You Are Moving As We Praiseনমুনা

 Wildfire

Devotional written by Sharon Coffee

Song written by Dan Lutz, Sharon Coffee, Jez Fowler, Belinda Huang, Lorri Siedensticker

The morning we wrote “Wildfire,” I was spending time with Jesus and was experiencing such longing for God to purify my heart. Although I knew I was pure because of Jesus’ blood and there wasn’t any specific sin I was dealing with at the moment, I was longing for more of Him, to be close to Him. I wanted to see Him. I wanted everything that was hindering our connection gone: pride, ego, and dependence on anything other than Him. 

With my spirit eyes, I saw my heart as a valley. I then saw a wildfire come burn across the whole land, but it wasn’t worse off than it was before. It was better. There was life growing now. As a result, I was filled with longing to be closer to Him, a deep desire to surrender to His love no matter what the cost, trial, or test.

The scriptures say that our God is an all-consuming fire. The Passion Translation puts it like this in Hebrews 12:28-29, “Since we are receiving our rights to an unshakeable kingdom we should be extremely thankful and offer God the purest worship that delights His heart as we lay down our lives in absolute surrender, filled with awe. For our God is a holy, devouring fire!” 

The word “pure” in the Cambridge English Dictionary means “not mixed with anything else.” Our purest worship is absolute surrender of everything that hinders love. As we surrender, it stirs our passion for Him. Surrender might seem difficult, but the more we encounter His fiery love, the more we WANT to surrender because we discover that He far exceeds anything or anyone else. In Song of Solomon 8:7, the bridegroom says, “Rivers of pain and persecution will never extinguish this flame. Endless floods will be unable to quench this raging fire that burns within you. Everything will be consumed. It will stop at nothing as you yield to this furious fire until it won’t even seem to you like a sacrifice anymore.”

Where are you in your purification process? Are there things in your life that He is asking you to surrender right now? Get alone with Him, behold the Flame of Love, surrender and see what He gives you in exchange. You won’t regret it.