Life Around "The Fire"
This podcast is dedicated to those wanting to experience a living and real relationship with God as well as growing together in love for one another. We consider that to be a true sign of spiritual growth as we journey along The Way. If this is you then come along with us as we co-operate with God in what He is doing around the corner and around the world!
Life Around "The Fire"
How The Stories Of Israel Illuminate Our Everyday Choices And The Powers That Shape Them
What if the real contest in your life isn’t busyness or burnout, but worship—what you give your attention to, and who gets to shape your desires? We open Scripture to 1 Samuel 11 and Judges 16 and trace how Israel’s story reveals the quiet currents that steer a soul: subtle influences, cultural pressure, and the unseen powers that promise fullness but leave us empty. From Samson’s slow drift to a people galvanized by God’s Spirit, we unpack how allegiance gets formed in tiny choices, and how those choices either cloud the heart or clear the way for courage, clarity, and peace.
We talk about being grafted into Israel’s promises through Jesus, why collective worship hosts God’s presence, and how the Holy Spirit fills without taking life while other spirits take without truly giving. Along the way, we confront modern materialism, name the lure of counterfeit comforts, and explain why attention is the gateway to affection and allegiance. If you’ve felt far from God, too compromised to turn back, or trapped by patterns that started as coping and morphed into control, this conversation offers a practical path home: repentance as reorientation, habits that aim your gaze at God, and community that keeps your compass true.
You’ll leave with language and tools to guard your attention, anchor your identity, and discern influence that leads to life. We also share a heartfelt prayer for those ready to realign and receive the fullness only Jesus gives. If this speaks to you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so others can find the message. Then tell us: where is your attention leading you today?
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.
In the next podcast episode, we're going to be looking into the book of First Samuel, chapter eleven, and also the book of Judges, chapter sixteen. We're looking at both of those chapters because they carry so much weight in the life of Israel, but also they're relevant to each and every one of our lives. Funny thing about Israel, it is the nation God has chosen God. This is very important. God himself has chosen Israel to be his people. Regardless of the opinions of others, Israel is still the chosen people of God. And those of us who are believers in Jesus have been grafted into the promises that God has given to Israel. So we are like a wild olive branch. In fact, that's what we're referred to as a wild olive branch, grafted into the nation of Israel. So even though we're not Jewish by birth, we are now co-heirs in Christ. We're one new man, both Jew and Gentile, meaning those who aren't Jewish, making up all of the others, right? Gentiles. And so the relevancy of looking at Israel is the fact that Israel is often used as an example. Sometimes is a great example for us to look at. In others, it's an example of poor choices. And in this podcast episode, we're going to kind of set the table for the upcoming podcast. And so the two are going to go hand in hand. And in this episode, I want to really highlight the fact that we live in a world filled with choices, man. We are faced with choices all the time. Some are very simple, like what we're going to wear, what we're going to eat. Sometimes we make the choice as to what our vocation is going to be. I mean, we have choices. We have choices that are going to impact our lives eternally as well. And in the course of us making choices, we also are both influenced and we are influencers. We're influenced and we influence others. We're influenced by people, we're influenced by spirits, and spiritual powers influence us. Now that part right there, the influence of spiritual powers, spiritual entities, is somewhat difficult for people that live in the Western Hemisphere. Most of the earth, or at least a lot of it, has no problem understanding the fact that we live in a dual reality, where there's a spiritual world and there's a natural physical world, material world. However, in the Western hemisphere, because of the strong emphasis on science and things that are pragmatic that can be dealt with concerning our senses of smell, taste, things that we can prove that are real by virtue of our senses. We place higher value on those things than on things that are invisible to our naked eye often and are not as easy to put under the microscope unless our eyes are opened, or we have the ability, or we have been born with the understanding that we live in a spiritual reality in a material reality, and thus we're attuned to that. Some of you listening, you've been raised in that type of environment. It might not be a godly spiritual influence that you have going on in your life or had in your life, but you've had the understanding that there are spiritual things that interact with us on a regular basis. And so I say these things about Israel because, first of all, I and we in this ministry of life on the fire, we support the nation of Israel. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We follow the ways of Yeshua. That's the Jewish name for Jesus. For Jesus, Jesus, our Messiah. Yeshua Ha Meshiach. And we have a deep respect for the things that Israel goes through on a regular basis because they are confronted with some very significant serious conflicts on a regular basis that many of us know nothing about, to be surrounded by people that literally hate you, are bent on annihilating you, and to have spiritual powers that feel the same way. You can imagine the intensity of that, and yet God has chosen to use them. And now for those of us who are believers, to use us as examples. Amazing. So we are not our own. We have been bought with a price. A price was paid for our redemption. And that price was blood, which means it's the most valuable commodity that can be offered on behalf of someone else to redeem them from where they were to a new place. And for us, we have been redeemed from death unto and into life, eternal life, the very life of God. His life now lives in us who are believers, meaning we've placed our faith and trust in the fact that Jesus is the one who accomplished things on our behalf, shed his blood on our behalf, so that we could be free from the bondage that we were in. And that's the only way we can be free from the bondage that we were in. We couldn't redeem ourselves, it was impossible. And yet, God, before the foundation of the world, before creation, determined that he was going to purchase us for himself. He secured it then, and it's secure now. Those of us who believe in Jesus, who place our faith in his work and say, I believe that you did it on my behalf, I accept that, and I am so sorry for my sinful life. Please forgive me, come into my life, consume me. He will. Not only does he consume us at that moment, he continues to grow within us his life. He's faithful. Not only save us from where we were, but all the way into where we're going to ultimately be. We're secure in him when we follow him. Now that promise is offered because God wants to use us to be people that can reach into the world that we live in and bring about a message that calls people into a place of understanding, a revelation of the fact that they don't have to, you don't have to live being influenced by the powers of darkness, blinded by the powers of darkness, blinded by people and blinded by spirits who don't have your best interests in mind, who only want to use you and use you up and spit you out in the end. Whereas God wants to fill you, fill us, fill me, and use me and continue to fill me more. He doesn't just offer us something and then later takes it away and takes something else with it. Like a drug. A drug gives a person a list, but then when you come down, not only do you come down, but you're in a situation where something has been removed from you, something has been taken. And eventually there's nothing that brings about euphoria. Now it's a matter of keeping yourself from being sick because everything's been taken away that once was there, and you're left empty. Even more than empty, you're left prey to the powers of darkness to literally destroy you. God, on the other hand, does not operate that way, he gives and gives more. When we empty ourselves out from being used by God, he fills us up in an even greater capacity, in a greater way. And in looking at the eleventh chapter of 1 Samuel and Judges chapter 16, we're going to see this interesting thing in operation that we are people that are both influenced by outside sources, but also we influence the people around us, whether it's for good or for evil. And also, we were created to worship humans. Really, really really really important. Humans have a God-given impulse to worship, to worship something. We are created to worship. We might call it a desire, a longing, real love for. We want to elevate something over us. We're created that way. There's a God-given desire to worship, ultimately to be filled by God. That void, when filled by God, when we worship God, we are filled. When we worship other things, there's a sensation that takes place, but later we're empty, and even more than empty, something's taken away. And that's what we're finding in these two chapters. That the nation of Israel, a group of people, were being influenced by the nations around them. Were as at one point they were influenced by God collectively, not just individually, collectively. And again, in the Western Hemisphere, we are more individualistic, so we think of things in terms of me. And in the kingdom of God, it's not solely about me, it's about we. It's us. Or as in the south, we say y'all, instead of just me, it's all of us. And there's something about collective worship. When we worship God collectively, there is a power that's released in our midst that is unmistakable. It's the very presence of God. He inhabits the praises of his people. Literally, he settles in and makes his abode in worship. He is surrounded by worship right now. And to worship God is different than worshiping something or someone else. However, there's influence. We are people that are subject to being influenced. Our attention can be redirected because we have the ability to make choices. We're not robots. We have the ability to choose. And so in making choices, there are things that can draw our attention away from God, and they do all the time. There are things all the time pulling us away, competing for our attention, because what we behold, what we give our attention to, we become like. So other spirits want to have control over our lives. Some people want to have control over your life, my life. They want control. And not just with individuals, they want control over a people group. Maybe a congregation of people, a fellowship, once serving God with zeal. But because our attention or someone's attention got drawn elsewhere and started making decisions that were poor and passing that information along, soon that group veers away because their attention is redirected. It's called worldly influence. The environment we live in often promotes materialism, placing a higher value on worldly pursuits and possessions. Things that draw us away. You know, it doesn't take much to change course on a big ship. Just a little adjustment veers it far enough away from its course. So eventually it doesn't arrive to its destination. Ultimately, that is the desire of Satan. He wants to control us and ultimately to possess you and me. Spirits are like that. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, wants to possess us. We are the possession of God. When we've been bought with blood, we become his possession. And in so doing, he wants to fill us up completely with himself. And unlike other spirits, he doesn't take away life, he gives life. Hallelujah. The very life of God, more and more and more and more. And we're seeing a move of God on planet Earth right now that is literally calling out to us to look to Him, to take note of what's going on, and to turn our lives toward Him, to repent, literally, to change our mind and change our direction from where we've been going and turn our eyes back onto Him. Our attention back onto Him, our affection back unto Him, giving Him our affection. But there's a competition. And that's what these chapters are all about. There's a competition. And the relevancy is the fact that we as individuals and we collectively experience the same type of things that Israel experienced, just in a different way of presenting itself. The variances are far too many to try to list them all. But the subtlety is the same. It's subtle. It's not blatant to begin with. Later on it becomes very, very, very cavalier. Very controlling. But because we have this need within us at times to cope with negative feelings, we want to have those negative feelings dealt with somehow. So we look to other things to deal with those negative feelings. Sometimes it's drugs, sometimes it's sex, sometimes it's work. Sometimes it is just simply doing nothing. We try to deal with the negative feelings by just zoning out. And also we realize that we have when we realize, I should say, when we realize that we've actually opened the door and gone into a dangerous relationship with someone or something else, the feelings can be that we've gone too far. So we might as well just keep on going on deeper. Because there's no hope for us anyway. And that is a lie. That is a lie. If you're a person who has made mistakes and you've gone too far, you've not gone away from the reach of God. You've not gone out of his reach. According to David, King David said, if I even make my bed in hell, you're there. Meaning if I go to very the lowest place I possibly can get to, you're there. He will reach us. He will reach you. In fact, if you're hearing this and you're in that condition, just hearing my voice is an indication that there's hope. For you to turn right now and change your mind and change your ways to embrace the reality that there's hope for you, there's faith for you, there's love for you. And the greatest of those things is love. And so 1 Samuel chapter 11 and Judges chapter 16 are going to be our next points of reference. But before we close off, I'd like to have a word of prayer with you right now. Father, I thank you once again, God, for who you are, for who you are, and how you're doing things. And how you're reaching into hearts and minds, even right now, through this particular podcast and through other vehicles, you're making your word known. You're making your voice known all over the planet. And I ask that you'd use this right now and bring hearts and minds back into alignment with you. And Holy Spirit, that you would draw people into that intimate relationship with Jesus, and that Jesus, you would reveal the heart of the Father. You'd reveal the heart of God to us in an even deeper way so we can be captivated by his heart of love. And not drawn away by the things around us. And we pray these things in your name, Jesus, standing here as you in your name, saying, So be it. Amen. Amen, amen, amen. Amen. Alright, folks. We love you. And if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at lifearoundthefire at gmail.com. That's our email address. Or you can type in Life Around the Fire and look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, God bless you. Adios, amigos.