"I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness-..." Colossians 1:25

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." 1 Peter 1:6

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,....." James 1:2

"...Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. 'We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,' they said." Acts 14:21,22

What do all of these scriptures say together? Very simply put.....there is a fullness to the word of God. Paul's ambition was not to preach it in parts and leave other parts out. It was his ambition to set the full counsel of God, the full measure of the word of God, the fullness of the word of God....before the church. It was his ambition to preach the fullness of the word of the Lord. Very simple. And a major, major, major component of the fullness of the gospel was the reality that as believers we will go through seasons of many and differing trials. Seasons of Many trials. James spoke of it. Peter spoke of it. They all understood it's living reality. They watched it in Jesus' life first hand as a man on this earth. They were now personally living out that type of existence. Varying seasons of trial after trial. Hardship after hardship. And with it....blessing after blessing. Joy, peace, provision...everything we desire from Christ and need in Christ comes while immersed in an atmosphere and a lifestyle of seasonal trials and hardship. It just does. You want more peace? Obey his voice and enter into his trials. You want more joy? Obey his voice and enter into the fellowship of his sufferings. You want to know the provision of the Lord? Obey his voice, get onto the narrow path and experience his unending provision. You want his power? Get on the narrow path and see the salvation of the Lord for as the scriptures say...."The Egyptians you see today you will never see again."

God moves mountains. And he does it on the narrow path of affliction. It is interesting to note that throughout the churches in the regions of Galatia (Lystra, Iconium and Antioch) that the Spirit of Christ, through Paul, chose to warn the churches of one principle thing......."Through many hardships we enter the kingdom of God." The word "hardship" in this verse is the Greek word Thlipsis. The word means pressure, affliction, burden, tribulation, hardship. Thlipsis is the same word used in the following verse:

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble (thlipsis). But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Thlipsis. Thlipsis. Pressure, affliction, burdens, tribulations, hardships......and yes.....in the midst of it all......his peace that supraseth all understanding. Thlipsis. Thlipsis. The word comes from the Greek word Thlibo. The word Thlibo means to crowd, narrow, afflict. Thlibo was the Greek word that Jesus used when he spoke the following words:

"Enter through the narrow (Thlibo) gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow (Thlibo) the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  Matthew 7:13,14

So as Christians we are on a narrow path. It is a Thlibo path. And on that thlibo path we have troubles. We have Thlipsis (John 16:33). It is on this Thlibo path, enduring through Thlipsis, that we progressively enter the Kingdom of God. Thlipsis, which is hardship and suffering, comes as we continually stay on the Thibo path, which is a narrow path. John 16:33 and Acts 14:22 both stem from Matthew 7:13,14. The narrow path that the Lord calls us to is one of seasonal trials and hardship. I say "seasonal" for the following reason: It is important to understand that there will be seasons of restoration and rest mixed in with our difficulties, trials and discipline from the Lord. Consider the following two scriptures:

"On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." Acts 8:1

"Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord." Acts 9:31

Do you see the contrast? Do you see the balance between the two? God brings balance in our lives. There are seasons of affliction and discipline (Acts 8:1) and there are seasons of rest, peace, inactivity, settling down, growth and restoration (Acts 9:31). There is a holy balance. Balance.

In ministry you have to EMPHASIZE both. You PREACH both. You ACCENTUATE both. You GIVE both. You LIVE both if you are in Christ, on the narrow path, progressively entering the Kingdom of God. You have BOTH. BOTH. Seasons of Hardship. Seasons of Blessing and Rest. Seasons of Both.

In early 1997 I was living in Frisco, TX. The Lord spoke to me one night while I was driving home from work during February of that year and told me to move to Midland, TX. I packed up and moved two weeks after I was given instruction to do so. Shortly after I made this move I found myself attending a ministry conference in Midland. It was a gathering of some local ministries in the Permian Basin and various parts of New Mexico. These men came together to seek the Lord in prayer for a few days to see what the Lord might be doing in that region of the country. On one particular night at this series of meetings I found myself standing outside with two men whom God had appointed in my life to give me oversight and direction in my relationship with the Lord. We started to pray and began to specifically ask God what kind of season we were in. One of the men stopped and looked at me and said the following: "Jay, I am seeing a tree. And a tree has two types of rings in it. Some of a trees rings are flexible while other rings are hard and rigid. One type of ring is developed in rough weather seasons to keep it flexible while the other type of ring is developed in calm seasons so as to make it somewhat rigid....."

He continued..."The tree has to have a balance of both types of rings. If a tree has too many rigid rings in its trunk then when a major storm comes through it can break its trunk and die. If it has too many flexible rings then it will never be able to grow and support it's own weight, eventually falling over, uprooting and dieing. It has to have balance between both." He then looked at me and said, "Jay, this will be a rough weather season for you. You will learn to be more flexible because this will be a hard season on you."

Gee, Thanks. Don't we all love those words of prophecy. But seriously, what this man told me came to pass. My time in Midland, although short-lived (six months to be exact), was rough. It was tough. I didn't enjoy most of it. But the Lord did do some digging around my soul and lifting out of the dross. I got exposed and sifted and I am grateful for it, although it was tough. And it was for a season.

Folks, even as we emphasize trials and hardship.....please understand that there is balance. God does restore us. He broke Job but he also restored him. He sifted Joseph but he promoted him. He tried David but he established him. He afflicted the church in the book of Acts but he restored them to his peace. Do you see the balance? The spirit of Christ leads us down a narrow path where there is balance in seasons. There is a holy balance.


Here we have a scale. A scale denotes balance, weights and measures. It is a symbol of agreement, honesty and justice. It is a symbol of law, of rendering fair decisions, of speaking forth that which is right. When our speech is lacking in one area or another then we become unbalanced and it can hurt others. In Daniel 5 we see the prophet interpret the following words: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Peres. The words meant, "numbered, numbered, weighed, divided." Daniel told King Belshazzar that he had been "weighed on the scales and found wanting." He told him that there were things that were void in his life and because of that he would be judged for it. As the story goes, Belshazzar was killed that very night and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom.

I used to be a manager for the Olive Garden. In the restaurant business there are certain rules that you never break. All restaurant managers are aware of them. One of the main ones is that, if you want to keep your job then you don't ever, ever, ever mess with the ingredients of a dish. Ever. Ever. In my time with the OG I had seen and/or heard of managers intentionally watering down the meat sauce, using cheap "well" tequila in the Topshelf Margaritas instead of the more expensive Cuervo 1800, recycling old meatballs and leftover lasagna from the night before..........I have seen some of these things first hand by other managers. Do you know what these managers are doing? They are cheating on their COGS. COGS is an acronym. It stands for Cost of Goods Sold. In layman's terms it means that everything that you put in a dish, every ingredient, has a certain cost. Four ounces of spaghetti and two ounces of meat sauce each has a certain cost. If I change the consistency and quantity of any ingredient in a dish without approval from the Corporate Office then I have just cheated on my COGS by lowering my food cost. Restaurant managers do it to save money, positively impact their bottom line and ultimately earn better bonuses at the end of every fiscal quarter. In the process what these restaurant managers are really doing is cheating their customers by giving them an inferior product. Are you hearing me on this? They are serving an giving out an inferior product without the authorization and approval of their corporate offices (Heaven). They do it for money (book sales, offerings)...... Does any of this make sense? Are you seeing the spiritual parallel.

Folks, if we change the ingredients then we are cheating. Bad restaurant managers cheat on their ingredients. If I leave an ingredient out of a dish then I am cheating on my COGS. In every restaurant in the country there are "balance-scales" in the kitchen. At every Olive Garden, Macaroni Grille, Chili's, ......at every restaurant in the US there are sets of balance scales in the kitchen that are used on a regular basis by the kitchen staff. The purpose is to weigh out exact portions for each dish. Every dish gets an exact amount of set ingredients. If you willingly and knowingly mess with those ingredients and their portion requirements you are subject to "discipline up to and including termination." Period. End of story. Every restaurant manager knows this. Every bartender, every line cook, ever prep-cook knows this. Everyone. Everyone.

In the kingdom of God, as things stand today, many things are out of balance. Many ministers and many ministries that are in operation today are out of balance. They are leaving out key ingredients as they present the supposed "Gospel" to their adherents. My wife and I have seen it everywhere we have been: Albuquerque, Ft. Worth, Dallas, San Antonio......We saw it for over 15 years in America. Much of what is being served up to the church today is not the Gospel in all its fullness. Do you remember the verses that the Lord spoke to me as I was driving out of the parking lot? One was Colossians 1:25. Paul said that he endeavored to preach the word of God in all its fullness. He was trying to serve up a dish that had all of its ingredients AND every ingredient properly portioned out. Every ingredient. Properly portioned. He didn't want to leave anything out. And every ingredient had been weighed out to the full measure. God's grace is sufficient for us in times of ministry to say exactly what we are supposed to say and how we are supposed to say it.

"...For the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." John 12:49,50

"Whoever claims to live in God must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:6

Jesus said that he spoke what the Father told him to speak and he said things in the way the Father told him to say it. And the apostle John said that we must learn to walk as Christ did. And we who teach will be held to a higher standard of judgment.

"Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." James 3:1

Ministering is a serious matter. We will all be called to minister at various times in our lives. And when we do we need to aim for balance and fullness of the word as it is given to us. It doesn't mean that we can't make mistakes along the way. I am not saying that. The Lord knows we will stumble along the way. It is just that if we are going to take a position before thousands upon thousands of people, millions upon millions of people, we had better get things right because our words have the capacity to empower or dis-empower multitudes of people over the course of time.

Now for the rest of the story...........It's August 22, 2005. Joseph and I drive home. As a family we finish out our day. The next morning I get up somewhere around 5AM. It is August 23rd, 2005. I go to the dining room table to pray and study. I take out my Bible, Strong's Concordance and my study journal from 2004. I open up my study journal right to my notes from almost a year and a half prior. I looked right at my March 17th, 2004 notes. They said the following:

March 17,2004 - Fire = Testing through Trials. Matthew 3:11, Mark 9:49,50, Luke 12:49, 1 Cor 3:13, Revelations 3:18, Zechariah 13:8, Malachi 3:2. ..........Conclusion: When we don't preach salting, trials, testing we preach another gospel. See Galatians 1. See Acts 14:22.

Folks, Jesus baptizes us with fire over the course of time through testing and trials. Every Christian is to be progressively salted with fire. Jesus himself was baptized with Fire. Fire will test the quality of the work of our lives and our obedience in him. We are commanded to clothe ourselves with Fire. The Lord's intention is to bring us into the Fire periodically and refine us like silver and test us like gold. The Lord himself sits as a refiner and purifier of our souls. Read the passages from my study notes. I just paraphrased each one of them in the exact order in which they are written down above.

Folks, the scriptures give emphasis to this over and over and over and over again. Their is an incredible emphasis given to the baptism of Fire, salting, testing, trials, hardship, the narrow path and suffering over and over and over again in scripture. A teachers voice is to simply be an instrument that sounds off on what is already written down in scripture. We are to say what many teachers and righteous saints before us have said. We are to say what the Lord is saying by his Spirit in the present tense moment. We say what we are told to say. We speak what we are told to speak. We minister what we are given to minister. When we don't we are in disobedience. And when we present something else in its place we are teaching falsely. If God wants to emphasize something and we instead change the ingredients and give emphasis to other things, regardless of what God wants to say and do.....we are cheating on our COGS. We are changing the ingredients around.

The Baptism of Fire is a key ingredient in the overall presentation of the fullness of the word of God. To de-emphasize it or ignore it altogether is to dis-empower the Body of Christ. It creates a false expectation in the hearts and minds of believers about how their lives are to unfold in the Lord. The Lord does not want us to be caught off guard. His speaks to us by his voice. And he speaks to us of things to come, both in general terms and in specific details. Jesus knew about his cruxificion in advance. Paul and Peter knew about their deaths in advance. The book of Revelation speaks of the suffering of the church in advance of it happening. So does 1 Peter. The apostle Paul warned all who heard his message of the price to be paid...in advance. It's called the cross. The cross. Fire. The cross. Fire. The cross. We pick up our cross and follow him. We receive his baptism of fire as we walk forward with a cross on one shoulder.

When we change the ingredients we are on the verge of preaching another gospel, if in fact we are not already doing so. I hope, for any man's sake, that they correct that which needs correcting and make things right. The Lord is long suffering and I am grateful for that. We all need correction. God's Spirit is gracious to continue to work with us to change us. But the time has come for the church to be aware of it's call to transformation through FIRE. The FIRE lifts the dross and make us holy, pure, peace-loving and joyful. God's intent is to make us righteous, peaceful and joyful in his Spirit (Romans 14:17). And it only comes through the Fire. As he leads us there we find a peaceful existence with the fourth man in the furnace. He is always with us to give us peace in the FIRE.

    "Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, 'Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?' They replied, 'Certainly, O King.' He said, 'Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.' Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come Here!'
    So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governor's and royal advisors crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.".......They trusted in him.........Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon."  - Daniel 3: 24-30.

The Lord not only wants us to be baptized with water but with Fire. And he wants us to have an expectation of it. Their will be seasons of Fire. Seasons of Fire. As we are fire tested we enter into greater measure of his peace. Peace and joy are had through righteousness. And righteousness is had through the fire of discipline. We need to expect seasons of Fire. Expect it.

Be Blessed

JEB