Prison Ministries

Read 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12, Isaiah 59
God’s Asbestos

When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” Isaiah 43:2b

Fire can be one of the greatest or one of the most dangerous energies.

We are fueled physically and spiritually by the fires of emotion. The secret of a happy and secure life is in whether we control these fires or let them control us.

We are born with built in furnaces of anger, pride, lust, fear, worry, etc. that are subject to burning out of control at any time. This is why we need God’s asbestos, a.k.a. the Holy Spirit.

God sometimes fights fire with fire. He sometimes allows raging fires of anger, addiction, lust, or other sins to burn out before He lights the fire of our passion for Him. This is kind of like the controlled burn used by forest rangers to clean up an overcrowded forest.

We often speak of Spirit-filled Christians as being “on fire for the Lord.”

Since we are all filled with the Holy Spirit the hour we first believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we all should show some signs of burning with passion for the passion of Christ.

When God extinguishes the fires of our old sin natures and replaces them with the grace to be like Jesus and live for Him, holy transformation begins, and we will begin living lives burned out to sin and fueled by the fire of the Spirit.

The Spirit even equips us with fire proof armor to help keep us from getting burned by the tempests of sin raging within and without.
We should never try to fight any fire of sin without this asbestos that God provides.

Father, keep the fires of sin extinguished by the power of Your Spirit. Amen.