"Start the Fire and I Will Stir It Up"

 "Start the Fire and I Will Stir It Up"

In the month of June, my local church had a midyear program, and during that season, the Lord laid a word in my heart: "Start the fire, and I will stir it up."

At the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of burning dry bushes and paper at my right ear. But when I woke up, there was nothing but my sister sleeping across from me. The Lord spoke to me in the midst of a "fire." I felt a burning sound as if there was real fire close to me, but only to wake up and find nothing.

As I look back on those moments, I can understand those words. They were the words I needed in that moment of despair when I was just healed from a mental breakdown.

But as I take a look at the days that followed after that word from God, He had really prepared for each moment. The Lord does that for His people always, because He cannot do anything without an awakened man. He first awakens man to the reality He has ordained him for.

That was the reality He first awakened Gideon to when He called him a "man of valor." It's easy to always look as if we've got a plan and we've got everything covered, but what about the moments when there is no plan? The moment when people expect you to know what to do, but you're still trying to figure it all out.

Gideon could only think of feeding, and so when he was preparing what to eat, God's messenger said to him, "That man of valor." 

Judges 6:11-14 (NIV) said this about Gideon. 

11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 

12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

13 "Pardon me, Lord," Gideon replied, "but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian."

14 The Lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"

At that moment, God saw him as a man of strength. God was just saying to him, "Start the fire, and I will stir it up. Whatever it is you want to do, start the fire; I've got more for you. You've got the strength to start again. Just seek Me, and that plan you desire will pass.

As we prepare for the cross into the new year, I hear these same words: "Start the fire, and I will stir it up." It's been months since He gave me this word, and the Lord has stirred up great things in my life by just saying yes to Him.

God wants to stir up great things in our life, but we've got to say yes. 

Stay Revived!

By Guest writer.