On my Mornings With the Holy Spirit prayer call, I heard the Lord say:
“I, Myself, am your escape. So, stop looking here, there and everywhere for relief from the fire. For I am trying to birth in you and through you a movement of prayer in your spirit and in your heart that will break every chain; that will cause you to rise up, even in the midst of the fire, and sing My praises and shout My glory and see who I really am. I am birthing in you a movement of prayer. I am birthing through you a cry—a cry for deliverance. I am birthing through you a measure of intercession that you’ve never seen before.
I heard the Lord say, “When you’re in this furnace of affliction, if you’ll get your mind off yourself and begin to get your mind on Me—if you’ll get your mind off yourself and begin to get your mind on others who have it worse than you—you will see a measure of freedom and a self-sacrificing attitude that will bring you out of the furnace of affliction faster than any measure of self-pity ever would or ever could.”
“So, begin to see things the way that I see them. And, understand and know that I am refining you. And, although you’re miserable and although you feel like you’ll never emerge, you will emerge and you’ll emerge with more anointing. You’ll emerge from the wilderness like Jesus did, with more power. You will emerge and you will rise faster than you ever could have carrying the weight of the seasons of the past. For I am burning away those things which hinder love.
“I am burning off the mindsets and the characteristics that are not of Me. I am taking you to a new level of glory in the furnace of affliction. I am birthing in you a movement of prayer… Your first response when you begin to feel the fire will be to cry out to Me—looking for Me; searching for Me; understanding as David did, that I will never leave you without help, that I will always deliver you because of My kindness. I will always deliver you because I delight in you. I will always deliver you from the furnace of affliction at the right time.
“I will not allow the enemy to overtake you. But, I will use his plots and his schemes to cause you to see things about yourself that you need to accept so that you can allow Me to come in and strengthen you. Instead of walking in your own flesh—instead of fighting in your own flesh—you must learn to depend on Me with everything in you.
“You must lean your entire personality on Me, even those traits and those characteristics that you know are not of Me. You must begin to cast them on Me and allow Me to give you My heart in the matter. Allow Me to shine My light through you, so that other people will see Me in you. Your personality will take second seat to My personality rising up in you. My love, My kindness, My compassion will replace those hard edges in your life where you’ve been known to be rough.”
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