Friday, February 7, 2014

Hot Or Cold

I happen to enjoy every season, and winter is no exception. I love my winter walks. It was on a walk in the snow recently when God started to reveal His purpose for the cold to me. 
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Revelation 3:15
1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou werest cold or hot.
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Job 38:22
22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
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Isaiah 55:10-11
10 Surely as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither but watereth the earth, and maketh it to bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread unto him that eateth,
11 So shall my word be, that goeth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I will, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
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What does Jesus mean when He says He would rather us be Hot or Cold? He was speaking to His church in Revelation 3:15. Well when we examine Scripture, we see that God not only created the snow, He uses it to illustrate His Word. Scripturally and spiritually speaking, snow shows us God's WORD and God's TREASURE. And we know that mankind was formed of the dust of the earth. He was made a living soul and spirit dwelling in a body of formed dust. It is found in Genesis 2.
Sometimes the Word must come and cover our earthly lives like snow, and send or natural and fleshly tendencies into a freeze. Yes, we want to be on fire and hot in our spiritual desire for the Lord Jesus. 

But it is necessary, as I am discovering by experience, to also be cold FOR Him. Notice I did not say "toward" Him. But rather, we are cold for the Lord so that our fleshly and earthly ways lay dormant. His Word, His Glory, like those amazingly intricate snow flakes that are falling all over Newmarket right now, is covering the land, helping it to refresh, restore, and stay still. Others will see that you are cold in the flesh-nature, but they may mistake that as lack of love. In reality you are still very much on fire for the Lord, and love your brothers and sisters in Christ dearly. No change in behaviour happens toward our relationships in the church. The change happens in our relationship to God. We grow closer to Him, more dependent. We are much less distracted by what used to enrapture us in the natural.

As the flesh is put on ice, and caused to freeze in its wants, our spirit man is able to gain the upper hand and pursue Jesus like never before. It is a time of refreshing and for freezing those things which must be frozen in our lives. Much of it dies during this season. Some just lies dormant. And it is often a long season.

The season of snow eventually melts. Much further down the line, new life will bud from that snow as it transforms into water. But while you are in this winter season, enjoy your amazing freedom to pursue just Jesus without the "dust" interfering so often! 
~ Pastor Curtis


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