In this article, we will be examining something fundamental and I want us to pay attention to what the Lord has to say to us. We’ll be observing The Refining Fire of The Holy Spirit. Why is it important? Why is the Holy Spirit bringing this issue up at such a time as this? It is because our lives need refining. The word that the Lord sent to us is a proof of what He is said to do and how He is said to move us into another dimension. Before we start, I want us to go through certain Scriptures that will help us understand what the word refining means. What does refining mean? We're going to start with Psalm chapter 66:10-12. It says:
“For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but You brought us out to rich fulfillment”.
This is like a summary of what this article is about. Verse 10 says, for You, O God’… So, it is not the devil and it is not any man, neither is it your village people. David said, for You, O God have tested us… The Bible made us to understand that one hair cannot fall from your head without God knowing. So, if you are a believer, when certain things happen in your life; don't be quick to give the glory to the devil, and don't be too prompt to give the glory to the village people. David was saying here, that if it is You O God, it is okay; even though it is not palatable and not convenient, because that's one thing we must see about refining. Refining is not a convenient process. Refining is not a process that you will be living large or you will be living an easy life. Refining is almost God taking you through a hard path.
In fact, David said You brought us into the net, you laid affliction on our backs. He said, you have caused men to ride over our heads. We went through fire. Why did You allow us to go through fire, is it to punish us? No! It is to refine us. And why did You allow us to go through water? It is also to refine us. But at the end of the day, you brought us out to rich fulfillment. Now, this is where the story gets good and interesting. That at the end of the day, God did not allow you go through all those process just to abandon you or leave you. It is to bring you and me into rich fulfillment. There is fulfillment and there is rich fulfillment. People can get fulfilled because they just bought a car, people can get fulfilled because they just built a mansion, but there is a kind of fulfillment in God; which David called rich fulfillment. We'll see what that means has we go along. Let’s see Isaiah chapter 48:9-11.
“For My name’s sake I will defer My anger, and for My praise I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another”.
He said for My praise, I will restrain it from you so that I do not cut you off; because if I don't refine you, I will cut you off. The reason why refining is important, and why God goes through the painstaking process of refining you is so that He will not cut you off. He said behold, I have refined you but not as silver, (are we seeing words repeating themselves as we read in Psalm and also seeing in Isaiah.) He said I have tested you; so refining as to do with tests. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. When you're talking about refining, you will always mention the word fire and affliction. So, it's not palatable, it is not convenient. Now, this is not a common message. But this is the truth that will usher us into rich fulfillment. If you're following the Lord Jesus, you must understand the path and the road He walked to rich fulfillment so that you can walk the same path and arrive at the same destination.
He said I have tested you: God, not the devil. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it. God is saying refining is for My sake, and for My praise. If your life will give Me praise, I must refine you. If your life will glorify Me, I must refine you, and He said for My own sake I will do it; for how should My name be profaned? If God does not refine you, His name will be profaned in your life. And I will not give My glory to another. Are we seeing the word refining? The words we're bringing out from refining are: test, fire, and affliction.
Still looking at the word refining, I want us to go to the Book of Zechariah chapter 13:8-9, “and it shall come to pass in all the land; says the Lord, that two-thirds in it shall be caught off and die. But one-third shall be left in it. Verse nine; I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined. (God is particular about this issue.) And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, this is My people: the people that God will call My people are those that have been refined. And each one will say the Lord is my God”: a product of refining. He said, I will refine, and I will test. We see all these words aligning, because, one thing about the Word of God is Scriptures must interpret Scriptures.
Let’s read Daniel chapter 12:10, “many shall be purified, made white, and refined but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand”. Many people don't understand refining, but in Daniel, the Bible says those that will understand are called the wise. The wise will understand, and many will be purified and refined. So, the people that will refuse refining, and the people that will refuse purifying will be fools. Remember the parable of the ten (10) virgins; you can be a virgin and be foolish. What does that mean? You can be a believer, a follower of Jesus and you are still foolish. You are a foolish follower, why? You don't understand. What separates the five foolish virgins from the five wise virgins? Understanding separates them. It is not enough to know, you must understand.
When you are going through a season; find out why. Understand the why of that season. One of the things that is our hallmark as believers, is not that we will not go through fire. Don’t say, what is the difference between my life and your life; you are following Jesus and we're passing through fire, it is the same cash crunch, and it is also the same fuel scarcity; we all are passing through the same thing. And it is not as if God is giving you special fuel from heaven; what is the difference between your life and my life? The difference between your life as an unbeliever and my life is that I understand (i.e I have an understanding). There is a ‘why’ of every season. The believer that does not understand is in the same category with the unbelievers because at the end of the day; they will lose out.
Why is God taking this nation through this season? There is a why. Don't follow people to say as it were in the beginning, so shall it be. No! Don’t be like that. Jesus was saying to the Pharisees, He said, you understand when rain is about to fall, you understand the weather, as it were, you understand when the sun is setting, you don't understand when there is a full moon, you understand all those things, and how come you lack understanding of spiritual things? Even though you're a professor of theology or you are a doctor of philosophy, if you lack spiritual understanding, you are the same. You are in the same category as an ignorant person, an illiterate because the defining factor on earth is that you have spiritual understanding. And that spiritual understanding is what will make you understand refining. In English language, refining simply means removing impurities, or unwanted elements from a substance. So, when there are impurities, you remove them; that's what the refining process does.
So, now see what God Himself said in our major text; Malachi chapter 3:2-3, “but who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears. For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver: He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness”. He said, He will sit; who is the One that is sitting? The One sitting is God. God does not sit by force. God will not say bring your head, let Me sit upon your life; come here! Am I not your God? No! He has given us a choice. And that's why if you look at the Scripture very carefully, He did not say that He will sit on everybody; He did not say that I will sit on all the inhabitants of the earth. He said, He will purify the sons of Levi, who are the sons of Levi? The sons of Levi are the tribe that God has chosen. They are the tribe that God has separated to Himself.
So, those that God will refine and purify are those that have being separated unto God; God will not sit on everybody. And that's why you can sit down as a believer and you look at the life of an unbeliever and say, why are the unbelievers prospering as though there is no God? With all the things that they are doing, they're still making progress; they don't know God, they don't seek God, and they are still making progress; it is because you don't understand.
He said, He will sit as a refiner, and a purifier of silver, He will purify the sons of Levi. So, God will not sit upon your life, He will not refine you until you have been set apart for Him. God created everybody, why didn’t He just hand pick somebody to go and die on the cross for the sins of the world? In the Book of Revelation, you will see the mind of God, and you will see how God works. The Bible says and there was lamentation and outcry in heaven. Why? The Bible says number one, there was nobody that was worthy. Number two, there was nobody available to take the scroll and open it and look into it and see what is written there.
Do you know there are several beings in heaven? If you think we are much on the earth, in heaven, there are thousands upon thousands and thousands of angels alone. Then you will now see that there are also some living creatures, then there are elders in heaven; nobody was worthy. Nobody was available and God didn't force it down anybody's throat to take the scroll until Jesus, the Lamb of God arose and went to take the scroll and opened it. The Bible is not a story book; it is a book that exposes God to us. The Bible says, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. When you are reading the Bible, it's not a storybook, or multiplication table that you were forced to read when you were in primary school. The Bible is the testimony of Jesus, showing to us the act of God. In Malachi 3:3, it says God will sit as a refiner and a purifier; He will not say bring your head let Me sit on you, no! God will have you yield.
So, the first process in refining is that you yield. If you are not yielded, you cannot be refined. The sons of Levi are the sons that have yielded; it is a whole tribe yielded to God. So, for God to sit on your life, you must be a yielded son, and you must be a yielded believer. He will purify a category of people called the sons of Levi; the yielded believers. God will not refine everyone; He won’t purify everyone, but those that are yielded. He said, and when He has purified them and purged them (you will see that the word purging and purifying are not the same.) This is the process of refining: number one, He will purify the sons of Levi, what does it mean to purify? Make them holy, wash them. How will God purify you? He will purify you by His word. He said, sanctify them by Your truth; Your Word is true. There's something called the washing of the word: that's how the purification process take place.
In Romans chapter 12, Apostle Paul was beseeching the brethren; he said I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies to God (that is yieldedness) as a living sacrifice. When somebody is a sacrifice, the person is yielded: you have turned yourself over, and you have surrendered yourself: that is sacrifice. As a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable (the first condition is holy) and how can you be holy if you are not purified? What makes you acceptable is the purging. He said and purge them as gold and silver. If you see gold or silver in it raw form, you will not accept it. Why? It is dirty, it has impurities. There are elements around it that makes it uncommonly, you don't want to behold; it is not shining, and it is not attractive. But when it is purged, it becomes acceptable, holy, purified, purged and acceptable unto God: and Apostle Paul said this is your reasonable service. He did not say it is your compulsory service, he didn't say it is your mandatory service; rather he says it is your reasonable service. Why did he use the word reasonable? If you understand, this is how you will serve Him. Verse three says that they may offer. Who are the ones that are offering? Those that have being purified and purged, are those that offer.
So, we remember the story of Cain and Abel. The Bible says that Abel brought an acceptable offering to God and Cain’s offering was rejected. Is it that the offering is not fine? In our Sunday school, they will tell us that Cain brought rotten fruits and vegetables; but those are not the issues. But when God was communicating with Cain, you will know that the issue was deeper than rotten fruits and vegetables. He said if you had done well, will you not have been accepted? So there was something that was not holy that made Cain unacceptable, because to be holy is a prerequisite to being acceptable. So, purifying is a prerequisite to purging; and when you are purged, there is something you must do as a reasonable service. What is it? You offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness. That's why God refines us. So, God takes you through the furnace of affliction, He takes you through all that you are going through that looks as if: God, why me? It is so that He can bring you to the place of rich fulfillment. And the place of rich fulfillment is that place where you have offered to God an offering in righteousness.
Second Timothy chapter 2:20-21, “but in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, (are we seeing the prerequisite and the condition?) what is the latter? When you cleanse yourself from dishonorable things, the Bible says, you will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, purified and useful or fit for the Master, prepared for every good work. In Zechariah, He said for My own sake I will refine you. Why is God interested in our refining? It is so that we are fit. Everybody is not fit. Another word for fit is worthy, useful, accepted.
As loving as God is, He loves everybody, but He cannot use everybody. He loves you the way you are, but He does not love the sin in you. When you come to Him, He will not use you the way you are; He will refine you to be fit for Him. His love does not cover your unfitness. His mercy does not cover your unfitness. God is not emotional, God is principled. We must understand that God is not emotional, He is principled and He is a God of order. And that's why every Scripture we’ve read have been pointing to the same thing. He said he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful/fit for the Master, prepared for every good work; so that you can offer offerings of righteousness.
So, refining is the prerequisite that makes us fit for the Master. How do you become a vessel of honor in the hands of the Lord? You are refined; He refines you. So, when you are sanctified: you are set apart for a special purpose. There is a special purpose that God aforetime as prepared you for, but what has created the gap between where you are and where God wants you to be is your fitness. And what will migrate you from where you are to where God wants you to be is for you to enroll in the refining school of God. We must enroll in the refining school of God.
I want us to see Ephesians chapter 1:13-14, therefore, I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. The furnace of affliction is your glory in God. For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is God irrespective of what you are going through. God is God in spite of what you're going through. See the perspective and the understanding of Apostle Paul, he said therefore, I ask you don't lose heart at my tribulations for you, for which is your glory. The same tribulation that looks like a lot of trouble; the furnace of affliction in it is also your glory. Ephesians chapter 4:30, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Now we're bringing that matter home, we're talking about fitness and refining. Who did God make the Principal of the refining school? It is the Holy Spirit. And this is how He made Him; do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom i.e He is the Personality by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Till you are redeemed from this body of sin, the Holy Spirit is supervising your life. And what is the Holy Spirit doing? He is doing the will of God. If you need to go through the furnace of affliction, He will not excuse you. If you need to go through tribulations, He will not excuse you. The condition is not to grieve Him. How can we grieve Him? We can grieve Him by our lack of understanding. Some of us go through situations and say God where is Your face; it is an insult. The Bible says He does not sleep nor slumber. So, when you are asking Him, He said I will never leave you nor forsake you.
When you understand the Scripture, there are some prayers you will not pray because it will be ignorance. If you as a believer and with your understanding you know that God does not sleep nor slumber, He does not leave you nor forsake you; and you are asking Him in the place of prayer that God, where is Your face? His response will be: My face has always been set in your direction. I said, I will never leave you and I'm not a man that will lie, nor the son of man that will repent. So, ask another question. That's why it is in the place of understanding that we understand the kind of prayer that we must pray. When you are going through a situation, it is not to ask God, where is Your face? God, have You left me? No! He did not. You rather ask God why? Why are You allowing me go through the situation? Or you ask God why me as if He hates you. No! Why not you? He loves you. The Bible says He loves you with an everlasting love, and the Bible makes us to understand that the gifting’s of God is without repentance. If He has given you is love, it is without repentance. He is not repenting on that love.
So, don't say God why me? As long as there is no un-confessed sin, because the Bible says what separates you from God is your sin. That's why the Bible says if you have sinned, you have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: you go to Him and confess your sins, and if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you of all unrighteousness. That is who He is. So, when you are going through a situation as a believer, speak to the Holy Spirit; He is the Principal, He is the Supervisor here on earth: supervising your process with God.
So, the question we should be asking now is, God, why am I going through this? Do you know Job was going through a situation that was going to end him in rich fulfillment? Guess what God did, after all that he had was taken away from him and he went through the furnace of affliction, God restored him double for his trouble. But Job did not understand and that's what happens to many of us; we don't understand. In Psalm 66, he says there is a rich fulfillment that God has for us, but He will take us through the furnace of affliction, He will have men ride over our heads. Psalm chapter 66:10-12, “For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads (it is not because you are inferior, it is not because God does not love you, and it is not because God is not interested in you); we went through fire and through water; but You brought us out to rich fulfillment”.
When He brings you in, He will also bring you out; but He will not bring you out the way He brought you in. When gold gets into fire, it goes in its raw form; with all impurities, with all unwanted substances. But when gold is coming out, haven been refined; because something happens to gold in that fire which is called refining: where the impurities that makes gold unfit and the substances that makes gold unacceptable are removed. And when it is taken out, it is taken out as refined gold. We can't do life with God with our present unfitness. The things God will have you do for Him, you can't do it in this raw form; you need to be refined.
When you read from Genesis to Revelation, there is no man that became fit and great in the hands of God that did not go through refining. Elisha, when he was to be used by God, went through refining. Elisha was raw and God wanted to use him. He won't be qualified for the double portion until he was refined, and the sons of the prophets were riding over his head. “Do you know God is going to take your master from you today? Yes, I know. And they kept saying it, and you know that could already cause offense; he could be angry and say what is it about my master? If God wants to bless me, let Him bless me and I go back and sit in my house.
But Elisha never did that rather he continued until he crossed the Jordan with him, went to Bethel with him, went to all those places with him until he got to the point where he was fit. Don't think it was Elijah punishing Elisha; it was God taking Elisha through. It is God that works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure; not men, except your life is not yielded to God, that's when you would think that it is one man that is controlling your life, and making life unbearable for you. No! It is God.
It is when you lack understanding that you'll be looking at men. If you have understanding, you will look at God; for it is God that is working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. So, God is raising a man to walk over your head and you are looking at the man: what a wicked man. He doesn't even have the fear of God; imagine, am I not a creature of God? Didn’t God make me? Do I look less of God? You should focus on what God is doing: that is having understanding. God is taking you through a refining process and you're coming out. You're not coming out to where you were when you went; you are coming out to rich fulfillment. That's why you must persevere. Whatever God is taking you through, stay there; because I know God is working. That’s why the Bible says, looking unto Jesus; don't look at men. When you are looking unto Jesus, you will not look at anybody else. Looking unto Jesus: let your eyes be fixed on Him, the author and the finisher of your faith.
So, the Holy Spirit is supervising the refining process, and He's watching you. The yard stick the Holy Spirit is using to watch you is in Galatians chapter 5:22, “and the fruit of the Spirit is love, having expression in joy, peace, kindness, faithfulness, long suffering, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. So, as you are going through the furnace of affliction, He is judging you. Are you doing it in love? Is there joy in your heart? Is there peace? Are you gentle? Are you suffering long? Are you faithful? God is taking us to the place of rich fulfillment. Of necessity, we must pass through the refining fire. In Malachi 3:3, he said, God will sit. God does not out-source our refining; He doesn’t out-source it to any angel or elder or living creatures. He supervises it: He; God will sit as a refiner’s fire and a launderer’s soap.
The Holy Spirit has been set as a seal upon our lives, until we are redeemed; He is supervising that refining process. He is looking at how you are responding to the will of God. Are you responding in joy? Are you responding with peace? Are you responding with long suffering? Are you responding with self-control? How are you responding in the will of God? Because it has come to this time, where, as believers, we must understand what God is doing in our lives.
The hallmark is to understand what God is doing in your life. Don't be ignorant. There is a phase you are in now that God is taking you through. It is not to break you and make you useless, it is to take you in, and bring you out as refined gold. We must understand it; enter the place of prayer, seeking to know: God, why are you taking me through this season? What are you planning to get out of my life from this experience that will make me wise and make me fit for the Master’s use? The Lord will only sit on those that are yielded. Some of us, He is not sitting on us yet, because we have not yielded. The first prerequisite for His sitting is your yieldedness.
Are you ready to yield to the Lord? In case you have been struggling with Lord and holding back; speak to the Lord and surrender all to Him by declaring your yieldedness to the process that He has for you. Lord, I yield to Your workings for my life. I yield myself completely to You Lord Jesus; have Your way in me.
