Come Up Here And See

Proverbs 17: 3 TLB Silver and gold are purified by fire, but God purifies hearts.

One day while I was at the church praying online, I was being encouraged by the Holy Spirit to pray for the dross to be removed or burned away in our hearts, our minds, our actions, every part of our lives. I stood at the pulpit, grabbing it, clenching my teeth because I knew that my heart needed to have so many inferiorities  burned away and I had been asking to become more like Him but somehow I knew that in praying for the dross to be burned away was more drastic than my preconceptions and I also know that God Almighty hears and answers my prayers and I knew more things in my life, thoughts, attitudes, actions, etc., would be brought to the surface and God would  deal with me about each one. Through the gritting of my teeth, I prayed that God would burn away the dross in our hearts so that our hearts would become soft and pliable in His hands and that we would be obedient, loving and becoming more like Jesus every day.

I knew of a preacher who in his 50’s had prayed that, and God dealt with so much stuff that he did not realize was there. When he shared with another preacher who was his age of his prayer, that preacher remarked, oh my goodness why would you pray like that, people in their 20’s pray that prayer. That preacher’s answer astonished me and resonated with me “I do not want anything blocking my relationship with God Almighty and I knew there was more, and I want all that God has for me”. That blew me away and I knew that I hungered for that also. That preacher also said that for six months the Holy Spirit kept bringing to the surface different thought patterns, attitudes, actions that the Lord wanted to sanctify, and it really was a rough six months of surrendering to the Lord but at the same time the grace that the Holy Spirit provided for him was so beautiful and amazing and that he would pray it again. He understood that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Matthew 3: 11-12 NKJV ¹¹ I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit ^[a]and fire. ¹² His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

The Oxford dictionary defines purification as the act of removing harmful substances from something. The synonym for purification is being sanctified and sanctified means set apart, made holy. Woo hoo! We are constantly being made holy by the Holy Spirit and to stand before the Lord and ask Him to burn away the dross and to purify you and me is liberating.

 Merriam Webster dictionary defines dross as the scum or unwanted material that forms on the surface of molten metal. i.e., impurities, chaff, scum, dregs. When gold is being purified as the heat rises the dross, impurities will arise to the surface so that the metalsmith is able to scoop the dross off the top as the gold is being purified.

The gold standard for purity is 24K gold jewelry, which is 100% gold content. 24k pure gold jewelry does not tarnish, corrode, or rust; thus, it is the most expensive gold. However, this type of gold is much softer (scratches easily) and more malleable than other gold types. Malleable means easily influenced, adaptable, pliable.

In our lives we ask or pray or however you describe your conversation with the Lord to remove the dross so that yours and mine hearts are pliable in His hands.

At that same time this was happening I was reading Exodus 20 when God had spoken of the Ten Commandments and in verse 18 and 19 it reads that when the people saw the thunder, lightning, the mountain smoking they became afraid and did not want God to speak to them but they would rely on Moses’s relationship with God to feed them and not their own relationship.

This verse grieves me because I think that many of us at times will depend on others to speak to us about God, we will let them have the dross burned away in their lives and depend on their relationship with God not knowing or believing that we can have that relationship with our Lord God Almighty. We have believed the lie from the enemy that in the purification process, there will be too much pain and that we are to be afraid of the fire of the Lord God Almighty. Thankfully the Lord is merciful, and He will burn or purify us at the limit that we can accept it. The Holy Spirit is a gentle metalsmith.

We have no reason to be afraid of the fire of the Lord because He is a consuming fire, and it is because of His mercies and loving kindness that we are not consumed. Woo hoo! Scriptures like these, well actually the entire Bible make me want to shout Woo hoo, clap my hands, lift my arms saying Holy, Holy, Holy are you Lord God Almighty because through these processes My Lord and Saviour is making me holy, setting me apart, burning away all the dross that holds me back from Him and I am grateful. I want my heart to be malleable in His hands, adaptable to His choices for me, pliable to Him so that I am obedient to Him and well pleasing in His sight. So today I get excited about the fire of God.

Heb 12: 29 NKJV for our God is a consuming fire.

Lamentations 3: 22-23 AMPC ²² It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. ²³ They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.

Holy Spirit I pray for each and every one of us that we would surrender all to You, that we would be excited about the dross being burned away in our lives, knowing that harmful substances will be removed, that impurities will be brought to the surface for us to see even those we have forgotten because we have buried them deep and that we would be thankful for the purification process of being made holy in Your eyes knowing that it is for the call that You have on our lives, that You have so much more for us but we have to become more like You. So, we give thanks that You are a consuming fire and because of Your tender mercies and compassion we are not consumed. Hallelujah, Thank you Lord. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.