Send the fire today!

After our visit to Caesarea, we moved onto Mount Carmel, a possible place where Elijah went head to head with the prophets of Baal and called fire from heaven down. It was a stunning place. There was a beautiful garden of peace and tranquillity and as we stopped in a quiet part of the gardens, I heard an Indian priest address a group of pilgrims. He called them to rise up and follow the God, who in that place, sent fire down from heaven. He called them to be true disciples of Jesus. At this my heart stirred, and I had to stop myself from shouting AMEN!



As the group moved on and our guides spoke to us, they read from 1 Kings 18 and reminded us of the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. They also shared from James 5:16

“16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”



As we sat in the place where God so miraculously answered Elijah’s prayer, I prayed for a miracle in my life and circumstance. As I prayed, I prayed the line of this song:

“God of Elijah hear my cry, SEND THE FIRE!”

I felt a fire in my belly and I could have sat there all day with my hands raised in worship to the God of miracles!


After our visit to Mount Carmel we passed Nazareth and continued to Mount Tabor where it is believed that the transfiguration took place. After a rather frightening minibus ride (18 hairpin bends!!) we reached the top to find a sanctuary. We sat in a ruined part of the old monastery, and there we considered the transfiguration. We looked at Luke 9:28-36 and we focused on V33 where peter says:

“As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here.”

We also considered how a meeting with Jesus leads to transformation. When we glimpse him, his goodness leaves us changed. At that place, God’s presence was tangible, the peace it brought and the beauty of God was indescribable – I wanted to stay in that place forever (Much like Peter wanted to!)


But as we left, I felt a little bit of that peace settle upon me, I felt a little bit of Jesus’ transfiguration shine rest upon my soul and I thanked God that this meeting with Jesus WILL leave me transformed. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How my favourite clothing company taught me all about the abundance of God!

Image
For the last few days I have been thinking about one of my favourite bible verses and one which I often claim for myself and that is John 10:10 that declares  “A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!” I love this verse and there have been times in my life where I have seen my abundant God shower blessings upon me and do truly miraculous things. But, I have to be honest with you life isn’t always like that. Maybe it is for you and I am so thankful for your experience, but that’s not my experience!  I have had a really rough couple weeks. As a minister Christmas is always so busy and this year even more so as I juggle long distance study with The Salvation Army’s officer training college. The time between Christmas and new year is usually a lovely time of rest, reset and seeking God for the year ahead, but that certainly hasn’t been the
Read more

Fixing our eyes on Jesus

Image
This week I, along with many other ministers within The UK and Ireland territory of The Salvation Army met together for three days of worship and the word at our ‘Officer’s councils’. I have to admit that in the midst of an incredibly busy season, I was most looking forward to a couple of days away with my husband where I didn’t have to cook, clean or do the washing! However, as God often does, he completely surprised me and I had the most powerful time away.  The theme of the three days was ‘Lifting our eyes to the king’ and from the moment our time began I had a real sense that God was doing something. On the first afternoon, our Territorial Commander, shared with us about Peter walking on water and how we need to lift our eyes to the king, especially when we are in the waves and think we may be sinking. He shared with us some verses from Hebrews 12:1-3 and throughout the three days they kept playing through my mind. Five little words even kept me up in the middle of the night, and t
Read more

Tales from the Riverbank - Singing at Midnight

Image
  I have just returned from the most amazing weekend at the Riverbank, with women connected to The Salvation Army from all over the country. God’s presence was tangible, the worship was powerful and the teaching was Holy Spirit inspired. Over the next few days I will be sharing a little of what God spoke to me while I was there. If you were there too I would love to hear what God revealed to you. If you weren't there I pray that a little of the riverbank will flow into your heart and you might just sign up to join us next year! On the Friday night, on the bank of the beautiful river installation, the head of family ministries, Major David Betteridge taught from the story of Paul and Silas in prison found in Acts 16. One of the (many amazing) truths he spoke declared that ‘The songs you sing in the daytime become the songs you sing at midnight.’ Throughout the weekend I returned to this truth and I am sure I will many times more as the power of it takes root in my heart.  My husband
Read more