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by Richard Gazowsky

The images that most people have of Jesus are those of a quiet, gentle carpenter who would never hurt a flea. But they also forget that He said, “I’ve come to start a fire on the Earth- how I wish it were blazing right now!” There is no doubt about it. A fire is destructive in one sense, but at the same time it is purifying. Did you know that there are some California trees that have seeds that must be brought to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit for the seed to be released? What that means is that the tree cannot reproduce until its forest is raging with a blazing fire.

I believe that your business, family and religious group must go through a purging fire to multiply. It’s a weird phenomenon we don’t want to face often. The truth is that if you have a right attitude, the purifying days of your life will be the best ones ever!

An interesting event happened in our family. An elderly person very close to us lost her husband. When we went to her house a year after he had passed away, she was sitting alone in the kitchen, asleep with the sun beaming across her sad face. We nearly broke into tears at the sight because she had lost her reason for living. Everything in her life had revolved around her husband. He was a farmer, and she cooked for him and his workers, and it consumed her. Now that he was gone, a neighboring farm was leasing her fields and she no longer needed to work. Everything around her seemed to join in a sad chorus, singing a finale. My family and I stood outside her house and cried out to the Lord, “God, turn things around! Give her a reason to live. Let her see that there is more before her to do than that which has been behind her.”

When you pray this kind of prayer, you will be amazed to see that God actually answers it. The way He answers, however, is most likely in the least expected way, because He came to start a fire.

A few weeks later, a well-known prophet of God from the Philippine Islands, Timothy Snodgrass, was prophesying in our church and he turned to us, out of the blue, saying, “There is someone close to you whose house God is going to transform. It is going to be remodeled. This is a spiritual event and God is setting a rainbow over that house.” WOW! The next week we pulled up to this dear friend’s house, and there was a rainbow up in the sky… and it was not a rainy day! When we got to the house, we discovered that a pipe under the sink had burst and flooded a section of the home. This was just the beginning of an entire, bizarre remodeling saga that would have stressed out even the youngest of men. The first group of contractors came in and tore everything out of the house in every room that had damage. Next, they repaired everything that was wrong, but only completed 45% of the job. When the second contractor was brought in, they found out the first ones had done everything wrong to the point of leaving a live wire in the wall whereby you could be electrocuted. They found another wire that was constantly glowing red in the dark because it was not big enough to handle the power that was flowing through it. The dear friend who owned the home is a very mature Christian and so in each area of conflict, she forgave them and ministered to them, even though she was the victim. It appeared that new surprises and faults were being discovered. This has gone on for the last 6 months and we are just now coming into the closing days of the remodeling. Our family has now seen the most amazing thing in this dear woman’s life. She is literally 20 years younger. She now runs around the house like a spring chicken. The garden at the rear of the house is full of fruit and vegetables. The home looks gorgeous; everything is full of life. We were brought to tears of joy when we saw the great transformation that the fire of God had caused.

Look guys, this is not an original idea with me. The Apostle Paul dealt with the same thing. The Message Bible says, “There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!” [Romans 5:3-5]

Jesus is the One Who has started the fire that is purging the Earth today, and you are somewhere in the forest. Look out- it’s coming your way! If you don’t believe me, look at the New York Times, at least while it is still a published paper. EVERYTHING’s changing! But then again, I think Billy Joel says it best in “We Didn’t Start The Fire.“

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”