God`s Consuming Fire

"For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."  (Deuteronomy 4:24)

~The fire which proceeds from the mouth of God burns away impurities from our lives that we might stand completely purified in His presence.  When we seek God, He will refine our hearts like a blacksmith refines gold or silver in a furnace.
~"For you, O God, have tested us; you have refined us as silver is refined." (Psalm 66:10)
~"But who can endure the day of His coming?  And who can stand when He appears?  For He is like a refiner`s fire and like launderer`s soap.  He will sit as a refiner of purified silver..."
Malachi 3:2-3~~~
~The imagery of Jeremiah 23:29 is that of God taking us up in His tongs, sticking us into His fiery furnace, waiting till we are red hot, pulling us out, setting us down on His anvil, and then hammering us into shape.
As followers of Christ, we live in a furnace of holy fire.
~When hypocrites and the half hearted can dwell in our midst without being convicted or made uncomfortable, then somethings wrong.  God intends for His fire to so envelope the local church that hypocrites will not be able to stay, and the devout will not be able to remain unchanged.
~So if you are feeling the fire of God in your life, cheer up; it means that God is coming to you.  This is the fire that proceeds Him.
~There are two ways we receive from God.  Some things are given to us, and some are bought.
~The gold that is refined by fire is two-fold:
1) This is gold that is purified by faith.  "That the gentleness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:7)  When we survive the fire, we come out on the other side with a much stronger faith.
2) This gold is refined character.  "But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." (Job 23:10)  This gold is CHRISTLIKENESS.  When fiery trials have effectively made us more like Jesus, then we have gained true riches.