Remember, And You Will Fan the Embers

We are living in a Divine tension right now. We are waiting, waiting, waiting, to see our promises fulfilled and it is so easy to find His words to us growing dim within our hearts. In the waiting time God is teaching us to remember in order to fan the embers of faith as we wait to see the fulfillment of His promises to us.

There are some things I have been crying out to the Lord to see accomplished in my life. For quite some time I have sought Him for confirmation of what He had spoken, but He has been silent. I couldn't understand why this was so, then He reminded me of something that happened back when we first planted our church. The building we were subleasing was sold out from under us giving us only a short window of time to find another meeting location. I was bemoaning this situation before the Lord, embarrassingly devoid of faith, when He spoke to me from Isa. 40:28a, "Have you not known? Have you not heard?" I picked up my Bible so I could read the context of these questions and here is what I found. Isa. 40:27-28 says, "Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak O Israel: 'My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God'? Have you not known? Have you not heard?' "

Through these scriptures God had gently rebuked me for my unbelief, but more importantly, challenged me to remember what I had known and heard from Him. He had already spoken specific promises about leading and watching over us as a church body, but I had forgotten.

God reminded me of this story recently as I found myself again wanting confirmation of things He had already spoken to me. I think God is many times more than willing to give us repeated confirmations, but sometimes He wants to give us the opportunity to increase and grow in our faith, stepping out to trust Him on what He has already spoken. In these cases it is a time to remember in order to fan the embers. Remembering causes us to go back over what He has already spoken. As we do this, Holy Spirit stirs up and activates our spirit to hold on and not give up. Our choice to remember causes Holy Spirit to blow on the embers of faith within our hearts and we can feel our faith strengthen and grow in these moments.

I love to journal, and many times when my faith is limping along I will set aside some time just to read back through my journals to remind myself of His prophetic words and promises. Each time I have done this I have come away with my embers of faith once again burning more brightly.

There is a reason the Children of Israel were instructed to gather "memorial stones". These stones represented the fulfillment of God's promises and His supernatural protection and activity in their lives. It was their way of "journaling" in a sense. When their children and children's children were struggling in their faith to believe in a God they could not see, they would remember the stones and once again tell the stories of God's deliverance and faithfulness.

Our belief and faith in God is so important! We usually have our eyes fixed on obtaining the prize of our promises, but God is equally focused on developing our faith muscles as we learn to stretch them to believe Him for more.

As we navigate through this season of the birthing of our promises lets not forget to remember. Remember, and you will fan the embers!