Planted by Water

Yesterday I wrote about our passion for God, the fire in our bellies. But God is also a God of fire. We no longer come to Mount Sinai but God is still a consuming fire. And as he spoke to us of passion he reminded us of his refining and purifying fire. We were reminded of Elijah who both called down fire and rain from heaven and we felt God saying to us that fire comes before the rain that would produce the fruit from the ground. There was to be fire before friutfulness. This is not something we are to be afraid of (though it does engender the fear of God!) or to flee from; God’s refining fire is to be embraced not resisted - it is what enables us to come through as gold, as winners!

Reflecting on these things, I was speaking to a friend from the church here in Huddersfield, John Naylor, and he shared a great thought with me. He stated how the church is destined to be the biggest and greatest living thing on the face of the earth (Amen to that!). A parallel  in nature might be the Giant Redwood Trees, or Sequoias (I’m happy with that given that the theme of trees is central to Planted by Water). He had read an article about how they had found that these sequoias need the help of forest fires to grow. They discovered this when some of them started dying off in the sixties and they realised it corresponded with the introduction of  a  new policy on fighting forest fires. It was realised that they actually needed the fire in order to break through the protective bark and burn away other plants and debris so enriching the soil, and providing nutrients for growth. Without the fire it wouldn’t grow so well.  A great example of fire before fruitfulness.

It is terrific when God is speaking like he is at the moment. Everyone seems to be prophesying. Every conversation I have with people in the church at the moment seems to include some prophetic insights. Thanks John for this!