If we really want God's fire...

If we really want God's fire, we have to let Him burn everything we've got. One huge lesson God taught me in Mozambique was that He is an all-consuming fire and He will consume everything in the way between us and Him, if we really want Him. I told God that I wanted Him and would give up everything for Him, and throughout the entire trip, God kept bringing things in my life to mind that I would have to leave behind if I wanted Him more than anything. He went through a whole long list of possessions, people, attitudes, and emotions that He wanted complete control over. He asked if He could burn up a few little things first, and I fought Him on it, then I relinquished control, and that was the beginning of everything being burned up in His all-consuming fire. Any clothes, shoes, and household things had to go, they were the first things. I left a whole bunch of things in Moz for people who have literally nothing. It breaks my heart to see little kids running around the streets in filthy dirty ripped clothes. When you pick them up and they smile, you realize that clothes don't really matter, and you are ready to give it all away.

God even burnt my camera (?) Well, my camera lens broke in an accident, but the more important thing was that I was not too concerned that I lost it. I was just like "well, I can get a new one when I go back to the US." When God burns things up, He changes your attitudes towards leaving them. He changes your attitudes towards your possessions and relationships.

God removes relationships that become important to us before they become more important to us than God. Before I left, God told me I needed to give up a certain friendship, and not communicate with them while in Africa. So I didn't. I thought this would be hard, but God made it easy on me. And He burnt that relationship up! And continues to burn through things in my life, burning up my computer......... My computer was one thing that I particularly wish I had in Moz with me, but I didn't. I remember talking with some people saying, if I could go home and just get one thing and come back here to live, it would be my computer. I know at least one person shared this sentiment. Little did I know, that one thing I wish I had, would be gone within three weeks of arriving back in the US. So the one thing I wanted most in Africa, maybe I wanted too much, and it had to go.

If you want the fire of God, if you want Him fully, if you want to give your life to Him completely, you have to be ready to surrender everything into His consumign fire. His consuming fire will burn and will burn up everything!