See Image

Snapshot

My Dear Friend,

Caught suddenly in a multilevel, burning building, any person of normal awareness and intelligence will urgently search for the fire escape. Lighted signs typically point the way.

Amid a hotly intense or brutally long “fiery trial” of faith and patience, the wise Christian also seeks a way out, a relief, a fire escape. The light of God’s Word points the way to our spiritual fire escape.

Specifically, His light is shining on and through Daniel 3:25. (Please read the entire passage, Daniel 3:1-30.) There we see the “door” that released the three Hebrew boys from Nebuchadnezzar’s raging crematorium. That door was their overcoming spiritual life while still in their deadly trial. Before describing the condition they were in, let’s notice the condition they were not in.

First, they were not panicking with fear. True faith casts out terror (1 John 4:18), opting to trust God’s good character and sure Word more than the evidence of sight and reason. Second, they were not offended at God for permitting their cruel treatment or for not showing up sooner. They must have understood that overcomers must have something adverse to overcome. Had they been offended, they would have cut themselves off from God’s vital fellowship and deliverance (Luke 7:23). Third, they were not capitulating to their enemy’s demands: “Okay, King, you win, we’ve changed our minds; just let us out and we will bow down to your idol!” God always delivers the uncompromisingly righteous, not the unrighteously compromised.

That said, let’s now examine the condition they were in, which qualified them for release through God’s fire escape. Daniel 3:25 details this crucial information.

The three were “loose,” not from the fire, but in it. The strong cords that previously limited their movements were gone - destroyed by the very heat and flames designed to destroy them! Before going into fiery trials, though saved, and even baptized in the Holy Spirit, we still are bound if various wrong motives, attitudes, emotions, or habits from our old life resurface to stop our growth in our new life. The intensity of trial by fire forces us to either change these ways or be consumed with fear, anger, bitterness, envy, pride, or other flesh-factors that keep Christ’s life in us bound up and the fruit of His Spirit hindered. The moment we surrender them to God in the fire, we experience supernatural inner liberation - and we’re free, miraculously free, “free indeed” (John 8:36). But outwardly, we’re still “in the midst of the fire” (Daniel 3:25).

The three were also “walking.” This implies several key truths. If walking, they were upright, which speaks of adhering to not worldly but biblical standards or ethics and morality (“His righteousness,” Matthew 6:33). This represents living righteously and justly even when experiencing unrighteous and unjust treatment. If walking, they were moving forward and not standing still or going back. Thus, they didn’t let the fire immobilize them or make them stop working, serving, ministering, and giving, nor go back to their old way of life. This represents moving forward every day with one’s primary spiritual and natural responsibilities, even while suffering unfair or even hateful opposition. If walking, they were stable. This implies they were not sporadic but steady in their walk, not wobbling or weaving but steadily pursuing their course. This represents us not allowing intense tests to degrade us into intermittent Christians - in the Spirit one day, in the flesh the next three; in the Spirit one week, out the next month - and thus unreliable to God, people, churches, and ministries.

Furthermore, they had “no hurt.” This physical condition speaks of our spiritual and physical condition. If we trust and obey God steadily in our fiery tests, He will keep our bodies from psychosomatic illnesses - physical ailments caused largely if not entirely by holding destructive, sinful emotions. If “not hurt,” we will not have open wounds of unforgiveness toward our offenders or envy at their apparent easy life (compared to our hardships). Instead, we will pour the wine and oil of God’s Word and ministering Spirit on our wounds as they occur, believing and obeying the cleansing Word and receiving the Paraclete’s' supernatural healing comfort. And we will never let the most terrible yet least detected wound - self-pity - fester, because we will fill our hearts with thoughts of gratitude to our Savior and, despite all our disadvantages, fill our lips with repeated thanks for every blessing we can detect, even the smallest!

Most amazingly, they were walking closely with “the son of God” (Daniel 3:25). Yes, Christ personally visited the three boys! And this ultimate blessing occurred not in their high government offices, not in their fine, comfortable homes, not while they pursued their acceptable pastimes and entertainments, but while they were in the most desperate situation of their lives: the fire! If walking with Him, they must have, after seeing Him, drawn near Him. If walking with Him, they must have followed His guidance, not their own. If walking with Him, they were actively fellowshiping with Him, talking, praying, worshiping.

If walking with Him, they were experiencing His presence - and being so supernaturally blessed and kept by that presence that they didn’t even feel the heat of that terrible fire, a raging inferno that was so hot it killed Babylon’s strongest guards who had tossed them into it. If walking with Him, they must have examined themselves, and quickly confessed and forsaken any sin that would separate them from the holy One and expose them to the harmful flames. If walking with Him, they were never alone, abandoned, or depressed, but always loved, confident, and hopeful of fulfilling His divine purpose. If walking with Him, they were deeply content, focused on Jesus and satisfied by Him, so much so that they were not even trying to get out of the furnace!

Summing up, instead of the fire frying them, it forged them. It made their characters strong, Christlike, usable to God. He turned their worst test into their greatest triumph. Instead of being finished, they became fruitful - they showed thousands of discouraged Jews in Babylon and millions of Christians since how to overcome, for 2,500 years and counting!

Thus, before escaping, they overcame. Before getting out, they grew up. Before being outwardly freed, they were inwardly freed. Before getting what they wanted, they gave God what He wanted: total surrender, uncompromising obedience, complete trust, upright living, diligent work and ministry, seeking Him, fellowshiping with Him, worshiping Him, and examining themselves, all while in the flames! Then, in this condition, He released them.

And they walked through their fire escape to a new life - demonstrating the “fireproof” life to all who saw them, converting idol-worshiping pagans to God-worshiping believers, and receiving promotions to higher service so they could bring more fruit and honor to God.

Is your life on fire for God? Then don’t be surprised if you find yourself in fire for God. Once there, learn to live on fire for God in fire with God. How long? Until He removes you from the fire to set others on fire for Him and train them to live in fire with Him.

That new life will begin when you reach your fire escape.

Learning life in the fire…