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REFINER'S FIRE

by Duane Huffstutler  
4/21/2010 / Christian Living

REFINER'S FIRE

Malachi 3:1-3
Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like a fuller's soap:
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

What does it mean to sit as a refiner and purifier of silver? I have never thought much about the refiner and his fire. Let's take a look at it for a minute.

When a refiner is purifying silver he sits in front of the fire holding the silver over the fire. The silver can't be over just any part of the fire it must be in the hottest part of the firethe center of the flame. This is where the impurities get burned away. The refiner has to sit there watching the silver the entire time that the silver is in the flame. You ask: why he has to sit there? The reason is that if the silver is left a moment too long the silver will be destroyed. Not only does the refiner have to sit there the entire time he must watch the silver the entire time. If he doesn't watch it the entire time it will be very easy to leave it in too long. But how do you know when the silver has been fully refined? It is ready to come out when you can see your image in itit reflects the image of the refiner.

Now let's look at God as the refiner and we are the silver. God will take us and put us in the fire. The whole time that we are in the fire he is sitting there holding us in the fire. He is watching us to make sure that we are processing correctly. He never leaves the fire while we are in the center of the flame. If something should happen that he has to leave us or not be able to watch us in the fire, he will always take us out of the fire until he can put his full attention back on us. He is always watching us in the fire to make sure that we are responding to the fire the way that we should be. He is looking for his image in us to see when we are ready to come out of the fire. Sometimes it is a long process because we don't want to let go of the impurities and have to be convinced that it is best for us to let go. The longer we hang on to them the longer we have to stay in the fire.

Are you feeling the heat of the fire? What is God trying to get you to let go of? Why not let go and let God have his way so that he will be able to see his image in you and pull you out of the fire. Or do you like being in the fire? There is one way to look at itif you are in the fire, you are close to God and he has his eye on you. But that is a rough way to stay close to God.

Since it has been brought to light to me I have started asking the Lord to keep me in the fire no matter how much I squirm and yell, just get me to the place that he can see his image in me. What about you? Are you willing to stay in the fire as long as it takes? Or do you want to come out from time to time and cool off? What we fail to realize is that when we come out of the fire and cool down when we go back in it takes longer because we have to come back up to temperature again. Whereas if we would just stay in the fire, the process would be over before long. Yes, the fire is hot and very uncomfortable but to come into the presence of God we must get the impurities out and the only way to get them out is in the middle of the fire. So take a minute and think about it; let's stay in the fire until God can see his image in us, no matter what it takes.

Duane L. Huffstutler, Written 2011, Faithwriters.com
Duane L. Huffstutler is the Sunday School Director at Oak Grove Pentecostal Ministries in Bonifay Florida. All scripture is from the King James Version (1611)

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