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Beauty For Ashes
You Can’t have Beauty
without Ashes
Kim Potter
This past weekend, I was
praying for a friend and as I did I began to speak these words over her,
“Father, give her beauty for ashes, just as Your word promises.”
Immediately the Lord spoke to
me and said, “You can’t have beauty without ashes, and you can’t have
ashes without fire.”
Ahhh. I realized God was showing me, we
often want beauty without ashes. That is simply not possible.
Isaiah 61:3 says; "To appoint unto
them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be
called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be
glorified."
The word beauty means that He
will beautify us with His glory. He will place His glory upon us.
However, that comes after the
ashes, not before.
1 John 1:8-9 says, "if we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness."
We all have things in us that need to be
purified. There is only one way to remove these things from our life, and
that is through God and His fire.
Hebrews 12:29 tells us; "Our God is
a consuming fire!’" It is His fire alone that will cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
Malachi 3:2-3 says; "But who can endure
the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a
refiner's fire and like launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and a
purifier of silver..."
Zechariah 13:8-9 says; "And it shall
come to pass in all the land, says the Lord, that two-thirds in it shall be cut
off and die, But one-third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third
through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold
is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, this
is My people; And each one will say, the Lord is my God."
We see from scripture that it is God who
refines.
Silver is refined only one way, by
fire.
Purification comes only one way. By being
plunged into the heart of fire, the place where the fire is the
hottest. And kept there until it is completely purified. Until it
loses all resemblance of what it once was.
This is what happens when we confess our sins to
God, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse and
purify us from that sin.
I want you to notice that the scripture does not
say that God is like a forest fire or an incinerator’s fire. It says He is
like a refiner’s fire. There is a difference.
A forest fire destroys everything in its
path. An incinerator consumes completely. A refiner’s fire does not
work that way.
The Bible says
in Malachi 3; "I the Lord do not change,
therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed, you are not destroyed."
Our God is like a refiner’s fire. He
refines, He purifies. He removes all the impurities. He burns them up and
leaves the gold, or silver, intact.
It reminds me of brush fires. I have burned
brush in my backyard. I usually have a large fire that takes hours or even
overnight to burn. If I put the fire out too early, it leaves
debris.
However, most times I allow the fire to burn
until there is nothing left but ashes. This takes time, normally I leave
it burning all day and all night. This is what God does.
He wants us to allow His fire to burn in us
until it burns everything that is not of Him. Until the only thing left is
ashes.
Then and only then, He will turn the beauty into
ashes. Then we will we walk in His glory.
After God showed me this, I did a lot of soul
searching. I ask God to show me anything and everything that was hindering me
from walking in His glory. I also asked Him to keep a fire burning in me
continually, that all debris would be gone.
Yes, God does give us beauty for ashes… but the
beauty, the glorious crowning of His presence only comes after the ashes.
The ashes only come after the fire -- the
consuming fire of God.
As for me, I want to be a part
of that remnant God spoke of in Zechariah when He said, “they will call
on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'This is My people' and each
one will say, 'The Lord is my God.”
Today I say, burn God burn. May Your refiner’s
fire burn everything in me that needs to be removed. May I awake in Your
likeness, for you are my God and I am your people.
Kim
Potter is a writer and founder of
A New Thing Ministries, which sends a daily teaching to over ten thousand
people all around the world.
Her
message is a message of hope. She speaks to the heart of women and men who have
become discouraged and disappointed by the circumstances they may face in life,
imparting to them the desire and ability to stand against all odds and see
themselves as victorious and able to overcome every obstacle through God. She
encourages people to press into God and discover that He is who He says He is.
For additional information go to: www.anewthingministries.com.
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