Are you Smoke or are you Fire?

Artist Kerolos Safwat. “This is my VERY fave pic of seeing Jesus for the first time! Most pics are sweet and humbling. I get it. But this! This is exactly how I want to run into His arms and say “it’s YOU! it’s really YOU! Oh how I LOVE YOU!” This totally captures how I picture my first few moments in Heaven! Whoo hoo!!”

I chose this amazing art work because it spoke to my heart and is exactly how I feel! This artist gets it…I thought it would go perfectly with what I wrote. God bless you Kerolos…

Friday, August 9, 2019

Coming before the Lord this morning…all I could do was say, “Here I am Lord, I have no agenda, no pre-conceived ideas. I don’t want to declare anything or ask you for anything…Lord I’m just here…I’m here Lord…I’m here.”

Then in my spirit I began to hear…. “That’s all I wanted. I just wanted you to sit with me, be with me have some quiet time together.”

My mind went to how when children want something, they come rushing into the room, there’s no, “Hi mom/dad, how are you? Can I do anything for you?” They just start demanding, “Can I have some money? So, and so, is going here or there and I want to go too. I need a new outfit, shoes etc., can I go? Can I? They get what they want, “See ya later.” And off they go. They rush out of the room without a hug or a thank you.

It was, as if, God was saying to me, “Can I just have a hug?”

And so, I sat still and listened…everything was quiet. There were no demands. It’s just me and God. “Yes God.” And spiritually speaking, I gave him a hug.

After a few minutes I began to have this thought, ‘Are you smoke or are you fire?’

Sometimes we are simply smoldering…there is smoke but the fire has diminished and we realize we are not as hot for the things of God, as we once were. Where is the FIRE?
Oh, we attend church…sing loudly, praise boisterously, pray without ceasing…but something is not quite right…we are rushing in and out of God’s presence without being aware of Him…and we begin to notice the fire has gone out…

Humbly and repentantly we realize we are only smoke…and smoke chokes out the light…it smells and accomplishes nothing…

Holy Fire purifies… it sets us apart from the rest of the world…when we are on fire for God, we are bold and brave and courageous…cry out for the Holy Spirit and Fire ask him to fall afresh on you…walk in newness every single day…fresh fire! Let it Fall…you have to keep it burning by rekindling it every single day…

Don’t just rush in and out of God’s presence give God a great big HUG…tarry there until you are filled with Fresh Fire and the Power to glorify the Living God! Amen!!!

Piece written by~Marla Shaw O’Neill August 10, 2019

Matthew 3:11-12 The Message (MSG) “I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

Revelation 3:15-17 New International Version (NIV) I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

Romans 8:38-39 New King James Version (NKJV) For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.