Tell about your Come to the Fire experience and help others.
Come to the Fire tops any women's conference I have ever attended! Jesus was truly the center of the event. One highlight was during the Healing Service and pulling the slip of paper out the red bag with one of God's promises that would be just for me. Romans 8:28 was the promise. As I approached my seat and read the slip of paper, I began to laugh and to cry at the same time; this was a confirmation of the promise that God had given me after our only child was killed in a car accident fifteen years ago. In my daily struggle to be obedient to God, it reminded me that He was still keeping His promise. I stepped into the stairwell looking for a place to be alone with God and to unleash the emotions of thankfulness and humbleness at His bold reminder to me that I still have purpose.
I have loved my life, most of the time, and thought things were pretty much perfect, especially in my marriage to a guy who worked at it -- we had regular date nights, almost daily 'couch time' to share our day, and multiple times most days we exchanged 'love texts' on our phones. And then the bomb dropped.
In early January, my husband asked me to stay home from church one night so we could talk alone. He revealed to me that he has been addicted to porn and sex since he was 13. That addiction had led to other women all along the way, including a recent 5-year affair. He had rationalized and compartmentalized so much that he had no problem with all of this until the last month, when God finally got him under conviction. At that time, he had already started counseling and was trying to quit his wrong behaviors. But he tried in his own strength and failed, and in just a couple months he had given up the effort and no longer wanted to try. In May he moved out.
It was a painful and lonely journey through the year, but God was with me in the most intense way I have ever experienced His presence. I had begun to sense that God was telling me that, yes, this was the road laid out for me --that he knew from the beginning that divorce would happen someday.
The week of the conference, every service, every song, every testimony, every message spoke right to my heart. One of the testimonies given was on the total reconciliation of a badly split family, so I had to ask God if that was what he had in mind for me? In the healing service, I was anointed for healing of relationships, both with my husband and with a mostly estranged daughter, who I found out had realized the problem my husband had 8 years ago, when she was 14, which turned her away from the Lord and church, as she saw his hypocrisy, and against me, as she thought I knew and was covering for him. I laid all of this at Jesus' feet once again and came home to see what God wanted to do in my life.
I've prayed much for open eyes to see what lessons God would have me take away from the conference, and there are two main things he has shown me. One is that I needed to regain hope. He promised us a hope AND a future. I had seen a glimpse of the future, but I realized I had put my hope on hold, because it rested on my husband, rather than on God. I spent a number of weeks studying hope, and I now have it anchored solidly in Him again. It may or may not mean my husband someday is reconciled to God, if not to me, but my hope is secure. The other result of the conference was a reminder that I had given up interceding for him, after at first spending a morning a week in prayer and fasting for him over the course of several months. I have returned to the weekly times of intercession, not just for him now, but for others as God has led me.
After I studied Hope, I began on Joy. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." God is my joy, and I know I can cling to that even on those days when my emotions are anything but joyful. Thank you for the continued devotionals which so amazingly match my journey and speak to me so many times, right where I need them.
I thought it was time to share my journey and thank God for sisters in Christ who are helping me praise my way through the valley.
The first memory in my life is accepting Christ into my heart at 3 1/2 yrs old. Here I am at 62 yrs old - three children later, wife, nurse and been married 3 times. Everyone has experiences and a journey of happiness and pain with choices made as best we could with the knowledge we had at the time. With my Come to the Fire experience I now have new knowledge and an encouraged renewed spirit to do better. Having grown up with the Lord I can say, "We are all beggars telling other beggars where to get the food". Soooo I can now share with others where I've been fed. See everyone next year and I'll bring my beggar friends with me.
The first words that I heard as I entered the sancturary was that my seat had been prayed over and at that moment I knew God was in this place. Thank you for all those prayers because God worked a miracle in my life. The music was awesome and the first testimony by Jan Wilson touched my heart. I knew I could have victory too, over a childhood of abuse and living in fear. Friday morning during Aletha's message God spoke to me many times and prepared my heart for a deep cleansing from sin and pride. I went forward and half way there my heart was pounding, and I was crying from the bottom of my soul. The visual of a huge cross and a sash representing the blood of Jesus was before me. My kleenex was filled with tears representing all the agony, pain, hurt, pride and memories of the past. For 65 years I have been carrying the "fear of being touched" and never having victory in that area of my life. The woman holding the end of the sash said, drop the kleenex down at the foot of the blood of Jesus, and I did! And it was covered by the blood! As I passed under the blood, at that moment I was healed from all my fears! And today I am still free, the chains of fear are off forever. Praise the Lord! Thank you for that visual for God to heal and move upon his people. The verse that was truly meant for me was, "II Cor. 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION; the old has gone, the new has come" Amen! I am telling everyone about "Come to the Fire" and the healing that I received. Diane
In early January, my husband asked me to stay home from church one night so we could talk alone. He revealed to me that he has been addicted to porn and sex since he was 13. That addiction had led to other women all along the way, including a recent 5-year affair. He had rationalized and compartmentalized so much that he had no problem with all of this until the last month, when God finally got him under conviction. At that time, he had already started counseling and was trying to quit his wrong behaviors. But he tried in his own strength and failed, and in just a couple months he had given up the effort and no longer wanted to try. In May he moved out.
It was a painful and lonely journey through the year, but God was with me in the most intense way I have ever experienced His presence. I had begun to sense that God was telling me that, yes, this was the road laid out for me --that he knew from the beginning that divorce would happen someday.
The week of the conference, every service, every song, every testimony, every message spoke right to my heart. One of the testimonies given was on the total reconciliation of a badly split family, so I had to ask God if that was what he had in mind for me? In the healing service, I was anointed for healing of relationships, both with my husband and with a mostly estranged daughter, who I found out had realized the problem my husband had 8 years ago, when she was 14, which turned her away from the Lord and church, as she saw his hypocrisy, and against me, as she thought I knew and was covering for him. I laid all of this at Jesus' feet once again and came home to see what God wanted to do in my life.
I've prayed much for open eyes to see what lessons God would have me take away from the conference, and there are two main things he has shown me. One is that I needed to regain hope. He promised us a hope AND a future. I had seen a glimpse of the future, but I realized I had put my hope on hold, because it rested on my husband, rather than on God. I spent a number of weeks studying hope, and I now have it anchored solidly in Him again. It may or may not mean my husband someday is reconciled to God, if not to me, but my hope is secure. The other result of the conference was a reminder that I had given up interceding for him, after at first spending a morning a week in prayer and fasting for him over the course of several months. I have returned to the weekly times of intercession, not just for him now, but for others as God has led me.
After I studied Hope, I began on Joy. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." God is my joy, and I know I can cling to that even on those days when my emotions are anything but joyful. Thank you for the continued devotionals which so amazingly match my journey and speak to me so many times, right where I need them.
I thought it was time to share my journey and thank God for sisters in Christ who are helping me praise my way through the valley.