For our God is also a consuming fire.

These simple words someone said in a meeting are reverberating in my being. They don't seem too deep, but every day they seem to describe my experience. This new one was sharing a testimony of speaking to someone about the Lord and said, "All you do is receive the Lord Jesus one day, and things just start happening." This is the story of my life.

One day I received the Lord, and after that—although not immediately—strange things began to happen in my life. Things I can't ignore or get away from when they come up.

Today I read this verse, "For our God is also a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). And for some reason, it all makes sense. I can't get away from Him. He's in me, and He won't let me go. When He moves in my life, He exposes, burns and consumes. Everything that isn't God Himself must go. But as He consumes, He also supplies. He really does supply Himself to me, and I gain more of His very self. I learn Him more. I treasure Him more. The Christ who is all-inclusive becomes my everything, more and more. I love Him!!

I was going to list more verses I enjoyed from this chapter, Hebrews 12, but I decided it was all too good to pick a few verses and leave others out. Please read this chapter! Again!

Ok, just a few verses with a footnote:

12:15 Looking carefully lest anyone fall away from the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and through this many be defiled;
12:16 Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one meal gave up his own birthright.
12:17 For you know that also afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for repentance, even though he sought it with tears.

Footnote 16-1

Two Words:

in Christ.

What is the overcoming life? And how can we live a life that overcomes?

The standard set forth in the Bible is not one of sin and failure, but of reigning in life through the abundance of grace and more than conquering through Him who loved us. Why then does our experience so often seem to contradict the words of the Bible?

The first thing to realize is that we cannot overcome. As men in the flesh we are good for nothing but death and burial. The reason why God has crucified the flesh on the cross of Christ is because He has lost all hope in it. God's evaluation of the flesh is that it is utterly hopeless. We, however, still have confidence in our flesh. Realizing we are weak, we strive to do better thinking that one day our flesh will improve and we will overcome. God is all-powerful, more than able to make us overcome. But as long as we're still living, striving to do good in our flesh, He has no way in us to give us the overcoming life described in His Word.

Our need is thus to agree with God concerning this matter. We need to see that God's evaluation of is is that we are good for nothing but death and burial, and we must forget about having any hope in ourselves. Secondly, we need not only to agree with God's evaluation, but also to stop trying to overcome. We may agree with God, yet still try our best to overcome. We are a lingering tenant that needs to move out. Christ has moved in, but has no way to carry out what He desires until we move out. When we realize we cannot overcome and stop trying to overcome, this wonderful overcoming life will be lived out by Christ in us.

What about our experience? Our experience will follow if we believe in the fact. We need to hold to this fact, praising God for what He has already accomplished and for what is revealed in His word. Our faith in this fact will be followed by our experience of overcoming. But if we focus on our experience, trying to make our experience match the fact, we will not know the overcoming life.

Praise the Lord! We cannot overcome! We would even give up trying to overcome! With men, overcoming is impossible, but with God all things are possible! Praise Him for His wonderful overcoming life in us!