Why we don’t have revival

Isaiah 55:6 (New International Version)

Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.

Joel 2:13
So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.

2 Chronicles 7:14
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

I believe that God will not send revival, renewal, awakening, just to vindicate the church, by proving to the world that we were “right” after all, when our hearts have not been right even when our beliefs have been. It is not enough to look at the state of the world and shake our heads, or to look at the direction the world is going in disbelief when we ourselves have become unworthy to be listened to by our lack of integrity. If the world is going to pot, it is because we haven’t been salt and light. It’s as simple as that. The godless direction that society is heading is happening on our watch. It’s time we woke up and took some responsibility.

Notice that 2 Chr 7:14 doesn’t say “If my people… pray…”. We’ve been good at praying.
Cold, heartless, dead, formulaic prayers. All talk and no substance.

The bible says we need to:

(1) Humble ourselves. Fast. Put on sackcloth (figuratively) and mourn. Weep and mourn for the lost world.

(2) Pray. We still need to pray, it’s just the attitude that needs to change

(3) Seek God’s face. Stop asking God to bless us. Be like Abraham, and ask God to show us his glory. Be like Moses, who God knew face to face. Be like Jesus. WWJD. 1John 2:6

(4) Turn from our wicked ways. “What wicked ways?” Selfishness, self-reliance, self-centeredness, self-pity, “what about me/it’s all about me”. Sure things are tough, really tough. Sure they’re bad, really bad. But this isn’t all about us. It’s about God, it’s about Jesus and it’s about the kingdom. Satan cannot cast out Satan. Selfishness cannot cast out selfishness. Selfish ambition cannot cast out greed. Jesus, when things were bad, was honest with God the Father (he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”). Paul was beaten and left for dead, but that didn’t stop him living for the kingdom.

James 4
Pride Promotes Strife
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6 But He gives more [a greater] grace. Therefore He says:

“ God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”[c]
Humility Cures Worldliness

7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Something has to change. But let’s not get negative and introspective. God has provided the prescription, as David Wilkerson points out, from the book of Nehemiah. When the walls of Jerusalem are broken down, as they are, it is not a time for complacency and smugness. It’s a time for agonizing prayer, but don’t forget that the joy of the Lord is our strength as we agonize. It’s not oxymoronic, it’s part of the divine tension of Truth in the Kingdom of God.

The cord of three strands

When David stood before Goliath, he knew that God was going to bring deliverance not only for him but also for the people of Israel, and not only that God’s manifest destiny for Israel would be preserved and not destroyed.

What was it that David had that gave him such complete confidence that when he came out to challenge Goliath, he would prevail?

I believe that it was the strength of David’s relationship with God, that he had built up over the lonely years of shepherding, when he was overlooked by his family, as he learned to worship God and to serve Him only, he developed a strong bond with God the Father Almighty, the Lord God Almighty, the Lord of Hosts.

In Ecclesiastes 4:12 we read that a cord of three strands is not easily broken. I believe that there were three key aspects to David’s relationship with God that enabled him to stand fast in the face of death.

(1) Faith
(2) Preparation
(3) Keeping it real

Each of those strands is in turn made up of three components. So we have
Faith, the presence of God, the call of God. David not only believed God, he had also been set apart by God, anointed by God (the call of God) and he also had cultivated the presence of God by becoming a worshipper.
Likewise, we have no business standing before Goliath unless we likewise have faith: we believe God; we’ve been called: appointed, anointed; we have cultivated the presence of God around our lives through seeking Him in prayer, through the word, and through worship. If we do that, we have the first strand in our lives intact.

Which brings me to the second strand. We have preparation. This in turn requires the presence of God (the anointing, the call of God, worship), and it requires humility, and it requires us to show up having done the absolute best with what God has given us. Consider the parable of the talents. Jesus has given us gifts, He has given us talents. And we’re to use them. But not the things that He hasn’t given to us. David was not (at the time of facing Goliath) a battle-hardened warrior. That was the problem. He was a shepherd boy, with a lot of time on his hands. Did he sit around thinking “oh dear, poor me, I’m only a poor useless shepherd boy, what can God ever use me for, I’m not a warrior, I’m not particularly talented, I’m not especially clever, oh poor me”. No he did not. He practiced with his slingshot. In the hours and hours of boredom, watching over his “few sheep”, he did not waste what he had. He learned to be a crack shot. God used this to overcome Goliath.

So you’re thinking “Well, I have absolutely nothing, I’m not even any good with a slingshot, I’m a complete unco, God could never have used me”. Wrong. God will use whatever you have. That is where the humility component and the anointing component come in. If David truly had no skills in at all, he would have overcome Goliath with “just” the anointing on his life. Humility required of David that he recognize that Saul’s armour wasn’t going to work. He went in the strength he had, having learned the lessons from the stories of his ancestors, in particular Moses and Gideon. But the preparation strand means that effort was required, and time was required, and waiting on God was required. God knows the timing. Our times are in His hands.
In the meantime we don’t sit twiddling our thumbs, we put our hands to the plow whatever is in front of us and we use the time wisely to prepare.

Finally, we have the component of “keeping it real”. Which is similar to the strand of preparation, yet different. The emphasis of this strand is humility. We understand not just that we can do nothing apart from God but that we can do everything in Him. All things are ours. All things are possible, to those who believe. So this strand is combined with faith. In fact its faith, hope and love wrapped in a cloak of humility.

So we have the three strands of the cord that must tie us to God, and does tie us to God in Christ.

The faith strand, made up of faith, the presence of God and the call of God. In other words, the anointing.
The preparation strand, made up of our talents and effort (preparation), the presence of God and humility.
The “keeping it real” strand: faith, hope and love wrapped up in the cloak of humility.

Remember we are God’s workmanship, and we are created to do good works in Christ.

Colossians chapter 1, the Message:

“The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.”

There is a hope laid up for us in heaven, that God wants to use us to bring to earth. Touching heaven, pulling down the blessing, and changing earth. All things are possible, if we believe.

The word of the Lord

I will delight myself in the Lord, He will give me the desires of my heart. I will commit my way to the Lord, and He will bring forth my righteousness as the dawn. God delights in my way; my steps are ordered by the Lord; when I fall I shall not be utterly cast down. I will not be ashamed in the time of evil, I will be satisfied in the day of famine. God upholds me with his hand. As I wait for the Lord and keep his way, he will exalt me to inherit the land. Because I trust in Him, He shall deliver me from the wicked.

God is my dwelling place, he has gone ahead to prepare a place for me. God will never, never forsake me: not by any means. In his presence is fullness of joy. He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Let the beauty of the Lord be upon me, and establish the works of my hands for me. I commit my way to the Lord today, knowing that my plans will be established. My plans will succeed as I commit what I do to the Lord. He will establish peace for me. He has done all my works in me. He will comfort me and establish me in every good work. I am his workmanship, created for good works in Christ that He has prepared in advance for me, that I should walk in them. He has a plan for my life. He has plans to give me a future with hope. He has plans prosper me and not to harm me. What they meant for evil, God meant for good.

God is the Lord my God. He teaches me to profit. He leads me by the way I should go. The Lord has redeemed me, his servant.

God heals all my diseases. He forgives all my transgressions. He redeems my life from destruction.. He has borne my griefs, he has carried my sorrows. He has borne my sicknesses and carried my pains. He shall prolong my days. I will not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. He was bruised for my iniquities. By his stripes, I am healed. Because He made the soul of Jesus an offering for sin, Jesus will see me, His seed, and God will prolong my days. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in my hand. I will see the labour of my soul and be satisfied. God will divide me a portion with the great. God will divide the spoil between me and the strong, because of what Jesus did. Because Jesus made intercession for me, a transgressor.

I will sing of what the Lord has done. I will enlarge the place of my tent, and stretch out the curtains of my dwellings without sparing. I will lengthen my cords and strengthen my stakes. I will not fear; I will not be ashamed. I will forget the shame of my youth, for God has called me. God will lay my foundations with sapphires. God will make my pinnacles of rubies, and my gates of crystal, and my walls of precious stones. In righteousness I will be established. I shall be far from oppression, I will not fear. Terror will not come near me. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. Every tongue which rises against me in judgement, I will condemn. This is my heritage from the Lord, and my righteousness is from Him.

I will come to the waters. I will buy, and I will eat. I will buy milk and wine without money and without price. I will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord. I will incline my ear, I will come to Him. He will make an everlasting covenant with me. God has glorified me. I will seek the Lord while he may be found. I will call on Him while He is near. I will forsake my wicked way; I will forsake my unrighteous thoughts. I will return to the Lord and He will have mercy on me. God will abundantly pardon. God’s word does not return to Him void. God’s word will accomplish what pleases him. Gods word shall prosper in the thing for which it was sent. I shall go out with joy. I shall be led forth with peace. The mountains and hills will break forth into singing before me. The trees of the fields will clap their hands. Instead of thorns, God will bring forth the cypress tree. Instead of briers, God will bring forth the myrtle tree. This will be an everlasting sign to God, the Lord, that will not be cut off.

I will keep justice. I will do righteousness. I will be blessed when I do this. If I hold fast to His covenant, God will give me a house, and a place within His walls, and a name, and an inheritance. God will give me an inheritance even though I am barren in human terms. My name shall not be cut off. God will bring me to His holy mountain. He will make me joyful in His house of prayer. My burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on His altar. Gods house will be a house of prayer for all nations, and I will be a part of it. God gathers the outcasts, and He will use me to gather still more, in His name.

A time for fasting

When faced with overwhelming odds, or even what seem to be overwhelming odds, and the impossibility of circumstance or the torment of the promise of God in the face of the inescapable rawness of reality (read: against all hope, Abraham in hope believed) we have two choices.

(a) Give up, i.e. “Fear”, as in we’ve given in to fear
(b) Persevere, i.e. “Do not be afraid”

What to do, how to “persevere” in an impossible task? There seems nothing for it _but_ to give up. When the enemy of our souls seems to have the upper hand, and we just don’t know how to walk in faith… we just don’t have the answers…

Thats the time for prayer and fasting. Jesus said that his disciples would fast when he was taken from them. (by analogy to a bridegroom and his friends).

Sometimes, the presence of God, the bridegroom, the tangible sense of God’s impending victory in the face of the blackness…. is gone, utterly overwhelmed by the gloom. What then?

We fast and pray. That is the hour that is at hand, that is what the church is facing when we just cannot see the way. Not in a haphazard, disorganized way. Not irresponsibly, without an awareness of the cost involved with fasting. Not without a purpose. But because he calls us to fast.

Now is a time for fasting. As the word says in Hosea 10

Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.

The Ministry of the Spirit

I wrote yesterday about asking (and keeping on asking), seeking (and keeping on seeking), and keeping on believing…

Today, I was thinking… well, that’s all well and good, but surely there is a human limit to asking, seeking and believing.

Surely there is a point at which the human spirit says “Enough”, like Elijah, and simply can’t take it any more.

I’ve written about “why, God, why” and “when, God, when”

But I’ve come to realize we’re not talking about human possibilities here. God is disciplining us as sons (and daughters), first of all, by bringing us to our knees, and second of all by keeping us on our knees for what seems like (and probably is) an inhuman length of time.

“Why, God, Why?”, we cry, “When, God, When!”

“To what possible end?” our soul cries out “Show me your glory”

And the glory is coming. It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. The big question is, when it comes, will you be ready? Jesus talks about the wise and foolish virgins. Just how much oil are you keeping in your lamp as you await the king? Are you getting tired? Fed up? Or are you keeping your lamps trimmed in time for the Master’s return, no matter what.

By the grace of God, and by grace alone, as we await the glory, through the “Dark night of the soul” (crying “When, God, When?”, and “Why, God, Why?”) we will remember to fill our lamps with oil. For what purpose, we don’t know, but we await the Masters return. Simply because he says he’s coming back. We trim the wicks, prepare our hearts, and we earnestly wait.

Yet there is a point at which it is humanly possible to wait no longer. That is where the ministry of the Spirit (2Cor 3,4) kicks in:

if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious… how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

…we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.

…But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

…We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed …that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body…

Hard pressed, but not crushed. God knows our limits. He is sustaining is as we seek him, and remember it is not us who decides when the seasons of our lives begin, and when they end, it is him:

To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.

Oceans will Part (Part Two)… Hope Will Rise

Hope will Rise

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed. Paul prayed that the eyes of our heart would be opened, that we might know the hope of our calling… to the Romans (and to us) Paul writes:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The thing about hope—true hope—the hope that we wear as a helmet, the helmet of salvation; this hope, which gives us strength to believe (against all hope), can not be crushed by circumstances.  This hope, which overflows by the power of the Holy Spirit, will not stop flowing. This hope will rise, against all odds, against all opposition.  Greater is He that is in you, the power that gives you hope, than He who is in the world. There truly is no devil in hell that can stop the power of hope.

It’s coming: a tsunami of reality, a tsunami of joy, a tsunami of peace, a tsunami of glory…

Glory Shown

“Show me Your glory”, Abraham prayed

Paul prayed “That you may know the glory of his inheritance in the saints”

The last prayer of David “Let the whole earth be filled with your glory.”

As you open my eyes to the work of your hand

It’s not up to us.  We pray; He hears.  We cry out; He answers. We ask; He freely gives.

Call upon the Name of the Lord, and be saved.

Call upon Him in trouble, Call upon Him when things are going well, Call upon him when things are going bad.  Call upon the Mighty Name of Jesus.

Call upon the Lord, and He will answer you and show you great and marvellous things that you do not know (Jer 33:3).

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously and without reproach (James 1), without favour, without preference.  He gives to all.  To as many as receive him, He gives the right to become children of God (John 1)

It is not the healthy who need a Doctor, but the sick.

O Lord heal! O Lord forgive! cries the Psalmist.

Jesus came to give sight to the blind.  Lord, open my eyes to the work of your hand.

Oceans will part at the whisper of Your call

Not the shout, the whisper.  God came to Elijah in the cave… not in the fire, not in the wind but as a still small voice.  God spoke into the darkness, and there was light.  God spoke to Moses, and the Red Sea parted.

God whispers and the Nations tremble.  God whispers through our prayers, and the demons flee.

Only, keep on believing.

A mustard seed of faith, and the mountains fall into the sea.

In my life, Your will be done.

That means my will takes a back seat.  That means seeking God until he shows us the way.  That means asking, seeking, knocking, believing, receiving.  The mustard seed of faith, the word, is the key.

Ask, and keep on asking…

Seek, and keep on seeking…

Knock and keep on knocking…

Have faith in God!  Only believe…

Let it be done, according to your faith.

The just shall live by faith.   Persevere!

Your will be done, O Lord, on earth, as it is in heaven…

Jesus, open my eyes to the work of your hands…

Strength in Weakness

Isaiah 40: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak”.

Consider Hannah: Almost everyone has heard of Hannah, but whoever heard of Penninah? Yet in Hannah’s day, it was the other way round.

Hannah’s fame was such that when God through the prophet Isaiah, that “more are the children of the desolate woman” (referring to God’s blessing to the barren woman), God’s people would have immediately thought of the story of Hannah.

Hannah was a barren woman, without children. More than that, she was persecuted by her husband’s other (we’ll save discussion of polygamy for another day) wife, the not-so-barren, childbearing (and don’t you forget it) Penninah. She was not only barren, she was desolate, hurting and pained. Constantly reminded of her failure, aggravated by the success of her peer, she bore the reproach of her barrenness and it was killing her. Her sadness showed on her face.

Hannah, however, sought the face of God. She went to the tabernacle to make her sacrifice. She would not let go until God blessed her. She did not give in when the clueless High Priest of the day, Eli, mistook her grieving and crying out to the Lord for drunkenness, and rebuked her. Almost to get rid of her, Eli announces to her “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.”

Immediately, Hannah’s countenance changed. God imparted strength to her, in her weakness, and with the strength came miraculous grace to change the situation and to change the world.

Incredibly, especially given the apostacy of the priesthood of the day, God does indeed grant Hannah’s petition. It wouldn’t be the last Eli would hear from Hannah either.

Hannah’s pain and weakness became her strength. Her song celebrates this:

I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.

“The bows of the mighty men are broken,
And those who stumbled are girded with strength.

Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
And the hungry have ceased to hunger.
Even the barren has borne seven,
And she who has many children has become feeble.

The barren has borne seven, God’s number for completeness. The barren’s faithfulness results in the birth of Samuel, a true prophet after God’s own heart… and she who has many children? Penninah? Panini? Pa… who?

Not that there should be a cause for gloating. No, there is never cause for that. There is, however, always cause to celebrate God’s faithfulness.

Today is the day of God’s favour. Today is the day of salvation.

Receive the strength of God, recall Hannah’s words today, even as you stumble:

“Those who stumbled are girded with strength”

The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,
after you have suffered a little while,
will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

So you’ve failed? So you’re weak? So those mountains keep looking bigger? So what?

Have faith in God. Only keep on believing.

God himself will restore you.

Have a look at the video:

Strengthen your bedraggled hands and feeble knees…

…and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather healed.

God wants to strengthen us, lift us up so that we can shine in these days in which we live.

From the strengthening flows healing, from the healing salvation, from the salvation praise.

God himself will do the strengthening, God himself will do the healing.  We simply need to call upon his name.

Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

Isaiah 40:

“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
Says your God.
“ Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended…

“ Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;

Psalm 28:

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;

Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
And with my song I will praise Him.

The LORD is their strength,
And He is the saving refuge of His anointed.

Save Your people,
And bless Your inheritance;
Shepherd them also,
And bear them up forever.

For You will light my lamp;
The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

Psalm 18:

For by You I can run against a troop,
By my God I can leap over a wall.

As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

For who is God, except the LORD?
And who is a rock, except our God?

It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
And sets me on my high places.
He teaches my hands to make war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

The Key of David

God spoke to Isaiah:

I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

and to John the Revelator:

“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

What exactly is this “Key of David”?

What is that David had that somehow unlocks the heart of God, so that God can work so mightily in Davids life?

What was the preparation that David went through that enabled him to stand before the giant Goliath and win?

Yes, it was faith, but it was more than faith.  “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God“

How do we get the word of God, that gives us faith, of which a mustard seeds worth is sufficient to move mountains?

How will be able to stand in the coming days, should the worlds financial systems fail, should World War III break out, should our leaders fail, should men and women’s hearts melt with fear?

What will make the difference in our lives?

The Key of David is intimacy with God.  The same intimacy that God had with Moses

The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.

Jesus came to give us eternal life, that is that we would know him:

“this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.“

We are called to know him.  We are called to enter his throne room daily and to converse before the throne of grace, a two-way intimate conversation.   From this place of intimacy comes faith, and with faith comes power to move mountains, overcome giants, break free into the perfect will of God, see lives transformed, broken hearts healed.  This is the kingdom of God.

David knew that Goliath didn’t stand a chance, because he knew God.  Nothing and more and nothing less is required.  Without Faith it is impossible to please God.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  And the word of God comes from a heart of intimacy with the Father.

Jesus Christ has made a way, He has come to give us eternal life that we may know the Father, His blood has redeemed us, he is the propitiation, the curtain is torn in two.  Let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Amen!

The Flame Part Two

Following on from my post on Thursday…

Fire is a common theme in scripture, and there are two types of fire referred to in scripture. 

God wishes for us to be consumed, in the best possible way (which is consumed by His glory), but first we must be consumed. 

Paul writes to the Corinthians:

If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.

God is like a refiners fire, and He sends us the fire of circumstances (as trite as this sounds it is nevertheless real) because He wants us as vessels for His glory. 

The Lord is a consuming fire, but just as Moses was drawn aside to the burning bush because, though it burned it was not consumed, so God allows circumstances to burn away our dependence on ourselves.  Having already been consumed, as such, we become like the burning bush—aflame with the glory of God, so that people turn aside to us, wondering how we can burn so yet not be consumed.   This is not where we’re at now, necessarily, but it is where God wants to get us.  Mark my words.

Like Paul, He wants us to put no confidence in the flesh, and if we’ve asked Him to (“Lord, make me your servant.  Lord, use me for you Kingdom, use me for your glory” and such like that we pray before we know any better), He will bring us to that place kicking and screaming if necessary, through circumstances.

He comes to us, first with a warning:

Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire; it will devour, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.

then with a promise:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

Then finally, the enduring flame of Gods love shines through us, and those He has called will turn aside to us, marvelling that we are not consumed, and we will actually have something to offer them—the presence of God with us.

…love is as strong as death, 
its jealousy unyielding as the grave. 
It burns like blazing fire, 
like a mighty flame.