July 21, 2025 • 24 mins
Pressure isn't comfortable, but could it be exactly what we need? This eye-opening exploration reveals the surprising purpose behind life's squeeze.
When pressure comes, our natural response is to fight or withdraw. Yet what if these moments of intense discomfort are actually divine invitations to transformation? Just as a goldsmith uses fire to bring impurities to the surface of precious metal, God's refining presence in our lives often manifests as pressure that reveals what's truly inside us.
The wisdom shared here turns our understanding of difficulty upside down. "When pressure comes, it's not a sign that you've done something wrong. Sometimes it's a sign that you've been doing things right." This perspective shift changes everything. Rather than resisting pressure, we can practice thanksgiving in the midst of it—a response that doesn't necessarily remove the pressure but profoundly changes how we experience it.
Drawing from biblical examples like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego praising God in the fiery furnace, and wisdom from Corrie ten Boom who encouraged believers to "don't wrestle, nestle" when facing trials, this message provides practical guidance for navigating life's pressure points. The ultimate goal isn't comfort but Christlikeness—becoming purified through the very fire we might instinctively avoid.
Ready to transform your relationship with pressure? Listen now and discover how life's most uncomfortable moments might be preparing you for your greatest growth. Then share your experience with us at liferonthefire@gmail.com—we'd love to hear how this message resonates with your journey.
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
The last podcast episode was a message of
exhortation.
It was really exhorting us tobe in a place where we have
within us these things that arereally keys to being an
overcomer Keys to being anovercomer Diligently pray,
(00:31):
faithfully, obey, quietly, trust, patiently, observe and
thankfully praise and worshipthe one, true God, right, keys
to being an overcomer.
In this particular podcastepisode, I'd like to give a word
of encouragement, because it'ssomething that we all face and
(00:52):
when we do, it's kind of a mixedbag, at least for me, and what
I'm talking about is pressure.
When we experience pressure andI'm specifically talking about
those of us who are functioningin the kingdom of God we have a
(01:14):
relationship with Jesus, we havea real introduction into the
heart of the Father, ourHeavenly Father, and we're
learning how to follow theSpirit of God, holy Spirit, and
so we are all at differentlevels.
Some of us have been livingthis out for decades and others
(01:41):
have been a few days, and someyou're just kind of like, almost
there, right, you've beenseeking and finding is about
ready to just really sweep youin.
You are at some point.
(02:03):
You experience, we experience,I experience pressure, and when
that happens, it can beconfusing because it doesn't
necessarily feel good to besqueezed, feel good to be
(02:28):
squeezed, and sometimes thethings that happen around us
involve people in fact, mostoften and the thing about people
is we all do people things.
We are moving toward perfection, but we're not experientially
(02:52):
there yet We've been justified.
So legally we are perfect, butexperientially we are in the
process known as sanctification,meaning we are growing into
that place of perfection.
We are seated with Christ inheavenly places.
We are growing into that placeof perfection.
We are seated with Christ inheavenly places.
We are secure, and yet here weare, living in the realm of time
(03:14):
and space, which that rightthere, living in the realm of
time and space is where weexperience pressure.
Outside of this, there is nopressure.
There is going to be pressure.
(03:35):
In fact, jesus said himself hegoes in the world, in this world
.
You're going to havetribulations, you're going to
have pressure.
He said, but be of good cheer,for I've overcome the world,
I've overcome these things, andso when we follow him, we learn
to be overcomers, and easiersaid than done sometimes, though
(04:03):
, and so that's why we needencouragement.
So I'm here to encourage you insaying that if you're
experiencing pressure in yourlife.
It's not necessarily becauseyou've done something wrong.
In fact, it might be thatyou've been doing things right
and, as a result, you're goingto be growing right and, as a
(04:28):
result, you're going to begrowing.
And in the process of growingthere's going to be a squeezing
out of some of those old things.
They may have been comfortable,but they aren't necessarily
godly.
Certain habits, certainpatterns of thinking, what we do
, what we say, what we see,things like that, we're
(04:53):
accustomed to them and so theyseem normal.
But just because they're normaldoesn't mean that they're right
or that they're going to besomething that's going to be
suitable.
Mean that they're right or thatthey're going to be something
that's going to be suitable forus.
Down the road, when I was achild, I thought and spoke like
a child, and now that I'm a man,I've put away childish things
(05:18):
and moved on to more importantissues, because God wants us to
grow, he doesn't want us to staystagnant.
And so salvation, you know,coming to know Jesus, coming to
know the Father, coming to knowHoly Spirit, is a beginning
(05:40):
point.
Of course.
That's where we begin, and wehave to begin somewhere, and we
begin at the beginning, and webegin at the beginning and we
only know what we know right.
And the beginning is good, butit's not where we're, you know,
(06:03):
supposed to stay.
We need to grow and mature,kind of growing up before we
grow old.
And we do it not justindividually but we do it
collectively, interesting.
There's individual pressure andthen there's collective
pressure.
(06:23):
You ever been in a group ofpeople that things are going
along just fine and all of asudden it feels like pressure
just comes out of nowhere?
Well, god is a refining fire.
His presence has that effect.
It's like a goldsmith who isrefining gold.
(06:44):
It's like a goldsmith who isrefining gold.
One of the ways that he refinesit is he applies heat to it,
extreme heat, and what that doesis it causes the dross or the
impurities to come to thesurface, and then the goldsmith
(07:08):
can skim the dr away and thegold becomes pure, purified, and
it's purified by fire.
And sometimes the manifestationof God's presence and his fire
comes in the form of pressure,the pressure that squeezes out
impurities, the pressure thatsqueezes out impurities.
(07:31):
And so it behooves us to knowwhat to do when we experience
pressure, because the temptationis oftentimes to either lash
out or to become secluded.
You protect yourself, youwithdraw or you strike out.
I mean, those are the two mostcommon tendencies, and one of
the more uncommon tendencies isto give thanks, to give thanks.
(07:57):
The Apostle Paul said ineverything, not for everything,
but in everything give thanks,for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus.
Giving thanks, learning to bethankful, it seems absolutely
(08:22):
opposite to what would be thenatural response when pressure
comes, because pressureoftentimes feels uncomfortable
Because something's going tochange more than likely as a
result of the pressure coming.
It causes things to be onceagain looked at in a different
(08:49):
way, because it catches ourattention right.
Pressure stops you from doingthings one way for a minute,
catches your attention, and thenwhat?
And then there's the opportunityfor us to ask God what's going
(09:13):
on.
He'll tell us.
That's the wonderful thingabout relationship is that God
communicates with us.
Yes, he communicates to us fromhis scriptures, but there are
other times where hecommunicates to us heart to
heart and when we ask him sayGod, what's going on, and we
(09:37):
listen.
We take time to really listen,get quiet and listen.
He'll tell us he is faithful.
God is so, absolutely faithful.
There are many things that I cansay, and I do say about God,
because I love him, I love Jesus, I love my Heavenly Father, our
(10:02):
Heavenly Father, I love HolySpirit, I love God.
I say many things and could saymany things, but one thing I
will say about God is he isfaithful and trustworthy.
He does not lie.
He's not a man that he shouldlie.
(10:24):
People lie, people say thingsthat are misleading, people do
things where they smile in yourface, but all the time they want
to take your place.
Backstabbers Right, but Godisn't like that.
(10:50):
He is faithful, he istrustworthy.
He is faithful, he istrustworthy, he is true.
Once again, jesus said I am theway, the truth and the life.
Wow, he does not lie.
(11:10):
And so when we ask him what'sgoing on, he'll tell us.
And in times of pressure, oftenhe'll say this is me purifying
(11:34):
your life.
Don't fight it, but give thanks.
You see, shadrach, meshach andAbednego were thrown into a
fiery furnace in order toliterally kill them as a
consequence of theirdisobedience to a decree of a
king.
They wouldn't bow down to agraven image, an idol, and so
(12:00):
the decree was anyone who wouldnot do that would be thrown into
a fiery furnace to kill them asan example.
Well, the king did.
And these three Hebrew youngmen not only did not burn, but
there was a fourth person in thefurnace with them and they were
(12:22):
walking in a circle givingpraise to God and their clothes
weren't burned and they didn'tsmell like smoke when they came
out.
It didn't smell like smoke whenthey came out, but the point
they're making in that is thatthey were giving thanks to God.
(12:51):
There's something about givingpraise to God, giving thanks to
God.
It doesn't necessarily take thepressure away, but it changes
how we view it and it changeshow we respond to it, sometimes
yielding meaning we don't fightone another, but the pressure we
allow to see what it is that itbrought to the surface in my
(13:15):
life.
Maybe it was an attitude ofjust being judgmental or being
critical, having those criticalremarks offhanded, critical
remarks about people, or theselittle sidebar meetings to
discuss what they think is goingon in another person's life,
(13:40):
all in the name of prayer or allin the name of concern.
But really it's a criticalspirit, having a critical
attitude inside of us, in ourpsyche, in our spirit.
Having a critical attitudeinside of us, in our psyche, in
(14:02):
our spirit yeah right, Not justin our mind, but even deeper, it
could be embedded in our spirit, and that is what God wants
removed from us the impurities.
And one of the ways that it isdone is by pressure, and when we
see the pressure come or wefeel it come, we can look at our
(14:29):
lives and ask once again, askGod, lord, show me, show me,
show me what it is that you'retrying to do in my life to
purify it so I can become morelike you.
Because that's the real.
The end of it all is really forus to become more and more like
(14:51):
God, and that's going to be aneternal thing that we're going
to be experiencing, which isabsolutely phenomenal.
It's wonderful to be in thattype of relationship where we
are intimate and we arecontinually growing in our
(15:16):
experience with God and who heis and who we are with each
other.
But also we develop, wecontinually grow, and
thanksgiving, giving thanks,giving thanks in the midst of it
, in the midst of pressure,really determines the level of
(15:39):
spiritual maturity.
We have One of my favoritepeople, the late Corrie Ten Boom
, a small lady who was powerfulin her walk with God and she had
(16:01):
so many wonderful things thatshe expressed that were truths
that would just stay with you,stay with me.
And one of them was concerningthis whole thing of pressure.
And when it happened she goesdon't wrestle, nestle, don't
(16:27):
wrestle, don't fight it, don'tfight it, don't wrestle, but
nestle.
Come into the arms of yourloving Heavenly Father and let
him embrace you and speak to youand let you know that he loves
(16:48):
you and that he's bringing thesethings to the surface, the
pressure.
There's another story by agentleman by the name of John
White.
Dr John White and he and hisfamily were doing some
missionary work in one of theremote areas in South America
(17:09):
and his son, his young son, gotan infection, and that infection
was very serious and the onlyway to deal with it was through
prayer or, if need be, anemergency type of operation to
(17:35):
drain the infection from hisbody.
So they prayed and in thisinstance God did not answer
their prayer by supernaturallyhealing him.
And so Dr White a psychiatrist,not a physician, but he had
medical experience in histraining to be a psychiatrist
(18:04):
knew enough how to perform anoperation, but they didn't have
any anesthetics at all, noanesthesia, nothing to dull the
pain in this young boy's life,probably seven years old.
And so his father had to cutthe young boy's leg a fairly
(18:30):
significant slice down his thighand then drain the pus out of
it, put a type of poultice on itthat they put together, but to
(18:50):
also stitch up his leg withthread and a needle that they
had not a surgical needle orthread, but regular thread and
needle.
And his son looked at him withabsolute horror when he said
(19:14):
he's got to cut him, it's goingto hurt, but he's going to drain
this infection out of himbecause if he didn't he could
possibly die.
And so they performed theoperation.
But his son was crying duringthe entire time, having a hard
(19:40):
time understanding what wasgoing on, and I can't imagine
the pressure that this young boyfelt.
But in the end he lived.
They got the infection out ofhim and they were able to
(20:02):
monitor it and actually it wascured through the poultice.
And God was praised in the endby the young boy, but his
parents were praising God duringit because it helped keep them
(20:26):
focused.
You know, there's so manythings.
There are so many things thattake place in our life when we
praise God, but really it's notso much always about our life.
It's about the fact that we arehonoring God.
He is worthy of that In themidst of difficulty.
He is worthy of that In themidst of difficulty.
(20:47):
He is worthy of it.
As I said before, often thatdetermines the level of
spiritual maturity you have whenit comes to really evaluating
that.
It's how you handle pressure.
What do you do when thepressure comes?
Do you criticize people?
Do you lash out at people?
Do you criticize yourself?
(21:07):
Do you berate yourself?
Do you withdraw?
Do you try to quit?
Do you quit?
Or could it be that, through aword of encouragement, you can
actually give thanks Becausethere's an end to it?
(21:27):
When you're going through it,it doesn't seem like it's ever
going to end, but when it endsit seems like you never went
through it.
Interesting, so, in the midstof it, giving thanks, giving
praise to God.
When pressure comes, it's not asign that you've done something
(21:50):
wrong.
When difficulties come,sometimes it's a sign that
you've been doing things rightand it's the heat of God's
presence, because he's comingcloser, that causes the dross to
come to the surface, thosethings that need to be removed
from our life.
And when they're removed, itdoesn't really seem like they've
(22:11):
ever been there and what weexperience, brand new, seems
like it's always been there, butyet it feels brand new.
Hallelujah, let's pray.
Father, thank you once againfor who you are.
I love you, we love you, weworship you, we give ourselves
(22:39):
to you.
Jesus, you are Lord.
Jesus, you are Lord and HolySpirit.
You come in his name and youdemonstrate the wonderful
lordship of Jesus and you teachus.
Thank you for teaching us,thank you for guiding us, for
leading us.
I love you, we love you, wesubmit ourselves to you.
(23:05):
We love you, we submitourselves to you.
We invite you to continue tobring us into a place and places
where we become more and morelike Jesus and we stand here in
his name as if we're him hereand we say amen, amen, amen,
amen, right, amen.
(23:28):
In Jesus, in Christ, everythingis yes and amen.
Folks, we love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
free to drop us a line atliferonthefire, at gmailcom, or
type in liferonthefire and lookus up on the web.
(23:50):
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you, adios amigos.
The last podcast episode was a message of
exhortation.
It was really exhorting us tobe in a place where we have
within us these things that arereally keys to being an
overcomer Keys to being anovercomer Diligently pray,
(00:31):
faithfully, obey, quietly, trust, patiently, observe and
thankfully praise and worshipthe one, true God, right, keys
to being an overcomer.
In this particular podcastepisode, I'd like to give a word
of encouragement, because it'ssomething that we all face and
(00:52):
when we do, it's kind of a mixedbag, at least for me, and what
I'm talking about is pressure.
When we experience pressure andI'm specifically talking about
those of us who are functioningin the kingdom of God we have a
(01:14):
relationship with Jesus, we havea real introduction into the
heart of the Father, ourHeavenly Father, and we're
learning how to follow theSpirit of God, holy Spirit, and
so we are all at differentlevels.
Some of us have been livingthis out for decades and others
(01:41):
have been a few days, and someyou're just kind of like, almost
there, right, you've beenseeking and finding is about
ready to just really sweep youin.
You are at some point.
(02:03):
You experience, we experience,I experience pressure, and when
that happens, it can beconfusing because it doesn't
necessarily feel good to besqueezed, feel good to be
(02:28):
squeezed, and sometimes thethings that happen around us
involve people in fact, mostoften and the thing about people
is we all do people things.
We are moving toward perfection, but we're not experientially
(02:52):
there yet We've been justified.
So legally we are perfect, butexperientially we are in the
process known as sanctification,meaning we are growing into
that place of perfection.
We are seated with Christ inheavenly places.
We are growing into that placeof perfection.
We are seated with Christ inheavenly places.
We are secure, and yet here weare, living in the realm of time
(03:14):
and space, which that rightthere, living in the realm of
time and space is where weexperience pressure.
Outside of this, there is nopressure.
There is going to be pressure.
(03:35):
In fact, jesus said himself hegoes in the world, in this world
.
You're going to havetribulations, you're going to
have pressure.
He said, but be of good cheer,for I've overcome the world,
I've overcome these things, andso when we follow him, we learn
to be overcomers, and easiersaid than done sometimes, though
(04:03):
, and so that's why we needencouragement.
So I'm here to encourage you insaying that if you're
experiencing pressure in yourlife.
It's not necessarily becauseyou've done something wrong.
In fact, it might be thatyou've been doing things right
and, as a result, you're goingto be growing right and, as a
(04:28):
result, you're going to begrowing.
And in the process of growingthere's going to be a squeezing
out of some of those old things.
They may have been comfortable,but they aren't necessarily
godly.
Certain habits, certainpatterns of thinking, what we do
, what we say, what we see,things like that, we're
(04:53):
accustomed to them and so theyseem normal.
But just because they're normaldoesn't mean that they're right
or that they're going to besomething that's going to be
suitable.
Mean that they're right or thatthey're going to be something
that's going to be suitable forus.
Down the road, when I was achild, I thought and spoke like
a child, and now that I'm a man,I've put away childish things
(05:18):
and moved on to more importantissues, because God wants us to
grow, he doesn't want us to staystagnant.
And so salvation, you know,coming to know Jesus, coming to
know the Father, coming to knowHoly Spirit, is a beginning
(05:40):
point.
Of course.
That's where we begin, and wehave to begin somewhere, and we
begin at the beginning, and webegin at the beginning and we
only know what we know right.
And the beginning is good, butit's not where we're, you know,
(06:03):
supposed to stay.
We need to grow and mature,kind of growing up before we
grow old.
And we do it not justindividually but we do it
collectively, interesting.
There's individual pressure andthen there's collective
pressure.
(06:23):
You ever been in a group ofpeople that things are going
along just fine and all of asudden it feels like pressure
just comes out of nowhere?
Well, god is a refining fire.
His presence has that effect.
It's like a goldsmith who isrefining gold.
(06:44):
It's like a goldsmith who isrefining gold.
One of the ways that he refinesit is he applies heat to it,
extreme heat, and what that doesis it causes the dross or the
impurities to come to thesurface, and then the goldsmith
(07:08):
can skim the dr away and thegold becomes pure, purified, and
it's purified by fire.
And sometimes the manifestationof God's presence and his fire
comes in the form of pressure,the pressure that squeezes out
impurities, the pressure thatsqueezes out impurities.
(07:31):
And so it behooves us to knowwhat to do when we experience
pressure, because the temptationis oftentimes to either lash
out or to become secluded.
You protect yourself, youwithdraw or you strike out.
I mean, those are the two mostcommon tendencies, and one of
the more uncommon tendencies isto give thanks, to give thanks.
(07:57):
The Apostle Paul said ineverything, not for everything,
but in everything give thanks,for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus.
Giving thanks, learning to bethankful, it seems absolutely
(08:22):
opposite to what would be thenatural response when pressure
comes, because pressureoftentimes feels uncomfortable
Because something's going tochange more than likely as a
result of the pressure coming.
It causes things to be onceagain looked at in a different
(08:49):
way, because it catches ourattention right.
Pressure stops you from doingthings one way for a minute,
catches your attention, and thenwhat?
And then there's the opportunityfor us to ask God what's going
(09:13):
on.
He'll tell us.
That's the wonderful thingabout relationship is that God
communicates with us.
Yes, he communicates to us fromhis scriptures, but there are
other times where hecommunicates to us heart to
heart and when we ask him sayGod, what's going on, and we
(09:37):
listen.
We take time to really listen,get quiet and listen.
He'll tell us he is faithful.
God is so, absolutely faithful.
There are many things that I cansay, and I do say about God,
because I love him, I love Jesus, I love my Heavenly Father, our
(10:02):
Heavenly Father, I love HolySpirit, I love God.
I say many things and could saymany things, but one thing I
will say about God is he isfaithful and trustworthy.
He does not lie.
He's not a man that he shouldlie.
(10:24):
People lie, people say thingsthat are misleading, people do
things where they smile in yourface, but all the time they want
to take your place.
Backstabbers Right, but Godisn't like that.
(10:50):
He is faithful, he istrustworthy.
He is faithful, he istrustworthy, he is true.
Once again, jesus said I am theway, the truth and the life.
Wow, he does not lie.
(11:10):
And so when we ask him what'sgoing on, he'll tell us.
And in times of pressure, oftenhe'll say this is me purifying
(11:34):
your life.
Don't fight it, but give thanks.
You see, shadrach, meshach andAbednego were thrown into a
fiery furnace in order toliterally kill them as a
consequence of theirdisobedience to a decree of a
king.
They wouldn't bow down to agraven image, an idol, and so
(12:00):
the decree was anyone who wouldnot do that would be thrown into
a fiery furnace to kill them asan example.
Well, the king did.
And these three Hebrew youngmen not only did not burn, but
there was a fourth person in thefurnace with them and they were
(12:22):
walking in a circle givingpraise to God and their clothes
weren't burned and they didn'tsmell like smoke when they came
out.
It didn't smell like smoke whenthey came out, but the point
they're making in that is thatthey were giving thanks to God.
(12:51):
There's something about givingpraise to God, giving thanks to
God.
It doesn't necessarily take thepressure away, but it changes
how we view it and it changeshow we respond to it, sometimes
yielding meaning we don't fightone another, but the pressure we
allow to see what it is that itbrought to the surface in my
(13:15):
life.
Maybe it was an attitude ofjust being judgmental or being
critical, having those criticalremarks offhanded, critical
remarks about people, or theselittle sidebar meetings to
discuss what they think is goingon in another person's life,
(13:40):
all in the name of prayer or allin the name of concern.
But really it's a criticalspirit, having a critical
attitude inside of us, in ourpsyche, in our spirit.
Having a critical attitudeinside of us, in our psyche, in
(14:02):
our spirit yeah right, Not justin our mind, but even deeper, it
could be embedded in our spirit, and that is what God wants
removed from us the impurities.
And one of the ways that it isdone is by pressure, and when we
see the pressure come or wefeel it come, we can look at our
(14:29):
lives and ask once again, askGod, lord, show me, show me,
show me what it is that you'retrying to do in my life to
purify it so I can become morelike you.
Because that's the real.
The end of it all is really forus to become more and more like
(14:51):
God, and that's going to be aneternal thing that we're going
to be experiencing, which isabsolutely phenomenal.
It's wonderful to be in thattype of relationship where we
are intimate and we arecontinually growing in our
(15:16):
experience with God and who heis and who we are with each
other.
But also we develop, wecontinually grow, and
thanksgiving, giving thanks,giving thanks in the midst of it
, in the midst of pressure,really determines the level of
(15:39):
spiritual maturity.
We have One of my favoritepeople, the late Corrie Ten Boom
, a small lady who was powerfulin her walk with God and she had
(16:01):
so many wonderful things thatshe expressed that were truths
that would just stay with you,stay with me.
And one of them was concerningthis whole thing of pressure.
And when it happened she goesdon't wrestle, nestle, don't
(16:27):
wrestle, don't fight it, don'tfight it, don't wrestle, but
nestle.
Come into the arms of yourloving Heavenly Father and let
him embrace you and speak to youand let you know that he loves
(16:48):
you and that he's bringing thesethings to the surface, the
pressure.
There's another story by agentleman by the name of John
White.
Dr John White and he and hisfamily were doing some
missionary work in one of theremote areas in South America
(17:09):
and his son, his young son, gotan infection, and that infection
was very serious and the onlyway to deal with it was through
prayer or, if need be, anemergency type of operation to
(17:35):
drain the infection from hisbody.
So they prayed and in thisinstance God did not answer
their prayer by supernaturallyhealing him.
And so Dr White a psychiatrist,not a physician, but he had
medical experience in histraining to be a psychiatrist
(18:04):
knew enough how to perform anoperation, but they didn't have
any anesthetics at all, noanesthesia, nothing to dull the
pain in this young boy's life,probably seven years old.
And so his father had to cutthe young boy's leg a fairly
(18:30):
significant slice down his thighand then drain the pus out of
it, put a type of poultice on itthat they put together, but to
(18:50):
also stitch up his leg withthread and a needle that they
had not a surgical needle orthread, but regular thread and
needle.
And his son looked at him withabsolute horror when he said
(19:14):
he's got to cut him, it's goingto hurt, but he's going to drain
this infection out of himbecause if he didn't he could
possibly die.
And so they performed theoperation.
But his son was crying duringthe entire time, having a hard
(19:40):
time understanding what wasgoing on, and I can't imagine
the pressure that this young boyfelt.
But in the end he lived.
They got the infection out ofhim and they were able to
(20:02):
monitor it and actually it wascured through the poultice.
And God was praised in the endby the young boy, but his
parents were praising God duringit because it helped keep them
(20:26):
focused.
You know, there's so manythings.
There are so many things thattake place in our life when we
praise God, but really it's notso much always about our life.
It's about the fact that we arehonoring God.
He is worthy of that In themidst of difficulty.
He is worthy of that In themidst of difficulty.
(20:47):
He is worthy of it.
As I said before, often thatdetermines the level of
spiritual maturity you have whenit comes to really evaluating
that.
It's how you handle pressure.
What do you do when thepressure comes?
Do you criticize people?
Do you lash out at people?
Do you criticize yourself?
(21:07):
Do you berate yourself?
Do you withdraw?
Do you try to quit?
Do you quit?
Or could it be that, through aword of encouragement, you can
actually give thanks Becausethere's an end to it?
(21:27):
When you're going through it,it doesn't seem like it's ever
going to end, but when it endsit seems like you never went
through it.
Interesting, so, in the midstof it, giving thanks, giving
praise to God.
When pressure comes, it's not asign that you've done something
(21:50):
wrong.
When difficulties come,sometimes it's a sign that
you've been doing things rightand it's the heat of God's
presence, because he's comingcloser, that causes the dross to
come to the surface, thosethings that need to be removed
from our life.
And when they're removed, itdoesn't really seem like they've
(22:11):
ever been there and what weexperience, brand new, seems
like it's always been there, butyet it feels brand new.
Hallelujah, let's pray.
Father, thank you once againfor who you are.
I love you, we love you, weworship you, we give ourselves
(22:39):
to you.
Jesus, you are Lord.
Jesus, you are Lord and HolySpirit.
You come in his name and youdemonstrate the wonderful
lordship of Jesus and you teachus.
Thank you for teaching us,thank you for guiding us, for
leading us.
I love you, we love you, wesubmit ourselves to you.
(23:05):
We love you, we submitourselves to you.
We invite you to continue tobring us into a place and places
where we become more and morelike Jesus and we stand here in
his name as if we're him hereand we say amen, amen, amen,
amen, right, amen.
(23:28):
In Jesus, in Christ, everythingis yes and amen.
Folks, we love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
free to drop us a line atliferonthefire, at gmailcom, or
type in liferonthefire and lookus up on the web.
(23:50):
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you, adios amigos.
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