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Life Around "The Fire"
Life Around "The Fire"
What Happens When God Gets Close To You?
Have you ever considered that your spiritual journey wasn't something you initiated? That perhaps God was pursuing you long before you even recognized it? This profound reality forms the foundation of our exploration into what lies beyond the basic gospel message.
The cross—that ancient instrument of torture and humiliation—serves as more than just a symbol of sacrifice. It represents the divine paradox where absolute weakness becomes the birthplace of ultimate power. Jesus, in his most vulnerable state—bloodied, mocked, and dying—defeated death itself. But this victory was never meant to be the end of the story.
Many Christians stop at the cross, content with salvation but missing the fullness of what follows. Resurrection life. Ascension authority. The privilege of functioning as citizens of God's Kingdom with real spiritual power and purpose. Throughout the New Testament, particularly in Paul's epistles, we find detailed instructions for living in this elevated reality—not someday in heaven, but right now in our everyday lives.
God is progressively unfolding His plan across nations and within our hearts. What was once mysterious is becoming clear. We're being invited to mature beyond spiritual milk to meat, beyond religious rituals to relationship, beyond cross to crown. This generation has access to one of history's greatest displays of God's presence and glory, if we'll only recognize and step into it.
Ready to discover what it means to be seated with Christ in heavenly places? To make declarations that transform reality? To grow up before you grow old? Let's journey together beyond the cross into the fullness of Kingdom life and authority.
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearounsthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
I was recently reflecting on some of the conversations and interactions that I've had with God over the course of the past 50 years. Over the course of the past 50 years, and when I say dialogue, conversations, interactions with God, I really mean that, far beyond figments of my imagination or someone's outside skillful abilities to manipulate the way that I think, meaning some good speaker or counselor or human being, whoever that might be, doesn't exist, because no one exist, because no one, no one person, has been able to captivate my thoughts except except for the person of Jesus Christ. And that's coming from an individual who didn't have any intentions in their life at all, ever about getting involved with Jesus. I didn't necessarily know what I wanted to do with my life, but Jesus was not on my radar with my life, but Jesus was not on my radar except a unique thing was taking place within me, and that unique thing was this I was being drawn, wooed, led. I was being drawn in by God to experience real relationship with him, something that I really didn't necessarily, on the surface, know that I wanted, but once things started to become clearer to me that something was going on inside of me that was deeper than just me wanting to do something with my life, and what would be interesting and how would I make money, and so on and so forth. There's something deeper than that. There's something going down to a place that I didn't really have a connection with, but it was deeper and that deeper was my, what was going to be my born again nature, my spirit. Inwardly, I was being prepared to literally become a harbinger of God's life, a relationship with him in which there would be such a knowing that the closest type of example it could be would be how a husband and wife know each other intimately, where there's an exchange on a level that is far beyond just physical, but it involves everything nonetheless. When I say closest example, that's really it, because it's even greater than that. When we experience the reality of knowing God and Him knowing us, the depth of love and relationship that we share goes beyond that. But that's a good place to really be able to say that's as far as human being. That's a high watermark.
Speaker 1:And where I'm going with all of this is, once again, the fact that I wasn't the one doing the, looking in my life and come to find out that's the case for all of us. None of us, none of us have been the ones who have initiated the looking we might think we have, but in all reality that's not the case. We were moving in the opposite direction and it was God who apprehended us. It was God who so loved the world that he created. It was God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whomever would believe in him, his only begotten son, so that whomever would believe in him, would not perish but have his everlasting life in them. Wow, that's called covenant relationship. What's mine is yours, what's yours is mine. Divine exchange.
Speaker 1:And God is the one who is taking responsibility for being the pursuer, the pursuer for being the pursuer. Now, our part in yielding to that is where our decision-making, our will, comes into play. But one person once said we all have free will until God gets real close. And if any of you have ever had that privilege, that experience of God really just overwhelming you with his presence, you know what I mean. It's nearly impossible to resist an irresistible love. His love is so significant, his love is so strong, it never fails.
Speaker 1:The scriptures say love, the love of God, not the thing that we call love, because we call a lot of things love, or we love a lot of things, but the love of God, the agape, the unconditional, absolute love of God, the agape, the unconditional, absolute love of God, his ability to love beyond anything that attempts to stand in the way, because there's no height, there's no depth, there's no height, there's no depth, there's no creature that can separate us, that's powerful enough to separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. And so Jesus is his son that he gave to us right, and so when that became real to me, that was I couldn't when I submitted to that wooing me when I was young, and Jesus was made real to me, presented to me by God, the Spirit, and I fell in love with him. I gave him my life, I offered my life to him, he gave me his life, and from that point on, I was 13,. I'm 66. Now, 53 years later, he has never, ever left me. Even though I have at times stumbled in my life, fallen hard, made mistakes, he has been faithful to lead me and guide me, even when I was unable to function properly, properly. So, once again, I have been captivated by Jesus, but also by Jesus and what he did on the cross, as I stated earlier, prior to him making himself real to me, I really didn't have that much interest in knowing about the cross.
Speaker 1:This cross, this system of torture that the Romans had perfected, called crucifixion. It wasn't really like on my to-do list of things to do, and that was to find out about the crucifixion process, except once I encountered Jesus and realized that that was going to be the means by which he was going to give his life as a ransom for many, meaning the payment for us to be free from sin and death and to have relationship with God. That's healthy, that's real, it's not just religious, but alive. He shed his blood so that we would have that Type of experience, because that's what he experiences with his father, and so also he wants a bride, he wants the people that know what life is like, the type of life that he lives, and he said that those of us who would follow him would need to pick up our cross, and so I realized I'm going to follow him, him. I'm going to pick up something that is not just like a pretend thing, that's going to bring about an end to my old way of living, but it was really going to put an end to my old way of living and that there was going to be life on the other side of it, that part right there you see the cross.
Speaker 1:The crucifixion process is meant to break an individual down so that they are absolutely at their weakest physical, mental, emotional state in life. It's the most humiliating Means of torture, because a person is stripped naked, whipped hard so they're bloodied by A process of A brutal whipping Before the crucifixion and then the crucifixion process of being nailed to a wooden beam and hung so that your body goes limp and your ability to breathe becomes horribly labored and your joints all come out of place and you're left, sometimes for days, to hang there until finally you die Weak, weak. Jesus was so incredibly weak by the time he gave up his life gave up the ghost, as the scriptures say. He breathed his last. He was so weak that there was no, literally no, eventually no blood left in him and life is in the blood.
Speaker 1:And in the previous podcast episode I remember we said we're going to talk just a little bit more about what Jesus did, why the cross did, why the cross and the real basis behind it is. Ultimately, it was the system of death that would bring a person to their weakest place. And it was in the weakest place of Christ where he defeated the greatest power of Satan, and that was death. Praise God, he made an open spectacle, a public spectacle of death by dying on the cross, because there was going to be something that was going to take place beyond the cross. And that's where we want to get to, that's where we all want to get to. Some of us just don't realize that's where we want to get to until we meet Jesus and we experience the cross, our own death to our old way of living, a total submission to him, hallelujah. How that all plays out is going to be different for each person, but for Jesus it was a public display of absolute weakness, a mockery of who he was as a man, let alone who he was as God, the Son. But in his weakness, all of his joints being out of place, hanging thirsty, bleeding out, so that this heinous separation, this barrier between us and God could finally be destroyed, not just covered over, but annihilated, wiped clean, our record Washed away. Jesus accomplished that. Jesus accomplished that on the cross.
Speaker 1:If the cross would have been the end of Jesus, that would have been the saddest commentary I think that could ever have been written. A sinless man being executed publicly, a man without fault Dying because of jealousy, envy and pride in other people that were religious, just couldn't take it. That's funny. That's what religion? Religion, yeah, that religious, that strict, stern religious thing that we're going to do it on our own power thing, our own works, eventually turns people just harsh and bitter because you're never going to be able to be good enough. So you got to keep hiding things and then defending them and putting blame to other people and covering things up. Religion, but religion sells man. It's like sex sells, religion sells. There's money to be made in religion.
Speaker 1:But Jesus didn't come to establish a religion. A Christian religion Nah, wasn't on his radar. He came for relationship. But the cross it had to be at the weakest place in order for God to demonstrate the greatness of his power and that there's nothing. There's nothing.
Speaker 1:Death itself, satan's greatest tool, can no longer be useful in holding us from relationship with God. Holding us from relationship with God, the only thing holding us from relationship with God is our refusal to look at and receive from the sacrificial life and death of Jesus, his doing it on our behalf and us placing faith in him, trust in him. That that's, even if our minds can't comprehend it, that's sufficient, that's enough. When we do that, that's the connection point For God to cause his life to enter into us like a seed being planted in the fertile ground. In the fertile ground, his life, planted in us, begins to grow like a seed. And so where we're headed now, with this emphasis on the cross and our study on the kingdom of God because we still are very much involved in a study on the kingdom of God, because we still are very much involved in a study concerning the kingdom of God, the rule and reign of God, his realm and how he does stuff, the ways of God and us being citizens and learning to walk in his ways, to function as his culture, function within his culture now beginning now, not waiting until we die, but beginning now and growing, growing in our usage of what is available to us now.
Speaker 1:More to come. There's more to come, but there's is available to us now. More to come. There's more to come, but there's a lot available right now that we haven't been using, and God wants us to use those things. He's unfolding his plan.
Speaker 1:It may not have been clear up to this point in time, but because he's unfolding things. What was once unclear is now becoming clear. Some of you can attest to that. There's things developing within your life that previously you really didn't have an understanding of, a revelation. That's because wisdom and revelation are unfolding within you, like the purpose and plan of God is unfolding across the nations, and we are part of that. We are designed to be alive right now in one of the greatest displays, in fact, up to this point in time, the greatest display of God's presence, of his glory and of his invitation to function in life beyond the cross. Hallelujah.
Speaker 1:Life beyond the cross, resurrection life. A taste, a foretaste of resurrection life. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. Yes, we want to appreciate the fundamentals, but at the same point in time, we want to move on to things that are a little meatier meaty, like they got some substance to them and things that require a more mature appetite, not just milk. We can handle the function, the authority, the identity that we've been called to live out as citizens of God's kingdom, our new identity Life beyond the cross, resurrection life and ascension life.
Speaker 1:Woo, jesus not only rose from the dead, he ascended to the right hand of God, the Father. Going forward is going up in the kingdom of God. He moved forward. He moved to the cross, through the cross and now to the throne of God. All going forward, which means all going up and his glory coming down. But he's calling us to come on up, to come on up and function with him, seated with him in heavenly places, learning how to do that stuff. Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. Learning how to function, making declarations from things above. Where's that? In the scriptures? That's all over the New Testament.
Speaker 1:The Apostle Paul, in each and every one of his epistles, gives us not just a few insights, but gives us instructions concerning life beyond the cross, a foretaste of resurrection life, a foretaste of ascension life. The best is yet to come on all levels, and the fact that we are alive right now in the unfolding time of God's plan, one of those unfolding times where it's been a little bit mysterious and it will remain mysterious, but the mystery will be known. You see, it's the glory of God to keep things concealed, but it's the glory of kings to find them out, to understand the mystery. And we are called to be kings and priests, so it's our place to understand the mysteries, because there's life that's to be lived as a result of our understanding of the mysteries of God, and they're meant to be there for people that are mature. There are certain things that we don't get, even in our human life, as a result of us being children. We don't get, we don't have the privilege of, we don't have the privilege of driving a car, we don't have the privilege of owning certain things, we don't have certain privileges. Or then, putting it in the positive, when we get older, we have certain privileges available to us but if we don't use them, they are useless.
Speaker 1:I want to use what's available. I want to use everything that's available. I want to use what's available. I want to use everything that's available. I want to be involved in the fullness of God's revelation that he has for this generation, completely involved, and that's what he is giving us the ability to express, to encourage, to help stimulate in all of our lives a real hunger and thirst for this, this righteousness, through this particular podcast, through these episodes, to stimulate a hunger and a thirst for the deeper things of God, to move forward, to move up, to come on upwards places seated at the right hand of the Father our identity is hidden with him and to be able to begin to learn how to function in the declaration of his precious promises, his purposes, and from the declarations they become manifestations in the world that we live in. Hallelujah, we are living in powerful times and we have been given the opportunity to be involved. Let's take God at his word and let's grow together. Let's grow up before we grow old. Let's be united, join together in his particular heartbeat, under one head Jesus Christ, our Lord, our God. Amen. Let's pray, father.
Speaker 1:I ask that you, by your Spirit, take these words that have been spoken today and spread them around the words that I'm sharing, but also the ones that other people are sharing all over the place, that there would be one voice that would come out of many different mouths and it would be a voice of encouragement for your people to grow up, to embrace the things that you call us to live out and to function in them, just like Jesus did, both prior to the cross. On the cross, the resurrection and the ascension. On the cross, the resurrection and the ascension. All the way, we follow you. Jesus, you're our leader. Holy Spirit, you're our guide. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and we stand here in the name of Jesus and we declare these things to be so.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen, amen, amen. All right, folks, I love you. If you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, once again, please feel free to drop us a line at lifearoundthefire at gmailcom, or type in lifearoundthefire and look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, god bless you. Adios amigos.