Jesus With the Eyes of Fire

How do you picture Jesus?
I have always pictured him as kind, gentle, soft-spoken and loving. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. In fact, he’d probably baptize it. In my image of Christ, He never raises His voice and never utters a hurtful word. It’s a very childish, almost psychedelic view of Christ where the only things missing are cartoon butterflies and singing animals.

Don’t get me wrong – that Jesus very much exists, but it’s not the ONLY Jesus we encounter throughout our lives. If that Jesus were the only Jesus we had, there would be no spiritual growth or maturity, no standards to meet, and no rules to follow. We’d be a bunch of spiritual toddlers with no consequences beyond a hand slap, and no understanding of sin beyond daddy saying “no” when we reach for the hot burner on the stove.

I have been a Christian since I was 13 years old. I have very much been babied by the Lord. I have made the same mistakes over and over again, until they could no longer be called mistakes anymore. They became deliberate, willful disobedience based on a complete lack of trust in the Lord, and overall apathy. It is easier to wallow in your problems and failures, to be saturated in your pain rather than chase it away with the Word of God. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” isn’t nearly as easy as just…giving in.

But after all of the hand slapping, tough talk, pep talks, and relatively punishment-free forgiveness, I was confronted by the Jesus with the eyes of fire. When you think about anybody having eyes like fire, you immediately think of evil, but this Jesus with the eyes of fire is anything but. If it sounds like an astoundingly fearsome version of Jesus Christ, you’re right; it is. It’s supposed to be. A lack of fear of the Lord is what creates apathy, and the deliberate, willful disobedience I mentioned earlier.

The Lord woke my husband up at 4:30 this morning and told him to write the following:

God wants us on fire for Him…NOW!
Don’t let petty arguments from Satan destroy what I have for you. How long will you be in the fire? Until you stand up for Me and shout my name from every rooftop! I am using you to show people my love and compassion. Only you can decide how long will you be in the fire. Come out of the fire! If you are battling things my Word says “prayer and fasting is the only way to remove the demons…” So, fast and when you get hungry read my Word until the shell is broken off you! There are people suffering right now because of your ignorance, let me use you!

He also showed me in a dream that we will be fed in our church when we let Him break down the walls of NONSENSE.

It started with my dear mentor confronting me about a particular sin in my life, and admonishing me that she felt like the Lord wanted me to know that the consequences were going to get worse and that I had enough spiritual wisdom and maturity to now make the right choices. I didn’t need to hold daddy’s hand crossing the street anymore, I knew to look both ways. I knew better than to get in a stranger’s van.

But if I decided to anyway, there would be consequences.
Definite, deep, painful, life-altering consequences that I could not run and hide from.
The realization of this made me angry. Even now, I cannot explain to you why, but I was filled with rage. I’ve always hated authority – that’s the only thing I can think of. Why would yielding to GOD’S authority be any different for me?

Then my husband got this message…
The cynic in me says, “Well, he must have been dreaming or something.” But the “letter” is so on target with what my mentor said…what I’ve been hearing God say in my spirit…if it doesn’t make me fear the Lord, nothing will.

There comes a time in our walk with God – if we haven’t been walking the way He wants us to – when His eyes turn to flames. There comes a time when He tells us, “I have gone over the same things with you over and over again. I will never leave you or forsake you, and I will never stop loving you. But you’ve got to make the decision NOW! Are you going to walk in my ways, or lay down and die? You are not at peace because you are pushing away the peace I give you! No, I will never pull my love away from you, but the consequences will be painful and lasting, and you will endure them until you accept my plan for your life, and understand that the only way to true freedom and healing is by FOLLOWING that plan!”

Guys, Jesus is relentless. Only a holy Lord could pursue you to the ends of the earth while never stripping you of your free will. Only Jesus can chase you down and make you face your disobedience while still allowing you to decide who is in control – you or Him.
There is no “because I said so” with Christ, and yet He will remove the things you’ve put between the two of you. If you’ve loved it more than God, kiss it goodbye.
Friendships will be splintered, jobs lost, prestige stripped away.
Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes.

And still we have a choice.
Stubbornness or obedience?

Personally, I’d rather give it all up for Christ than have Him take it all away.

Choose wisely. Trust me on this one.

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