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Life Around "The Fire"
Life Around "The Fire"
The Power of Speaking Life: Becoming Kingdom Atmosphere-Changers
A desperate request from an exhausted spiritual leader forms the foundation of this deeply moving exploration of what it truly means to minister to one another. When an elderly statesman approached his associate with tears in his eyes pleading "preach to me," it revealed a profound truth: even the most seasoned leaders hunger for others to speak God's word into their lives.
This episode unpacks the transformative power of availability over ability. The associate had no prepared message, no clever insights ready to share—just an empty vessel willing to be used. From this emptiness flowed a flood of inspiration that brought healing to a weary soul. It's a powerful reminder that God doesn't require our expertise so much as our willingness to be conduits of His presence.
We explore how our words function as containers of either life or death, and how believers are called to be atmosphere-changers who transform environments with the peace of God's kingdom. This authority doesn't come from credentials or titles but from living in submission to God's authority. True leadership emerges not from diplomas but from active, obedient living that causes others to follow.
The episode challenges us to move beyond religious performance toward authentic relationship—being honest enough to admit when we're spiritually hungry and courageous enough to minister from our emptiness. For those who've abandoned their calling or felt inadequate for the task, there's a resurgence happening as God calls His people out of shadowy places of disappointment into fresh purpose and power. Your greatest qualification might not be what you know, but your willingness to be available when someone needs you to speak life into their situation.
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.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.
It was a while back that I heard this story about an elderly statesman, a true leader in the body of Christ and an excellent teacher, and one of his associates said that he saw him one day and he looked just tired. This statesman gentleman looked just exhausted and he remembered very clearly that a man looked at his associate and said I need you to do something for me. And he said he looked really I mean really desperate when he was saying that and giving that request and initially it kind of took him back. He was like he didn't really know what he was going to ask for. I mean, it could have been, please, you know I need a drink or I'm going to give you this number and I want you to bring my mistress in and I need to spend some time with her. I mean, right, it could have been a variety of things. It could have been a variety of things. And yet the one thing that this man asked for he looked at it and he goes preach to me. And now again, this man was a Bible scholar and yet he asked his associate to preach to him and initially he kind of turned around to look to see if he was talking to him, or maybe there was someone behind him. He said no, I need you to preach to me. He goes. I'm so hungry and thirsty to have someone preach to me. He goes. I'm always preaching and teaching, preaching and teaching and he goes. I realize that people assume that I'm doing just fine, but he goes. I rarely have anyone preach to me because I need you to preach to me.
Speaker 1:And his associate said that he had nothing, nothing prepared. There was no message that he had in his back pocket that he could pull out and say okay, I've been waiting to deliver this. And so here, this looks like it's a good time. His mind went blank, and I don't know about you, but I can relate, because there are times where I'm put in a situation and my mind has gone blank. It's been something that has been above my pay grade. At least at that time I'm like nothing. Above my pay grade, at least at that time I'm like nothing. And I'm here to say that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact that's kind of a good thing, because, you see, this story is just ripe with biblical connotations and we use the scriptures as our baseline, and so some of you, you're obviously making some correlations already.
Speaker 1:You know this guy's really thirsty, you know, as the deer man pants for the water, so my soul longs after you, lord. I'm just hungry and thirsty in a dry and weary land. For you, lord, when the psalmist says I cried out, he cried out to God. And so also to be prepared, whether it's in season or out of season, right To be prepared to give an answer to the faith that we have in Jesus Christ. Why?
Speaker 1:But also through the foolishness, seeming foolishness, of preaching, the Word of God is conveyed. There's something about preaching under the anointing, but also there's something about being in a place where it's beyond us and our total reliance is upon Holy Spirit. It's upon Holy Spirit because there's nothing that we have. In fact, that's ultimately the way of growth that more and more we co-operate with Holy Spirit and we find his life, demonstrating the very life in us that it's no longer we who live because we've been crucified with Christ, but it's Christ who lives in us, who's functioning.
Speaker 1:And so this man said he just opened his mouth. And when he opened his mouth, and when he opened his mouth, a floodgate of inspiration came both to him and through him. And he said this elderly statesman just put his head in his hands and sobbed, and at first he didn't know if he was sobbing because what he was saying just wasn't really hitting the mark and the man was disappointed or exactly what. But come to find out after 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour, an hour plus later, when he finally completed, kind of emptied out this man, after he stopped crying, just looked and said I needed that, I needed that, and sometimes we need to hear the word of the Lord come to us through the conduit of another person, because God wants to use us, and that's one of the ways in which he has chosen to do so is to use our mouths Hallelujah, hallelujah.
Speaker 1:To use our mouths to Hallelujah. To use our mouths to declare things To one another when we are able to actually, at times, speak to each other with a word from Psalms, or to share a hymn or a spiritual song, where we edify each other with psalms or with words, finding out that what we say is powerful, because our words are containers. They're more than just sounds and syllables. They are containers. They contain within them either life or death. So it behooves us to keep an eye on what comes out of our mouth, because we have the literal opportunity of influencing the very air that's around us.
Speaker 1:We are meant to be atmosphere changers, those who believe in Jesus. We are meant to create an atmosphere of shalom, of peace. Jesus said Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be known as the sons of God or the children of God. They will be known as those who are citizen members who function on a higher level because they are able to change the atmosphere. They're able to walk into a room or even into a nation and see it impacted with the very kingdom of God, hallelujah. These are things that we are called to, and for us to be prepared, and not just the other guy, but for you, for you to consider yourself to be that associate who is called on by that elder, that elderly statesman, saying preach to me. If someone came up to you literally and said I really need you to open up to me the Word of God, would you please just share with me for a moment what it is that you believe in, why you believe it now.
Speaker 1:I'm not the best at street addresses, telephone numbers and other things that deal with numbers. I'm adequate, I get by, but that's not my forte. That deal with numbers. I'm adequate. I get by, but that's not my forte. So I don't always use chapter and verse when I talk. When I speak with things from the scriptures, from the Bible, I mean I will. But if you've ever heard a really good teacher teach and they can use chapter and verse and just be conversant about it, it's amazing, it flows. But if you've ever heard someone struggling to do that because that's what they feel they need to do in order to be effective, it's painful sometimes to hear that.
Speaker 1:What I'm saying is that in being prepared, we don't have to be like a walking concordance before we can adequately share the Word of God. Now, if you can and it comes to you and it's a strength, amen. And if not and you want to develop it, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. But if it's really a struggle and it produces that sense of inadequacy within you, man don't sweat it. That's not the pre-reference. In fact, very rarely in the scriptures do you find anyone quoting any chapter and verse from anyone else. They will reference certain things, but rarely do you hear them say this was in the book of such and such and give that address.
Speaker 1:Where I'm going with that once again is the fact that there is a hunger that we can have within us and sometimes it's important for us to reach out and say I am just starving for the word of the Lord to be proclaimed to me and to be able to reach out and say that very thing, as opposed to saying everything is just fine. And it also gives another person the opportunity of being literally used by the Lord in conveying his heart, perhaps because he doesn't have anything, but God does and God uses us. That's one of our chief functions on this planet is to be a conduit for his kingdom to be manifest to us and then, through us, colonizing planet Earth with the kingdom of God. And one of the ways that it is caused is by what comes out of our mouth and the effect that it has in the world around us. Because if we walk in authority, what we say will have an effect because we have authority.
Speaker 1:And we get authority by having our faith, our absolute trust, confidence placed in God and obeying the promptings that come from him. Being obedient is the basis of authority. Being under authority, receiving the word of the Lord and conveying the word of the Lord, having that power and that confidence and then doing it, it changes the atmosphere and we become the very sons of God. We're the ones who are above things, no longer the inferior powers of darkness having influence. It's the very angels of God being manifest as a result of us taking our place as sons of God and ruling from the place where Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. That's where we make our declarations from, because that's where we are seated now. Currently, we have a dual process going on. We're already seated in a place and we're living here in progress of becoming where we already are. That's amazing that we can be here and we can be there both at the same time, and we can function from the place that is above and speak into the world that we live in, inviting Holy Spirit to do that very thing through us. As we hear the word of the Lord coming to us, we express it into the world that we live in, and sometimes by responding to someone saying preach to me, or, if you are a person who does that on a regular basis, preach the very oracle of God.
Speaker 1:Don't just come up with a homily that is nothing more than a religious exercise of people listening to. That they can check off as something that they've done. That has no basis of relationship at all. That dead religious thing of having just that compartmentalized, prefabricated homily versus administering the very oracle, compartmentalized prefabricated homily versus administering the very oracle, the very word of the Lord. Or breaking open and rightly dividing the word of truth, breaking the scripture open, like Jesus did to those walking on the road to Emmaus. He just broke open the scriptures to them and they were just like man. Didn't our heart just burn when we heard that?
Speaker 1:Praise God, being ready is being available. What our best ability, our greatest ability, is our availability. Right, and that's more than just a cute statement. That's really true. Being available, taking time and absorbing the scriptures, taking time and just being with God. There's no replacing that being filled and overflowing. Regularly, ongoingly, in an ongoing way. We are called to that.
Speaker 1:It's not relegated to the other person who is the expert, because they've gone to school and now they have a degree that qualifies them to be a leader. That's not how leaders are developed. That's a great tool to have the environment in which our minds are honed is a wonderful thing. But it doesn't qualify us to be a leader just because we have a certificate, a degree, a diploma. A degree comes by the commissioning of God and shoe leather that's how we get a leader moving is by. You know that old saying a deacon is a deacon as long as he dekes, and the more we function, the more we become an authority on something. And if you want to know if you're a leader or not, just turn around and see if anyone's following. And so by doing the stuff, we are all called to do the stuff, not just the experts. In fact, those things are becoming more and more subdued, which is a good thing, meaning they're good, but they're not being used as the means by which someone gets a title and then their title becomes the fact that they are a leader. That's not the way of the kingdom.
Speaker 1:And so for us to be filled so that we can be useful is important, but for us to say at times when it's real, I need you to, and whoever that is that you can trust, say I need you to break open the word of God to me. You know, there's one time I just I needed, I needed someone to say out loud that I was forgiven, because hearing it in my own head and saying it and knowing that God has forgiven me was factually true, but it wasn't experientially happening in my life. I was still troubled by what I had done, and it took someone looking at me and saying to me your sins are forgiven and I forgive you too, because it was done out loud. Again, what we speak out loud, it begins with that which is within us. It's not the outside of the cup that needs to be clean, it's the inside right, our hearts.
Speaker 1:And so there's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful thing that's taking place as a result of God revealing his presence more and more, and that is I'm seeing people who have felt as though they were maybe just not really cut out to fulfill what. Maybe they thought at one time in time what God had said to them, and then they thought at one time what God had said to them, and then they'd given up a bit. I'm seeing a resurgence of people coming out from that shadowy place, being called by God to come out. It's one thing to try, and then you're like it's just still empty, and it's another thing to have God call us out, and it's his presence that fills us, because that's what we've been craving for, that's what we've been craving, that's what we've been crying out for.
Speaker 1:My hope in sharing this is that someone listening to this is going to be able to say I am going to be both available to God and also more open and real in my relationships with others. If those two things take place within any one person's life as a result of hearing these words, this particular podcast episode is completely a success. It's a 100% success. Any more than that is a bonus and then some.
Speaker 1:But if you're that one person and you can say, yes, I want to become that person who is ready in season and out of season and available, but also I want to be that person who is open and real with others and saying I need you, I need you, I need this, I need you to speak to me and, last but not least, that we would have the ability to speak out loud the words of life and create the environment that God has called to manifest in the earth as it is in heaven. And we are the conduits for that and our mouthpiece, our mouths. They're the mouthpiece of God and his kingdom and we are called to see this earth just covered with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, just that the waters cover the sea and his kingdom would fully manifest. Cover the sea and his kingdom would fully manifest and we would be completely one, so that this whole presentation of us and of Christ being given over to the Father and that we are melded together with him by Holy Spirit as one, because we have matured to a place of unity as his body. Not uniformity, but true unity, heart felt, love for one another. We truly enjoy one another and I respect our act of worship of enjoying what God has given to us, what he's created, one other included. God is glorified.
Speaker 1:Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Be encouraged. You were called and chosen. You were divinely elected to be not only who you are, but to be alive at this point in time and to hear these things and to be equipped to do the very work of the ministry, the, the ministry of Jesus. There's only one ministry and it's his. We get to be part of it.
Speaker 1:Let's pray, father, we, we cast our crowns before you, father, we cast our crowns before you, we worship you, I honor you. Holy Spirit, thank you for showing us Jesus. I see you'd intensify that. You'd manifest Jesus to us even more. We want to know him. Thank you for exposing those things that are inferior and revealing to us the path of righteousness, the way that things are correct and true and real. I speak shalom to the home across the board in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus. We stand here in his name and say so be it. Amen, amen, amen, amen. All right, folks, I love you. If you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at lifearoundthefire at gmailcom. That's lifearoundthefire, all lowercase letters, all one word lifearoundthefire at gmailcom. Or you can just 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.