Dec 17, 2002

In the spirit, I saw a raging hot fire burning and it was consuming everything within its surrounding area. In the midst of this great fire I saw that there stood a large erected cross that was untouched by the fiery flames. It was not scorched or charred in any way, although everything around it was being burnt and blackened. While watching this I knew that to be in the cross would be the safest place to be. The flames apparently could not harm it. Then, I immediately understood that everything that we are and do outside of the cross of Calvary has no Life and is destined to be destroyed. I saw that the fire was the fire of the Lord and unless anything we are or do has not passed through the cross it will have no eternal value, no Life and will be burnt up by the Lord Himself. Our God is a consuming fire and that which is not of Him will not stand. Everything that we are, everything that we have and everything that we do must first pass through the cross before it can produce life either in us or in others. Our lives are hid in Christ. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and it all starts at the cross. I sense a greater purging coming upon the Bride in this day... a deeper purging fire that will expose and reveal those deeply embedded things in our lives that have not been surrendered to the cross. As He exposes the roots, we are to repent and surrender them to the cross to be crucified .. this is true freedom! by grace and faith we appropriate His Life, the Life of Christ in exchange for ours. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed! A crucified Christ requires a crucified Bride. Even as we have received revelation that we have been crucified in Christ we also receive revelation that we have been resurrected in Christ and are seated in heavenly places with Him. Thus, a resurrected Christ requires a resurrected Bride. This deeper purging will bring about greater freedom as well as a greater revelation of the Resurrection Life that we are called to walk in, that is found on the other side of the cross. For the Joy set before Him, Jesus endured the Cross. We too can endure trials and hardships with Joy because we know that the Cross leads not only to death and burial but to Resurrection Life. And that Life speaks of the Gold that has been refined in the Fire. That is the Gold that is precious in the eyes of our Father, for it is the very Life of Jesus in Us. We are to be found wholly in Christ. Wholly in both His death and His Life. As One with Him. First in our crucifixion in Him and then in our resurrection in Him.

"Yet indeed I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death if by any means I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Philippians 3:8-11

Christ in me, the hope of Glory!