Tried By Fire

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. 1 Pet. 4:12

In every chapter of Peter’s epistle to these saints there was an exhortation to endure suffering. It shows that the greatest danger they were in, arose from the persecutions embracing Christianity exposed them to. The heat doesn't truly increase in your life until you embrace Christ.

The key word is that the trial has come to TRY you, not to DESTROY you, it has come to TRY you, not to TRICK you. The word try in the greek is peirasmos; it means testing or temptation. The definition depends on who is administering the try. God administers tests; satan administers temptation. When it is God it is sent for the purpose of proving someone and never for the purpose of causing them to fall.

In Isaiah 48:10 the word of the LORD says that He has chosen us out of the furnace of affliction. The fiery trials we face are not because we are sinful or wicked, but because we are chosen. The fire serves to purify whatever it does not consume. Oftentimes the fiery trial is the answer to our prayers because we cry out for the LORD to purge us and purify us, and the process He often uses is a fiery trial.

The LORD does not choose His people from the third heavens or from the company of angels; He chooses them from the furnace of affliction. The furnace of affliction sounds a lot like hell. That's because all the hell you've been through has not disqualified you from service, it has validated your service. Jesus received the keys of hell and death when he paid a visit to hell. If He had not gone through hell, He would not have had the opportunity to take the keys of hell and death.

When the heat of the fire is turned up, we must understand that is not the devil, it is the LORD. The Bible says He will baptize us with the Holy Ghost and fire and the fan is in His hand. That fan is used to fan the flame and turn the heat up.

In Isaiah 54:16 the word of the LORD says that He has created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for His work. The smith or black smith was the guy who would place different things in the fire and when he would blow in the coals it would make the fire hotter. The higher temperatures were required to shape and mold things and turn the things into instruments. Bring forth an instrument—it just started as some thing and the heat and pressure caused it to become an instrument.

The extra heat... pressure you’ve been feeling has not been the devil, it’s been the LORD. He said He created the smith. He gave the smith instructions to turn the heat up on you because He’s taking you from a thing to an instrument of righteousness. The reason the LORD makes you an instrument is because He wants to hear you play Him a song. Everytime you praise Him you play Him a song.

Your praise is the evidence that you are not just some thing, but that you have submitted to the process of being refined by the fiery trial and you have emerged as an instrument. Whatever you find yourself going through, God is still going to get the glory!!!