Dear Precious Women of God,

Recently, I went up into the mountains to seek a special time with the Lord. When I arrived at Praise Mountain, I got settled in and began reading. As I was sitting next to a warm fire in the fire place, the wind began roaring around the cabin where I stayed.

On my way up to Praise Mountain, I stopped in a little café that had a sign right below the cash register saying something about "the past". I thought to myself that I needed to buy this sign, but didn't. Then, in the cabin where I stayed, I found another sign with reference to the past.

I AM
by Helen Mallicoat (first published in Tim Hansel's book Holy Sweat)
I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly my Lord was speaking.
"My name is I AM." He paused.... I waited.
He continued, "When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I AM not there.
My name is not I WAS.
When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I AM not there.
My name is not I WILL BE.
When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I AM here. My name is I AM."

Later, as I was reading in the Bible, the Scripture in Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV) leapt off the page...

18 "Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.

I began wondering if the Lord was trying to tell me something about the past. "Isn't it obvious?" I thought to myself. I don't tend to dwell in the past; however, I think the Lord was trying to tell me something important. As I shared this with a friend who went with me, she took the Scripture and began praying for me. The Lord immediately unlocked the mystery of what He was telling me about the "past". The Lord encouraged me to see things from a different perspective and that a new season was here.

The Lord then revealed that He is after all our hearts in a deep way. That He is jealous for us. He wants us to identify any "idols" within our lives that steal our intimacy with Him. As we prepare to go into a new theme year, At the Redeemers Feet, the theme serves as a declaration of what God is after for our lives. I believe that the Lord wants to lovingly take us to His "threshing floor" to consume those things that are not of Him, things that keep us from the fullness of the relationship that He desires of us. He wants to redeem everything that has kept us from that. Perhaps it is past hurts, disappointments, guilt, shame, unbelief, etc. He wants to heal and redeem it all.

The Lord has been taking me to Song of Songs many times since this past summer. There is a particular portion of it that has stood out to me these past few weeks. I believe He desires this of His bride.
It is Song of Songs 8:6-7(NIV)...

6 Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of his house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.

There is also a powerful song that I have been hearing that uses the same Scripture by Misty Edwards. It is on her Relentless CD and the song name is "You Won't Relent". I have played it often to reinforce what the Lord is speaking to my heart.

God is showing me that He is a consuming fire, He is the fire. As I thought about all of what the Lord revealed and this portion of Scripture, I spoke with my son, Steven, who has been trained as a wild fire fighter. I asked him if there was anything besides the obvious with regard to the characteristic of a wild fire. He said that it can travel underground and under water. I was quite surprised by this. I asked him how this happens. He responded by saying that the fire can travel along the root systems of trees and brush. I was amazed at this discovery.

I believe that what the Lord is after from us and the women within PWOC is the deep things that we have hidden away in our hearts (things that are "underground"). He wants to awaken our hearts in deeper ways to His love for us. The fire that He wants to apply will go deeper than surface level, it will go to the root of anything that keeps us from the depth of love that He is so jealous to have from us.

At first, we might fear what this may look like, we may not want to trust the Lord with this process; however, the alternative is less inviting. If we are leery of His love, it might be because we have never experienced a trustworthy love on this earth. We might think it is too painful to go there. Let me suggest that it is more painful to experience the dull (or sometimes sharp) pain of continued involvement with things that take the place of Him. In my own life, I once rejected His love and thought it wasn't even possible because of all my past hurts. I was afraid of how God might cause me more pain because of my past. As I learned about who He really is, I found that to be untrue.

I know that you all love the Lord with all your hearts; however, I believe that the Lord is calling each of us to even more of a deeper place of intimacy with Him. May I encourage you to challenge where you are at with regard to your relationship with Him? To go deeper still? To see if there is anything that is standing in the way of having more intimacy with Him? I believe that the Lord has called us to set order with regard to our relationship with Him, now He is showing us how to do that. He wants our past, our future and our present.

Before I left for Praise Mountain, the Lord instructed me to take my watercolors with me. I didn't know why, but trusted Him to show me what He was after. That first evening, I went off to my room and took out my painting supplies then sat and waited on the Lord. I have attached what He placed on my heart to paint.

Consumed by His Love and Fire,

Brenda Marlin

April 2008
March 2008
Feb 2008
Nov 2007