Refiner's Fire,
Who Refined My Heart Such a wonderful song.
When I was thinking about tonight,
I just had this image of a fire that was burning hot.
And,
Of course,
The point of refining Silver & Gold was to make it pure.
And I figured that on a Saturday night like this,
If anybody's willing to come out and spend 7 o'clock till 9 o'clock praying and worshipping God,
Then they might be up for something a little bit different when it comes to praying.
So I just wanted to spend some time giving everybody an individual opportunity to meet with God,
An individual time,
Just you and God,
Presenting yourself to Him to hear His voice,
Ask Him to speak to you and see where it goes.
I'd like you to just close your eyes and just follow my lead.
Close your eyes.
Make yourself comfortable.
Maybe put your back against the chair.
Feel the seat supporting you.
Feel your hands resting wherever they're resting.
And just prepare your heart to hear from the Holy Spirit.
You may start to notice God speaking straight away.
You may not.
You may notice your breath.
Maybe breathing quickly or maybe it's breathing slowly.
Just become aware of that.
It is phenomenal to know that God is the giver of every breath.
Every breath that we take is a precious gift from God.
Every breath we receive from Him is an opportunity to worship and to glorify Him.
So just start to breathe a little slower.
Slow that breath right down.
If you need some help slowing that down,
Slowing that breath down,
Just count in for count four and then release for the count of six.
And as you continue to breathe in that slow rhythmic pattern,
I want you to acknowledge God's Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is here.
He is here in our worship.
He is here in our quiet time.
And He is the author of life.
He is the one that gives us our breath.
So as you breathe in,
Maybe in your hearts,
Maybe,
Just out loud so that only you can hear yourself,
Just say,
Holy Spirit come.
As we are in God's presence,
Just ask the Holy Spirit to come again and speak to you.
As I said when I was preparing for tonight,
Not just a small amount of metal,
Gold,
Silver being refined,
But a huge JCB load full of metal,
Gold,
Being heated in this JCB carrier,
Little truck bed in the front,
And the whole thing was blazing hot.
It was so hot I could barely look at it.
And with that image in your mind,
Just be ready to be refined by God.
The refining process doesn't happen at low temperatures.
It happens at extremely high,
Hot,
Intense temperatures.
And what happens is there's bits added to the gold and to the silver,
And as it heats up and oxygen is blown over the top,
These other metals oxidize and they draw out any impurities and they leave just the pure gold.
So just in your hearts,
Ask God,
Is there anything in my life that needs to be refined?
Where am I in need of God's purification process?
There's some Bible verses on refining fire.
One of the most famous ones from Malachi 3,
Verses 2 and 3.
But who can endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire,
And like fuller's soap.
He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,
And he will purify the sons of Levi,
And refine them like gold and silver,
And they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.
This idea of who can stand before the Lord,
Who can ascend the hill of the Lord,
Says elsewhere in the Bible,
And he's the purer of heart.
It is those people who are being refined,
Who are refined,
And who are purified by God.
Just take a moment to acknowledge that there is nothing in us that can purify us.
Give your thanks to God,
That he is the refiner.
Maybe there are circumstances that you are going through,
Which feel like God is refining you,
He's purifying you,
He's testing you.
Maybe there are work situations,
Or family situations,
Or relationships which seem difficult,
Where you feel lost,
Where you don't know what God is doing.
Ask him to use those opportunities to refine you,
To continue the process of purification.
Which will one day be completed,
When we stand before the throne of God the Father,
And Jesus is there advocating for us.
A minute or two just talking things over with God in your heart,
What does it mean for you?
These situations that have come to mind,
What does it mean?
These situations where you can be purified.
And if there's nothing particular,
Just thank God that he is in the process of refining you.
The other wonderful verse about being refined in fire,
Is from Zechariah 13 verse 9.
It says,
I will put this third into the fire,
And refine them as one refines silver.
And test them as gold is tested.
They will call upon my name,
And I will answer them.
I will say,
They are my people.
And they will say,
The Lord is my God.
God says,
They are my people.
And we say,
The Lord is my God.
That refining process is all done,
So that we can be in relationship with God.
Those difficulties,
Those trials,
Those hot,
Hot temperatures,
Those situations where we think we can never get through,
We can never get over this.
It's for your glory,
And it is for God's glory.
And it is so that we can say,
The Lord is my God.
And it's for God to say,
They are my people.
You are my people.
If there is anything that has come up over the last few minutes,
Just thank it for a minute.
And as we become aware again of the chair that we're sitting on,
As we become aware again of our hands in our laps,
I hope and pray that we will have come away having met with God,
Having heard from him.
I'll just give everybody a minute to bring their attention back to where they are.
And then we'll move on to praying for each other,
Before we move on to praying for Cardiff and for Wales.
